MIAMI — Monroe County has seven projects underway to elevate roads in the Florida Keys, keeping them dry even as rising sea levels threaten to leave them permanently underwater.

In a presentation this week, Chief Resilience Officer Rhonda Haag reported that five years ago, the county had no plans in motion to raise roads, even as residents ...Read more

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Minnesotans generate about 6 million tons of waste each year, according to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. In new efforts to reduce the harmful impacts, the state is adopting policy geared toward decreasing that tonnage.

The MPCA, local officials and business leaders gathered Wednesday at Choo Choo Bob’s Train ...Read more

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A federal appeals court panel has overturned a previous decision that awarded more than $367.4 million to the Municipality of Anchorage in its lawsuit against the federal government over failed construction work at the Don Young Port of Alaska.

In an opinion issued Monday, a panel of judges with the U.S. Court of Appeals ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The U.S. government has launched a national security investigation into TP-Link, the China-founded router maker whose equipment now dominates the American market and has been targeted in repeated Chinese cyberattacks, people familiar with the matter said.

The probe opens a new front in the U.S. push to crack down on China-linked ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The Diocese of Orange has agreed to pay $3.5 million to a man who alleges he was sexually abused by a former administrator at Mater Dei High School in the late 1970s.

The settlement concludes a lawsuit filed in 2019 against the diocese and brings the amount the Catholic Church has paid out in civil cases involving Msgr. Michael ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Billionaire Elon Musk is turning to an executive from one of his own companies, a former Trump White House official and other tech executives to help hire staff for the incoming administration’s nascent effort to slash the size and scope of government.

Steve Davis, president of Boring Co., Musk’s tunneling operation, and ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Nearly two years after he was caught on camera beating a transgender man in a 7-Eleven parking lot, a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy has agreed to plead guilty in federal court to a civil rights violation for using excessive force, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Joseph Benza III, 36, was charged late Tuesday with one count of ...Read more

California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency Wednesday as the H5N1 bird flu virus moved from the Central Valley to Southern California dairy herds, while federal officials confirmed the first U.S. case of severe illness in a hospitalized Louisiana patient — a concerning development as the virus continues to spread throughout the ...Read more

SEATTLE — It was not a smoking gun that brought down former Seattle police Chief Adrian Diaz but a steamy letter.

“You woke me up,” it read. “Like a prince in one of your Disney movies. I hope I always know your kiss. I hope I always feel your influence. I hope to always know you and me. I love you.”

Addressed to AZD, Diaz’s ...Read more

One of the critically endangered North Atlantic right whales is expected to die after becoming entangled in fishing gear near Nantucket along with a second whale, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.

“North Atlantic right whales continue to be entangled at levels that could push this critically endangered species to ...Read more

CHICAGO — After nine weeks of prosecution witnesses, defense attorneys in the blockbuster corruption trial of ex-House Speaker Michael Madigan and his longtime confidante Michael McClain began presenting their case to jurors Wednesday by calling someone who, until quite recently, was expected to testify for the government.

That witness was ...Read more

NEW YORK — Ingrid Lewis-Martin, who resigned abruptly as Mayor Eric Adams’ chief adviser last weekend, is expected to face criminal charges alleging she used her government influence to help two businessmen who in turn gave her son a loan for a luxury car, according to sources familiar with the matter and published reports.

Lewis-Martin, ...Read more

U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr., “with a heart full of gratitude,” said goodbye on Wednesday to the Senate after 18 years representing Pennsylvania.

Casey, 64, lost to Republican Sen.-elect Dave McCormick in a historically close election that triggered an automatic recount. He did not concede until two weeks after the Associated Press called the ...Read more

BOSTON — Federal prosecutors in the kickback case of Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson say they have so much evidence to process — including a database of more than a million files — that they are seeking an “alternative schedule” to release it to the defense.

“The government has started preparing to produce discovery ...Read more

The U.S. Senate has unanimously passed the Chesapeake National Recreation Area Act, a bill to give parts of the Chesapeake Bay over to the National Park Service to form a federally recognized recreation area.

Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen and Rep. John Sarbanes, both Democrats, announced the bill’s passage in a news release Wednesday.

“...Read more

NEW YORK — Mayor Eric Adams’ legal team has requested that his federal corruption case be put on ice until Jan. 20, the day Donald Trump is set to be inaugurated as the nation’s next president.

The request, filed in Manhattan Federal Court on Tuesday night, comes after Trump said earlier this week he’s considering pardoning Adams as the...Read more

CVS is being sued by the Department of Justice for allegedly filling prescriptions in violation of the Controlled Substances Act, then billing federal health care programs for reimbursement.

“Among the large number of unlawful prescriptions that CVS allegedly filled were prescriptions for dangerous and excessive quantities of opioids, early ...Read more

BALTIMORE — Maryland officials have filed suit against W.L. Gore & Associates, the manufacturer of Gore-Tex, alleging that at least 13 of the company’s 14 facilities in Cecil County have contaminated the environment, including soil, air and groundwater, with “forever chemicals” for some 50 years.

Maryland’s lawsuit, filed Wednesday in...Read more