WASHINGTON — Challengers to California’s new congressional map asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to block the state from using its new map in this fall’s election, pressing claims the state racially gerrymandered its new map.

The map, passed by ballot initiative last year, would target seats held by five Republicans in the state and was...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Federal agents have no plans to end the surge of immigration enforcement in Minnesota, U.S. Border Patrol Cmdr. Greg Bovino said at a news conference.

Asked whether agents had a targeted end date or arrest quota for Operation Metro Surge, the name given to the Trump administration’s crackdown in Minnesota, Bovino said the ...Read more

One of the two police officers criminally charged for the disastrous response to the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting was cleared on all charges Wednesday.

Adrian Gonzales, 52, was acquitted on 29 counts of child abandonment and endangerment.

The jury “talked about gaps. They talked about perspective and what the government didn’t prove ...Read more

NEW YORK — A crew of vandals covered a Brooklyn playground in a Jewish neighborhood with more than 50 swastikas during a two-day attack, police and city officials said Thursday.

The swastikas were drawn with red, yellow, and blue paint on slides, playground equipment and the handball court at Gravesend Park at 56th Street and 18th Avenue in ...Read more

LANSING, Mich. — The Michigan Senate voted overwhelmingly Thursday to ban students from using cellphones in public schools during instructional time, setting the legislation on a path to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's desk.

Under the proposals, which represent a compromise between the Republican-controlled House and Democratic-controlled Senate, ...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — The Florida Bar decided not to reprimand or disbar former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz after a House Ethics Committee found “substantial evidence” he had sex with a 17-year-old girl and frequently used illegal drugs while friends with disgraced Seminole County Tax Collector Joel Greenberg.

Gaetz’s attorney, Warren Lindsey — a ...Read more

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — It was a cold morning in Florida when the last words heard by any of Space Shuttle Challenger’s crew were uttered by pilot Michael Smith.

The seven members of mission 51-L, the 25th space shuttle mission, had just lifted off from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39-B and were climbing east over the Atlantic.

“Uh...Read more

CHICAGO — A federal jury was deliberating Thursday in the high-profile trial of a Chicago man accused of soliciting the murder of Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino at the height of Operation Midway Blitz last fall.

Juan Espinoza Martínez, 37, a construction worker who has lived in Chicago for years but is not a U.S. citizen, is charged in ...Read more

State leaders who want to curb the increasingly violent arrest tactics of immigration enforcement agents in Minneapolis and elsewhere are struggling to push back.

They’ve promised civil rights legislation that could offer alleged victims another route to courts, ordered up official tribunals to gather video and other records, or asked cities ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — FBI and Homeland Security agents arrested Minneapolis civil rights activist Nekima Levy Armstrong and St. Paul school board member Chauntyll Louisa Allen in connection with the disruption of a church service on Jan. 18.

A third arrest of a protester involved was announced later Jan. 22.

Attorney General Pam Bondi in a post on X...Read more

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Over the past two years, Kansas City has received $42,000 from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as part of a little-noticed agreement between the city and the federal immigration agency.

The agreement, revealed in federal government spending records reviewed by The Star, runs from September 2024 to May 2026. The ...Read more

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A Republican state representative from Central Florida used a vulgar, not-safe-for-work expletive in a recent email to a constituent who'd criticized him for an expected vote in favor of redrawing congressional districts.

“As much as I want to tell you to “go f— yourself”, I won’t,” state Rep. David Smith, ...Read more

TOLEDO, Ohio — Vice President JD Vance acknowledged in a speech here Thursday that there is an "affordability crisis" in the United States, but said it was caused entirely by former President Joe Biden's policies.

"You don't turn the Titanic around overnight," he told a crowd gathered at an industrial facility near the Maumee River. "It takes...Read more

WASHINGTON — In the months leading up to the 2024 election, many Republicans tried to play off abortion as a lesser campaign priority following the backlash to the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade.

But one year into President Donald Trump’s second term, anti-abortion advocates are aiming to push the issue back ...Read more

A friend of President Trump’s youngest son, Barron, said that he saved her life by calling the police when he saw her getting beat up by a man during a FaceTime call.

A transcript of the emergency call was shared during suspect Matvei Rumiantsev’s trial at Snaresbrook Crown Court in London on Thursday, CNN reported.

On Jan. 18, 2025, Trump...Read more

Haitians woke up Thursday under a cloud of uncertainty as the country’s fragile political transition descended into open confrontation, with the sides locked in a standoff and neither appearing willing to back down.

With just days remaining until its mandate ends, Haiti’s Transitional Presidential Council is seeking to remove Prime Minister...Read more

A New York federal judge has denied a request from members of Congress and victims of Jeffrey Epstein for an independent monitor to oversee the Department of Justice’s release of its investigative files into the late sex trafficker.

California Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna and Kentucky Republican Congressman Thomas Massie sent the request ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and European leaders broke up this week. Or, at the very least, the longtime members of the trans-Atlantic alliance are taking a break.

The American diplomat in chief spent two days at a global summit in Switzerland ushering in a new U.S. foreign policy, one based more on individual transactions and less on...Read more

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday morning said he was not surprised the Trump administration blocked his appearance at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland the day before, saying it was another example of the president trying to stifle dissent.

"Is it surprising the Trump administration didn't like my commentary and wanted to make ...Read more