Mayor Eric Adams has diagnosed New York City with a chronic problem: too much recreational marijuana. The criticism is ostensibly fueled by frustration with the smell of marijuana stinking up the streets and public spaces. Still, it is also a swipe at former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who signed off on legislation legalizing recreational marijuana in Read More…

A graduate student who went missing in Wisconsin last weekend was found dead in the Mississippi River near Brownsville, Minnesota, Wednesday. People reported Eliotte Heinz, 22, a student at Viterbo University in La Crosse, Wisconsin, missing after she failed to return home from a night out on the town. The La Crosse Police Department said Read More…

President Trump’s attempt to block the U.S. from recognizing birthright citizenship for children born to illegal immigrants runs afoul of the Constitution, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday, becoming the highest court to reach that conclusion. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the 14th Amendment grants citizenship to “all persons born in the Read More…

NEW YORK — Columbia University has reached a deal with the Trump administration to pay more than $220 million to the federal government to restore federal research money that was canceled in the name of combating antisemitism on campus, the university announced Wednesday. Under the agreement, the Ivy League school will pay the $200 million Read More…

MINNEAPOLIS — A federal appeals court handed a victory Wednesday to Mike Lindell, ruling that the MyPillow founder doesn’t have to pay a $5 million award to a software engineer who disputed data that Lindell claims proves that China interfered in the 2020 U.S. presidential election. The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that an Read More…

DENVER — A longtime critic of voting machines and local government has been charged with arson for allegedly throwing a Molotov cocktail-like device into the office holding the voting equipment in his Colorado mountain community. William Wayne Bryant, in a brief court appearance Wednesday, was advised of the charges presented against him in the June Read More…

WASHINGTON — A House subcommittee on Wednesday voted to subpoena the Department of Justice for files in the sex trafficking investigation into Jeffrey Epstein after Democrats successfully goaded GOP lawmakers to defy Trump and Republican leadership to support the action. Democrats on a subcommittee of the powerful House Committee on Oversight made a motion for Read More…

WASHINGTON — As the national intelligence director, Tulsi Gabbard is responsible for guarding America’s secrets and discovering threats from overseas. But when she made a surprise appearance in the White House briefing room Wednesday, her targets were President Donald Trump’s political enemies. Escalating her attempts to undermine the long-settled conclusion that Russia tried to help Read More…

Officials at a Columbia, South Carolina, children’s hospital confirmed Tuesday that a patient there recently died due to the brain-eating amoeba Naegleria fowleri. Prisma Health Children’s Hospital said the patient died from primary amebic meningoencephalitis, a brain infection caused by the amoeba, according to CBS News. No other details were provided regarding the victim’s identity Read More…

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey wants the Planned Parenthood Federation of America to pay at least $1.8 million for its promotion of the abortion pill, accusing the abortion giant of deceiving clients about the health risks to “cut costs and boost revenue.” The lawsuit filed Wednesday in Cole County Circuit Court said Planned Parenthood has Read More…

A Walnut Grove, California, hotel says that someone took dozens of peacocks and peahens that normally wander its grounds. The missing birds are worth thousands of dollars. A customer told staff at the Ryde Hotel Sunday that they saw two men putting one of the birds into a cage and onto the bed of a Read More…

A federal judge said Wednesday she lacks the authority to grant the Trump administration’s request to unseal grand jury transcripts related to investigations of late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in South Florida in 2005 and 2007. Judge Robin Rosenberg for the Southern District of Florida said that under a precedent set by the 11th U.S. Circuit Read More…

Kilmar Abrego Garcia was a “Maryland man” before he was arrested and deported in March, and a federal judge Wednesday ordered that he must become a Maryland man again once he is released from pretrial detention. Judge Paula Xinis, an Obama appointee to the court in Maryland, said she feared the Department of Homeland Security Read More…

A 1-year-old girl suffered minor injuries after her uncle allegedly tossed her down a garbage chute inside a Staten Island apartment building, the New York Police Department said. Police allege that Aaron Henderson, 39, an autistic man, put the baby into the chute at around 3:15 p.m. Monday, according to the Staten Island Advance.  The Read More…

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — More than 100 charity and human rights groups said Wednesday that Israel’s blockade and ongoing military offensive are pushing Palestinians in the Gaza Strip toward starvation, as Israeli strikes killed another 29 people overnight, according to local health officials. Meanwhile, the Trump administration’s Mideast envoy, Steve Witkoff, was set to Read More…

LOS ANGELES — California’s top prosecutor said Wednesday he has asked a court to give the state control of Los Angeles County’s troubled juvenile detention facilities because incarcerated young people are enduring unsafe conditions, including violence and rampant drug abuse. Attorney General Rob Bonta said he wants the county to hand over administration of the Read More…

NEW YORK — Rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine admitted Wednesday that he violated the conditions of his supervised release from prison by possessing drugs, marking his latest run-in with the law since he completed a federal prison sentence on racketeering and conspiracy charges. The 29-year-old performer, whose real name is Daniel Hernandez, told a Manhattan federal judge Read More…

The Department of Education launched investigations Wednesday into whether five leading universities are violating federal anti-discrimination law by granting certain scholarships exclusively to undocumented students or those with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals status. The five universities under investigation are the University of Louisville, the University of Miami, the University of Michigan, the University of Read More…

County investigators found human remains in Altadena, California, Monday, bringing the official death toll of January’s Los Angeles wildfires to 31. The County of Los Angeles Department of Medical Examiner called the person “Unidentified Doe #431.” The victim died in the Eaton fire, which killed 19, while 12 died in the Palisades fire in the Read More…

BOISE, Idaho — Friends and relatives of the four University of Idaho students murdered in their rental home by Bryan Kohberger delivered powerful statements of love, anguish and condemnation as his sentencing hearing began Wednesday. “This world was a better place with her in it,” Scott Laramie, the stepfather of Madison Mogen, told the court. Read More…