LOS ANGELES — She is the nation's most famous legal secretary, whose real-life advocacy on toxic groundwater was portrayed by Julia Roberts to Oscar-winning acclaim.

He is the most recognizable civil rights attorney of his generation, winning millions of dollars for Black and brown families whose loved ones — George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, ...Read more

At a 2017 hearing on Capitol Hill, then-Sen. Marco Rubio described a dark, fantastical vision of life in America.

“Imagine if the United States had an executive branch that basically took over the Supreme Court and put political cronies on it,” Rubio said. “(Imagine it) canceled all funding and all function of the Congress, both House and...Read more

DENVER — Every so often, wild bison from one of Utah’s herds cross the invisible state border and wander into northwest Colorado — unknowingly putting their lives in danger.

When the bison cross over, they lose the protections Utah gives the species as a big-game animal. In Colorado, there are no repercussions for killing wild bison.

...Read more

BOULDER, Colo. — Colorado regulators are issuing licenses for providing psychedelic mushrooms and are planning to authorize the state’s first “healing centers,” where the mushrooms can be ingested under supervision, in late spring or early summer.

The dawn of state-regulated psychedelic mushrooms has arrived in Colorado, nearly two ...Read more

The Senate late Tuesday voted 56-44 to confirm Martin Makary to lead the Food and Drug Administration.

Makary, a former Johns Hopkins University surgeon and author, has been widely seen as a more middle-of-the-road pick compared to Trump’s other choices to lead the Department of Health and Human Services’ subagencies.

He will take over ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Maryland Rep. Andy Harris, in a fiery telephone town hall attracting about 10,000 participants, sharply defended Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and billionaire Elon Musk after one caller questioned Hegseth’s commitment to national security and another called Musk’s government cost-cutters “idiots.”

Harris, a Republican, ...Read more

North Carolina lawmakers are sending a message to students that they need to put away their phones when they’re in class and focus on learning.

The state House voted 114-3 on Tuesday to pass legislation requiring the state’s public schools to eliminate or severely restrict student access to cellphones during instructional time. The vote ...Read more

Karen Read’s latest effort to have her murder case tossed, this one for alleged “extraordinary governmental misconduct,” was denied.

Norfolk Superior Court Judge Beverly J. Cannone called the defense team’s request for a dismissal “a drastic sanction justified only in response to the most egregious and truly harmful conduct.”

“In...Read more

U.S. tariffs on copper imports could be coming within several weeks, months earlier than the deadline for a decision, according to people familiar with the matter.

U.S. President Donald Trump in February directed the Commerce Department to open an investigation into potential copper tariffs and submit a report within 270 days, though it’s now...Read more

A Pennsylvania man is accused of trying to kill a teen delivery driver over a late order.

The suspect, 32-year-old Keilan McKeever of Richlandtown in Bucks County, was arrested Monday on charges of attempted homicide, aggravated assault and reckless endangerment after allegedly shooting at 19-year-old DoorDash driver Khalik Lewis.

Lewis was ...Read more

The U.S. canceled two aid projects in Cambodia in late February — one to encourage child literacy and another to improve nutrition and development for kids under five. A week later, China’s aid agency announced funding for programs to achieve almost identical goals.

“Children are the future of the country and the nation,” China’s ...Read more

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is demanding Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth “be fired immediately” following a leaked group chat that included plans to bomb Houthi rebels in Yemen.

“Pete Hegseth is the most unqualified secretary of defense in American history,” Jeffries wrote in a letter to President Donald Trump on Tuesday. “...Read more

LOS ANGELES — District Attorney Nathan Hochman will allow prosecutors to seek the death penalty again in Los Angeles, undoing one of the signature policies of his predecessor, George Gascón.

The move comes as little surprise: Hochman campaigned on the issue almost as soon as he announced his challenge to Gascón in 2023. But it still marks a...Read more

ATLANTA — Georgia senators took the first step toward abandoning the state’s touchscreen voting system, replacing it with paper ballots filled out by hand.

A bill proposed Tuesday would require almost all Georgia voters to bubble in their choices at polling places instead of using touchscreen computers that print out paper ballots.

The ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Five members of President Donald Trump’s cabinet were accused in a lawsuit of violating U.S. laws meant to safeguard government records by using the encrypted messaging platform Signal to communicate about official business.

The complaint filed late Tuesday in Washington federal court follows an explosive Atlantic article ...Read more

Fire and coast guard teams in Humboldt County staged a laborious rescue operation Saturday after a hiker who strayed off California’s Lost Coast Trail plummeted 100 feet down a rugged cliff and had to cling to a 60-foot bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

The hiker was “barely holding on” with hiking poles for more than an hour, ...Read more

When Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrives in Jamaica on Wednesday, he will be visiting what the Trump administration’s top envoy to the region describes as “probably our most like-minded partner in the Caribbean.”

Jamaica was once on the verge of bankruptcy, and its financial turnaround is regarded as a bright spot that has helped it ...Read more

ATLANTA — Georgia House Democrats blocked a committee vote Tuesday that could clear the way for President Donald Trump and other defendants in the Fulton County election interference case to receive reimbursement for attorney fees.

A group of Democrats walked out of the House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee hours into a marathon meeting, ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Senate voted along party lines Tuesday to confirm Jay Bhattacharya as the next director of the National Institutes of Health. The vote was 53-47.

As director, Bhattacharya would oversee the $48.6 billion agency, the world’s largest public funder of biomedical research.

Bhattacharya, a professor of medicine at Stanford ...Read more

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear has vetoed a GOP-backed bill supporters say will help clarify exceptions to Kentucky’s strict abortion ban.

House Bill 90 “restricts access to medical care, places barriers on doctors and undermines their clinical judgment, and threatens the life of pregnant women in Kentucky,” Beshear, a ...Read more