ATHENS, Ga. — It was a chilly, cloudy morning just before 9 a.m. on Feb. 22 when Laken Riley began her usual morning jog.

Home security camera footage showed the 22-year-old nursing student leave her house and, minutes later, a University of Georgia camera captured Riley enter the woods that lead to unpaved trails near intramural fields.

...Read more

The swift sinking of former Rep. Matt Gaetz as President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general showed Thursday that Republicans are still capable of finding fault with Trump’s choices, and even pushing back.

Whether they will flex that muscle often — or again at all — is anyone’s guess.

Heading into a second White House ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Sen. Thom Tillis promised Majority Leader Chuck Schumer he couldn’t get the votes to push through President Joe Biden’s nomination of North Carolina Solicitor General Ryan Park to fill a judicial vacancy.

And late Wednesday night, Tillis says, Democrats struck a deal to throw out the nominations of Park and three other ...Read more

NEW YORK — Sean “Diddy” Combs’ legal team is accusing the feds of editing the now-infamous video of him beating up ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura ahead of the music mogul’s latest bail hearing Friday.

Lawyers for the embattled hip-hop star, 55, allege federal prosecutors have attempted to make the 2016 hotel surveillance footage appear ...Read more

Former Congressman Matt Gaetz’s campaign committee has reported spending millions of dollars on Stripe Inc.’s payment-processing services in recent years, though it now says that those funds ultimately went somewhere else — and campaign-finance watchers say that’s a problem.

During the 2024 election cycle, Gaetz’s principal campaign ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Democrats find themselves in a familiar position: unable to point to a clear party leader as a sitting president prepares to hand over the reins to Donald Trump.

They faced a similar quandary in January 2017, when Barack Obama was in his final days in office. Back then, some Democrats pointed to their powerful House leader and ...Read more

President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday tapped former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi as his new pick for U.S. attorney general.

The announcement — made in a post on Trump’s social media site Truth Social — came just hours after the president-elect’s first choice for attorney general, former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, withdrew his name ...Read more

WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said she has been tapped to lead a House subcommittee supporting the work of an agency created by President-elect Donald Trump to find ways to drastically reduce federal spending.

Greene said Rep. James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, created the panel to work alongside Elon Musk...Read more

California voters have approved Proposition 34, a measure from an apartment trade group that aimed to restrict spending by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which has bankrolled several rent control initiatives and criticized the measure as unconstitutional revenge.

The Associated Press called the initiative Wednesday evening. According to the ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and FBI Director Christoper Wray declined to testify publicly at a Senate committee hearing Thursday on threats to the nation, drawing a rare bipartisan rebuke from members who had to cancel it at the last minute.

It was the second scuttled congressional hearing in as many days ...Read more

BOISE, Idaho — Two leading frozen potato manufacturers based in Idaho face a lawsuit over allegations of price fixing.

Boise agribusiness giant J.R. Simplot and Eagle potato producer Lamb Weston were among four companies sued Friday in U.S. District Court in Illinois for conspiring to artificially raise prices of frozen potato products, ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Gov. Josh Shapiro chatted with workers at a West Philadelphia barbershop Thursday, weighing in on Sixers player Paul George’s knee injury and group chat gossip, and ribbing one of the barbers at Philly Cuts for daring to cut the hair of Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum.

“Love thy neighbor — except for Celtics and Cowboys,...Read more

A week ago, Matt Gaetz was on his way to becoming Donald Trump’s avenging angel as U.S. Attorney General, the nation’s top law enforcement official.

But now that the former Florida congressman has withdrawn his nomination amid persistent questions about his involvement in a sex scandal involving a 17-year-old girl, his political prospects ...Read more

The gun ownership rate among Republican women has increased significantly in recent years, new polling reveals.

According to Gallup’s annual gun ownership survey — which groups results in six-year clusters — 33% of GOP women owned guns between 2019 and 2024. That is a 14-point increase from 2007 to 2012, when 19% of Republican women owned...Read more

The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for alleged war crimes in the Gaza Strip, adding to pressure on the country’s leadership over the conduct of its military campaign against Hamas.

The Hague-based court’s announcement on Thursday followed a request by the ICC’s chief ...Read more

When a man who called himself Luis Miguel Martinez moved into a $1.2-million home in an exclusive Riverside, California, neighborhood in 2023, he brought standard luxuries.

Parked outside were luxury cars, including a BMW and another car with Mexican license plates.

But after his arrest this week by federal authorities, neighbors learned that ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — If one oarfish landing on a beach is a sign of a disaster to come, how bad will it be if three wash up in quick succession?

A silvery 10-foot-long creature, the oarfish has fueled fisherman's tales of sea serpents — and in some cultures has been a portent of natural disasters.

It's rare to see an oarfish up close in ...Read more

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Cal Poly will acquire Cal Maritime — the state's beleaguered maritime academy — in hopes of saving it from bankruptcy and dwindling enrollment, California State University trustees decided Thursday.

The administrative merger is slated to be complete by the start of the next academic year and will present around $...Read more