Federal regulators filed a complaint Thursday seeking the seizure of Georgia lender First Liberty Building & Loan, accusing the financial institution with deep conservative political ties of operating a sweeping $140 million Ponzi scheme.

In a lawsuit, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission alleged Newnan-based First Liberty defrauded ...Read more

Federal immigration agents carried out immigration sweeps at two Southern California cannabis farms on Thursday, prompting a heated standoff between authorities and several hundred protesters at a Ventura County site that resulted in several arrests and injuries.

Videos shared on social media showed nearly a dozen agents using less-lethal ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said he plans to make a “major statement” on Russia, as the U.S. prepares to send more American weapons to Ukraine via purchases from NATO allies.

“I think I’ll have a major statement to make on Russia on Monday,” Trump told NBC News in a telephone interview.

Trump, in the interview, reiterated...Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Accusing California of imposing “unnecessary red tape” on the production of eggs, the Trump administration is suing the state over animal cruelty laws it claims have driven up prices nationwide.

“California has effectively prevented farmers across the country from using a number of agricultural production methods ...Read more

GREENBELT, Md. — A federal judge said Thursday she is considering an order to temporarily block the government from quickly deporting Kilmar Abrego Garcia again, as his attorneys seek his return to Maryland.

“I’m not willing to allow an unfettered release of Mr. Garcia into ICE custody,” U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis said at the end ...Read more

As sizzling temperatures sweep across Southern California this week, University of California, Los Angeles researchers have released an alarming new finding — the duration of heat waves is increasing faster than global warming itself.

Researchers found that not only are heat waves getting hotter, but they're also becoming longer at a rate ...Read more

ST. PAUL, Minn. — After last month’s shootings of two state lawmakers and their spouses, Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher is pressing public safety officials for answers on how they handled notifying legislators and law enforcement agencies of the ongoing threat.

In a letter to security officials at the Minnesota Capitol, Fletcher raised ...Read more

Opioid related overdose deaths fell 36% in Massachusetts in 2024, reaching their lowest point since 2013, according to provisional CDC data.

In 2024, Massachusetts had 1,340 confirmed opioid-related overdose deaths, down 764 from 2023, the federal data showed.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health said the reduction in fatal overdoses ...Read more

At least 25 people were hospitalized Thursday following a “level one” mass overdose event in Baltimore.

Baltimore City police and fire officials said paramedics first responded to a 911 call for a single overdose around 9:25 a.m. in the Penn-North neighborhood. Upon arriving at the scene, they discovered multiple other people collapsed in ...Read more

ATLANTA — In a gesture of solidarity with Israel, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp met Thursday with the family of a 24-year-old Israeli who was kidnapped by Hamas gunmen during an October 2023 music festival and remains captive in Gaza.

Metro Atlanta’s Jewish community has symbolically “adopted” the cause of Evyatar David, who has endured ...Read more

The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment has received four immigration enforcement subpoenas from federal authorities this year — two more than it has publicly disclosed before, the agency confirmed to The Denver Post.

All four subpoenas were related to investigations by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, department spokeswoman ...Read more

The State Department announced plans to lay off some U.S.-based diplomats and other employees, after the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration can go ahead with plans to slash the size of the federal workforce.

The decision, detailed in a memo by Deputy Secretary of State Michael Rigas, didn’t specify the number of State ...Read more

Federal immigration agents were carrying out immigration sweeps in California's Ventura County on Thursday, prompting a standoff between authorities and immigrant rights groups.

Videos shared on social media show nearly a dozen agents using less-lethal ammunition on a crowd that had gathered near the intersection of Laguna and Wood roads, just ...Read more

As Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Donald Trump trade blows, the person they are fighting over has sent mixed signals to investors trying to divine who will blink first.

Jair Bolsonaro, Lula’s arch-nemesis, whose legal woes were the basis of Trump’s 50% tariff salvo, is barred from running against a rival who staged the kind of ...Read more

President Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon is calling for a special prosecutor to investigate the federal files on late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The MAGA provocateur says he’s disappointed the Justice Department under President Trump has essentially reached the same conclusions as previous investigators regarding the ...Read more

NEW YORK — The NYPD is poised to fire 30 new officers who were never qualified to join the department in the first place, department officials said Thursday.

But the Police Benevolent Association union late Thursday obtained a court order temporarily blocking the department from proceeding with its plan, which stems from allegations that the ...Read more

Five Democratic lawmakers turned away from Alligator Alcatraz last week are asking the Florida Supreme Court to force the DeSantis administration to allow unannounced visits to the migrant detention center in the Everglades.

In a petition filed Thursday with the state’s high court, the lawmakers argued that a state statute authorizing members...Read more

Relative calm enveloped Wall Street, with stocks rising as traders parsed a batch of corporate outlooks. Treasuries bounced from session lows as a $22 billion sale of 30-year bonds showed appetite for longer-term debt despite concerns about the U.S. deficit and the impacts of tariffs.

Just a few days ahead of the unofficial start of the ...Read more

ATLANTA — The Office of the Gwinnett County Solicitor General has dropped misdemeanor charges against Mario Guevara, a Spanish-language journalist known for reporting on, and livestreaming immigration agents at work in metro Atlanta to a wide audience on social media.

Gwinnett officials had charged Guevara with three misdemeanors that seem to...Read more