AP National News

By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has moved to drop a criminal case against the alleged East Coast leader of the MS-13 gang less two weeks after he was charged, saying they plan to deport him instead of prosecuting him in the U.S. In an unusual move, his lawyer

By ANNIE MA and SARAH RAZA Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Education Department has withdrawn from an agreement to address disparities in discipline for Native American students at a South Dakota school system, saying it was wrongly rooted in efforts to promote diversity, equity and inclusion. The decision reflects a shift in interpretation of

By JOSH FUNK and DEE-ANN DURBIN AP Business Writers U.S. egg prices increased again last month to reach a new record-high of $6.23 per dozen despite President Donald Trump’s predictions, a drop in wholesale prices and no egg farms having bird flu outbreaks. The increase reported Thursday in the Consumer Price Index means consumers and

By The Associated Press House Republicans narrowly approved their budget framework on Thursday, a political turnaround after Speaker Mike Johnson worked into the night to satisfy GOP holdouts who had refused to advance trillions of dollars in tax breaks without deeper spending cuts. U.S. stocks are giving back some of their historic gains from the

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The art of culinary diplomacy, practiced by presidents at White House state dinners for more than 150 years, is the theme of this year’s official White House Christmas ornament. Unveiled on Thursday by the White House Historical Association, the ornament’s design features the red china plate of

By TODD RICHMOND and MARY KATHERINE WILDEMAN Associated Press During a hike in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 1995, Don Barger climbed Chilhowee Mountain hoping to gaze across the valley below. All he saw was a wall of gray haze. Today, he said, he can see some 50 miles (80 kilometers) across that

By LISA MASCARO, CHRISTINA A. CASSIDY and CHRISTINE FERNANDO Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans on Thursday are expected to take up one of President Donald Trump’s top election-related priorities, legislation that would require proof of citizenship when registering to vote for federal elections. Trump has long signaled a desire to change how elections

By DEEPA BHARATH Associated Press PASADENA, California (AP) — Aty Rotter lost her family home and her spiritual home in the ravenous fire that scorched a large swath of Los Angeles County earlier this year. The house her late father built in Pasadena more than 60 years ago is gone to the fire that charred

By MARC LEVY Associated Press HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A new executive order from President Donald Trump that’s part of his effort to invigorate energy production raises the possibility that his Department of Justice will go to court against state climate change laws aimed at slashing planet-warming greenhouse gas pollution from fossil fuels. Trump’s order,

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump ‘s administration will immediately start considering “antisemitic activity” on social media and physical harassment of Jewish people as grounds for denying immigration benefits, according to a federal agency announcement on Wednesday. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will begin screening the social media activity of immigrants that request benefits,

By VALERIE GONZALEZ and LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press McALLEN, Texas (AP) — Judges in Texas and New York on Wednesday temporarily barred the U.S. government from deporting Venezuelans jailed in parts of those two states while their lawyers challenge the Trump administration’s use of a rarely invoked law letting presidents imprison noncitizens or expel them

By MICHAEL R. SISAK Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — A woman who says Harvey Weinstein trapped her in a Manhattan hotel room and raped her in 2013 can use the word “force” when she testifies at his retrial even though the disgraced movie mogul was acquitted of using physical force against her, a judge

By KIM CHANDLER Associated Press MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama teen who narrowly survived a fierce shark attack last year said she hopes a proposed alert system before state lawmakers can help keep others safe in the water. Lulu Gribbin, now 16, was one of three people bitten by a shark on June 7,

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A magistrate judge in Pennsylvania accused of shooting and wounding her ex-boyfriend in the head as he slept was convicted Wednesday of attempted homicide and aggravated assault charges. Sonya McKnight was taken away in handcuffs after the trial judge rejected a defense request that she be released. She faces up to

By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH Associated Press A Missouri foster mother has been charged with child abuse and endangerment as authorities investigate whether she traded an adopted daughter to someone in Texas for a monkey and mistreated other children in her care. The 70-year-old woman from Winfield has been jailed on $250,000 bond since her arrest over

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Postal Service is seeking a rate increase this summer that includes hiking the cost of a first-class stamp from 73 cents to 78 cents. The request was made Wednesday to the Postal Regulatory Commission, which must OK the proposal. If approved, the 5-cent increase for a “forever” stamp and similar

By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER Associated Press FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi on Wednesday announced the seizure of roughly $510 million worth of illegal narcotics on vessels headed for the United States, seeking to highlight the government’s efforts to take down sophisticated cartel drug networks. Bondi traveled to Florida to tout

By CHRISTOPHER WEBER Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Southern California youth soccer coach charged with killing a 13-year-old boy last month has also been accused of assaulting at least two other teens in recent years, prosecutors said. Mario Edgardo Garcia-Aquino is charged with killing Oscar Omar Hernandez and then dumping his body along

By The Associated Press President Donald Trump shared on Truth Social that he has “ authorized a 90 day PAUSE, and a substantially lowered Reciprocal Tariff during this period, of 10%.” Trump also raised the tax rate on Chinese imports to 125%. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters that the pause was not a result

By KATHY McCORMACK Associated Press A judge has dismissed conspiracy and kidnapping charges against five Massachusetts college students who were accused of plotting to lure a man to their campus through a dating app and then seizing him as part of a “Catch a Predator” trend on social media. The Assumption University students, all teenagers,

By OLIVIA DIAZ Associated Press/Report for America Four people were charged Wednesday in connection with a shooting that killed three people and wounded three others in Virginia, authorities said. The Spotsylvania Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that all four suspects — two 16-year-olds, a 17-year-old and an 18-year-old — were charged with malicious wounding

BY ERIC FERKENHOFF/LEE ENTERPRISES and JOSH KELETY/AP MANSFIELD, S.D. (AP) — The company behind a proposed pipeline that would transport carbon dioxide emissions from ethanol plants across five Midwest states and store it underground in North Dakota filed hundreds of lawsuits against landowners in recent years, an analysis by Lee Enterprises and The Associated Press

BY ERIC FERKENHOFF/LEE ENTERPRISES and JOSH KELETY/AP MANSFIELD, S.D. (AP) — Jared Bossly was planting soybeans one spring night in 2023 on his 2,000-acre farm in South Dakota when he spotted a sheriff’s vehicle parked at the corner of his property. He had a hunch it wasn’t a social visit. “I’m like, ‘Well, I doubt

By JEFFREY COLLINS Associated Press COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina is legally required to keep some protocols secret as it prepares to put a man to death by firing squad for the murder of a public safety officer, but the only previous execution by bullets the state carried out last month reveals a few

By TERRY TANG and KARENA PHAN Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — Loyal customers of Asian supermarkets and other grocery stores that specialize in selling imported food heaved a collective sigh of dismay when President Donald Trump announced extra-high U.S. tariffs on goods from dozens of countries. What would happen to prices at 99 Ranch

By WILL WEISSERT, CHEYANNE MUMPHREY and SUSAN HAIGH Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has frozen more than $1 billion in federal funding for Cornell University and about $790 million for Northwestern University while the government investigates alleged civil rights violations at the schools, the White House said. It’s part of a broader

SPOTSYLVANIA COUNTY, Va. (AP) — Three people were killed and three others were wounded in a shooting in northeastern Virginia on Tuesday evening, and one or more shooters was on the loose, authorities said. At about 5:30 p.m., 911 calls came in about a shooting at a town house complex in Spotsylvania County, just outside

By TERRY TANG and AMELIA THOMSON-DEVEAUX Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — There are sharp generational disagreements among Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders when it comes to how the U.S. should handle mass deportations, with older AAPI adults — many of whom are themselves immigrants — taking a much tougher stance on unlawful border

By REBECCA BOONE Associated Press BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Prosecutors and attorneys for a man charged in the killings of four University of Idaho students in 2022 argued some of the final ground rules they want for Bryan Kohberger’s trial in a hearing Wednesday. Kohberger, 30, is charged with murder in the stabbing deaths of

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A youth soccer coach has been charged in the death of a 13-year-old whose body was found on the side of a Southern California road. Los Angeles County prosecutors said Monday that the boy was reported missing by his family March 30 after he boarded a train to visit the coach