A California man has been arrested for possessing and extorting child pornography and other disturbing content as part of his role in the violent online network 764, which aims to accelerate the “downfall of the current world order,” according to the feds.

Jose Henry Ayala Casamiro was taken into custody by the FBI on allegations that he �...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration will not finalize a Biden-era plan to require coverage of anti-obesity medications in Medicare and Medicaid.

In a rule finalized Friday afternoon, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services stated it does not intend to continue with the Biden proposal, which was released in November.

CMS did not ...Read more

WASHINGTON — A federal judge gave the government until the end of Monday to return a man to the U.S. after it said it had mistakenly sent him to a prison in El Salvador in an “administrative error.”

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis on Friday ordered the government to get Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia back from El Salvador’s notorious ...Read more

Human-rights groups are pushing back against a proposal by Haiti authorities to enlist members of a rogue force into the fight against a powerful gang alliance carrying out a deadly siege in three of the country’s 10 regional departments.

“It’s scandalous,” said Samuel Madistin, an attorney and president of the Fondasyon Je Klere/ Eyes ...Read more

A federal judge in San Francisco rebuffed the Trump administration again in a major immigration case on Friday, saying he is sticking to his decision to stop the government’s revocation of deportation protections this month for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans in Florida and other states.

U.S. District Judge Edward M. Chen cited several ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Energy Department is proposing to shut down its Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations and cut roughly $9 billion in awards for programs regarding carbon capture, direct air capture, solar and hydrogen, according to documents seen by Bloomberg.

Under the plan, which isn’t final, the $27 billion agency’s staff would ...Read more

CHICAGO — The U.S. attorney’s office officially has moved to drop the criminal case against high-profile government mole Daniel Solis, the former alderman who played key roles in federal prosecutions that brought down two of Chicago’s Democratic kingpins, ex-House Speaker Michael Madigan and ex-Alderman Edward Burke.

In a long-anticipated...Read more

CHICAGO — Mayor Brandon Johnson promised Friday to go to court to protect hundreds of millions of dollars in federal money for Chicago schools if President Donald Trump follows through on a threat to revoke the funds from districts that promote diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices, though no immediate action was taken.

“We’re ...Read more

NEW YORK — The New York State Education Department announced Friday it will not sign a certification against diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices as directed by the Trump administration — at the risk of losing federal funding.

A letter sent the day before by the U.S. Department of Education gave state commissioners 10 days to ...Read more

A 14-year-old accused of gunning down a pair of New Jersey police officers, killing one of them, is expected to be tried as an adult in the shooting.

The unidentified teen is facing counts including murder, attempted murder and possession of illegal weapons in connection with the gun battle in Newark last month, culminating in the shooting ...Read more

WASHINGTON — A federal judge gave the government until the end of Monday to return a man to the U.S. after it said it had mistakenly sent him to a prison in El Salvador in an “administrative error.”

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis on Friday ordered the government to get Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia back from El Salvador’s notorious ...Read more

A selloff in stocks deepened, bonds climbed and oil tumbled to a four-year low as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled the damage of a trade war will be bigger than anticipated, with the potential effects including higher inflation and slower growth.

Despite the economic risks from President Donald Trump’s trade war such as China’s...Read more

MIAMI — The Miami-Dade Democratic Hispanic Caucus is taking a campaign against Florida’s Cuban American Republicans not to the airwaves, but the highway.

A new billboard, which is going up on the Palmetto Expressway between Doral and Hialeah, takes aim at Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. Reps. María Elvira Salazar, Carlos Giménez, ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled for the Trump administration on Friday and lifted a judge’s order that had blocked the canceling of $148 million in grants for recruiting and training new teachers nationwide.

By a 5-4 vote, the justices granted the administration’s appeal and freezes the funding for now.

Chief Justice John G. ...Read more

CHICAGO — A dying Venezuelan man was reunited with his brother Friday morning in an emotional reunion outside a restaurant near the ICE processing center in Broadview that federal authorities released him from so he could donate a kidney to save his brother’s life.

Alfredo Pacheco, 37, of Cicero, is facing terminal renal failure. On ...Read more

NEW YORK — Police arrested a man who stabbed a 57-year-old woman in the face early Friday morning at the World Trade Center Memorial, cops said.

Just before 2 a.m. Amir Thompson walked up to the victim near Liberty St. and Greenwich St. in lower Manhattan and reportedly said, “I know you from somewhere,” before punching her and then ...Read more

ATLANTA — Gov. Brian Kemp signed a “religious liberty” measure Friday, resolving a decade-long debate over a divisive measure that supporters say protects faith-based beliefs from government overreach and critics decry as a license to discriminate.

The Republican inked the bill at a brief signing ceremony at the state Capitol as lawmakers...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles County plans to pay $4 billion to settle nearly 7,000 claims of childhood sexual abuse that allegedly occurred inside its juvenile facilities and foster homes, dwarfing the largest sex abuse settlements in U.S. history.

The mammoth settlement, which still needs to be approved by the county claims board and county ...Read more

OAKLAND, Calif. — Nearly six months after Sheng Thao took office as mayor of Oakland, she still owed tens of thousands of dollars to the campaign manager who had helped deliver her a victory.

Long-established state law prohibits politicians from using public funds to finance election campaigns, but in newly released records, Thao’s top ...Read more