OAKLAND, Calif. — A federal judge signaled Thursday she is unlikely to grant a key defense request from former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao and her co-defendants to challenge the FBI search warrants that led agents to raid their homes and businesses in June 2024.

“I would not stop preparing for trial if I were you,” U.S. District Court of ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The attorney representing the man accused of starting the Lachman fire before it turned into the deadly Palisades fire is demanding the immediate release of his client following a sworn deposition by a Los Angeles city firefighter who testified that he told co-workers and a captain that the first fire was not fully out as they ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota’s top federal prosecutor acknowledged “mistakes that have been made” during another contempt hearing Thursday over the U.S. government’s failure to abide by court orders to return detained immigrants’ belongings upon their release from custody.

U.S. District Judge John Tunheim ordered the hearing to hear from...Read more

WASHINGTON — Trump administration nominee Robert Cekada is one step closer to leading the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, as the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 14-8 to advance his nomination Thursday.

A full Senate confirmation could signal a more consistent future for an agency that often finds itself with a rotating ...Read more

WASHINGTON — House lawmakers on Thursday rejected, 212-219, a war powers resolution that sought to curb ongoing U.S. military operations in Iran, one day after the Senate voted similarly to quash its own effort.

The concurrent resolution, sponsored by Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., was essentially a messaging vehicle that would have been ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — An Orange County Public Works crew has demolished a Vietnam War memorial that was left unfinished in Mile Square Regional Park in Fountain Valley.

In 2023, then-Supervisor Andrew Do allocated $1 million in First District discretionary funds to the nonprofit Viet America Society for the design and construction of the memorial. ...Read more

JERUSALEM — A barrage of Iranian missiles and drones targeted at least five countries across the Middle East, prompting several governments to urge their citizens to take shelter, while Israel carried out a 12th wave of airstrikes on Tehran and the United States suspended operations at its embassy in Kuwait.

As the seventh day of the Iran ...Read more

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Leaders at the University of Florida’s law school sidestepped internal rules to rush Attorney General James Uthmeier into a part-time teaching role, granting unusual leeway to a politically powerful adjunct earning a $100,000 salary.

Internal emails reviewed by the Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times show that Uthmeier began ...Read more

DENVER — For the third consecutive year, Colorado lawmakers have failed in their bid to weaken transparency laws and to give government officials more time to respond to public records requests.

The Senate’s State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee rejected Senate Bill 107 in a bipartisan 3-2 vote on Thursday. Government officials who...Read more

Another resolution sponsored by a Kentucky Republican failed to advance in Congress Thursday evening.

An effort from Rep. Thomas Massie to stop U.S. military action in Iran and force the Trump administration to get congressional approval for continued involvement failed in a close 212-219 vote.

The resolution was similar to another ill-fated ...Read more

UNION CITY,, Calif. — An Alameda County judge has revoked a woman’s medical license, barring her from continuing to practice physical therapy as she remains out of custody facing charges of drowning her newborn baby in a bathtub in 2009.

Angela Onduto, 47, was released from jail last October after a judge set her bail at $125,000 and ...Read more

NEW YORK — A Manhattan jury was urged Thursday to reject efforts by the multimillionaire Alexander brothers to denigrate women they’re accused of drugging and trafficking for sex and hold them accountable once and for all for “decades of rapes and lies.”

In the government’s rebuttal before the Manhattan Federal Court jury got the case...Read more

The United States and Venezuela have agreed to restore diplomatic and consular relations, reopening a formal channel between Washington and Caracas for the first time since ties were severed in 2019.

The decision marks a significant step in the cooperation framework that has emerged between the two governments following the dramatic U.S. ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — A new report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis describes the disruption to hiring and spending across a variety of industries during the federal immigration crackdown in Minnesota.

The anonymous anecdotes were part of the national Federal Reserve’s February Beige Book, an account of economic conditions across the ...Read more

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signaled support for Operation Epic Fury on Thursday, saying Iran’s late leader, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, “deserved to face justice.”

DeSantis made the comments, his first since the U.S. launched strikes over the weekend, in response to a question during a news conference in Yulee, in Nassau County,...Read more

NEW YORK — First Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan said Thursday he’s optimistic the state will fork over more money to the city, as the city wrangles with a possible $5.4 billion budget gap.

The mayor has been pushing Gov. Kathy Hochul to pass tax hikes on the wealthiest New Yorkers and corporations, as well as arguing more generally that the ...Read more