PHILADELPHIA — The vast majority of fired Philadelphia police officers return to the force under a grievance arbitration system that has frustrated police commissioners for decades, according to a new report by the city’s Citizens Police Oversight Commission.

The analysis, published Wednesday, found that 85% of those fired officers were ...Read more

Elon Musk has reportedly told people he’s been sleeping in his Washington, D.C., government office, where he’s working to build Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

The DOGE office is housed inside the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, roughly four minutes from the West Wing on foot. According to Wired, Musk ...Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif. — California students continue to trail their peers across the country in two key subjects on the newly released national report card.

Testing data released Wednesday reveals that overall, students across the country have not recouped pandemic learning loss in math and reading. California students’ recovery has been ...Read more

CHICAGO — Nearly four months after they were first called to Chicago’s federal courthouse, jurors have begun deliberating in the most consequential Illinois public corruption case in years: the racketeering case of former House Speaker Michael Madigan and his longtime confidant, Michael McClain.

The panel was sent back to deliberate at ...Read more

Two weeks ago, Florida House Speaker Daniel Perez landed at the airport in Tallahassee and was greeted by a voicemail from Gov. Ron DeSantis, who had called to let him know that he was planning to beckon lawmakers back to the Capitol to create new laws to help the Trump administration carry out a sweeping deportation program.

“I called him ...Read more

A second federal judge said he plans to put a hold on President Donald Trump’s federal funding freeze that sparked chaos and panic across the U.S.

The move comes after a lawsuit filed Tuesday by 22 Democratic state attorney generals, including New York’s Letitia James, argued the bombshell memo by the Office of Management and Budget ...Read more

Maryland leaders on Wednesday found little comfort in President Donald Trump’s decision to rescind an order to freeze all kinds of federal grants — a move that sparked panic in the state and across the country on Tuesday before a federal judge suspended it.

Gov. Wes Moore, members of Congress and others continued to highlight the potential ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is making big plans for America’s 250th.

Trump expected to sign an executive order Wednesday creating a task force to plan and coordinate an “extraordinary celebration” to mark the 250th anniversary of America’s independence in 2026.

Dubbed “Task Force 250,” it would oversee all federal ...Read more

President Donald Trump on Wednesday waded into the contentious “parental rights” debate, with an executive order to target the federal funding of schools that affirm transgender children.

The order is the latest anti-transgender action from Trump, who also has moved to ban trans Americans from serving in the military and also prohibiting ...Read more

Alaska's campaign ethics commission has fined the embattled backers of an anti-ranked choice voting ballot initiative nearly $157,000 on the heels of previous fines totaling around $90,000.

The Alaska Public Offices Commission order, issued Monday, is the latest development in a monthslong effort to require the backers of the ballot initiative ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The White House is considering challenging the constitutionality of a 50-year-old law limiting the president’s control over federal spending, easing the firing of civil servants, curbing pay and reining in independent agencies, according to a document seen by Bloomberg News.

The ideas, detailed in a slide presentation labeled ...Read more

NEW YORK — Drive times into Manhattan have dropped dramatically since the institution of New York’s congestion tolling program, according to data released Wednesday by the MTA — with the most significant improvements at the Holland Tunnel.

Average morning travel times at all eight river crossings into the congestion zone have gone down ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Facing tough questions on tariffs and the administration’s attempted freeze on federal funding, Howard Lutnick, President Donald Trump’s pick to head the Commerce Department, told senators Wednesday that he aims to crack down on both trade allies and adversaries who treat the U.S. “horribly.”

Although his promise to bring...Read more

WASHINGTON — Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Health and Human Services Department, defended his views on vaccines, abortion and nutrition Wednesday in a testy hearing before the Senate Finance Committee, a key step in his path toward a Senate confirmation vote.

His attempts to clean up past remarks on ...Read more

BOSTON — The circulating bird flu has become “widespread” in the Bay State, as officials believe the virus has killed 500 to 1,000 wild birds across the region.

And the total number of dead birds is likely “much higher than that,” according to a MassWildlife scientist on Wednesday, noting that many cases do not get reported by the ...Read more

President Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum Wednesday to ready a detention facility for migrants in the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, that could hold as many as 30,000 people as his administration ramps up deportations.

The memo directs the secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security to take “all appropriate actions”...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed into law a measure designed to slap stricter penalties on undocumented immigrants who commit crimes on U.S. soil, giving him a platform to push his top issue during the first bill signing of his whirlwind second term.

Speaking at the bill signing ceremony in the White House’s ornate ...Read more

NEW YORK — A judge on Wednesday scheduled hearings to hear arguments from lawyers who want accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann to receive five separate trials.

Judge Timothy Mazzei will also hear from both sides to determine how much of the prosecution’s mountain of evidence against Heuermann will actually be admissible in court...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department on Wednesday dropped charges in two criminal cases that President Donald Trump criticized as political, one related to the FBI raid of his Florida residence Mar-a-Lago and one against former Rep. Jeff Fortenberry.

The DOJ filed a one-page memo in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to end ...Read more