US

WASHINGTON — A woman who spit on the top federal prosecutor for the nation’s capital during a videotaped interview pleaded guilty on Thursday to assault charges. Emily Gabriella Sommer, 32, of Washington, D.C., is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 10 for assaulting then-acting U.S. Attorney Ed Martin Jr. and two law-enforcement officers who arrested … Read more

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Rapper Sean Kingston is scheduled to be sentenced in South Florida on Friday after being convicted of a $1 million fraud scheme. Kingston, whose legal name is Kisean Paul Anderson, and his mother, Janice Eleanor Turner, were each convicted by a federal jury in March of conspiracy to commit wire fraud … Read more

CONCORD, N.H. — A New Hampshire man accused of killing his sister-in-law and two young nephews when he was 16 is set to plead guilty to second-degree murder charges Friday. Eric Sweeney, now 19, had been living with his older brother’s family in Northfield when prosecutors say he fatally shot Kassandra Sweeney, 25, and her … Read more

A state judge in Texas has appointed a receiver to take over and sell conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ Infowars assets to help pay the more than $1 billion he owes in legal judgments to the families of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. The order by Judge Maya Guerra Gamble in Austin on … Read more

GORMAN, Calif. — Firefighters with air support scrambled to control a wind-driven wildfire that erupted Thursday morning in hills along Interstate 5 in northwestern Los Angeles County, officials said. The King Fire, which broke out around 1 a.m., charred nearly a square mile (2.5 square kilometers) of tinder-dry brush in a lightly populated area about … Read more

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Thursday refused for now to block enforcement of a Mississippi law aimed at regulating the use of social media by children, an issue of growing national concern. The justices rejected an emergency appeal from a tech industry group representing major platforms like Facebook, X and YouTube. NetChoice is challenging … Read more

RICHMOND, Va. — Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin said Thursday that Virginia’s economy is thriving after ending its fiscal year with high revenues, a characterization Democrats criticized as rose-colored in light of budgetary decisions in neighboring Washington, D.C. In a presentation to the state’s money committees, Youngkin and Virginia’s secretary of finance said revenues for the … Read more

UNITED NATIONS — Sexual violence in conflicts worldwide increased by 25% last year, with the highest number of cases in the Central African Republic, Congo, Haiti, Somalia and South Sudan, according to a U.N. report released Thursday. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ annual report said more than 4,600 people survived sexual violence in 2024, with armed groups … Read more

PETERSBURG, Mich. — A retired Michigan autoworker looked at a Facebook message after midnight from a stranger: Did you lose your wallet years ago? “If so,” a Minnesota man wrote, “it was in the engine bay of a car.” Richard Guilford couldn’t believe what he was reading on his phone — a decade-old mystery was … Read more

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida wildlife officials have given preliminary approval to a plan to reopen Apalachicola Bay for oyster harvesting, five years after the waters were closed due to dwindling shellfish populations. The closure of the bay along what’s known as Florida’s “Forgotten Coast” dealt a blow to an area that historically produced 90% of … Read more