States are paying contractors such as Deloitte, Accenture, and Optum millions of dollars to help them comply with the One Big Beautiful Bill Act — a law that will strip safety-net health and food benefits from millions.

State governments rely on such companies to design and operate computer systems that assess whether low-income people ...Read more

As the United States of America marks its 250th anniversary this year, the relationship between the states and the federal government is approaching a breaking point.

Led by a bellicose president, the executive branch has moved to dominate states, resulting in more than a year of escalating confrontations between the two levels of government.

...Read more

Last August, as part of the federal government’s crackdown on people in the country illegally, the Trump administration sent states the names of hundreds of thousands of Medicaid enrollees with orders to determine whether they were ineligible based on immigration status.

But seven months later, findings from five states shared with KFF Health...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — The Trump administration is waging what it calls a war on fraud across the country, but the executive order creating a task force to curb “widespread” abuse in benefits programs singles out one state: Minnesota.

“The staggering fraud and waste in Minnesota alone is a case in point,” President Donald Trump wrote in the ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The mysterious arson fires in a Hollywood neighborhood started small.

Burning bus benches and a mattress near homes and vehicles. One inside an elevator vestibule and another in a parking garage.

Then on Feb. 4, flames engulfed the Vista Del Mar Avenue home of Maria "Chelo" Vazquez, 76, who was recovering from a hip surgery ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Among the many things Beatriz Coca did not know about building a house — and only learned as workers were laying rebar in her future basement — is that she would need a temporary power pole installed before the next phase of construction could begin.

Coca was one of the dozens of applicants who drop in daily to Los Angeles ...Read more

Complaints about enrollment fraud in Affordable Care Act health insurance coverage have bedeviled the federal marketplace for years.

Now, the Trump administration is claiming wins in reducing the problem while simultaneously saying more controls are needed.

It has proposed a sweeping set of ACA regulations for next year, including stepped-up ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Congressional Democratic leaders sued to block President Donald Trump from prohibiting mail-in voting for anyone not on a preapproved list of citizens to be compiled by the Department of Homeland Security.

Top Democrats in the House and Senate, along with their campaign committees and the Democratic National Committee, allege ...Read more

MIAMI — Coral Springs Vice Mayor Nancy Metayer Bowen was found dead in her home Wednesday morning. Her husband was arrested in connection to her death, police say.

Around 10 a.m., Coral Springs police officers went to her home to check on her “well-being,” Chief Brad Mock said.

Authorities found her body inside her home, in the 800 block...Read more

Stellantis NV is discussing options for building electric vehicles in Canada with its Chinese partner, Zhejiang Leapmotor Technology Co., according to people familiar with the matter, a sign of how quickly the auto industry is being reshaped after Canada opened the door to companies from the world’s largest car market.

The talks are in an ...Read more

A new version of the Kentucky Legislature’s one-time spending bill more than doubles the total funding for projects across the state compared to previous iterations. With hours left to beat the clock to withstand a potential veto, the bill hasn’t yet been publicly released.

A long list of projects totalling more than $1.7 billion is the ...Read more

WASHINGTON — In his first formal address to the nation since launching a war on Iran more than a month ago, President Trump on Wednesday night repeated a familiar list of claimed successes — and brushed aside setbacks caused by the war — while providing little clarity on a clear path to end a conflict that he said will be over “shortly....Read more

LA PLATA, Md. — A quadruple amputee and athlete charged with murder in Charles County is at the center of a “clear-cut case of self-defense,” his lawyers said Wednesday.

“He almost was killed and had to kill,” defense attorney Hammad Matin told the court.

Dayton Webber, whose success at cornhole has made him a national figure of ...Read more

The Cuban government released its annual economic plan Wednesday, which lacks major reforms and signals that Cuban leaders are resisting U.S. pressure to significantly transform their economic model and political system despite the dire conditions on the island.

The plan includes recently announced measures, such as promoting business ventures ...Read more

The alleged secret life of the husband of former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem may have been made public by a sex worker who’s in the U.S. illegally.

Axios reporter Marc Caputo said on Tuesday that he received a tip in February alleging Bryon Noem was into a fetish known in the alternative lifestyle community as “...Read more

WASHINGTON — “Baloney.”

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema couldn’t wrap her mind around the notion that North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis has changed since announcing last summer he wouldn’t seek reelection.

“Thom Tillis is Thom Tillis,” Sinema told The News & Observer of Raleigh in an interview. “He does what he believes in, and he has always...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump must still face civil lawsuits seeking to hold him accountable for his role in the lead up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, a federal judge ruled Tuesday in a long-running litigation from Democratic House members and Capitol Police officers.

Judge Amit Mehta of the U.S. District Court for the ...Read more