ORLANDO, Fla. — A $4 million fund negotiated by state lawmakers for relatives of the Groveland Four, the quartet of Lake County Black men falsely accused of raping a white woman in 1949, culminates a long battle to come to terms with a dark moment in Florida history.

The money would go to the families of Walter Irvin, Samuel Shepherd, Charles...Read more

An ICE detention facility in Newark, New Jersey, has made national headlines for concerns over its conditions and charged protests happening outside the center that led to Sen. Andy Kim getting tear-gassed on Memorial Day.

Sen. Cory Booker says he’s struck by the “unbearable and unacceptable” human cost of immigration enforcement and is ...Read more

Maryland’s new ban on some semiautomatic handguns is already headed for a constitutional showdown — one that could test how far states can go in regulating firearms that can be converted into machine guns.

Gov. Wes Moore signed the legislation Tuesday, barring the manufacture, sale, and purchase of a range of semiautomatic pistols that ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — For nearly four years, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and his police chief, Brian O’Hara, were inseparable. They stood together at news conferences in the middle of the night to lament gun violence and in the middle of the afternoon to argue for police funding. They applauded new police department recruits and mourned the victims...Read more

WASHINGTON — Alabama officials asked the Supreme Court on Wednesday to halt a lower-court ruling that blocked the use of a new congressional map in this fall’s elections.

In the pair of applications filed Wednesday, officials urged the justices to either pause the lower-court ruling pending a full appeal or set aside that ruling entirely. ...Read more

NEW YORK — The final New York state budget did not include an expected delay to the smaller class sizes mandate that Mayor Zohran Mamdani is banking on to shave a half-billion dollars off the city’s budget gap.

State Sen. John Liu, D-Queens, chair of the NYC education committee, on Wednesday said Mamdani’s requested extension was left out...Read more

BOSTON — Gov. Maura Healey is not complying with a Justice Department demand to reverse an RMV policy prohibiting Immigration and Customs Enforcement from obtaining undercover license plates in Massachusetts, while attacking the federal agency and its tactics.

“The RMV’s policy for its confidential registration program is lawful, proper, ...Read more

NEW YORK — Flammable paint vapors ignited at a Staten Island shipyard, causing the deadly fire and explosion that killed one person and injured more than 30 firefighters and first responders, FDNY officials announced Wednesday.

Investigators determined the explosion and two-alarm fire were accidental and caused by “the ignition of flammable...Read more

CHCIAGO — Mayor Brandon Johnson argued Wednesday that Chicago police are doing a better job without gunshot detection technology like the controversial ShotSpotter system he got rid of, even as his administration is considering bids from other companies to take over installing such tools citywide.

Johnson pointed to a study from the Justice ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump asserted that no one nation would control the vital Strait of Hormuz waterway, highlighting a key sticking point in resolving the war with Iran.

Trump was asked during a meeting of his Cabinet officials if he was comfortable with a short-term deal that would open the strait but under Iranian control.

“...Read more

LOS ANGELES — A former live-in assistant to Matthew Perry was sentenced Wednesday to three years and five months in prison for distributing the ketamine that caused the actor’s death.

Kenneth Iwamasa, who previously made $150,000 a year working for Perry, pleaded guilty in August 2024 to conspiracy to distribute ketamine causing death. He ...Read more

CHICAGO — The aftershocks of the “Broadview Six” case collapse have now spread to another high-profile case, where lawyers for a Texas man accused of being a low-level participant in a massive COVID-19 testing scam with a former Loretto Hospital executive say the same federal prosecutor committed “flagrant and pervasive” misconduct in ...Read more

President Donald Trump has made no secret of his desire for regime change in Cuba.

His administration has declared Cuba a national security threat and has threatened military action against the Communist-run island, stationing naval warships off Cuba’s shores.

For months, the U.S. has blocked oil from reaching Cuba, triggering crippling ...Read more

BALTIMORE — Maryland sheriffs from more than two-thirds of the state’s counties sued the state of Maryland on Tuesday, arguing that restrictions on cooperation with federal authorities endanger public safety.

The sheriffs, represented by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), request the U.S. District Court for the District ...Read more

BALTIMORE — Baltimore County Public Schools will bring cursive writing back to all second- and third-grade classrooms next school year following a pilot program launched this fall, Superintendent Myriam Rogers announced Wednesday.

Rogers said the rollout will not require new spending because the cursive materials are already included in the ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The days-long threat of a catastrophic chemical explosion in Garden Grove has exposed the pervasive yet often ignored industrial risks hidden amid daily life in Southern California, where aerospace plants and petrochemical facilities are interwoven amid homes, schools and parks.

Now, experts say this aging infrastructure is ...Read more

Former U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi was diagnosed with thyroid cancer right after being fired by President Donald Trump in April, she revealed Wednesday.

She has been undergoing treatment and recovering from surgery she underwent a few weeks ago, she told CNN on Wednesday, adding that she’s “doing well.”

Bondi went public with her ...Read more

Blue Origin’s time away from the launch pad didn’t last long despite its New Glenn rocket getting grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration in April.

Last week, the FAA cleared New Glenn to return to flight after accepting results and proposed corrective actions to avoid the problem that arose during the NG-3 mission, which saw its ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Mayor Jacob Frey has turned to a longtime Minneapolis Police Department leader to step in as acting police chief, someone who largely worked behind the scenes until George Floyd’s murder by officer Derek Chauvin in 2020 thrust her and the city into the global spotlight.

During his news conference Tuesday night announcing the ...Read more