FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A state agency under control of Gov. Ron DeSantis has issued 11th-hour instructions for verifying petition signatures that could hamper efforts to get a referendum to legalize recreational marijuana on the 2026 Florida ballot.

DeSantis does not want recreational marijuana legalized in Florida. He was the most prominent...Read more

The Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey for potentially impeding federal immigration enforcement efforts, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The investigation is in its early stages, according to the person, who asked not to be identified ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — The University of Minnesota’s Twin Cities campus is offering online learning options to students who feel unsafe coming to class amid concerns about Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents’ presence in the Twin Cities.

The decision was shared with faculty, instructors and administrators Jan. 15. Specific accommodations ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — The Oglala Sioux Tribe has walked back earlier claims that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has been uncooperative with the tribe’s efforts to locate homeless tribal members it previously said were detained in Minneapolis earlier this month.

The tribe said it is still trying to verify the claims of its members being ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A search warrant that led to a raid of a Southern California fireworks warehouse shows that Cal Fire investigators suspected a Yolo County company of dealing in illegal explosives at least six weeks before its headquarters exploded and caught fire, killing seven workers in Esparto.

The documents, obtained Friday in ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Renee Good died after suffering four wounds from gunshots, including one to the left side of her head, according to newly released reports from emergency responders that also detail the aftermath of her Jan. 7 killing in south Minneapolis.

The documents, released by the Minneapolis Fire Department and Minneapolis Police ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Federal agents detained three workers from a family-owned Mexican restaurant in Willmar, Minnesota, on Thursday, hours after four agents ate lunch there.

It was not immediately clear what the immigration status of those detained was, or whether the people detained included the restaurant’s owners or only workers.

An ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota Republicans are rallying behind ICE and the Trump administration as thousands of federal immigration agents sweep through the state, brushing aside mounting scrutiny fueled by a fatal shooting and videos of violent arrests.

They say the tense situation unfolding in Minnesota could have been avoided if DFL leaders had ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Nine days after a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed 37-year-old Minneapolis resident Renee Good during a federal immigration operation, the city and state remain in upheaval.

Federal actions have intensified since the Jan. 7 shooting as observers and protesters continue to record and confront agents....Read more

LOS ANGELES — Southern California Edison sued Los Angeles County, water agencies and two companies including SoCalGas on Friday, saying their mistakes contributed to the deadly and destructive toll of last year's Eaton wildfire.

Edison now faces hundreds of lawsuits by victims of the fire, which claim its transmission line started the ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The White House has named the members of an executive panel as part of a so-called Board of Peace that’s intended implement President Donald Trump’s peace plan for the Gaza Strip.

In a statement on Friday afternoon, the White House said Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump’s son-in-law ...Read more

The federal government has backed away from its plan to garnish the wages of those in default on their student loans.

In a press release Friday afternoon, the Department of Education announced it will delay involuntary collections on defaulted federal student loans. The pause is temporary, the Department said, but it will give the government ...Read more

California Gov. Gavin Newsom will attend the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, next week, where he will make a speech criticizing President Donald Trump for disrupting the United States' relationships with global allies, his office said Friday.

Newsom is scheduled to speak next Thursday at the annual meeting, one day after Trump is ...Read more

China and Canada reached a wide-ranging agreement to lower trade barriers and rebuild ties, signaling a pivot in Canadian foreign policy and a break from alignment with President Donald Trump’s trade agenda.

Prime Minister Mark Carney said he expects China to cut tariffs on Canadian rapeseed, also known as canola, after meeting Chinese leader...Read more

SAN DIEGO — For the second time in five years, President Donald Trump has granted clemency to twice-convicted San Diego businesswoman Adriana Isabel Camberos, this time issuing her and her brother full and unconditional pardons of their fraud convictions after commuting her previous fraud sentence in 2021.

Camberos, 55, was first convicted in...Read more

President Donald Trump threatened fresh tariffs on goods from nations that oppose his push to take control of Greenland, stepping up his rhetoric while Denmark hosted U.S. lawmakers on its home turf following meetings in Washington this week.

“I may put a tariff on countries if they don’t go along with Greenland, because we need Greenland ...Read more

NEW YORK — Kianna Underwood, a former Nickelodeon child actor, was killed in a hit-and-run that saw her body dragged two blocks through Brooklyn on Friday morning, police said.

Underwood, 33, was struck by a black sedan heading west on Pitkin Avenue as she tried to cross the roadway near Mother Gaston Boulevard in Brownsville around 6:50 a.m....Read more

ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Trump administration has repeatedly said the surge of immigration enforcement in Minnesota is the result of “sanctuary politicians who release criminal illegal aliens directly from jails onto the streets to terrorize more innocent Americans,” but Minnesota officials say the state’s prisons work directly with ICE.

...Read more

DENVER — Adams County health officials are investigating Colorado’s only immigration detention center after immigrant-rights advocates alleged that a wave of largely untreated illness had swept through the facility.

County health officials “received multiple reports about possible gastrointestinal and respiratory illness,” Health ...Read more