Senators are set to weigh in this week on Trump administration proposals to overhaul parts of the Justice Department and cut funding for key federal law enforcement agencies.

The administration’s fiscal 2026 budget request seeks to end the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives as a separate component, wipe away the Office on ...Read more

RALEIGH, N.C. — Gov. Josh Stein vetoed legislation on Wednesday that would have given private schools the option to allow teachers or school volunteers to carry concealed handguns on campus.

House Bill 193 would have permitted employees or volunteers at private schools to carry firearms or stun guns on school grounds if they received written...Read more

WASHINGTON — While senators are leaving Washington at a higher-than-normal pace, House retirements are lagging behind the historical average.

But it’s still early, and second-quarter campaign finance reports, due July 15, could provide a window into departures to come.

Thus far, 16 House members have announced they aren’t seeking ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Two men were caught in Minneapolis and have been charged with possessing nearly 900 pounds of methamphetamine in what local and federal law enforcement are touting as a significant bust with ties to Mexican drug cartels.

In connection with the massive meth seizure Monday in south Minneapolis, Guillermo Mercado Chaparro, 44, of ...Read more

A longstanding tax exemption preventing nonprofit organizations from engaging in political campaign activity that favors individual candidates has been reinterpreted — signaling that religious organizations may now be excluded from the rule.

The decades-old Johnson Amendment does not apply to speech by houses of worship to its congregation ...Read more

Crews in central Texas are digging through massive piles of debris, overturned vehicles and shattered homes for a sixth day as the search continues for victims of flash floods that killed more than 100 people over the Fourth of July weekend.

At least 160 people are still missing in Kerr Country, the hardest-hit area of the Texas Hill Country. ...Read more

The California State Fire Marshal's Office searched a home in San Francisco on Tuesday that's believed to be linked to last week's deadly fireworks warehouse explosion in Yolo County.

Seven people died in the small farming community of Esparto on July 1, roughly 80 miles north of the Bay Area. The dead were pulled from a warehouse operated by ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The House Armed Services Committee’s draft National Defense Authorization Act would require the Pentagon to provide Congress with answers about how the department intends to realize President Donald Trump’s proposed Golden Dome antimissile shield over America.

The fact that the panel’s fiscal 2026 bill is asking for this ...Read more

NEW YORK — Mayor Eric Adams is no longer looking for the possibility of jail time for offenders of his proposed mask ban — a step back amid concerns from key stakeholders, including NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, who is otherwise supportive of tougher restrictions on face coverings, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Under a ...Read more

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reportedly didn’t tell President Trump or seek his permission before ordering a pause in shipments of arms to embattled Ukraine last week.

Trump was unhappy and frustrated to find out about the Pentagon chief’s controversial decision, which the president quickly reversed after a high-stakes meeting with ...Read more

The Department of Homeland Security announced it has subpoenaed Harvard for “foreign student information” Wednesday, the latest escalation in a long back and forth between the university and Trump administration.

“If Harvard won’t defend the interests of its students, then we will,” the Department of Homeland Security and DHS ...Read more

A group of small businesses that won an order finding President Donald Trump’s sweeping global tariffs illegal urged a federal appeals court to uphold that decision and block the trade levies.

The U.S. Court of International Trade ruled on May 28 that Trump exceeded his authority by imposing broad tariffs, a power granted to Congress in the ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Sorry, rats. The "Parker piles" of trash found around the city are about to disappear.

Philadelphia's first major city worker strike since 1986 lasted eight days and four hours before Mayor Cherelle L. Parker and Greg Boulware, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees District Council 33, ...Read more

NEW YORK – Grok, the AI chatbot designed by Elon Musk’s xAI for social media, described itself as “MechaHitler” while making a string of antisemitic posts this week.

The questionable responses follow Musk’s announcement last week of an update to the bot after he expressed frustration that it was too politically correct.

In one ...Read more

BALTIMORE — Maryland state parks are in their busy season, with yearly attendance still millions more than before the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We were discovered in and after the pandemic, and we stayed discovered,” Tim Hamilton, the business and marketing manager for the Maryland Park Service, said in an interview with The Baltimore Sun. “...Read more

ATLANTA — Crime and gun violence among young people in the metro Atlanta area are decreasing, and law enforcement officials say it’s not the boys in blue on patrol but rather city-run youth programs that are shifting the trend for kids.

Recent headlines about shootings in metro Atlanta involving young victims have raised alarm about gun ...Read more