China said it has forcefully cracked down on the fentanyl trade and condemned President Donald Trump’s tariffs, as the world’s two largest economies remain at odds over the conditions for any talks to cool tensions.

Officials from China’s Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Public Security said in a briefing on Wednesday the country has ...Read more

Boston Public Schools has not made significant improvements for student outcomes despite an agreement made with the state five years ago, the nonprofit organization Boston Policy Institute found in a new report.

“The study finds that while the intervention prompted BPS to address long-standing operational and administrative deficiencies, it ...Read more

The Department of Homeland Security issued a notice on Wednesday requiring millions of immigrants to register their presence in the United States with the federal government or face stiff penalties.

Those who must register include people who entered the U.S. without being processed by immigration authorities as well as Canadians without ...Read more

DENVER — Nearly 26 years later, the Columbine High School massacre officially claimed another life.

The Jefferson County Coroner’s Office, in a newly completed autopsy report, ruled last month’s death of Anne Marie Hochhalter, a 43-year-old paralyzed in the 1999 shooting, was a homicide.

Hochhalter died of sepsis, with complications from...Read more

RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein told the General Assembly during his first State of the State address on Wednesday evening that he’s ready to sign the next Helene recovery bill.

He also told lawmakers he wants to cut taxes on middle-class families but freeze other planned tax cuts, and that he will launch his own ...Read more

MIAMI — A former member of the Cuban intelligence agency was arrested on Wednesday by federal agents who said he fraudulently obtained a green card to live legally in the United States.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced the man’s arrest but did not disclose his name.

Nestor Yglesias, a spokesman for Homeland Security ...Read more

Emine Emanet walked free from a New Jersey immigrant-detention center and into the arms of her family on Wednesday, two weeks and a day after she and her husband were arrested by ICE agents at their Haddon Township restaurant.

The Jersey Kebab owner hugged her eldest son, Muhammed, and then her husband, Celal, raising her arms and crying out as...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — Fraternity brothers at Sigma Chi allegedly hit pledges with a car as part of a hazing ritual now under investigation by the University of Central Florida, according to an incident report obtained by the Orlando Sentinel late Wednesday.

A sorority member whose house sits next door to Sigma Chi’s told police she heard yelling,...Read more

NEW YORK —Political bigwigs and common community folks filled a Harlem church on Wednesday to bid a rousing farewell to civil rights icon Hazel Dukes, 92, the longtime NAACP leader who died earlier this month without ever taking a break from the struggle.

Right up until the end, speaker after speaker said, Dukes was on the front line, ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Three people have been arrested and charged with fraudulently trying to obtain tens of thousands of dollars in federal disaster-relief money by falsely claiming their properties were destroyed in the Eaton and Palisades wildfires, federal authorities announced Wednesday.

Joyce Turner, a 55-year-old Texas resident; Tyrone D. ...Read more

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The astronauts left behind on the International Space Station when NASA sent the Boeing Starliner home are expected to return to Earth in the coming days, but will have to wait at least one more day.

SpaceX scrubbed a Wednesday night launch attempt from KSC’s Launch Pad 39-A because of a hydraulic issue on a clamp arm...Read more

BOISE, Idaho — Attorneys for Bryan Kohberger, who is charged with murder in the deaths of four University of Idaho students, are set to acknowledge “there is good support” that their client’s DNA was discovered on a key piece of evidence police said they found at the crime scene, but are expected to argue at trial that it might have been...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is launching a sweeping overhaul of U.S. environmental mandates in a campaign it billed as the “biggest deregulatory action” of its kind in U.S. history.

The Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday it will formally reconsider more than a dozen Obama- and Biden-era regulations, including ...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer is seeking $5 million from Orange County to help build a long-sought permanent memorial to the 2016 Pulse nightclub massacre, but his request is facing early resistance, in a sign of lingering bitterness over the failure of earlier memorial plans.

In a Monday memorandum to Orange County Mayor Jerry ...Read more

LAS VEGAS — A Henderson couple arrested after police discovered an autistic child confined in a “makeshift jail cell” were sentenced to probation Wednesday.

Misty Scanlan and Jeffery Scanlan pleaded guilty to child neglect or endangerment, a gross misdemeanor, in January. They initially faced felony counts of child abuse, neglect or ...Read more

BOISE, Idaho — Idaho lawmakers proposed Wednesday a new bill that could narrow down the number of lawsuits against doctors under Idaho’s abortion laws.

The proposal follows reports in the past few years that the state’s law criminalizing the procedure for medical providers has prompted doctors to flee the state and exacerbated a physician...Read more

A Nevada man who supports President Donald Trump was accused of trying to assassinate Trump after deputies arrested him near a rally in October, according to a federal lawsuit filed by the man.

As a “deeply involved” Trump supporter since 2016, Vem Miller got tickets to attend a rally for the then-presidential candidate in the Coachella ...Read more

BALTIMORE — Dr. Theodore “Jack” Iwashyna was in Chicago this week for a medical conference, but his thoughts weren’t far from his work at the Hopkins research and treatment facilities that now face federal funding cuts.

“Next Monday, I’ll be back at Bayview (Medical Center), taking care of patients with sepsis, bringing the research...Read more