SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — It’s now up to Gov. JB Pritzker to determine whether Gangster Disciples founder Larry Hoover should be freed from more than 50 years of incarceration after making his pitch for clemency to the Illinois Prisoner Review Board.

“On April 7, the Prisoner Review Board held clemency hearings, including Mr. Hoover’s,” Liz...Read more

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday turned down an appeal from Virginia Democrats whose new voter-approved state election map was canceled by the state's Supreme Court.

The justices made no comment, and the legal outcome came as no surprise.

The U.S. Supreme Court has no authority to review or reverse rulings by state judges ...Read more

WASHINGTON — U.S. officials have discussed creating a $1.7 billion federal fund to pay victims of so-called government weaponization to resolve President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service. Million-dollar payouts the administration has already made to some of his supporters provide a roadmap for where the money might...Read more

Two San Francisco Bay Area USDA employees are among a group of federal workers suing Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, alleging she violated the First Amendment by sending agencywide messages that promoted Christianity to thousands of employees.

In an Easter email to Bay Area federal government employees Thomas MaGee, Anne Poopatanapong and...Read more

MIAMI — Gov. Ron DeSantis waved off a lawsuit accusing him of illegally soliciting special favors for Florida by giving Donald Trump’s presidential library foundation free land during a visit to Miami Dade College Friday.

He pointed to the fact that the land was granted to a nonprofit, not the president himself, as part of his dismissive ...Read more

FORT WORTH, Texas — The human remains that were found this week in the backyard of the Everman home where missing 6-year-old Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez lived have been positively identified as belonging to the child, District Attorney Phil Sorrells said.

The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office used dental records to identify Noel, who hadn...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court turned aside Friday an effort from Virginia Democrats to keep alive the commonwealth’s new congressional map, leaving in place the Virginia Supreme Court ruling holding the ballot measure process violated the Constitution.

The one-line, unsigned, unexplained order from the justices declined to pause the state ...Read more

DENVER — Elected officials from across Colorado largely ripped into Gov. Jared Polis’ Friday decision to dramatically accelerate the release of Tina Peters, accusing the governor of caving to President Donald Trump by commuting the election conspiracist’s sentence.

The condemnations were swift, with some officials saying the decision ...Read more

Weather cleared Friday for SpaceX’s third try to get a resupply mission to the International Space Station off the ground, launching on time and making a successful booster recovery back on land that brought sonic booms to parts of Central Florida.

Poor weather conditions knocked out both Tuesday and Wednesday attempts, but a Falcon 9 was ...Read more

COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster denied any quid pro quo in calling a special session for redistricting in order to help Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette win President Donald Trump’s endorsement.

While speaking to news media in Summerville, McMaster responded to speculation that the White House pressured the governor into calling ...Read more

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Clavicular, the “looksmaxxing” influencer and streamer whose real name is Braden Eric Peters, has reached a resolution in the misdemeanor case filed after video posted online apparently showed him repeatedly shooting an alligator while on an airboat in the Everglades.

On March 26 in the Everglades and Francis S. ...Read more

DENVER — Gov. Jared Polis reduced Tina Peters’ sentence by half on Friday, ignoring months of pleas against such an action by many other Colorado elected officials and the prosecutor who won the former county clerk’s conviction in an election data-breach scheme.

In a letter to Peters, Polis wrote that she will “be released on parole ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday turned down an appeal from Virginia Democrats whose new voter-approved state election map was canceled by the state's Supreme Court.

The justices made no comment, and the legal outcome came as no surprise.

The U.S. Supreme Court has no authority to review or reverse rulings by state judges ...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — Mr. Ginger, one of the sloths transferred to the Central Florida Zoo for treatment following the closure of Sloth World, died Friday, bringing the number of deaths tied to the ill-fated attraction to 56.

The sloth, estimated to have been just four to six months old, was the youngest sloth to arrive at the zoo from ...Read more

WASHINGTON — When Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took the helm of the department in February 2025, he pledged to remove special interests from HHS and chart a new path focused on “gold-standard science.”

He made his core policy interests clear in November 2024, even before he was President Donald Trump’s ...Read more

FORTH WORTH, Texas — The human remains that were found this week in the backyard of the Everman home where missing 6-year-old Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez lived have been positively identified as belonging to the child, District Attorney Phil Sorrells said.

The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office used dental records to identify Noel, who ...Read more

U.S. President Donald Trump said he made no commitment to Chinese President Xi Jinping over Taiwan, and would make a decision soon over a planned $14 billion arms deal with the island.

“On Taiwan he feels very strongly, I made no commitment either way,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Friday. The U.S. president said he would ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s latest financial disclosures show that he or his investment advisers made more than 3,700 trades in the first quarter, a flurry totaling tens of millions of dollars and involving major companies that have dealings with his administration.

The transactions, spelled out in more than 100 pages of ...Read more