BOISE, Idaho — Bryan Kohberger’s defense team is considering whether to assert a legal precedent set in another high-profile Idaho murder case in one more push to drop the death penalty as a possible sentence at trial.

Attorneys for the man charged with killing four University of Idaho students allege that the prosecution failed to meet the...Read more

LOS ANGELES — A week after flames leveled huge swaths of Pacific Palisades and Altadena, Southern California remained under a severe fire threat as residents still struggled to comprehend the scale of the loss.

An army of firefighters spent Tuesday putting out small fires before they got out of control, and continued building containment ...Read more

WASHINGTON — After years of debate, the Biden administration has notified Congress that it will remove Cuba from the U.S. list of states that sponsor terrorism, a label given the island nation in the last days of the previous Trump presidency.

The decision Tuesday was part of an agreement brokered in part by the Roman Catholic Church to free ...Read more

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Kentucky students, including the Kentucky Student Voice Team, on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against the state of Kentucky, asserting the state has failed to fulfill its constitutional obligation to provide all students with an adequate and equitable public education.

The lawsuit, filed in Franklin Circuit Court, draws from the ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Investigators have learned that the gun used to shoot and seriously wound two kindergartners last month at a small faith-based school in Northern California was sold to the gunman by a convicted felon in Arizona.

Glenn Litton, 56, shot two boys who were outside for recess at Feather River Adventist School in Oroville ...Read more

While Republicans eye conditions for future federal aid to California grappling with catastrophic wildfires, at least one GOP House member implored President-elect Donald Trump directly to focus on helping residents first and worry about the politics part later.

Rep. Young Kim, R-Anaheim Hills, was part of a congressional contingent that met ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission sued Elon Musk, alleging that the billionaire waited to disclose his acquisition of Twitter Inc. shares in order to build his position at lower prices.

The agency claims in a complaint filed Tuesday in federal court in Washington, D.C., that the billionaire deliberately ignored a deadline to...Read more

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A SpaceX mission set to lift off overnight marks a first for Firefly Aerospace under NASA’s plans to build up American companies to support its lunar goals.

A Falcon 9 targeting a 1:11 a.m.Eastern time, liftoff Wednesday from KSC’s Launch Pad 39-A is carrying the Cedar Park, Texas-based company’s Blue Ghost lunar ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — On Friday afternoon, the winds across the Santa Monica Mountains suddenly shifted, and the Palisades fire pushed north and east, making a run in two different directions: toward Encino and Brentwood.

Across the southern San Fernando Valley and West L.A., terrified Angelenos watched as leaping flames and massive plumes of smoke ...Read more

MIAMI — Federal prosecutors in New York City have turned up the heat on three wealthy Miami Beach brothers in their sex trafficking case, saying that “each defendant has separately been accused of forcible rape by at least 10 women.”

Prosecutors made that disclosure in a court filing before Alon, Oren and Tal Alexander face a major ...Read more

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Half of the Minnesota House chamber stood empty on Tuesday, as every Democratic member took the unprecedented step of boycotting the first day of session to try and block Republicans from taking control.

Republicans charged forward anyway, disregarding Secretary of State Steve Simon’s ruling that a quorum wasn’t present....Read more

WASHINGTON — Pam Bondi will face the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday for the first day of her confirmation hearing to be attorney general, a high-profile appearance that could shed light on how she would handle controversial plans for the Justice Department from President-elect Donald Trump.

Bondi, a former Florida attorney general ...Read more

Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin accused his colleagues of voting while drunk during a heated confirmation hearing for Secretary of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth.

Much of Tuesday’s drama surrounding Hegseth’s hearing revolved around whether any Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee would come out against the former Fox News host ...Read more

In a last-minute move before he leaves office next week, President Joe Biden removed Cuba from the list of countries that sponsor terrorism, lifted sanctions on companies run by Cuba’s military and again suspended a provision in a law that allows Cuban Americans to seek compensation for confiscated property on the island.

The three measures ...Read more

As her father prepares to take up the presidency for a second time next week, Ivanka Trump revealed that she “hates politics” and has no intention of returning to work at the White House.

The 43-year-old former presidential adviser shared the multiple reasons she decided to sit this term out while appearing on Tuesday’s episode of the “...Read more

NEW YORK — Sean “Diddy” Combs’ lawyers argue that videos of his infamous “freak-off” parties actually prove him innocent of sex trafficking, and that the videos show an alleged victim “not only consented, but thoroughly enjoyed herself.”

In a filing Tuesday, the fallen rap mogul’s lawyers argued that the nine videos showing ...Read more

The Department of Homeland Security says it is continuing to accept requests for asylum-seekers arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border, and is authorizing travel for certain nationals of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela seeking to lawfully enter the United States through a humanitarian parole program beyond Jan. 20, when President-elect Donald ...Read more

TikTok remains on schedule to be banned in the U.S. beginning Sunday, one day before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.

In high-pressure hearings last Friday, the Supreme Court appeared likely to rule in favor of the ban.

But even if the ban does go into effect, TikTok will not disappear from users’ phones. In fact, it will remain ...Read more

SAN DIEGO — San Diego Gas & Electric more than doubled the number of customers whose power has been shut off Tuesday as Santa Ana winds began booming inland and spreading to coastal area. Through 1:45 p.m., 5,620 customers had lost power, and more than 49,000 were on notice that the same could happen to them.

The outage primarily affects ...Read more

There’s less than a week before President-elect Donald Trump begins his second term, and congressional Republicans are already working to preserve one of his signature policies.

The House Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday held a hearing on the future of Trump’s 2017 tax overhaul, as witnesses described what the cuts mean for American ...Read more