By DARLENE SUPERVILLE Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — First lady Melania Trump lit the National Christmas Tree on a chilly Thursday night in the nation's capital. At the annual tree lighting on the Ellipse, just south of the White House, President Donald Trump told the crowd, "The ...

By MICHAEL HILL Associated Press ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — President Donald Trump's effort to install political loyalists as top federal prosecutors has run into a legal buzz saw lately, with judges ruling that his handpicked U.S. attorneys for New Jersey, eastern Virginia, Nevada and Los ...

By KONSTANTIN TOROPIN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Southern Command announced that it had conducted another strike against a small boat in the eastern Pacific Ocean on Thursday, following a pause of almost three weeks. It is the 22nd strike the U.S. military has carried out ...

By DAVE COLLINS Associated Press Two New York City police officers won't be charged in the shooting death of a 19-year-old man during a mental health crisis last year as his mother and brother begged the officers not to open fire, state Attorney General Letitia James' office said ...

By STEVE KARNOWSKI Associated Press ST. PAUL, Minn, (AP) — Democratic Gov. Tim Walz denounced President Donald Trump on Thursday for calling Minnesota's Somali community "garbage" and dismissing the state as a "hellhole." Walz said Trump slandered all Minnesotans and that his ...

By STEPHEN GROVES and LISA MASCARO Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A Navy admiral commanding the U.S. military strikes on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean told lawmakers Thursday that there was no "kill them all" order from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, but a stark video of the ...

By MARK SHERMAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A divided Supreme Court on Thursday came to the rescue of Texas Republicans, allowing next year's elections to be held under the state's congressional redistricting plan favorable to the GOP and pushed by President Donald Trump despite a ...

By JENNIFER PELTZ Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Minutes after police approached Luigi Mangione in a Pennsylvania McDonald's, he told an officer he didn't want to talk, according to video and testimony at a court hearing Thursday for the man charged with killing UnitedHealthcare CEO ...

By GARY FIELDS Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Thursday temporarily paused a lower court ruling that had called for an end to the deployment of National Guard troops in Washington, D.C. "The purpose of this ...

By JEFF AMY Associated Press CARROLLTON, Ga. (AP) — Republican Lt. Gov. Burt Jones is allowed to loan $10 million to his campaign for governor, Georgia's ethics panel said Thursday. Attorney General Chris Carr, who is running against Jones, alleged it evaded campaign finance ...

SANTA ROSA, Calif. (AP) — A California animal welfare activist who took four chickens from a major Perdue Farms poultry plant was sentenced to 90 days in jail after being convicted of felony conspiracy, trespassing and other charges. Zoe Rosenberg, 23, did not deny taking the animals from ...

By MICHAEL R. BLOOD Associated Press MORRO BAY, Calif. (AP) — On a jagged coastline in Central California, brown pelicans gather on rock promontories, packed in like edgy commuters as they take flight to feed on a vast school of fish just offshore. The water churns in whitecaps as the ...

By ERIC TUCKER and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI on Thursday arrested a man accused of placing two pipe bombs outside the headquarters of the Republican and Democratic national parties in Washington on the eve of the U.S. Capitol attack, an abrupt ...

A safety volunteer accused of fatally shooting a man taking part in a "No Kings" protest last June in Salt Lake City while firing at another man he believed to be a potential mass shooter has been charged with manslaughter, prosecutors announced Wednesday. Matthew Alder allegedly fired three ...

Nearly 40 babies have been sickened in an infant botulism outbreak tied to contaminated formula, federal health officials say. The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday reported 39 cases of confirmed or suspected illness in 18 states among babies who consumed ByHeart formula since August. ...

A progressive group is targeting two Senate Democrats and an independent senator who voted to confirm some of President Donald Trump's judicial nominees, promising to spend more than $1 million in hopes of pushing congressional Democrats to take a stronger stand against the Republican ...

NEW YORK (AP) — A high-stakes hearing in the New York murder case against Luigi Mangione continues Thursday, a year to the day after prosecutors say he gunned down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Mangione, 27, has pleaded not guilty to both state and federal charges. Before any trials ...

A former missionary with an Ohio-based ministry has been indicted on federal charges of engaging in illicit sexual conduct with four different minors in Haiti over multiple years. Jeriah Mast, 44, of Millersburg, Ohio, was indicted for alleged actions during his multiple visits to Haiti ...

LODI, Calif. (AP) — A former California sheriff's deputy suspected of fatally stabbing his 11-year-old son was shot and killed by law enforcement officers on Tuesday after he led them on a car chase along Interstate 5, authorities said. Police in Elk Grove, near Sacramento, responded around ...

By SARA CLINE and JACK BROOK Associated Press NEW ORLEANS (AP) — President Donald Trump said Tuesday that National Guard troops will soon head to New Orleans and bring another federal surge to the city that is already awaiting a separate immigration crackdown dubbed "Swamp Sweep" that is ...