AP National News

By MIKE CATALINI Associated Press TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — The top federal prosecutor in New Jersey says she has launched an investigation into Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy and state Attorney General Matt Platkin over the state’s directive to local law enforcement not to cooperate with federal agent conducting immigration enforcement. Alina Habba, appointed last month

By KRYSTA FAURIA Associated Press ONTARIO, Calif. (AP) — After a long day of rehearsing for her upcoming world tour, Katy Perry decided to peruse a few books to help her unwind before bed. “I was listening to ‘Cosmos’ by Carl Sagan and reading a book on string theory,” she recalled. “I’ve always been interested

By MICHAEL R. SISAK, DAVE COLLINS and TED SHAFFREY Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Divers using sonar searched Friday for key pieces of a sightseeing helicopter that broke apart in midair and plunged into the Hudson River between Manhattan and New Jersey. All six people aboard were killed — a family of five from

By MICHAEL CASEY and ALEXA ST. JOHN Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — Looking to cut pollution from its fleet of diesel-burning school buses, an Oklahoma school district last year doubled its electric vehicles. The Shawnee Public Schools, a 3,300-student district about 35 miles (56 kilometers) east of Oklahoma City in a county that voted overwhelmingly

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, REBECCA SANTANA and BEN FINLEY Associated Press GREENBELT, Md. (AP) — A federal judge on Friday lambasted a government lawyer who couldn’t explain what, if anything, the Trump administration has done to arrange for the return of a Maryland man who was mistakenly deported last month to a notorious prison in El

By JAIMIE DING Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — Erik and Lyle Menendez’s resentencing hearings can continue despite opposition from the Los Angeles County district attorney, a judge ruled Friday. They were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole at ages 18 and 21 after being convicted of murdering their parents, Jose

By AUDREY McAVOY and MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii (AP) — A Japanese pilot slammed his Zero fighter plane into the USS Missouri and ignited a fireball on April 11, 1945, during the Battle of Okinawa. The suicide attack instantly killed the pilot, but none of the battleship’s crew members were badly hurt.

By JEFFREY COLLINS Associated Press COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A firing squad on Friday executed a South Carolina man who killed an off-duty police officer, the second time the rare execution method has been used by the state in the past five weeks. Mikal Mahdi gave no final statement and did not look to his

By CLAUDIA LAUER and SALLY HO Associated Press All sense of survivors’ guilt was fleeting for those residents whose homes remained standing after wildfires ripped through the Los Angeles area three months ago. Many worried that smoke from the Eaton wildfire that destroyed more than 9,000 structures and killed 18 people may have carried toxins,

By PATRICK WHITTLE Associated Press PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The deadline arrived Friday for Maine officials to reach a resolution with the U.S. Education Department over a finding that the state violated antidiscrimination laws by allowing transgender athletes to participate in girls’ sports. The Education Department said in March that an investigation concluded the Maine

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — A dozen pro-Palestinian demonstrators who were arrested at Stanford University last year after they occupied and allegedly caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage to a campus building are now facing charges. The twelve people, current and former Stanford students, have been charged with felony vandalism and felony conspiracy

By RIO YAMAT Associated Press LAS VEGAS (AP) — The U.S. government now wants a former FBI informant who fabricated a story about former President Joe Biden and his son Hunter accepting bribes to be released from prison while he appeals his conviction, it was revealed Thursday in court records. Alexander Smirnov, 44, was sentenced

By BEN FINLEY Associated Press Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s story appeared as if it would begin and end in his native El Salvador. But the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to facilitate his return to the U.S. from a notorious prison, rejecting the White House’s claim that it couldn’t retrieve the Salvadoran

By MARK SHERMAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Thursday said the Trump administration must work to bring back a Maryland man who was mistakenly deported to prison in El Salvador, rejecting the administration’s emergency appeal. The court acted in the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran citizen who had an

By MICHAEL R. SISAK, JENNIFER PELTZ and TED SHAFFREY Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City sightseeing helicopter broke apart in midair Thursday and crashed upside-down into the Hudson River, killing the pilot and a family of five Spanish tourists in the latest U.S. aviation disaster, officials said. The victims included Siemens

By COLLEEN SLEVIN Associated Press DENVER (AP) — Suspected of backing a coup plot against the longtime dictator of Gambia nearly 20 years ago, Pharing Sanyang described Thursday how he was beaten with pipes and palm tree branches, pistol-whipped and hit in the face with a hammer. Particles from the sandy ground of a courtyard

By MICHAEL CASEY Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — A federal judge said Thursday that she will prevent the Trump administration from ordering hundreds of thousands of Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans with temporary legal status to leave the country later this month. The ruling is a significant, although perhaps temporary, setback for the administration as

By SCOTT BAUER Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Wisconsin Democratic leader who revitalized the party in the presidential swing state announced Thursday he will be leaving his position in June after a six-year run that included a string of victories and “agonizingly close” losses. The move by Wisconsin Democratic Party Chairman Ben Wikler

By AMANDA SEITZ Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation’s top health agency will undertake a “massive testing and research effort” to determine the cause of autism, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Thursday. Kennedy, a longtime vaccine critic who has pushed a discredited theory that routine childhood shots cause the

By REBECCA SANTANA Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday allowed the Trump administration to move forward with a requirement that everyone in the U.S. illegally must register with the federal government and carry documentation, in a move that could have far-reaching repercussions for immigrants across the country. Judge Trevor Neil McFadden

By LEKAN OYEKANMI and JIM VERTUNO Associated Press PALACIOS, Texas (AP) — While American consumers and markets wonder and worry about President Donald Trump’s on-again, off-again tariffs, there’s one group cheering him as they hope he’ll prop up their sinking business: Gulf coast shrimpers. American shrimpers have been hammered in recent years by cheap imports

By JAKE OFFENHARTZ Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Facing a deadline from an immigration judge to turn over evidence for its attempted deportation of Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil, the federal government has instead submitted a brief memo, signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, citing the Trump administration’s authority to expel noncitizens whose

By MATTHEW BROWN and MATTHEW DALY Associated Press BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — President Donald Trump’s nominee to oversee an agency that manages a quarter-billion acres of public land has withdrawn her nomination following revelations that she criticized the Republican president in 2021 for inciting the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. The withdrawal of

By STEPHANY MATAT Associated Press WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A man already jailed on federal charges of attempting to assassinate then-presidential candidate Donald Trump as he golfed last fall will face additional state terrorism and attempted murder charges, Florida’s attorney general said Thursday. Ryan Routh tried to undermine the country’s political system and

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