RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina should set up a legal, regulated marijuana and hemp market for adults, a state advisory council said, noting that without it, residents had spent about $3 billion in 2022 on illegal marijuana.

That makes North Carolina one of the largest marijuana black markets in the country, ranking second in the nation, ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump revisited his grievances with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization over Greenland as he expressed fresh frustration with the security alliance’s stance on the Iran war.

“It all began with, if you want to know the truth, Greenland,” Trump said during a White House press conference Monday. “We want ...Read more

BALTIMORE — The Maryland attorney general’s office can defend the constitutionality of the state’s Child Victims Act against challenges by the WWE in an ongoing sexual abuse lawsuit involving former ring crew recruits, a judge ruled Thursday.

The recruits, known as “ring boys,” were hired by professional wrestling promotions for ...Read more

BOISE, Idaho — A new Idaho state law lets stores, restaurants and other sellers round up prices to the nearest nickel to reflect federal guidelines.

Senate Bill 1350 was sponsored by the state Senate State Affairs Committee.

Idaho Gov. Brad Little signed the bill into law on March 31.

Here’s how it works:

Is the US running out of pennies...Read more

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation Monday allowing him to identify and label domestic terrorist organizations — and he said state police were already building cases against several of them.

At a news conference at the University of South Florida, he said police were “working already” to apply the label to the ...Read more

SPRINGFIELD — The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a legal challenge to an Illinois law barring concealed carry permit holders from carrying loaded guns on public transportation, leaving intact the state’s 2013 prohibition on firearms aboard buses and trains.

In September, a three-judge 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Monday that the United States and Iran are at a “critical point” in negotiating a potential ceasefire agreement, even as he continued to threaten military strikes against Tehran ahead of a Tuesday night deadline to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

In a lengthy news briefing at the White House, the ...Read more

BALTIMORE — In a pair of votes on Monday, the Maryland Senate advanced a Senate and House version of a sweeping Democrat-led energy package, moving lawmakers closer to a final deal aimed at lowering energy bills for Marylanders.

The Senate approved its version of the Utility RELIEF Act in a 38-4 vote, with support from eight Republicans, ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — The city of Minneapolis on Monday released video of the January shooting of a man by ICE agents on the North Side that contradicts the version of events federal officials initially provided after the encounter.

Early statements from federal authorities said several men assaulted an immigration agent with a snow shovel and a ...Read more

A new variant of COVID-19, dubbed cicada, is less susceptible to vaccination and appears to discriminate based on age, scientists say. The variant appears less threatening to older individuals, preferring young people instead.

Cicada, formally named BA.3.2, is a mutation of the omicron COVID-19 branch that first appeared in 2021. It has been ...Read more

BOSTON — Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey is ordering the state to implement chip-enabled EBT cards in an effort to boost security in the Bay State’s SNAP program.

The move comes after a series SNAP fraud busts in the state and the Herald’s reporting on a DTA whistleblower’s claims of “rampant” SNAP fraud in the federally backed ...Read more

MIAMI — In the hours after Haitian President Jovenel Moïse was shot to death inside the bedroom of his mountaintop home, an inner circle of people suspected of being involved in the assassination plot in South Florida and in Port-au-Prince were frantically trying to steer events in their favor.

One of them, Antonio “Tony” Intriago, who ...Read more

A California congressman has raised the diplomatic stakes for King Charles’ visit to the United States later this month by calling out the British monarch for refusing to meet with survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged sex-trafficking operation.

In an interview with the Times of London over the weekend, U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Children’s Minnesota hospital system resumed gender health care services it had suspended in late February in response to efforts by President Donald Trump’s administration to cut off federal funding.

A favorable federal court ruling led to the reversal, Children’s said in a written statement on Monday, April 6. The health...Read more

NEW YORK — Mayor Zohran Mamdani inched further away from his campaign promise to ban the NYPD gang database on Monday, suggesting he could be open to reforming the database as opposed to abolishing it altogether.

The mayor on the campaign trail called the database a “vast dragnet” and said his administration wouldn’t use the database. ...Read more

BOSTON — Boston Mayor Michelle Wu proposed a $4.9 billion budget for fiscal year 2027, saying that the 2% increase over last year’s spending represents the lowest growth in 17 years as the city continues to cut back amid a financial crunch.

Still, the budget is increasing by roughly $100 million, a spike that appears to be largely driven by...Read more

NEW YORK — A Queens man accused of fatally shooting Run-DMC co-founder Jam Master Jay came one step closer to freedom Monday, months after a federal judge overturned his murder conviction in a bombshell decision.

Karl Jordan Jr., 42, who has been locked up since his arrest in 2020, still faces several pending drug distribution and firearm ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Monday that the United States and Iran are at a “critical point” in negotiating a potential ceasefire agreement, but the chances of reaching a deal by a Trump-imposed deadline on Tuesday evening appeared uncertain.

In a lengthy news briefing at the White House, the president echoed an expletive-...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — After a wave of resignations decimated the Minnesota U.S. attorney’s office, the federal government has tried to offset the staffing crunch with a novel strategy: deploying military lawyers to temporarily serve as assistant prosecutors.

That method now faces a legal test over whether these lawyers can prosecute civilians in ...Read more