CHICAGO — For decades, strong Chicago mayors told acquiescent aldermen here’s the budget, take it or leave it, secure in the knowledge they had the votes to pass basically whatever they wanted.

The message has long been “trust me, it’s great,” Ald. Nicole Lee said.

But the City Council gave a new reply this year when Mayor Brandon ...Read more

Members of the California State Legislature and environmental advocates blasted the Trump administration on Tuesday over proposed offshore drilling expansion plans off the California coast, urging residents to oppose the proposal before the Jan. 23 deadline for public comments to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

The condemnation came ...Read more

The House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday released a report after its own investigation into FireAid, the charity founded by Clippers executives that raised $100 million for wildfire relief efforts in Los Angeles last January.

The investigation — led by Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-Rocklin) under committee chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) — began in August...Read more

NEW YORK — Tekashi69 surrendered himself to federal authorities on Tuesday at the same Brooklyn jail where Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife are being held.

The rapper, whose real name is Daniel Hernandez, turned himself in at the Metropolitan Detention Center on 29th St. near Third Ave. in Sunset Park to serve a 90-day ...Read more

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has told Venezuela’s interim leader, Delcy Rodriguez, that her government must exclusively partner with the U.S. on oil production and favor the U.S. when selling heavy crude, ABC reported.

The U.S. is also demanding that Venezuela reduce its relationships with China, Russia, Iran and Cuba, ABC ...Read more

A third person has died following the fire at a Bucks County nursing home that claimed the lives of two other people and injured 20 others days before Christmas.

Bristol Township identified resident Patricia Mero, 66, as the latest death following the fire that destroyed parts of the Bristol Health & Rehab Center in Bristol Township on Dec. 23....Read more

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is facing strong public opposition to its proposed plans to extend closure deadlines until October 2031 for 11 coal plants across the country — three of which are in Illinois and one in northwest Indiana.

But many environmental experts, including Earthjustice senior attorney Mychal Ozaeta, say the ...Read more

NEW YORK — Mayor Zohran Mamdani swore in his new Fire commissioner Tuesday, and made it clear — despite critics’ fearmongering — that she’s more than qualified to head the nation’s largest Fire Department.

“I have appointed Lillian Bonsignore to this role for her wealth of experience and vision for how to lead the FDNY, as well as...Read more

NEW YORK — Tekashi69 surrendered himself to federal authorities on Tuesday at the same Brooklyn jail where Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife are being held.

The rapper, whose real name is Daniel Hernandez, turned himself in at the Metropolitan Detention Center on 29th St. near Third Ave. in Sunset Park to serve a 90-day ...Read more

Hours after President Xi Jinping posed for selfies with South Korea’s Lee Jae Myung in Beijing, China sent a very different message to Japan, escalating their dispute by imposing export controls.

The new restrictions bar exports of all dual-use items to Japan for military purposes, the latest step in a dispute triggered by remarks by Prime ...Read more

Five years after rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol, Gov. Josh Shapiro and other Pennsylvania Democrats on Tuesday marked the anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack by sharply criticizing President Donald Trump.

Trump, who was impeached for inciting the riot in the final days of his first administration, pardoned nearly every Jan. 6 defendant ...Read more

A court order giving California teachers full freedom to tell parents about their child's gender identity at school is on hold after an appellate panel blocked it from going into immediate effect.

Had the three-member panel not acted, the ruling, by a federal district judge, would have required immediate changes to policies at hundreds of ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Venezuela would send the United States as much as 50 million barrels of oil, declaring it would be sold with the proceeds to benefit both countries.

“I am pleased to announce that the Interim Authorities in Venezuela will be turning over between 30 and 50 MILLION Barrels of High Quality, Sanctioned ...Read more

President Donald Trump said Tuesday evening that Venezuela’s interim authorities have agreed to turn over between 30 million and 50 million barrels of oil to the United States, an unexpected sign of the rapidly evolving relationship between Washington and the Caracas socialist leadership.

It was not immediately clear which Venezuelan entities...Read more

Three Republican members of the Minnesota House are set to testify Wednesday morning before the U.S. House Oversight Committee for a hearing on fraud and misuse of federal funds.

Rep. Kirstin Robbins, R-Maple Grove, the chair of Minnesota’s Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Committee and a Republican candidate for governor in 2026, ...Read more

Months after authorities in the Dominican Republic intercepted a Haiti-bound cache of ammunition and firearms, including a high-powered military-grade machine gun, three Floridians are now facing federal charges for their alleged roles in the trafficking scheme.

Francesca Charles, 28, a naturalized U.S. citizen, and brothers Jacques Pierre, 32,...Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Lawyers clashed Tuesday in a federal courtroom in San Jose over whether student newspaper The Stanford Daily can proceed with a First Amendment lawsuit alleging the Trump administration used immigration law to punish student speech — a case that could set a legal precedent for the constitutional rights of noncitizen ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump won’t rule out the use of military force to acquire Greenland, the White House said, ramping up tension with fellow NATO member Denmark over a dispute that’s surged back into public view following the ouster of Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro.

Trump is considering many ways of achieving his goal of ...Read more

NEW YORK — As NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch on Tuesday announced the city just saw its safest year since the department began keeping modern-day crime stats in 1994, Mayor Zohran Mamdani, standing by her side, didn’t address how he will fulfill campaign promises to reform policing.

Tisch and Mamdani appeared together at NYPD headquarers ...Read more