Nearly 23% of Illinois high school students said they drank alcohol within the last 30 days when surveyed in 2021, according to a report released Monday by the Illinois Department of Public Health.

Nearly 12% of the teens acknowledged binge drinking – consuming four to five drinks within a couple hours time.

The findings are part of a new, ...Read more

South Florida state Rep. Robin Bartleman has filed a bill that seeks to rectify what she and other advocates say is a gap in the legal system that makes it easy for domestic violence perpetrators with restraining orders to avoid surrendering their guns, a flaw highlighted by the February triple homicide in Tamarac.

Bartleman, D-Weston, cited ...Read more

NEW YORK — Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani plans to unveil several top-level hires for his administration this week, potentially including his pick for City Hall budget chief, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Dean Fuleihan, Mamdani’s incoming first deputy mayor, revealed during a Monday forum hosted by the Citizens Budget ...Read more

NEW YORK — Mayor Eric Adams has “no desire” to remain in public life after he leaves City Hall at the end of December, he said in a media briefing for select outlets Monday, indicating that at least for now he’s done with public service.

Since he ended his reelection bid in September amid fallout from his dismissed corruption indictment...Read more

DENVER — The Arizona man who caused millions in damage to the Colorado Supreme Court building last year was sentenced Friday to eight years in prison.

Brandon Olsen shot out one of the Ralph L. Carr Colorado Judicial Center’s first-floor windows and broke in shortly after 1 a.m. on Jan. 2, 2024. He was fleeing from a car crash at 13th ...Read more

Former Haitian President Michel Martelly has been blacklisted by the European Union alongside two once powerful lawmakers and a criminal gang, the EU said Monday, citing their alleged roles in Haiti’s escalating gang violence.

Martelly’s name was added to the EU Council’s sanctions list along with that of former senators Youri Latortue, ...Read more

LAS VEGAS — It’s down to the wire for officials to deliver a seven-state agreement to stabilize Lake Mead over the next 20 years. That’s why water managers are eager to attend this year’s annual policy gathering in Las Vegas.

Federal and state officials, professors, nonprofit leaders and environmentalists will gather on the Strip this ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Cultural Heritage Partners, the group that sued to prevent the Trump administration from painting the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, withdrew its motion Friday, saying it accepted assurances from the General Services Administration that it wouldn’t take any steps regarding the building before March 1, 2026.

The group ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Less than a year after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, while our nascent nation was still in the throes of the Civil War, two industrious Philadelphians devised a plan to help raise money for injured Union soldiers, war widows, and children left orphaned by the war.

Charles Godfrey Leland, a ...Read more

​WASHINGTON — House Republican leaders released draft legislation Friday consisting of a package of health proposals aimed at reducing health care costs in 2026, setting up a possible floor vote this week.

The House Rules Committee is scheduled to meet Tuesday afternoon to consider the bill for floor action.

The 111-page bill combines a ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chair Mark Warner, D-Va., on Friday said he expected video footage of the Sept. 2 military strike at the center of controversy over whether the U.S. killed noncombatants in the Caribbean to eventually be released.

Speaking during a gathering of the Defense Writers Group, Warner, who as a member ...Read more

CHICAGO — The trenches are dug in Chicago’s slow-moving budget battle. And as he seeks to gain ground with a government shutdown weeks away, Mayor Brandon Johnson keeps lobbing the same ordnance: harsh words.

Last week, opponents of his plan to implement a corporate head tax were “cowards.” He tagged them with a pair of new epithets ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Nick Reiner spent years struggling with addiction and with help from his father, Hollywood legend Rob Reiner, told his story to the world.

On Monday, Nick was booked into the Los Angeles County jail on suspicion of murder, hours after his father and mother, Michele Singer Reiner, were found dead inside their Brentwood home.

...Read more

CHICAGO — Renegade Chicago aldermen battling with Mayor Brandon Johnson over competing 2026 budgets announced tweaks to their proposal Monday morning, but withheld critical details.

The City Council majority group is dropping its plan to raise the garbage pickup fee, Ald. Gilbert Villegas, 36th, said in a statement. The group will also ...Read more

A manhunt for the shooter who killed two students during a rampage at Brown University entered its third day after authorities released an earlier person of interest.

Investigators determined that “evidence now points in a different direction,” away from the person they had previously detained, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — In the last six months, President Donald Trump has sent troops, immigration agents or both to Democratic cities from coast to coast. The list includes Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, Memphis, Portland, Charlotte, New Orleans and Minneapolis.

But not Philadelphia.

The city that seemed an obvious early target, condemned by ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — A plan to attack several Los Angeles-area businesses on New Year’s Eve was detailed, dangerous and already in motion, authorities said.

But as four people allegedly tied to a left-wing, anti-government group gathered last week in the Mojave Desert to make and test several test bombs, FBI officials say they were able to foil ...Read more

NEW YORK — The City of New York plans to lower the speed limit on Central Park Drive to 15 mph, Transportation Department officials told the Daily News.

The speed limit — part of a broader redesign of the roadways in Central Park — will apply to all vehicles in the park, including official city motor vehicles and pedal-powered bicycles.

...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Rob Reiner’s son Nick was arrested on suspicion of murdering his parents after the Hollywood legend and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, were found dead at their Brentwood home Sunday.

Los Angeles police Chief Jim McDonnell said that officers responded to the Reiner home at about 3:40 p.m. Sunday. Detectives from the elite ...Read more

Though tanning may be far from people's minds this winter, a new study out of Northwestern Medicine is highlighting the risks of tanning beds, and showing how they can lead to skin cancer.

Not only is the use of tanning beds associated with nearly triple the risk of developing melanoma, but heavy users of tanning beds also had more damage to ...Read more