WASHINGTON — The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups urged the Supreme Court on Friday to block new California laws that will require thousands of companies to disclose their emissions and their impacts on climate change.

One of the laws is due to take effect on Jan. 1, and the emergency appeal asks the court to put it on hold ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Two hundred dollars a month more for Social Security and veterans’ benefit recipients from January to July?

Senate Democrats are pushing the idea. Fiscal watchdogs are not enthusiastic.

Sen. Alex Padilla of California, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and their colleagues see the income boost not only as an important lifeline ...Read more

BOSTON — Legislation has been filed on Beacon Hill that would raise the age of Juvenile Court jurisdiction from 18 to 21 years old, a bill police chiefs argue “raises serious” public safety concerns.

The bill (H. 1923), filed by state Reps. James J. O’Day, D-West Boylston, and Manny Cruz, D-Salem, which will be taken up by the Joint ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — As Jaime Moore prepares to take the helm of the Los Angeles Fire Department, he said he plans to commission an outside investigation into missteps by fire officials during the mop-up of a small brush fire that reignited days later into the destructive Palisades fire.

Mayor Karen Bass had requested a probe late last month in ...Read more

MIAMI — For decades, federal prosecutors in South Florida earned a chorus of praise for convicting Colombian drug lords, New York mafia bosses, health care fraudsters, and a spectrum of corrupt cops, judges and politicians.

But now, the Miami-based U.S. Attorney’s Office is undergoing a dramatic transformation as it focuses on two pillars ...Read more

Several alleged gang members were killed in Haiti on Friday during intensified security operations in the eastern plains of Port-au-Prince, where police successfully recovered a high-powered sniper rifle known as a “weapon of war” but were forced to destroy a helicopter used in their operations.

Haiti National Police Spokesman Garry ...Read more

NEW YORK — A City Council committee voted Friday to kill “Ryder’s Law,” a bill that would ban the Central Park horse carriages from operating in New York City, casting doubt over the future of the push to abolish the industry and marking the first time the Council has taken a stance on the politically fraught issue.

The bill, introduced...Read more

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — An immigrant advocacy group in North Carolina has launched a statewide map that shows where federal immigration agents have been spotted.

The map, found at ojonc.org, was unveiled by Siembra NC as there were reports of Border Patrol agents coming to Charlotte for an operation.

Siembra NC said the new website — dubbed “...Read more

CHICAGO — Attorneys for Chicago rapper Lil Durk have asked that his federal murder-for-hire indictment in Los Angeles be dismissed, alleging that a series of threats made against the judge and lead prosecutor in the case was improperly withheld from the defense.

The motion to disqualify was filed on Thursday in Los Angeles federal court. ...Read more

BOSTON — A Cape Cod state representative says “justice has been served” after a jury convicted a local man of making threats against the elected Republican lawmaker, which included the statement, “I will not support you or your Trumpism.”

Rep. Steven Xiarhos, a Barnstable Republican, is thanking Cape & Islands District Attorney ...Read more

As Jeffrey Epstein was reeling from a 2018 Miami Herald investigation about the sweetheart deal he struck with federal prosecutors to settle claims he had sexually abused teenage girls, the financier turned to a trusted confidant for advice: journalist Michael Wolff.

In a series of messages found in the trove of more than 20,000 documents ...Read more

CHICAGO — Mayor Brandon Johnson’s Finance Committee chair delivered a public warning this week against his plans to forge ahead with the first vote on his 2026 budget, targeting his controversial head tax as a nonstarter with her.

Ald. Pat Dowell, 3rd, told reporters after weeks of budget hearings for Johnson’s $16.6 billion spending plan...Read more

Ukrainian forces carried out an attack on a major Russian Black Sea port overnight, prompting a state of emergency, as Moscow launched a widespread airstrike on Kyiv that killed at least six and damaged residential buildings.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine attacked Russian territory using long-range Neptune cruise missiles, calling...Read more

ATLANTA — Georgia has been trying to wrap its arms around the growing cannabis industry for several years now.

But just as the state is weighing more changes to its hemp policy, negotiations in the U.S. Senate to reopen the federal government included a provision that makes most hemp products illegal.

It’s a decision that hemp store owners...Read more

ATLANTA – A veteran prosecutor said Friday he is appointing himself to take over Georgia’s closely-watched election interference case against President Donald Trump and more than a dozen others.

Pete Skandalakis, the head of the state agency tasked with naming a replacement prosecutor after Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was ...Read more

Homicide rates among pregnant women increase with the rate of firearm ownership, according to a state-by-state study published this week in the medical journal JAMA Network Open.

Researchers found the firearm homicide rate for pregnant women was 37% higher than the rate for nonpregnant women. Suspected perpetrators were most often male for both...Read more

Ukrainian forces carried out an attack on a major Russian Black Sea port overnight, prompting a state of emergency, as Moscow launched a widespread air strike on Kyiv that killed at least six and damaged residential buildings.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed the Ukrainian attack using long-range Neptune cruise missiles into Russian ...Read more

Three Chinese astronauts who were stuck in space after debris crashed into their spacecraft have returned to Earth.

The Shenzhou-20 crew successfully landed in Inner Mongolia at 4:40pm local time on Friday, state broadcaster China Central Television reported. The astronauts are in good physical condition and used the Shenzhou-21 spacecraft —...Read more