Gov. JB Pritzker on Thursday signed into law sweeping energy-related legislation that promotes battery storage and makes wind and solar power more effective, among other initiatives, with the goal of reducing electricity prices amid rising utility bills for consumers.

“This was one of the most comprehensive responses to the energy crisis that...Read more

SEATTLE — The state Department of Licensing revoked Immigration and Customs Enforcement access to a data search system Wednesday after discovering the federal agency used it to get information about a Kirkland man targeted for deportation.

The use of that data for immigration enforcement, confirmed by the state after a KING 5 investigation, ...Read more

As part of ongoing efforts to prevent and combat the fraud that has roiled social services programs meant to help Minnesotans in need, the state Department of Human Services announced Thursday, Jan. 8, that it will freeze enrollment of new providers in 13 Medicaid services considered high risk for fraud.

Services include integrated community ...Read more

The humanitarian aid group Doctors Without Borders, also known by its French name Médecins Sans Frontières, is once again suspending medical services at a clinic in Haiti’s gang-ridden capital of Port-au-Prince.

The latest suspension affects a clinic in the Bel-Air neighborhood, where residents report that intensified police raids — which...Read more

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s State of the State address came a day after President Donald Trump announced the U.S. withdrawal from dozens of international and United Nations organizations, including the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change — the foundational U.N. agreement that has guided international cooperation to combat the ...Read more

At the top of the new U.S. food pyramid are a bright red steak and a packet of ground beef. That reflects the new U.S. dietary guidelines’ emphasis on animal proteins. Plant-based sources of protein like almonds and peanuts are tucked farther down, and whole grains appear at the bottom.

The new recommendations, released Wednesday by the U.S. ...Read more

DENVER — Attorney General Phil Weiser on Thursday expanded a lawsuit filed to keep U.S. Space Command in Colorado to now encapsulate a broader “revenge campaign” that he said the Trump administration was waging against Colorado.

Weiser named a litany of moves the Trump administration had made in recent weeks — from moving to shut down ...Read more

BOISE, Idaho — The families of all four University of Idaho murder victims sued on Wednesday the university attended by the man who killed their loved ones, alleging gross negligence, wrongful death and violations of federal education protections.

Led by Steve Goncalves, the father of victim Kaylee Goncalves, who pledged last year to file a ...Read more

Gov. Gavin Newsom used his final State of the State address to underscore California’s jaw-dropping crime figures — stats that he said refute the president’s claims about widespread murder and mayhem.

To put in perspective some of the numbers cited by the governor on Thursday:

The last time homicides were this low in Oakland, Rev. Dr. ...Read more

The news that a woman in Minneapolis had been gunned down by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, and that her parents lived in Valley Falls, Kansas, reached Bill Klenklen on Wednesday night when his daughter called.

Then, about 8:30 a.m. Thursday, his neighbor Tim Ganger walked across the street.

“The only thing I know is he came ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — A federal immigration agent identified as Jonathan Ross shot and killed Renee Good, 37, on the morning of Jan. 7 during an enforcement operation near E. 34th Street and Portland Avenue in south Minneapolis, just blocks from where George Floyd was killed by police more than five years ago.

Here’s what we know about the shooting...Read more

Travelers from several countries visiting the United States for tourism and business purposes are now being required to pay a “visa bond” between $5,000 to $15,000 that experts say is designed to drown immigrants and travelers in bureaucracy.

The State Department expanded its visa bond program this week to more than three dozen new ...Read more

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore on Thursday proposed a $373.8 million increase in the education budget, pitching a historic investment in schools even as the state heads into a looming $1.4 billion budget deficit expected to dominate the next legislative session.

The proposal would raise per-pupil spending to $11,811, up from just over $9,200 allocated...Read more

WASHINGTON — A band of House Republicans bucked party leaders to join Democrats in passing a measure to restore expired Obamacare subsidies through the end of President Donald Trump’s term, as rising health care costs drive midterm election anxieties.

The House voted 230-196 Thursday to send a three-year extension of the expired tax credits...Read more

LOS ANGELES — A day after a woman in Minneapolis was killed by an immigration federal agent, clergy leaders and advocates gathered on the steps of the downtown Los Angeles federal immigration building to honor her and denounce the killing.

Holding printed photos of Renee Nicole Good, the woman shot in the head by a federal immigration agent, ...Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A magnitude 4.2 earthquake shook the North Bay early Thursday morning shortly after midnight, waking up people across the region.

The quake, centered in a rural area five miles east of Cloverdale in Sonoma County, was the second-largest earthquake anywhere in the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area in the past 12 months.

...Read more

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is threatening to withhold $50 million in federal funding from North Carolina after determining that the state hasn’t followed policy when it comes to issuing nondomiciled commercial driver’s licenses.

Nondomiciled CDL’s are intended to be issued to foreign nationals who are in the United States ...Read more

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Gov. Tim Walz on Thursday authorized the Minnesota National Guard to be staged and ready should they be needed to assist local law enforcement with any unrest following the federal agent’s fatal shooting of a Minneapolis woman on Wednesday.

The Guard would be tasked with “protecting critical infrastructure and ...Read more