NEW YORK — Gov. Kathy Hochul announced a handshake deal Thursday on a $268 billion state budget that includes a controversial pied-à-terre tax on second homes in New York City aimed at bringing more money to city coffers amid a multi-billion dollar city budget deficit.

The purported state budget deal, which comes after a five-week delay, ...Read more

The chair of the Kentucky Democratic Party has again called for state Rep. Daniel Grossberg to resign after a woman alleged Grossberg assaulted her when the two were students at Grinnell College.

Christina Ross, 38, alleges she and Grossberg came to know each other after she decided to attend Grinnell, in Iowa, and he repeatedly pressured her ...Read more

HERSHEY, Pa. — A week after a controversial ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court on the Voting Rights Act, and at a time of growing threats against judges, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. condemned criticism of the judiciary and said the public was mistaken to view judges as “purely political actors.”

Speaking Wednesday in Hershey at a ...Read more

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Thursday announced she gave birth to her second child last week, just days after stepping aside from her post to go on maternity leave.

The spokeswoman for President Donald Trump on May 1 welcomed healthy baby girl Viviana “Vivi” with her husband, Nicholas Riccio.

“She is perfect and ...Read more

Just as Sen. John Fetterman’s tension with his own party has grown since he began his term in 2023, so have the Pennsylvania Democrat’s unexpected friendships with Republican senators.

And as Democrats’ chances of flipping the Senate in November improve, Fetterman’s friends across the aisle have been opening their arms even wider.

...Read more

The hearing expected to bring former FBI director James Comey to a federal courtroom in Greenville, North Carolina, on Monday may be called off after his attorneys asked a judge to cancel it.

On Thursday, Comey’s attorneys filed a motion asking a North Carolina federal judge to cancel the 11 a.m. hearing where Comey was scheduled to make an ...Read more

More than two years after Liam Payne’s death in Argentina, the coroner says there is still not enough evidence to definitively determine the cause.

Senior coroner Crispin Butler on Thursday told a pre-inquest review hearing he is still awaiting developments amid an investigation into Payne’s death, BBC News reported. He added that he has ...Read more

NEW YORK — A 17-year-old boy stopped by cops for jumping a turnstile at a Brooklyn subway stop Thursday has been arrested in connection with a Times Square stabbing inspired by a TikTok trend, police said.

After he was caught, the teen admitted that he zeroed in on Leonides Baez, 39, outside of Burger & Lobster restaurant on Monday because he...Read more

The United States is waiting on Iran to respond to its proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end a war that has killed thousands of people, with tensions still high in both the Persian Gulf and in Lebanon.

Iran’s leaders are yet to indicate whether they’ll accept the terms of the deal, though they’ve previously shown little sign of ...Read more

The U.S. State Department imposed sanctions Thursday on the top general who runs Cuba’s largest military conglomerate and a Cuban company involved in a joint venture with Canada’s mining giant Sherritt International, in the first round of sanctions deriving from an executive order signed by President Donald Trump last week.

Earlier in the ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — After deliberating for a little over a day, a Los Angeles County jury found Thursday that an LAPD officer was not liable for the 2021 death of 14-year-old Valentina Orellana-Peralta, who was killed when a bullet fired by the officer rushing to confront a suspect went through the wall of a North Hollywood department store changing...Read more

CHICAGO — The upcoming federal trial over a wrongful conviction lawsuit filed by Arturo DeLeon-Reyes in many ways promised to be an only-in-Chicago story.

The sensational double-murder and kidnapping of two small children. Allegedly coerced confessions by a reputedly corrupt Chicago police detective. A Cook County judge years later accusing ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Facing dwindling — or already dried up — insurance payouts and increasingly expensive rebuilding estimates, Los Angeles County’s fire survivors appear to be headed for the most urgent and existential financial crisis yet in their recovery, according to a survey taken 15 months after the January 2025 firestorms.

The report ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Philadelphia will soon have some of the nation’s toughest local restrictions on federal immigration enforcement operations after Mayor Cherelle L. Parker on Thursday approved legislation codifying the city’s sanctuary policies and banning ICE raids on city property.

The mayor signed six out of seven “ICE Out” bills that...Read more

MIAMI — The administration of Gov. Ron Desantis is talking with the federal government about shutting down Alligator Alcatraz, according to a new report.

Citing anonymous sources, The New York Times reported Thursday that federal officials were in preliminary talks to close the controversial Everglades facility due to the high costs of ...Read more

DETROIT — A Westland man who turned his modest suburban home into a bomb factory while trying to provide support to the Islamic State was sentenced Thursday to 20 years in federal prison, one of the stiffest punishments for a terror-related crime in Michigan history.

Aws Naser, 38, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Jonathan J.C. Grey in ...Read more

PITTSBURGH — Mifepristone, a drug used for miscarriage management and to end pregnancy, has been thrust again into the national spotlight — this time with response from Gov. Josh Shapiro.

The Pennsylvania governor signed onto a multistate amicus brief this week, urging the Supreme Court to uphold mifepristone access via mail. The court is ...Read more

RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina lawmakers are advancing a bill to ban social media for minors under the age of 14, saying the platforms are too dangerous for children to have unfettered access.

“Every day it seems like more and more we’re learning the psychological impact of young people being on social media,” Rep. Jeff Zenger, the bill...Read more

FORT WORTH, Texas — The city of Grand Prairie canceled a Muslim celebration Wednesday that had been planned for the city-owned Epic Waters after Gov. Greg Abbott called the event “religious discrimination.”

Abbott posted on X Wednesday afternoon that the city must cancel the event by Monday or lose $530,000 in state grants.

Epic Eid, ...Read more