The 16-year-old boy charged with raping and killing his 18-year-old stepsister aboard a cruise ship in November pleaded not guilty to the crime this week.

The boy, whose only identified in records as T.H., was not in court, but his federal public-defender attorneys entered the plea Monday, according to court documents.

Prosecutors, meanwhile,...Read more

Prosecutors have alleged D4vd’s iPhone was packed with child porn in wake of his arrest for the murder of Celeste Rivas Hernandez, a 14-year-old runaway whose dismembered and badly decomposed body was found in his Tesla this past September.

During a court appearance on Thursday, prosecutors said they found a “significant amount” of child ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — A cellphone belonging to David Anthony Burke, better known as the singer D4vd, contained “a significant amount of child pornography,” a prosecutor said in court Thursday morning.

Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman made the claim during a court proceeding to schedule a preliminary hearing on murder ...Read more

RALEIGH, N.C. — A former Chapel Hill police officer and Orange County sheriff’s deputy was arrested in the Florida panhandle, accused of plotting a mass shooting at a New Orleans festival.

Christopher Gillum, of Chapel Hill, was taken into custody at a Destin hotel in Okaloosa County, Florida, on Wednesday, the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — A federal court declined to rehear the appeal of a dive boat captain who was convicted of manslaughter after 34 people died in a fire aboard his vessel over Labor Day weekend in 2019 near the Channel Islands.

Captain Jerry Boylan, 72, was sentenced in May 2024 to four years in federal prison for his role in the deadliest ...Read more

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — After weeks of delays, Florida’s legislative leaders announced Thursday they reached an agreement on an outline for a state budget for the next fiscal year.

State lawmakers will have to return to Tallahassee for two weeks beginning May 12 to work out the details in a special session.

“Our final budget will be lower ...Read more

Prince Harry appeared in Ukraine Thursday for an unannounced visit to support the country that has been under attack by Russia for more than four years, urging Russia to stop fighting and calling on the U.S. to do its part to end the conflict.

Harry arrived early Tuesday in Kyiv early Tuesday where he was invited to speak at the 18th Kyiv ...Read more

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Some of the candidates for governor of Michigan acknowledged Thursday that the prospect of data centers in the Great Lakes state has been problematic over the last several months, but differed on how to address some of the concerns associated with them.

The five candidates, speaking at a gubernatorial forum at the ...Read more

BOSTON — Alleged serial rapist Dr. Derrick Todd was released on personal recognizance after pleading not guilty to 81 counts of sexual assault, including 21 of alleged rape, at his arraignment Thursday.

The alleged string of assaults occurred during medical appointments with Todd in his practice with Brigham and Women’s and Faulkner ...Read more

Newly minted Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin on Thursday angrily slammed Sen. Chuck Schumer as a “lying scumbag” after the Democratic leader said “no one respects” the federal agencies carrying out President Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Admitting Schumer’s remark “makes my ears red,” Mullin blamed the Senate ...Read more

CHICAGO — A Cook County judge on Thursday sentenced a man to eight years in prison after he pleaded guilty to a gun charge in connection with the shooting death of Chicago police officer Krystal Rivera, even as Rivera’s mother said he shouldn’t carry the weight of the “institutional failures beyond his control.”

Rivera, 36, a four-...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — The City Council on Thursday approved a high-profile legislative package aimed at restricting immigration enforcement in Philadelphia, placing the city at the forefront of local resistance to President Donald Trump’s nationwide deportation campaign.

The seven bills, which were authored by progressive Council members Kendra ...Read more

DETROIT — Detainees at the privately run ICE detention center in west Michigan have gone without food for several days to protest poor conditions at the facility, according to attorneys and an anti-ICE advocacy group, though an ICE spokesperson denied that a hunger strike was underway.

A majority of the men in two cell blocks at the North ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Gov. Tim Walz is writing a book inspired by Minnesotans’ resistance during Operation Metro Surge.

“Good Neighbors” will be published next year after the second-term DFL governor leaves office, publisher W.W. Norton & Co. announced Wednesday, April 22.

The publishing house described the work as a “passionate ode to ...Read more

RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina Republican lawmakers want to add further limits on teaching about gender and sexuality in elementary schools, including creating a way to fine schools that violate the ban.

State Rep. Brenden Jones filed legislation on Thursday that would expand the current ban on instruction about gender identity, sexuality or ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Justice Department reclassified state-regulated marijuana as a less dangerous drug, a major shift that could increase legal cannabis sales and help a struggling industry.

The directive signed by acting Attorney General Todd Blanche moved licensed marijuana products from Schedule I — the same federal category as heroin ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — A cellphone belonging to David Anthony Burke, better known as the singer D4vd, contained “a significant amount of child pornography,” a prosecutor said in court Thursday morning.

Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman made the claim during a court proceeding to schedule a preliminary hearing on murder ...Read more