A politically charged YouTube video thrust a group of Somali-owned day cares in Minnesota into an uncomfortable spotlight this week, accusing the owners of defrauding the state and unleashing a torrent of threats against them.

A lawyer who represents one of the operators of Minnesota Best Childcare Center in Minneapolis, which was featured in ...Read more

With health care subsidies expiring in the new year, Cook County Health officials and political leaders on Wednesday warned the impact will not only hurt millions of Americans but also affect the county’s bottom line and hospitals around the state.

Congress remains at a stalemate over the future of subsidies for certain households that buy ...Read more

A judge has ordered the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to pay $115,220 in attorney's fees to a retired Anchorage lawyer and wildlife advocate who successfully sued the state over a wolf-killing policy on the southern Kenai Peninsula.

Anchorage Superior Court Judge Una Gandbhir found the state violated the Alaska Constitution when it ...Read more

Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown and attorneys general from North Carolina and the District of Columbia sued the U.S. Department of Education on Tuesday, alleging the agency unlawfully cut congressionally approved funding for community school programs.

Filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, the suit seeks to block ...Read more

North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson has filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration for canceling $50 million in education grants to 18 Tar Heel school districts, including in Durham and Orange counties.

The Democratic attorney general accuses the U.S. Education Department of unlawfully terminating a Full-Service Community...Read more

California wants to use ChatGPT to make state employees’ daily work easier and more efficient.

That’s the goal of Poppy, a new “digital assistant” powered by ChatGPT and other publicly available generative artificial intelligence tools, which the California Department of Technology began piloting earlier this year.

State employees can ...Read more

Mayor Adams vetoed 19 City Council bills late Wednesday in a last-ditch effort to block the measures, which carry significant implications for city policy on immigration, housing, street vending, police accountability and more.

The vetoes, issued just hours before Adams’ term as mayor was set to end at midnight, can be overridden by the City ...Read more

Maryland has secured more than $2.6 million in philanthropic grant funding to launch artificial intelligence tools aimed at streamlining access to public benefits such as food assistance, Medicaid and unemployment services, Gov. Wes Moore said.

The state received two of seven national awards from the Public Benefit Innovation Fund, a program of...Read more

Rain was falling over the Southland on Wednesday afternoon as the region headed into the New Year soggy and with the virtual certainty of a wet 2026 Tournament of Roses parade.

Forecasters warned of a "near 100% chance" of rain falling on the parade route — including overnight as spectators camp along Colorado Boulevard — marking the first ...Read more

With just hours left in office, Mayor Eric Adams launched a Charter Revision Commission stacked with political allies on Wednesday afternoon, tasking the panel with considering changing city law to allow for open primaries in local elections.

The commission, made up of 13 members all appointed by Adams, will mainly be focused on exploring the ...Read more

BAY LAKE, Florida — A Walt Disney World cast member was injured blocking the massive boulder prop from hitting the audience Tuesday at the Indiana Jones attraction at Hollywood Studios.

Disney confirmed the employee was recovering and the iconic feature of the boulder scene in the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular would be changed.

“We�...Read more

Former Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl has been diagnosed with dementia and will withdraw from public life, he announced Tuesday.

“I was blessed to represent the people of Arizona in Congress and to have numerous other opportunities to contribute to the political and civic life of our nation and state,” Kyl, 83, said in a statement.

The announcement ...Read more

President Donald Trump said he’s dropping — for now — his push to deploy National Guard troops in Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon, a move that comes after legal roadblocks hung up the effort.

Trump said in a social media post Wednesday that he’s removing the Guard troops for now. “We will come back, perhaps in a much ...Read more

U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff said he held a “productive call” with European leaders on the next steps in President Donald Trump’s efforts to bring a halt to Russia’s war in Ukraine, following new challenges in the peace negotiations this week.

Witkoff, in a post Wednesday on X, said that he along with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and ...Read more

The Trump administration’s pledge to freeze $185 million in child care payments to Minnesota could put a financial squeeze on thousands of low-income families as federal and state leaders spar over how to address a spiraling fraud problem.

The funding helps cover the cost of child care for about 23,000 children and 12,000 families each month ...Read more

The day after Christmas is typically quiet in the nation's capital. But President Trump's decision to acknowledge a covert U.S. strike on Venezuelan territory, in an interview with an obscure local news outlet on Friday, set off a scramble in a drowsy Washington that has become a hallmark of the president.

Officials working on Latin America ...Read more

The state Supreme Court has turned back a weapons possession challenge when it ruled that courts can issue protective orders barring gun ownership in cases where subjects of the orders are not explicitly accused of crimes involving violence or threats of violence.

The decision rejects arguments by an anonymous defendant who claimed that he was ...Read more

U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff said he held a “productive call” with European leaders on the next steps in President Donald Trump’s efforts to bring a halt to Russia’s war in Ukraine, following new challenges in the peace negotiations this week.

Witkoff, in a post Wednesday on X, said that he along with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and ...Read more