NEW YORK — Attorney General Letitia James is pushing Congress to pass legislation barring immigration agents from wearing masks to conceal their identities.

Branding Immigration and Customs Enforcement as a “secret police force operating in the shadows,” James and 20 other Democratic state attorneys general joined a letter urging ...Read more

Mike Waltz brushed off questions about his role in the Signalgate group chat scandal on Tuesday at his Senate confirmation hearing to be United Nations ambassador.

Quizzed by Democrats about the security lapse, Waltz insisted he abided by administration policies when he used the unsecure messaging app in March to host a chat with top level ...Read more

BOISE, Idaho — Idaho residents should be prepared to pay up if they’re caught with marijuana, even a small amount, after a new law mandated a minimum fine for anyone in possession of the substance.

The law took effect July 1 and compels judges to implement the $300 fine on anyone with less than 3 ounces of marijuana in their possession.

...Read more

The National Hurricane Center said Tuesday a system moving over Florida remains disorganized, but could develop into the season’s next tropical depression or storm after it moves over land and into the Gulf this week.

As of the NHC’s 2 p.m. Eastern time advisory, the center of the low pressure area that has been drenching the state with ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Members of Congress are expressing renewed support for the nation’s weather forecasting system after deadly flooding in Texas and elsewhere put the focus on cuts within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The Trump administration proposed cutting NOAA’s fiscal 2026 budget to $4.5 billion — a 27%, nearly $1....Read more

NORFOLK, Va. — Thousands of Virginians use Medicaid at Planned Parenthood health centers across the state for reproductive health care services every year. But a provision in President Donald Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill Act” could cut off those people from accessing services using federal support.

The organization serves roughly 25...Read more

TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel launched several air attacks in Syria and Lebanon in the past day, increasing tensions with its neighbors.

The Israel Defense Forces struck several tanks advancing toward Suwayda province in southern Syria on Monday. On Tuesday, strikes on military vehicles intensified.

Israel’s government said it was acting in ...Read more

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — One week after the first detainees began arriving at the Florida-run detention center for migrants in the Everglades, Katie Blankenship, a Miami immigration attorney, showed up at the gates of Alligator Alcatraz with a list of five names and a demand: Let me in to see them.

She waited two and a half hours, only to be told ...Read more

DENVER — The Turner Gulch fire burning southwest of Grand Junction in western Colorado exploded overnight, more than quintupling in size, according to fire officials.

The 8,140-acre wildfire is now the largest burning in Colorado, and more “extreme fire behavior” is expected Tuesday, fire officials said.

When it was last mapped Monday ...Read more

TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel launched several air attacks in Syria and Lebanon in the past day, increasing tensions with its neighbors.

The Israel Defense Forces struck several tanks advancing toward Suwayda province in southern Syria on Monday. On Tuesday, strikes on military vehicles intensified.

Israel’s government said it was acting in ...Read more

LEXINGTON, Ky. — University leaders across Kentucky say they are in compliance with the new law banning diversity, equity and inclusion policies and practices, which went into effect at the end of June.

House Bill 4, which was passed by Kentucky lawmakers earlier this year, requires public universities and the Kentucky Community and Technical...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Conservative activist Charlie Kirk launched an Islamophobic verbal attack on Minneapolis mayoral candidate Omar Fateh on Monday, prompting Mayor Jacob Frey and other local politicians to jump to Fateh’s defense.

Kirk, founder of the youth-oriented, pro-Trump Turning Point USA, has long been accused of antisemitism, but ...Read more

NEW YORK — The 30 rookie NYPD cops the department wants to fire after determining they were never qualified to join the force in the first place have checkered histories that include arrests, drug abuse, hiring prostitutes and “serious disregard for rules and consequences,” recently released court documents reveal.

One probationary ...Read more

LEXINGTON, Ky. — The son of the pastor at Richmond Road Baptist Church was arrested and charged Sunday after a man shot and killed two people at the church and shot and injured two more, including the pastor.

Jerry Gumm, 58, was charged with menacing after police said he acted “belligerently” at the scene and indicated he was going to ...Read more

CHICAGO — The woman stood on the sidewalk outside her home and waited for the first officers to show up. Blood streamed down her face and shoulders.

She had called 911 after her significant other stabbed her.

When officers arrived at the home in the Back of the Yards in July 2022, she pointed to the open doorway. Standing about 10 feet from ...Read more

MIAMI — A 16-year-old boy faces serious charges after Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies say he made a bomb threat while on a plane that arrived at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport Monday.

The sheriff’s office said he was on a Spirit Airlines plane that arrived at the airport around 3:15 p.m. when he made the threat.

The ...Read more

Along the banks of the Lacantún River, a hollow tree hid two creatures never before reported in Mexico.

Just a stone’s throw from an “extensive, well‑preserved tract of tropical rainforest,” two Phyllostomus hastatus, also known as the greater spear-nosed bat, were roosting in the trunk of the large Ceiba pentandra, or Kapok tree, ...Read more

DENVER — The nearly 13,000-acre wildfire burning in eastern Utah crossed the Colorado border Monday night, spreading into Montrose County, according to fire officials.

That fire, the Deer Creek fire, joins four others already burning on Colorado’s western slope.

Those four have already destroyed at least 7,981 acres, according to fire ...Read more

DENVER — The state’s largest Medicaid transportation provider has reached a settlement with state officials after a four-month legal fight that briefly threw medical transport for thousands of Coloradans into limbo.

The settlement, filed in Denver District Court last month, requires MedRide to institute several vetting processes to ensure ...Read more