CHICAGO — Heading into his second term, President Donald Trump promised to immediately target the immigration system with sweeping enforcement pushes and a hardline approach to granting asylum in the U.S. He’s pursued that pledge with headline-grabbing efforts like Operation Midway Blitz, but also structural changes.

One result: Chicago’s...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Amid a historic drop in violent crime, homicides have fallen to lows not seen in decades. But in what researchers say is an alarming trend, homicides related to domestic violence are on the rise.

There were 37 such killings in Philadelphia last year, up from 28 the previous year. And even as homicides have fallen sharply ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A proposed initiative to require Californians to show identification every time they vote, and election officials to verify registered voters are U.S. citizens, appears to have enough support to qualify for the November ballot.

Proponents say they have collected more than 1.3 million voter signatures on petitions ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Philadelphia congressional candidate Chris Rabb is one of many people who say Yolanda Brown owes him money.

But none of them have been able to find her. And the allegations of impropriety against the political consultant are piling up.

Last month, Rabb said Brown, his former campaign treasurer, made “unauthorized withdrawals...Read more

ICE officers need a judicial warrant to enter dorms or other nonpublic campus facilities, the Governor and Attorney General stated in a message to Massachusetts students and faculty after an incident of ICE agents allegedly posing as police at Columbia University last week.

“It’s outrageous that ICE agents lied in order to get into a ...Read more

If things go according to the California High-Speed Rail Authority’s plans, the agency says it could save an extra $2 billion on its initial Central Valley route through Fresno.

A draft of the agency’s 2026 business plan released Friday says the savings would bring that route’s total estimated cost to $34.76 billion, down from the $36.75 ...Read more

For the first time, Philadelphia School District students have guaranteed bathroom and water breaks. Recess is promised. Silent lunches and collective punishment are forbidden.

Call it a victory for joy.

Philadelphia's school board just adopted the district's first-ever comprehensive wellness policy, two after a group of parents began pushing ...Read more

When a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman was arrested by Iran’s “morality police” for not wearing her head scarf in the manner required by the regime, human rights advocates were right to fear the worst. The Iranian government later claimed Mahsa (Zhina) Amini suffered a fatal heart attack, but witnesses alleged she was beaten unconscious ...Read more

The U.S. State Department urged Americans to leave countries across the Middle East, citing “serious safety risks” from the war with Iran.

The security update, posted Monday on X by Assistant Secretary of State for consular affairs Mora Namdar, told Americans to “depart now via commercial means.”

In a video posted on his own X account,...Read more

China’s next five-year plan set to be published this week will help dictate how fast the top polluter can cut greenhouse gas emissions and the extent of new support for clean technology sectors, policy settings that are critical to determining the world’s success in tackling climate change.

Policymakers gathering in Beijing from March 5 for...Read more

The U.S. embassy in the Saudi capital of Riyadh came under attack by two drones as Iran accelerates strikes on the kingdom as part of its retaliation against the U.S. and Israel.

The incident resulted in a “limited fire and minor material damage to the building,” according to a statement on X from Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Defense.

That...Read more

Congressional Democrats are vowing to contest the Trump administration’s unprecedented actions against the artificial intelligence giant Anthropic PBC, which include a prohibition on all use in the federal government and by Pentagon contractors.

Ron Wyden of Oregon, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, vowed to “pull out all ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court revived a San Diego judge's order Monday and said parents have a right to know about their child's gender identity at school.

The decision came in a 6-3 order granting an emergency appeal from lawyers for Chicago-based Thomas More Society.

They said the student privacy policy enforced in California infringes on...Read more

Minnesota House Speaker and gubernatorial candidate Lisa Demuth has been the target of increasingly threatening phone messages at her office from a woman who was undaunted even after law enforcement confronted her, according to charges.

The felony case filed on Feb. 26 in Washington County District Court against Rachel Marie Welsch, 42, of Hugo...Read more

A battered Jamaica, which saw widespread damage and destruction from a record-setting Hurricane Melissa four months ago, will soon transition from recovery to rebuilding, Prime Minister Andrew Holness said.

“We’re going to close the recovery stage and move into the reconstruction phase,” he told the Miami Herald. “The reconstruction ...Read more

A federal judge has ordered the U.S. government to bring back a wrongly deported man to the United States, delivering another blow in the courts to the Trump administration’s illegal immigration crackdown in Minnesota.

Emilio Pena Jimenez was taken to Juárez, Mexico, earlier this month despite two court orders for his release in Minnesota. ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Only a few months after opening Star Autism Center in St. Cloud, the business was billing millions of dollars in services.

But on Monday, March 2, its owner and founder Abdinajib Hassan Yussuf said the St. Cloud health care provider made up fraudulent claims to take advantage of one of the Minnesota social services programs now ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is backing out from a court battle with four major law firms that won rulings blocking President Donald Trump’s executive orders against them.

The DOJ plans to drop its appeals of the rulings, according to three sources familiar with the situation. The Wall Street Journal first reported the move.

The ...Read more

SEATTLE — Thousands of Washington students walked out of school in February to protest increasing federal immigration enforcement, mirroring their peers speaking out across the nation. While hundreds of South King County and Seattle students have participated in peaceful demonstrations, a handful of students in Burien, Marysville, Everett, ...Read more

Avian influenza has now killed more than 10 million birds in Minnesota since 2022, as farmers and state officials continue to deal with a disease that just won’t stop.

The virus, highly pathogenic avian influenza, is no longer inflating egg prices at the grocery store like a year ago. But the virus is still hammering turkey flocks, ...Read more