CHICAGO — A federal judge in Chicago on Friday blocked the Trump administration’s challenge to policies in the state of Illinois, the city of Chicago and Cook County that limit the powers of state and local police in assisting federal law enforcement on immigration-related matters.

The ruling comes as the Trump administration has ramped up ...Read more

MIAMI — Miami defense attorney David O. Markus represents Jeffrey Epstein’s infamous former girlfriend, a convicted British socialite who may hold the keys not only to her fate but that of President Donald Trump.

Markus’ client, Ghislaine Maxwell, found guilty of recruiting underage girls for the billionaire financier, was questioned on ...Read more

President Donald Trump’s executive order limiting birthright citizenship was blocked nationwide for the third time in less than a month, the latest sign that a U.S. Supreme Court ruling restricting “universal injunctions” is having little impact on the dispute.

The injunctions set up another round of appeals that may ultimately be ...Read more

President Donald Trump Friday refused to rule out pardoning Ghislaine Maxwell as the sex-trafficking accomplice of Jeffrey Epstein met for a second day with a top Justice Department official behind closed doors.

As he left the White House for a trip to Scotland, Trump dodged a reporter’s question about whether he was considering cutting short...Read more

WASHINGTON — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has set a Dec. 2 special election to succeed former Republican Rep. Mark E. Green in the state’s deep-red 7th District.

Voters from both parties will pick their nominees in primaries scheduled for Oct. 7, according to a writ of election the Republican governor issued Thursday. Candidates have until Aug. ...Read more

An executive order signed by President Donald Trump purporting to protect Americans from “endemic vagrancy, disorderly behavior, sudden confrontations, and violent attacks” attributed to homelessness has left local officials and homeless advocates outraged over its harsh tone while also grasping for a hopeful message in its fine print.

The ...Read more

President Donald Trump Friday refused to rule out pardoning Ghislaine Maxwell as the sex-trafficking accomplice of Jeffrey Epstein met for a second day with a top Justice Department official behind closed doors.

As he left the White House for a trip to Scotland, Trump dodged a reporter’s question about whether he was considering cutting short...Read more

The creators of South Park are giving a cheeky “apology” for the popular cartoon show’s season premier that mocked President Donald Trump.

“We’re terribly sorry,” Trey Parker said with a grin late Thursday as his partner Matt Stone sat next to him on a panel at the Comic-Con festival in San Diego.

Parker brushed off a joke from ...Read more

WASHINGTON — House and Senate appropriators are divided in their fiscal 2026 spending bills on whether to zero out funding for grants authorized under two laws focused on addressing hate crimes.

The Trump administration, in its budget request, proposed cutting all funding for grants authorized under the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. ...Read more

Orange County officials and front-line workers are responding with a mix of concern and selective support to President Donald Trump's new executive order targeting homelessness, a sweeping directive that leans heavily on law enforcement, civil commitments and mandatory treatment.

Signed Thursday, July 24, the order calls for a reset on how ...Read more

President Donald Trump has picked the candidate he’s supporting to fill North Carolina’s open Senate seat in the 2026 election: Michael Whatley.

Whatley is a North Carolina native who served as head of the state’s Republican Party before Trump selected him in 2024 as chairman of the Republican National Committee.

On Thursday night, Trump...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday endorsed former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers for Michigan's open U.S. Senate seat ― the day after another potential contender for the GOP nomination bowed out.

"From the U.S. Army to Congress, Mike has served our Nation with distinction, and will bring that same Fighting Spirit to the U.S. Senate," ...Read more

President Donald Trump is endorsing Ashley Moody for a full term U.S. Senate seat.

Moody, who was twice elected to be Florida Attorney General, was appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in January to replace Sen. Marco Rubio. Trump had tapped Rubio to be Secretary of State, leaving the seat open.

She’ll face voters in a senate race for the first ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday signed a $9 billion package of spending cuts that ends federal funding for public broadcasters and reduces foreign aid, the White House said.

The measure was spurred by onetime Trump ally Elon Musk’s cost-cutting initiative, the Department of Government Efficiency, which sought to shutter ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump downplayed his clash with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell over cost overruns during a tour of the central bank’s renovation project on Thursday, making it clear that he saw the issue of lower interest rates as a more pressing concern.

After a tour that saw Trump and Powell publicly trade barbs over...Read more

Multiple defense bills on Congress’ post-recess agenda would cement in law the Trump administration’s restrictions on health care for transgender members of the military community.

The provisions could have a lasting effect on the lives of perhaps several thousand current and former Defense Department personnel — both uniformed and ...Read more

The season 27 premiere of “South Park” may have been delayed two weeks, but it made quite an entrance Wednesday night – so much so that even the White House took note. It is perhaps not all that surprising since President Donald Trump played a starring role.

Though many of Trump’s real-world policies and actions were spotlighted in the ...Read more

UnitedHealth Group’s confirmation of a federal probe into its Medicare business comes just as lawmakers in Washington are newly calling for reforms in the sprawling Advantage program, which now provides coverage for a majority of Medicare beneficiaries.

For years, Medicare Advantage, or MA, has been a lucrative line of business for private ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Deflect, distract, delay. Then depart.

President Donald Trump and congressional Republican leaders have been forced to pivot from celebrating a string of legislative and foreign policy wins to doing anything possible to distract angry “Make American Great Again” loyalists. On both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, there appears to...Read more