Venezuelan opposition leaders said this week that María Corina Machado is preparing to return to Venezuela soon and will do so without necessarily seeking permission from the United States, describing the move as a decisive step in efforts to accelerate the country’s political transition after Nicolás Maduro’s capture by U.S. forces in ...Read more

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly has vetoed a bill that would make it a crime to approach or remain within 25 feet of a first responder who warns that doing so could distract them or put people or property in danger.

In her veto message, Kelly said the bill poses “a myriad of legal concerns” and creates “serious tension between ensuring law ...Read more

Gov. Brad Little issued five vetoes Wednesday evening dealing with issues ranging from day care to rainy day funds.

One of those included line-item vetoes in a budget bill, which means the governor nixed only a portion of the bill and allowed the rest of it to become law.

The Republican-dominated Legislature adjourned last week sine die, so it...Read more

BALTIMORE — Baltimore’s Forest Service Urban Field Office will close sometime this year, according to a March 31 U.S. Department of Agriculture announcement. Employees at the Catonsville office say they still do not know when or how that will take place, or what will happen to them.

“Reorganization? More like disorganization,” one ...Read more

First lady Melania Trump on Thursday denied all ties to Jeffrey Epstein in a surprise White House speech and called for congressional hearings featuring the notorious pedophile’s victims.

Without explaining why she was speaking out now, Trump insisted she barely knew Epstein and his convicted lieutenant Ghislaine Maxwell and denied that he ...Read more

Nearly 90% of the world’s Christians celebrated the most important holiday in their faith last Sunday, but for those in the Eastern Orthodox tradition — including about 20,000 in the Baltimore area — Easter, or Pascha, takes place this weekend. Fr. Louis Nopros is used to the theological quirk.

Nopros, 69, is the head priest at St. ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — A U.S. District Court judge in Minnesota ruled Thursday that multiple federal agencies have three weeks to produce troves of unredacted evidence related to the killing of Renee Good by federal immigration agent Jonathan Ross.

The evidence is similar to what the state of Minnesota is demanding from Good’s killing in an ...Read more

WASHINGTON — In an unusually quiet U.S. Capitol, where lawmakers were not set to return from an extended break for another five days, U.S. Sen. Andy Kim was practically alone.

He had spoken out the day before, like other Democrats, calling President Donald Trump “unhinged” for threatening to eliminate the “whole civilization” of Iran ...Read more

There is a spider making a home in the U.S, that’s the size of your palm and soars through the air riding the wind.

Although the Joro spider, an invasive species that has been spotted across the United States, isn’t dangerous, its size and the web it creates can seem like props from a horror movie.

“They’re not medically significant,�...Read more

WASHINGTON — House Democrats began their messaging campaign to hold President Donald Trump accountable for threatening to eliminate the “whole” Iranian civilization with a 10-second floor showdown Thursday.

“The threats of total annihilation were beyond the pale. It’s time for Congress to step in and take control of the wheel,” Rep....Read more

CHICAGO — Wisconsin law enforcement officials are set to release new information about a Skokie, Illinois, woman’s claims last month that U.S. immigration officials detained her for nearly 48 hours and in multiple states, the Dodge County sheriff’s office announced Thursday.

Dodge County, Wisconsin, is one of three places where supporters...Read more

WASHINGTON — Morning broke in the Middle East on Wednesday with a wave of attacks by Iran. Air defenses in Kuwait were overwhelmed. Three dozen drones and 17 ballistic missiles were shot down over the United Arab Emirates. The most important oil pipeline in Saudi Arabia suffered a hit. Sirens flared in Tel Aviv, and a devastating drumbeat of ...Read more

CHICAGO — After four consecutive years of steep drops in gun violence, shootings in Chicago ticked up in the first quarter of 2026.

The city recorded 105 murders through the first week of April, up slightly from the 98 killings seen in the same time period in 2025, according to city violence data. Another 266 people have suffered nonfatal ...Read more

When the Orion spacecraft returned from its first lunar trip on the uncrewed Artemis I mission in 2022, it suffered major damage to the spacecraft’s heat shield coating. That raised the crew safety alarm for Artemis II and ultimately was among the reasons it was delayed until 2026.

Decisions about the heat shield made since then, though, will...Read more

First lady Melania Trump on Thursday denied all ties to Jeffrey Epstein in a surprise White House speech and called for congressional hearings featuring the notorious pedophile’s victims.

Without explaining why she was speaking out now, Trump insisted she barely knew Epstein and his convicted lieutenant Ghislaine Maxwell and denied that he ...Read more

GAFFNEY, S.C. — Competing versions of podcaster Mandy Matney vied in a contentious hearing this week in a sleepy South Carolina courthouse as she took the witness stand and defended herself against allegations of reckless journalism under a withering hail of questions from a lawyer for wealthy businessman Greg Parker.

Is Matney a heedless ...Read more

Vice President JD Vance is under intense pressure to forge a durable Iran ceasefire deal when he leads high-stakes talks Saturday in Pakistan with top leaders of the Islamic regime.

The eyes of the world will be on Vance as he seeks to keep the guns quiet and get the oil flowing through the crucial Straits of Hormuz while squeezing enough ...Read more

Pope Leo XIV will begin his journey to four African countries – Algeria, Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea – on April 13, 2026.

Africa represents the fastest-growing part of the Catholic Church worldwide, seeing an increase from 281 million members in 2023 to over 288 million in 2024.

The Vatican has announced a theme...Read more