BOSTON — Off-sides!

Gov. Maura Healey has apologized for the confusion she sparked when she signed an executive order making haggis legal in Massachusetts, which she said was entirely a “joke.”

Haggis has been illegal to import or produce in the U.S. since 1971, when the U.S. Department of Agriculture classified the sheep’s lung as an ...Read more

NEW YORK — Lawyers for Luigi Mangione on Thursday withdrew a notice regarding an affirmative psychiatric defense in his state homicide case, a day after a Manhattan judge ordered them to share his mental health records with the prosecution.

In a brief letter to the court, Mangione’s lawyer Karen Friedman Agnifilo said his team was ...Read more

The Department of Homeland Security is backing away from a controversial plan to turn empty warehouses into immigration detention centers and will keep relying largely on existing jails run by private contractors and state and local partners.

The decision marks a sharp retreat from one of former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s ...Read more

U.S. Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff, D-Calif., are urging U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins to provide emergency funding to the state to combat the threat of the glassy-winged sharpshooter. The invasive pest was recently found on grapevines sold at Costco stores in Sacramento County and other counties throughout the ...Read more

RALEIGH, N.C. — As Duke Life Flight crews worked to save lives this April, someone on the ground below worked to distract them.

Just before 10 p.m. April 14, the Johnston County Sheriff’s Office got a call from the Federal Aviation Administration. Lasers were being pointed at Duke Life Flight helicopters for several nights in a row, federal...Read more

Actor Timothy Busfield’s defense team is asking a New Mexico court to throw out the indictment against its client that was handed down in February.

The Emmy Award winner is charged with four counts of criminal sexual contact with a child under the age of 13. He denies any wrongdoing.

His attorneys now claim the case should be dropped ...Read more

DENVER — A Canada-bound flight aborted takeoff at Denver International Airport on Thursday afternoon after the flight crew declared an emergency following an “incident” and evacuated passengers onto the runway, airline officials said.

WestJet officials confirmed there was an issue involving a flight headed to Calgary, Alberta, Canada, in ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A Yolo County judge on Thursday denied bail to one defendant charged in the deadly Esparto fireworks explosion and ruled one of his seven co-defendants must hire his own attorney after determining he inherited more than $1 million in property.

Jack Lee, the longtime operations manager for Devastating Pyrotechnics, the ...Read more

NEW YORK — The NYPD is investigating the Central Park carriage horse crash that killed an 18-year-old tourist, officials confirmed Thursday.

Cops from the Central Park Precinct are looking into the crash and have interviewed the carriage horse driver, who had stepped away from the carriage to take a photo of victim Romanch Mahajan and his ...Read more

Florida could soon ban undocumented students from enrolling in state universities and colleges, moves that would make it the fourth state and by far the largest to shut these immigrants out of at least some publicly financed higher education options.

The Florida Board of Governors, which oversees the state’s 12 universities, wants to amend ...Read more

The largest wind energy project in U.S. history is now online, delivering power from a massive array in New Mexico to Arizona and California — and signaling a new era for sending clean electricity across the West.

Nearly two decades in the making, the estimated $11-billion SunZia project from Pattern Energy is now fully operational, company ...Read more

CHICAGO — A man accused of conspiring to torch his father’s grocery became the latest defendant to allege serious grand jury misconduct by the federal prosecutor who led the “Broadview Six” case that collapsed in spectacular fashion last month.

Lawyers for Alla Ishkirat said in a court filing Thursday that grand jury transcripts ...Read more

WASHINGTON — As lawmakers on Capitol Hill grapple with President Donald Trump’s deal to end the war in Iran, the New Jersey Democrat who spent years weighing national security issues in the Middle East described the agreement as a “mind-boggling” move that will have damaging reverberations across the globe.

“It’s like setting your ...Read more

CHICAGO — The Obama Presidential Center was dedicated Thursday in Jackson Park to the sounds of celebration and aspiration, music and motivation to amplify Barack and Michelle Obama’s message that it serve as a “beacon of hope” for democracy and help pave the way for a new generation of political leadership.

Surrounded by former ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The White House pushed back Thursday against growing bipartisan criticism of a negotiated settlement to the war with Iran, arguing its concessions to the Islamic Republic were contingent on its conduct and essential to securing peace.

The administration's defensive posture came as details of the framework agreement, known as a ...Read more

Newly released text offers details on legislation from progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., for the federal government to take a 50% share in leading artificial intelligence companies.

The text of the as-yet unnumbered bill, released Thursday, would put a one-time tax on AI companies with more than $200 million in annual sales, to be paid in...Read more

DETROIT — Three Michigan school districts are under investigation by the U.S. Department of Education for possible Title IX violations involving gender-identity controversies.

On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights announced it opened new investigations into Ann Arbor Public Schools, Monroe Public Schools ...Read more