PELICAN RAPIDS, Minn. — Inside city hall in this meatpacking town, a giant banner shows how the immigrant-rich place of 2,600 people presents itself to the world.

“WELCOME TO OUR CITY,” it reads, over a photograph of the town’s 15-foot-tall riverside mascot, Pelican Pete. “SMALL-TOWN WARMTH AND DIVERSE DELIGHT.”

The Otter Tail ...Read more

Brooke Green thought she needed a mammogram.

Green, a Democratic state representative in Idaho, knew that breast cancer ran in her family and she “just had an inkling” that she should be tested.

She was two weeks shy of the day her last remaining embryo would be implanted through in vitro fertilization. It was the one shot she had left to ...Read more

Tired of budget stalemates, deficits and continuous acrimony in the state Capitol, California voters in 2010 started taking action to temper political gridlock and loosen the grip of entrenched special interests.

They approved statewide ballot measures to create an independent congressional redistricting commission, taking that power away from ...Read more

The boy walking in the road appeared to be 5 years old but wore diapers and a T-shirt.

“Pull over,” Melinda Dryer told her sister as they drove through a Port St. Lucie suburb on a Saturday morning coffee run. “Something’s not right.”

A driver heading the opposite direction narrowly missed the boy, Dryer told the Tampa Bay Times. She...Read more

MACY, Neb. — Erica Carter is passionate about her job, and she has seven acres of flowers and vegetables to show for it.

Carter’s specialty is reeling in grants to support students in the Omaha Nation school district, where she is a finance manager. One paid for the garden that sits next to the district’s campus. Another allowed the ...Read more

Gov. JB Pritzker accepted the backing of Illinois’ suburban teachers union Monday and then expressed skepticism about another union’s push for more Chicago Public Schools funding — arguing the state can’t afford to help Chicago alone without sending money to schools statewide.

“If you’d like, I can pull the pockets out of my ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A billionaire-funded political group gave a $5-million donation to the campaign opposing California's proposed wealth tax, the first of many expected in the expensive fight over a ballot question dividing the state.

If approved by voters, Proposition 40 would impose a one-time 5% tax on the assets of billionaires who were...Read more

JERUSALEM — Jared Kushner assured Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the Israeli army won’t be compelled to withdraw from Gaza until Hamas disarms, an official with knowledge of the talks said, a stance that will dim hopes for a Gaza peace deal anytime soon.

Kushner met with Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Monday, a day after holding talks ...Read more

The number of U.S. kindergartners starting school without being fully immunized continues to rise, as more families forgo the protective shots despite outbreaks of vaccine-preventable illnesses.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Monday that the number of children who were fully up-to-date on their immunizations when ...Read more

NEW YORK — The administration of Mayor Zohran Mamdani is skipping a City Council hearing set for Tuesday on the pied-à-terre tax, a move coming under fire from local reps as it allows officials to dodge critical questions about the controversial surcharge.

Council member Gale Brewer, who chairs one of the committees holding the hearing, ...Read more

DEARBORN, Mich. — Dearborn officials and faith leaders gathered Monday to try to head off confronations and point to the city's diversity ahead of a planned visit by self-described anti-Islamic activist Jake Lang on Tuesday.

Leaders said Monday outsiders seek to sow hate and paint a picture of Dearborn as a divided city. Mayor Abdullah ...Read more

LAS VEGAS — The first witness Monday at the trial of the man accused of orchestrating the killing of rapper Tupac Shakur was a former Metropolitan Police Department officer who spoke with Shakur after the shooting that would ultimately claim his life.

Garry Dale rode in an ambulance with Shakur as the rapper was being rushed to University ...Read more

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — The federal Department of Justice announced it is investigating William & Mary, alleging that the nation’s second-oldest university has broken civil rights law by giving non-white students preference for some scholarships and other forms of financial aid.

Such actions, the DOJ said, may have infringed on Title VI of the ...Read more

LAS VEGAS — A federal appellate court on Monday affirmed a lower-court ruling that had disqualified Sigal Chattah from serving as Nevada’s top federal prosecutor.

The decision — which the Department of Justice said it plans to take to the U.S. Supreme Court — was outlined in a 36-page ruling by a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of ...Read more

DENVER — The Trump administration’s apparent efforts to coordinate a series of retributive actions against Colorado late last year are largely unprecedented and were likely not legal, constitutional law professors told The Denver Post.

“It’s the kind of thing that’s so blatant and unprecedented, it’s almost hard to find the language...Read more

On Saturday, the day before Hayden Panettiere died in Greenville, South Carolina, she reportedly flew there from Los Angeles, accompanied by her ex-boyfriend Brian Hickerson, with whom she had an intense and volatile four-year relationship, marked by heavy drinking, fighting and his arrests on domestic violence charges.

Both TMZ and Page Six ...Read more

Charges against members of a Twin Cities sex trafficking ring have shed light on what prosecutors call an elaborate conspiracy between an alleged pimp, an Anoka County prosecutor and several others that also defrauded the state of more than $1 million in Medicaid funding.

On top of citing more than a dozen alleged victims of sex trafficking, ...Read more