MIAMI — Oren Alexander — one of three wealthy Alexander brothers charged with forcing dozens of women to have sex with them in Miami Beach and New York City — was supposed to show up in Miami federal court on Tuesday for a bail hearing.

But he was a no-show.

And it wasn’t Oren’s fault.

The U.S. Marshals Service accidentally flew ...Read more

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — YNW Melly must make a decision about whether to keep his current legal team for his upcoming murder retrial, and he doesn’t have a lot of time to do it, a Broward County judge said Tuesday.

The rapper, whose real name is Jamell Demons, was in court Tuesday for the second of a two-day “all pending motions” hearing...Read more

CHICAGO — Fresh off a rare defeat in Springfield, Gov. JB Pritzker on Tuesday delivered some of his sharpest words yet against Mayor Brandon Johnson.

At an unrelated news conference, the governor staunchly defended his support for a bill to strongly regulate hemp sales. Johnson spent the past several days lobbying against the legislation, ...Read more

MIAMI — Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport became the site of a grim discovery late Monday night when two people were found dead in the landing gear of a JetBlue carrier that had arrived from New York, according to officials.

Deputies from the Airport District responded to the call around 11:30 p.m. Paramedics from Broward ...Read more

CHICAGO — In a stunning and risky move, ex-House Speaker Michael Madigan has taken the stand in his own public corruption trial Tuesday.

“Your honor, the defense calls Mike Madigan,” attorney Dan Collins said, and jurors snapped to attention.

Madigan was sworn in, sat down, unscrewed the top of a bottle of water and began answering ...Read more

The California quest for a green energy Holy Grail has become a major contributor to soaring monthly electricity bills charged by PG&E and its utility siblings, a disquieting new state report shows.

PG&E, San Diego Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison levy charges for monthly bills that are far higher than the national average, making ...Read more

NEW YORK — Hundreds of NYPD sergeants are expected to protest outside Mayor Eric Adams’ upcoming “State of the City” address over a bizarre contract impasse that’s left some sergeants with less pay than the police officers they supervise, union officials said Tuesday.

The off-duty sergeants, as well as their supporters in the City ...Read more

NASA announced Tuesday it had narrowed down to two options the reworked Mars Sample Return mission aiming for a cheaper and quicker completion than the version that was killed last year.

One would be to use a version of the sky crane system that was used to land both the Mars rovers Perseverance and Curiosity safely on the Martian surface. The ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to eliminate a $400 fee that had been charged by the medical examiner for the transportation and storage of bodies, saying grieving families should be spared that financial burden as an act of compassion.

Under state law, bodies are typically transported to the medical ...Read more

NEW YORK — The Law Department gave city government agencies a detailed briefing Tuesday on New York’s sanctuary status laws, a move aimed at ensuring compliance with the protections in anticipation of President-elect Donald Trump’s planned immigration crackdown, according to multiple sources directly familiar with the matter.

General ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota utility regulators on Tuesday rescinded a permit for a gasoline pipeline near Pipestone National Monument, ordering “cultural and archeological” surveys on two potential routes after backlash from tribes who say the area is foundational to their religious beliefs.

The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission may ...Read more

ATLANTA — Now the nation gets its chance to say goodbye to the 39th president, a Renaissance man from Georgia who championed peace, human rights and the eradication of diseases long after he left the White House.

During a brief ceremony this afternoon, former President Jimmy Carter’s flag-draped casket was brought aboard “Special Air ...Read more

ATLANTA — With the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump likely to scale back federal efforts to limit climate change, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens has been tabbed to help lead a bipartisan coalition of U.S. mayors focused on addressing the global problem at the local level.

On Monday, Dickens was named the vice chair of ...Read more

The California Supreme Court overturned a Central Valley woman's murder conviction in the 2018 killing of her 2-month-old son, ruling Monday that the law often holds victims of domestic violence to an unfair double standard in the deaths of their children.

The court ordered the woman, Brittney Collins, to be resentenced, and family violence ...Read more

President-elect Donald Trump refused to rule out using military force to grab the Panama Canal and Greenland on Tuesday, saying U.S. national security depends on winning control of the two territories.

In a free-wheeling press conference, Trump also vowed he would change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America” and proclaimed...Read more

A nasty stomach bug has been spreading across the country, including California, in recent months — leaving people feeling nauseous, achy or worse.

There were 91 outbreaks of norovirus reported across the country during the week of Dec. 5, up from 69 outbreaks the final week of November, according to the most recent numbers from the U.S. ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump and the spending-skeptical House may be on a path that could end in a collision over federal spending. Just consider his pricey idea of the U.S. purchasing Greenland.

A group of conservative House Republicans last month demanded deep spending cuts as Congress struggled to pass an extension of ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Phillip Talbert, a veteran prosecutor who rose to lead nearly 100 federal lawyers as the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Sacramento, will resign from his post effective Saturday.

Talbert, a Democrat appointed by President Joe Biden in 2022, said in a wide-ranging interview with The Sacramento Bee that he was leaving to make ...Read more

BOISE, Idaho — An Idaho House committee will consider a formal statement asking the U.S. Supreme Court to end same-sex marriage nationwide and allow the state to restore its ban on such unions.

State Rep. Heather Scott, R-Blanchard, proposed the measure that calls the 2015 decision from the nation’s highest court to legalize same-sex ...Read more