US

Twenty Democratic-led states filed suit Wednesday against the Federal Emergency Management Agency, challenging the elimination of a long-running grant program that helps communities guard against damage from natural disasters. The lawsuit contends President Donald Trump’s administration acted illegally when it announced in April that it was ending the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program. FEMA … Read more

WASHINGTON — Travelers giddy about being able to keep their shoes on while walking through TSA checkpoints at the airport again may have something else to look forward to: changes to how much liquid they can carry. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Wednesday during a conference hosted by “The Hill” that she is questioning … Read more

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that Arkansas can enforce its ban on critical race theory in classrooms, ruling the First Amendment doesn’t give students the right to compel the state to offer its instruction in public schools. A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated a … Read more

CHICAGO — Nine puppies from parts of Texas submerged by catastrophic flooding that killed at least 132 people arrived Wednesday at the no-kill shelter PAWS Chicago, joining dozens of puppies that had already arrived. The critters landed by plane at Waukesha Airport in Wisconsin then made a three-hour journey by van to Chicago. This is … Read more

CHICAGO — Illinois has one of the nation’s worst problems with child sex abuse at juvenile detention centers, attorneys representing more than 900 survivors who have filed lawsuits said Wednesday. Dozens of complaints, including several filed this week in Chicago, allege decades of systemic abuse of children by the employees of detention facilities. Similar lawsuits … Read more

Democrats can win back disaffected voters by addressing their everyday concerns to counter the anticipated fallout from President Donald Trump’s budget-and-policy package, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said Wednesday as he began a tour of South Carolina. Offering blunt advice to fellow Democrats in the traditionally early primary state, Beshear said the national party should take … Read more

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles police officers conducting a welfare check at a home on Monday discovered two bodies inside with gunshot wounds. The victims were identified as Robin Kaye, a longtime music supervisor for “American Idol,” and her husband, Thomas Deluca. A day later, police arrested a 22-year-old man in connection with the killings. … Read more

CONCORD, N.H. — A judge should not delay the decision on whether to seek the death penalty against a woman charged in the death of a U.S. Border Patrol agent in Vermont, federal prosecutors said this week. Teresa Youngblut, of Washington state, is part of a cultlike group known as Zizians that has been connected … Read more

The tropical weather system moving across the Florida Panhandle on Wednesday was showing a greater chance of becoming a tropical depression as it moves toward the northern Gulf Coast, according to the National Hurricane Center. The weather system has a 40% chance of becoming a tropical depression as it moves west toward southeastern Louisiana on … Read more

The program known as PEPFAR is one of the most effective and popular U.S. foreign aid projects in history, and the government says it has saved the lives of over 25 million people around the world with HIV. But despite years of bipartisan support, PEPFAR has faced a severe threat as the Trump administration dismantles … Read more