WASHINGTON (AP) — The kind of systemic failures that enabled the high-profile prison deaths of notorious gangster Whitey Bulger and financier Jeffrey Epstein also contributed to the deaths of hundreds of other federal prisoners over the years, a watchdog report released last week found. Mental-health care, emergency responses and the detection of contraband drugs and [...]
NEW YORK (AP) — Smoking has surpassed injecting as the most common way of taking drugs in overdose deaths, a new government study suggests. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention called its study published last week the largest to look at how Americans took the drugs that killed them. CDC officials decided to study [...]
CHICAGO — Chicago won't renew its ShotSpotter contract and plans to stop using the gunshot detection system later this year, Mayor Brandon Johnson's office announced. The system, which relies on an artificial intelligence algorithm and network of microphones to identify gunshots, has been criticized for inaccuracy, racial bias and law enforcement misuse. An Associated Press [...]
The Democratic sponsor of a bill calling for the creation of a mold information and awareness program assured lawmakers that the measure is not an attempt to place a burden on law-abiding and well-intentioned homeowners and renters. Rather, the goal is to educate Ohioans about the threat mold poses to them, Amherst Rep. Joseph Miller [...]
NEW YORK (AP) — Americans pulled back their spending in January after the traditional holiday season increase, according to new government figures. Retail sales fell 0.8 percent in January from the strong pace in December when they rose a revised 0.4 percent, according to the Commerce Department's report released late last week. Excluding sales at [...]
McALLEN, Texas (AP) —After a record-breaking number of encounters at the southern border in December, the number of arrests for illegal crossings on the United States border with Mexico dropped by half last month, authorities reported last week. The largest decrease was in the Del Rio sector that includes Eagle Pass, Texas, the main focus [...]
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Lawmakers in at least six states are considering longer prison sentences or bigger fines for harming or killing police dogs, and the idea has bipartisan support despite questions about how the animals are used and a fraught history. In Kansas last week, the Republican-controlled House voted 107-4 to pass a bill [...]
DETROIT (AP) — General Motors is adding about 350,000 miles of roadways in the U.S and Canada to the area where drivers can use the company's "Super Cruise" partially automated driving system. The expansion nearly doubles the road miles where the system can run. It includes both limited-access divided highways as well as some two-lane [...]
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is stepping up efforts to stop dirty money from flowing through the U.S. financial system with a slew of new rules aimed at increasing corporate transparency and regulating occupations that are exploited for money laundering. As the second anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine approaches and the war in Gaza [...]