SANTA ANA, Calif. — Samuel Woodward, who admitted to killing former high school classmate Blaze Bernstein and burying his body at the edge of a Lake Forest park in what a jury agreed was a hate-crime murder, was sentenced on Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Woodward, now 27, was convicted in July of first-degree ...Read more

WASHINGTON — With state lawmakers set to question officials overseeing recovery efforts after hurricanes Florence and Matthew, North Carolina’s federal representatives are also calling for accountability.

At the beginning of November, eight Republican members of North Carolina’s congressional delegation — all except for Rep. Patrick ...Read more

MIAMI — The mystery of the human head found on a Key Biscayne beach has been solved. It belonged to a teen who went missing after getting caught in a rip current off Miami Beach last Saturday, police said Friday.

Victor Enrique Castaneda Jr., 19, disappeared into the ocean after going for a swim with his younger sister off South Pointe Beach ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Erik and Lyle Menendez – brothers who have spent 34 years behind bars for killing their parents in 1989 at their Beverly Hills mansion, a made-for-TV case that drew worldwide attention – got hopeful news late last month when Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón said he would ask a judge to reconsider their life...Read more

U.S. President Joe Biden told the leaders of Japan and South Korea that their coordinated efforts were essential to “countering North Korea’s dangerous and destabilizing cooperation with Russia” as they met Friday on the sidelines of the APEC Summit in Lima, Peru.

“I truly believe cooperation of our countries will be a foundation to ...Read more

A Norwegian fishing crew was surprised this week by the day’s big, rare catch — a U.S. submarine longer than a football field.

Harald Engen was delivering halibut to a village on Norway’s west coast when he got a message that a U.S. submarine had gotten entangled in his 32-foot boat’s trawl nets while sailing near the surface and were ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — In the latest development in a salacious Sacramento legal saga, a California state senator this week filed a countercomplaint against her former chief of staff — who alleged she sexually harassed him while he worked for her — claiming that he was involved in the 2001 murder and disappearance of Washington intern ...Read more

BOISE, Idaho — Attorneys for the man charged with killing four Idaho college students in Moscow followed through on their pledge to challenge evidence they assert was improperly obtained by police to prevent its use at trial.

Bryan Kohberger’s defense met a court-imposed deadline Thursday to file suppression briefs that identified specific ...Read more

BOSTON — The new prosecutor in Karen Read’s murder case is now after both the defendant’s parents’ cellphone records.

“(I)t is evident from the defendant’s phone records that phone calls between the defendant and (the phone number) belonging to Janet Read, were made on January 29, 2022, during a time after the Commonwealth alleges ...Read more

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Friday that an explosive report on attorney general nominee Matt Gaetz should be kept secret.

Hours after returning from meeting with President-elect Trump in Florida, Johnson called on the Republican-led panel to not release the ethics report, which ABC News sources allege includes an interview ...Read more

ATHENS, Ga. — Laken Riley, the 22-year-old nursing student killed on the University of Georgia campus in February, put up a “fierce” fight for her life when she was attacked while out for her usual morning jog, prosecutors said Friday in opening statements in the trial of the man accused of killing her.

Riley scratched and clawed her ...Read more

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Democrats across the country are questioning their party’s identity after former President Donald Trump’s stunning victory last week.

In Florida, the mood might be more bleak.

After yet another punishing election that saw Democrats lose even more ground in the state Legislature, some Democrats are blasting state ...Read more

Time and again during his campaign, former and future president Donald Trump made the Jan.6 rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol a centerpiece of his rallies, calling them heroes or hostages and promising pardons.

“The moment we win,” Trump told a Wisconsin crowd in September, “we will rapidly review the cases of every political prisoner...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — U.S. attorney general nominee Matt Gaetz is under fire from the leader of an Orlando-based conservative legal group who called the former Florida congressman morally and professionally unqualified for the job.

Mat Staver, founder and chairman of the Liberty Counsel, wrote a scathing critique of the firebrand politician, taking...Read more

TAMPA, Fla. — For the nation’s third-largest state, Florida has never been that politically relevant in Washington, D.C.

It’s not crazy to argue that Missouri, Arkansas and Delaware have all had more access to the nation’s highest offices than Florida. The Sunshine State has never had a native elected president. No vice presidents, ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Officials have approved the removal of the derogatory term “squaw” from more than 30 geographic features and place names on California lands, according to an announcement Friday by the state Natural Resources Agency.

The action stems from a bill that Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law in 2022, and follows a similar move by ...Read more

A mother says years of painful headaches and speech issues from brain tumors were caused by prolonged use of a Pfizer birth control shot, according to a lawsuit filed Nov. 14 in Nevada Federal District Court.

The Las Vegas native received Depo-Provera, a shot administered every three months to prevent pregnancy developed and manufactured by ...Read more

BOISE, Idaho — Attorneys for the man charged with killing four Idaho college students in Moscow followed through on their pledge to challenge evidence they assert was improperly obtained by police to prevent its use at trial.

Bryan Kohberger’s defense met a court-imposed deadline Thursday to file suppression briefs that identified specific ...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. – Tropical Storm Sara is forecast to slog its way into Central America this weekend but lose organization before its remnants make their way into the Gulf of Mexico and get sucked back to the east toward Florida next week.

As of the National Hurricane Center’s 4 p.m. ET advisory Friday, Sara was located about 30 miles ...Read more