NEW YORK — The 30 rookie NYPD cops the department wants to fire after determining they were never qualified to join the force in the first place have checkered histories that include arrests, drug abuse, hiring prostitutes and “serious disregard for rules and consequences,” recently released court documents reveal.

One probationary ...Read more

LEXINGTON, Ky. — The son of the pastor at Richmond Road Baptist Church was arrested and charged Sunday after a man shot and killed two people at the church and shot and injured two more, including the pastor.

Jerry Gumm, 58, was charged with menacing after police said he acted “belligerently” at the scene and indicated he was going to ...Read more

CHICAGO — The woman stood on the sidewalk outside her home and waited for the first officers to show up. Blood streamed down her face and shoulders.

She had called 911 after her significant other stabbed her.

When officers arrived at the home in the Back of the Yards in July 2022, she pointed to the open doorway. Standing about 10 feet from ...Read more

MIAMI — A 16-year-old boy faces serious charges after Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies say he made a bomb threat while on a plane that arrived at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport Monday.

The sheriff’s office said he was on a Spirit Airlines plane that arrived at the airport around 3:15 p.m. when he made the threat.

The ...Read more

Along the banks of the Lacantún River, a hollow tree hid two creatures never before reported in Mexico.

Just a stone’s throw from an “extensive, well‑preserved tract of tropical rainforest,” two Phyllostomus hastatus, also known as the greater spear-nosed bat, were roosting in the trunk of the large Ceiba pentandra, or Kapok tree, ...Read more

DENVER — The nearly 13,000-acre wildfire burning in eastern Utah crossed the Colorado border Monday night, spreading into Montrose County, according to fire officials.

That fire, the Deer Creek fire, joins four others already burning on Colorado’s western slope.

Those four have already destroyed at least 7,981 acres, according to fire ...Read more

DENVER — The state’s largest Medicaid transportation provider has reached a settlement with state officials after a four-month legal fight that briefly threw medical transport for thousands of Coloradans into limbo.

The settlement, filed in Denver District Court last month, requires MedRide to institute several vetting processes to ensure ...Read more

ATLANTA — Two mosquito traps in the Atlanta area recently tested positive for West Nile virus, public health officials said, prompting warnings about the potential health impacts as late summer approaches.

While cases are typically mild and not widespread, the state saw a spike in infections last year, which led to several deaths. The virus ...Read more

CHICAGO — Attorneys for former House Speaker Michael Madigan have formally asked that he remain free on bond pending appeal of his conviction on sweeping corruption charges, arguing in a filing Monday night he’s not a flight risk and that there are complex legal issues which, if resolved in his favor, will require a new trial.

Madigan, 83, ...Read more

Donald Trump asked Volodymyr Zelenskyy whether Ukraine could strike Moscow, an inquiry that the White House says was merely a question but one that came hours after he voiced frustration at Russian President Vladimir Putin’s refusal to accept a ceasefire in the war.

During a July 4 phone call with the Ukrainian president, Trump quizzed ...Read more

An Israeli ultra-Orthodox party said it’s walking out of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition, threatening to leave the government with a razor-thin majority in parliament.

The United Torah Judaism party announced late on Monday it would quit in protest at a bill seeking to curtail the exemptions from military draft, long enjoyed ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Thaduba Magdalena Turay, a 21-year-old nursing student, was driving on I-95 in South Philadelphia last year when a driver traveling the wrong way hit her head-on.

Turay, who was studying at Cheyney University and aspired to become a doctor, died at the scene.

The other driver, David Bonilla, 47, pleaded guilty last month to ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- For decades, biologists have studied how cities affect wildlife by altering food supplies, fragmenting habitats and polluting the environment. But a new global study argues that these physical factors are only part of the story. Societal factors, the researchers claim, especially those tied to religion, politics and war, also ...Read more

CHICAGO — Abel Orozco was getting home after buying tamales for his family, like he did most weekends for the past 30 years. They would have breakfast and head to church.

Instead, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained the Mexican immigrant outside his home in suburban Lyons without a federal warrant. Now, nearly six months ...Read more