BOSTON — Most of the ballot questions on the Massachusetts ballot this November seem to be headed for voter approval at this point, according to a new UMass Amherst/WCVB poll, with only the legalization of psychedelics remaining a tossup.

“With only a few weeks to go until Election Day, voters in the commonwealth are poised to make ...Read more

RALEIGH, N.C. — Gov. Roy Cooper signed an executive order Wednesday increasing the maximum weekly unemployment payment available to North Carolinians in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.

The executive order applies statewide and authorizes the current maximum weekly payment of $350 to be raised to $600.

The payments paid out by the state ...Read more

CHICAGO — Two days of intensive questioning this week have yielded no new jurors in the corruption trial of Michael Madigan, as the already sluggish pace of jury selection slowed to a crawl Wednesday.

Although U.S. District Judge John Robert Blakey has been insistent he would not rush the parties though the important process, the judge for ...Read more

NEW YORK — In the history of narco-corruption in Mexico, no higher-ranking official than Genaro García Luna has ever faced justice in the United States.

He's nowhere near as infamous as Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, the former Sinaloa cartel leader now serving life in prison. He doesn't have a nickname or a Netflix series. But according to ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The California Board of Parole Hearings reversed a decision made in August to allow the early release of Andrew Stuart Luster, a serial rapist who drugged young women in college bars during the late 1990s and later was captured by a bounty hunter when he fled to Mexico to avoid his trial.

Luster, a great-grandson of cosmetics ...Read more

NEW YORK — Mayor Eric Adams’ legal defense trust received less than $100,000 in donations over the past three months, a sharp downturn in fundraising that raises questions about how he’ll be able to afford his high-priced team of lawyers as he faces a federal corruption indictment.

New filings released late Tuesday show Adams’ trust ...Read more

DENVER — U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert’s son, Tyler Jay Boebert, pleaded guilty to attempted identity theft in Garfield County Court last week and was sentenced to community service and a deferred judgment.

Tyler Boebert, 19, was arrested in February after Rifle police alleged he was involved in a string of car break-ins and stolen credit cards ...Read more

SANTA ANA, Calif. — Orange County prosecutors have filed misdemeanor charges against 39 additional protesters accused of failing to disperse after a May 15 pro-Palestinian protest at the University of California, Irvine was deemed unlawful by Irvine police.

The new charges were announced on Wednesday, hours before the original 10 people ...Read more

OAKLAND, Calif. — For what could be the final time, Mayor Sheng Thao took stock of the city she’s led for two years, describing a place that looks markedly different from how her harshest critics describe it.

“I said this last year and I’ll say it again: Oakland, our challenges are great, but our people are greater,” Thao said Tuesday...Read more

The Federal Trade Commission continued its crackdown on businesses that deceptively market and sell subscription services, adopting a rule Wednesday requiring companies to let consumers cancel a gym membership, streaming video service or other subscription as easily as they started it.

The rule expands the FTC's restrictions on "negative option...Read more

The Pentagon this week confirmed news reports of unidentified drones swarming the airspace at Langley Air Force Base in Hampton, Virginia, last year.

The Hampton base experienced incursions of unauthorized unmanned aerial systems in December, Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh told reporters Tuesday.

“The number of those UAS incursions did ...Read more

ATLANTA — A judge invalidated seven new Georgia election rules Wednesday, including requirements for a “reasonable inquiry” before elections are certified, hand counts on election night and additional access for partisan poll watchers.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thomas Cox Jr. declared the rules, passed by the State Election Board...Read more

CHICAGO — The Illinois secretary of state’s office this week said it installed more than a dozen kiosks in supermarkets to give residents an opportunity to renew their driver’s licenses or other state IDs and obtain vehicle stickers while grocery shopping or running errands.

The pilot program marks the latest effort by Secretary of State ...Read more

As Haiti’s leaders in a U.S.-backed transition continue to be divided over the fate of the country’s foreign minister, a visiting U.S. delegation on Wednesday made the administration’s position clear: “country over party.”

“Haiti would really benefit from having all of the current government officials to continue to put country over...Read more

Special counsel Jack Smith on Wednesday accused former President Donald Trump of being responsible for the actions of the mob of his supporters who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6 2021.

The prosecutor said Trump showed his criminal colors by openly bullying ex-Vice President Mike Pence and urging his extremist followers to physically prevent ...Read more

WASHINGTON — A federal judge blocked Alabama election officials from carrying out a last-minute purge of names from lists of registered voters, finding the state “blew” a 90-day nationwide deadline to maintain the status quo ahead of the November election.

The order Wednesday is a win for the U.S. Department of Justice, which sued after ...Read more

BOSTON — The ACLU has jumped into the Karen Read Supreme Judicial Court fight on the side of the accused murderer.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts filed a brief in Read’s appeal to Massachusetts’ highest court to have two of the three charges against her — including second-degree murder — dropped in her second ...Read more

Isaret Jeffers doesn’t have millions of followers. But she has enough to feel like she’s doing something valuable.

Hours before Hurricane Milton hit Florida, Jeffers, a community activist who works with the Hispanic population and farmworkers in Plant City, rushed to post in Spanish on her Facebook account that there was still time to ...Read more