LANSING, Mich. — Michigan Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks, D-Grand Rapids, said Wednesday that she's concerned about a potential state government shutdown this fall and that it's irresponsible to delay budget negotiations in the Capitol any longer.

Brinks made the comments during a press conference 48 days before the end of the state's ...Read more

TAMPA, Fla. — Attorney General James Uthmeier said Wednesday that his office is reclassifying concentrated 7-hydroxymitragynine products as a Schedule 1 drug in an effort to remove the product from stores in Florida.

Uthmeier, invoking his office’s ability to create rules in the face of a “true public health emergency,” said at a news ...Read more

The more than $700 million in assets the United States says it has confiscated from Venezuelan ruler Nicolás Maduro includes multiple luxury properties in Florida, Attorney General Pam Bondi said Wednesday.

Bondi’s remarks to Spanish language outlet Fox Noticias followed Friday’s announcement that the U.S. had doubled the bounty for the ...Read more

Tropical Storm Erin on Wednesday continued to push west through the Atlantic with a forecast to become the season’s first hurricane, growing to major hurricane strength by Friday, according to the National Hurricane Center.

As of the NHC’s 5 p.m. Eastern time update, the center of Erin was located about 1,200 miles east of the northern ...Read more

Thousands of DACA recipients in California who are no longer eligible for the Affordable Care Act coverage are urged to take action before losing health care access at the end of the month.

Last summer, the Biden Administration increased access to health coverage for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients. The rule allowed Covered ...Read more

The share of Americans who drink alcohol has fallen to a record low, according to a new Gallup poll.

At the same time, a record-high share of Americans believe consuming alcohol, even in moderation, is unhealthy.

The results come from Gallup’s Consumption Habits survey, conducted July 7-21 with 1,002 U.S. adults.

Who drinks?

In the survey,...Read more

MIAMI — Doral real estate broker George Pino — who piloted the boat that killed a 17-year-old girl when it crashed into a concrete channel marker in Biscayne Bay — pleaded not guilty Wednesday to his new manslaughter charge.

Pino’s defense attorney Mark Shapiro entered the plea on Pino’s behalf before Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge ...Read more

MIAMI — The fate of Alligator Alcatraz is now in the hands of a Miami federal judge who over the last four months sanctioned Florida’s Republican attorney general and blocked police from enforcing a new state immigration law.

U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams said Wednesday following days of testimony about the environmental impacts of ...Read more

More than two weeks after being denied entry to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Baltimore, members of the Maryland congressional delegation said Wednesday that, based on the limited information they received during a facility tour, they believe people’s due process rights are being violated.

“I would like to make ...Read more

For millions of permanent residents hoping to become U.S. citizens, the journey could soon get harder, as federal officials are preparing to revive a tougher version of the citizenship test.

The move could be coming soon, said Joseph Edlow, the new director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Edlow believes the current test is simply ...Read more

NEW YORK — The nonprofit organization that manages Central Park in concert with New York City has come out in support of a ban on the iconic horse-drawn carriages that operate in the park.

“We do not take this position lightly, but with visitation to the Park growing to record levels, we feel strongly that banning horse carriages has become...Read more

ATLANTA — A three-judge panel at the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals questioned Wednesday whether providing food and water to voters waiting in line is a form of free speech protected by the First Amendment or an intrusion on the protected space near polling places.

The ban is best-known part of the state’s 2021 voting law, a far-reaching ...Read more

The Trump administration is imposing visa restrictions and revoking the visas of several Brazilian government officials, former Pan American Health Organization officials and their family members for “their complicity with the Cuban regime’s labor export scheme in the Mais Médicos program,” the State Department said Wednesday

The ...Read more

The measles outbreak in Texas has slowed “dramatically” in recent weeks, but experts still expect the virus to continue to spread.

“We’re very pleased to see this trend and optimistic about the trend going forward,” said Dr. Varun Shetty, the state’s chief epidemiologist, during a meeting of the state’s Public Health Funding and ...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — After nearly 50 years on Florida’s death row, convicted murderer Tommy Zeigler will get what his attorneys say is his last chance at winning freedom.

Circuit Court Judge Leticia Marques on Tuesday agreed to hold an evidentiary hearing that will consider the most recent DNA results from the bloody 1975 crime scene. Hundreds ...Read more

WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court said Wednesday that only the Government Accountability Office can sue over the Trump administration’s funding freezes — not people impacted by the funding cuts.

The 2-1 decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit undid a lower court ruling requiring the Trump ...Read more

DENVER — Rabbits with tentacles in northern Colorado.

There’s not really a better way to sum up recent photos and headlines about cottontail rabbits spotted around Fort Collins with long, dangling growths on their faces.

But as concerning as they appear, the virus that causes the dark, wart-like growths is relatively common and usually not...Read more

President Donald Trump rewrote the script on how Sylvester Stallone came to play “Rocky” when he told a Kennedy Center crowd on Wednesday that film executives insisted the aspiring actor play the title character in the 1976 film.

For nearly 50 years, its been known that Stallone campaigned to play Rocky Balboa as producers did everything in...Read more