U.S. News

For decades, the plotline for LGBTQ+ activism in the U.S. was one of advances — often slow-paced and hard-fought but inexorably moving forward. Now, faced with unprecedented attacks in state legislatures, transgender rights leaders acknowledge they are playing defense — and two of the biggest groups are joining forces to counter the onslaught. “This is going to be a defense …

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah’s Republican governor and lieutenant governor are urging the State Board of Education to take action against a conservative board member whose social media post questioning the gender of a high school basketball player incited a tirade of threats against the girl. Natalie Cline, who has previously come under investigation for inflammatory comments about LGBTQ+ …

NEW YORK (AP) — A 15-year-old accused of shooting a Brazilian tourist in the leg in Times Square Thursday night, then firing at a police officer while fleeing, was arrested just outside of New York City on Friday, police officials said. The teenager was taken into custody at a residential house that police believe may be linked to a family …

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A New Hampshire man brutally beat his 5-year-old daughter to death and spent months moving her body around before disposing of it “like yesterday’s trash,” a prosecutor said Thursday. But the man’s lawyer said he didn’t harm the child and the last person who saw her alive — the man’s estranged wife — won’t say what …

The CIA this week terminated a woman whose whistleblower account of being assaulted in a stairwell at the spy agency’s headquarters prompted a flood of colleagues to come forward with their own complaints of sexual misconduct. The woman’s attorney called the action a brazen retaliation. While the CIA said that accusation was “factually inaccurate,” it wouldn’t comment further on the …

BOSTON (AP) — A former Olympian and longtime track coach will spend as many as 11 years in state prison after pleading guilty to charges of sexually molesting young boys at a sports camp in western Massachusetts in the 1970s, abuse that was laid bare by the emotional testimony of several victims. Conrad Mainwaring, who was a hurdler for Antigua …

HONOLULU (AP) — A ruling by Hawaii’s high court saying that a man can be prosecuted for carrying a gun in public without a permit cites crime-drama TV series “The Wire” and invokes the “spirit of Aloha” in an apparent rebuke of a U.S. Supreme Court decision that expanded gun rights nationwide. “The thing about the old days, they the …

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas auditors are nearly done looking into the purchase of a $19,000 lectern for Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and expect to issue a report on it by the end of March, a state official told lawmakers on Thursday. Legislative Auditor Roger Norman told a panel that his office has interviewed 20 people about the lectern, …

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The motorcyclist accused of smashing in the back of a woman’s car near Philadelphia’s City Hall while her young children were inside and then waving a gun at her has pleaded guilty to aggravated assault, the district attorney’s office said on Thursday. Cody Heron, 27, pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated assault and one count of …

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Gov. Wes Moore said during his second State of the State speech Wednesday that Maryland has boundless opportunities but is “leaving too much potential on the table” as he charts a course forward through challenging times that includes a long-term plan for governing. The address continued a narrative by the governor and others that a state …