ATLANTA — Countywide elections for all five seats on the Houston County Commission block representation for Black voters, resulting in an all-white board, according to lawsuit by the U.S. Department of Justice filed Thursday.

Only one Black candidate has ever been elected to the Houston Commission since post-Civil War Reconstruction in the ...Read more

MIAMI — A 36-year-old man from New York City has been arrested in the beating death of two homeless people in downtown Miami early Thursday morning, police said Friday, with the head of the county’s homeless agency calling on law enforcement to investigate the attacks as a “hate crime.”

According to Miami Police, this is what happened: ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Friday upheld a law mandating the social media giant TikTok sell its U.S. subsidiary or face a ban in the United States, setting the stage for the app potentially to be banned as early as this weekend.

The unanimous unsigned opinion found that Congress had legitimate concerns about the Chinese government’s ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Some Senate Republicans have turned attention to a powerful spy authority as Donald Trump’s picks for key national security roles go through the confirmation process, with the lawmakers seeking to emphasize their positions on the important yet controversial surveillance tool that bitterly divided both parties last Congress.

...Read more

ATLANTA — Metro Atlanta’s largest water utilities, in response to a federal deadline, reported this fall that there were no lead pipes in their drinking water systems that they knew of.

But thousands of pipes on private property remain unchecked. And a new federal rule requires local governments and water utilities to be more proactive ...Read more

TAMPA, Fla. — Gov. Ron DeSantis’ announcement that he’s appointing Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Marco Rubio places the Tampa area native in an exotic locale far from home.

But if her personal history is any indication, she will attract notice in Washington as a hard-charging — and highly ...Read more

In the weeks leading up to President-elect Donald Trump’s return to office, at least two U.S. Capitol rioters from North Carolina have tried to delay their federal sentences in hopes that he will pardon them.

Federal judges shot down both requests, but Trump’s promise to pardon “most” of the more than 1,400 people who stormed Capitol ...Read more

The Supreme Court has paved the way for TikTok to be banned in the U.S. on Sunday.

The high court on Friday upheld a new law that requires the social media app's Chinese owner to sell off TikTok's U.S. business or face a nationwide ban.

"Given just a handful of days after oral argument to issue an opinion, I cannot profess the kind of ...Read more

CHICAGO — Sam Sanchez, a Chicago-based restaurateur, hadn’t planned to get involved in politics until he realized that his voice was a platform that many of his undocumented employees didn’t have.

When recently arrived migrants from mostly Venezuela received expedited work permits from the Biden administration, he noticed the anger and ...Read more

President-elect Donald Trump on Friday took to his social media platform Truth Social to call for his inauguration on Monday to be moved indoors to the Capitol Rotunda, with temperatures in the teens to low 20s forecast for the region.

“There is an Arctic blast sweeping the Country. I don’t want to see people hurt, or injured, in any way,�...Read more

DETROIT — A Monroe County Circuit Court judge has denied a request from the woman accused of driving drunk into a boat club last year, killing two children and injuring a dozen others, to move her trial to another county.

Marshella Chidester, a former commodore of the Swan Boat Club where the crash occurred, allegedly had a blood alcohol ...Read more

WASHINGTON — With just four days left of the Biden administration, art still hangs in Alejandro Mayorkas’ office in the far reaches of southeast Washington, where a tall window alcove overlooks a snowy capital. Political appointees at the Department of Homeland Security are beginning to turn in their badges. An emotional farewell for the ...Read more

With fire containment improving and winds dying down, some residents are being allowed back into neighborhoods devastated by the Eaton and Palisades fires.

Officials estimate that the fires have destroyed more than 12,000 structures, including many homes, making them two of the most destructive — and deadliest — wildfires in California ...Read more