Stories by Associated Press

A federal judiciary that is becoming increasingly conservative under President Donald Trump and the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate has gun control advocates on edge. 

President Donald Trump said Friday he believes he has influence to rally Republicans around stronger federal background check laws as Congress and the White House work on a response to last weekend’s mass shootings in Texas and Ohio.

Major League Baseball announced Thursday that the White Sox will play host to the Yankees in Dyersville, Iowa, on Aug. 13, 2020.

“You’ll see pictures of him in the background,” Fox Entertainment CEO Charlie Collier said, without elaborating. He promised “surprises at the beginning of the season that you’re going to love.”

Illinois’ two senators continued their pressure campaign on Major League Baseball to be more proactive about fan safety at ballparks, urging greater transparency about how often and how seriously fans are hurt by foul balls.

The 40 counts R. Kelly faces carry a combined maximum prison sentence of more than 500 years, meaning the R&B star could spend the rest of his life behind bars if he loses badly at trial. 

The discovery comes about a month after an alligator in the Humboldt Park Lagoon captured the attention of the city for about a week before the alligator was captured by a gator hunter who was flown in from Florida.

Publisher Alfred A. Knopf says Nobel laureate Toni Morrison died Monday night at Montefiore Medical Center in New York. She was 88.

A Minnesota prosecutor charged singer R. Kelly on Monday with prostitution and solicitation related to an allegation that he invited a 17-year-old girl to his hotel room in 2001 and paid her $200 to dance naked with him.

Mexico’s government said it considers a shooting at a crowded department store in El Paso, Texas that left eight of its citizens dead an “act of terrorism” against Mexicans and hopes it will lead to changes in U.S. gun laws.

The president condemned weekend shootings in Texas and Ohio as barbaric crimes “against all humanity” and called for bipartisan cooperation to respond to an epidemic of gun violence. He offered scant details on possible action.

With construction looming and signs the neighborhood is already changing, residents are fiercely seeking safeguards for the place they also call home. 

The body of Yingying Zhang was never recovered after former University of Illinois doctoral student Brendt Christensen kidnapped and killed her. 

President Trump rattles financial markets with a surprise announcement of 10% tariffs on $300 billion of Chinese imports starting later this summer. 

After months of shortages, Impossible Foods is partnering with a veteran food production company to ramp up supplies of its popular plant-based burgers.

The 52-year-old Kelly was denied bail in a Brooklyn courtroom packed with his supporters. He appeared sullen as prosecutors told Magistrate Judge Steven Tiscione he posed a flight risk and a danger to public safety.

Descendants of notorious 1930s gangster John Dillinger seeking to have his remains exhumed say they have “evidence” the body buried in an Indianapolis cemetery may not be him.

The evening marked some of the toughest attacks California Sen. Kamala Harris has faced as a candidate. The exchanges were part of a broader ideological fight for the future of the Democratic Party.

Most of the costs arose from city workers putting up and removing barricades to keep people away from the lagoon in Humboldt Park after the male reptile was first spotted there last month.

A federal judge has barred attorneys from divulging new evidence in R. Kelly’s child pornography case, saying he wants to ensure the celebrity case is tried in court, not in the media.

The Trump administration said Wednesday it will set up a system to allow Americans to legally import lower-cost prescription drugs from Canada, weakening a longstanding ban that had stood as a top priority for the politically powerful pharmaceutical industry.

Should Democrats be going big or getting real? That’s the question that dominated the Democratic presidential primary debate as progressive favorites Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders fended off attacks from lesser-known moderates. 

The body of notorious 1930s gangster John Dillinger is expected to be exhumed in September at an Indianapolis cemetery but it could be a tough job because his grave is encased in concrete.

Two women who worked with other mothers to try to stop gun violence in their South Side Chicago neighborhood were killed by bullets police do not believe were intended for them.

A security breach at Capital One Financial, one of the nation’s largest issuers of credit cards, compromised the personal information of about 106 million people, and in some cases the hacker obtained Social Security and bank account numbers.

The Fed under Chairman Jerome Powell has signaled that rising economic pressures — notably from President Donald Trump’s trade wars and from a global slowdown — have become cause for concern. So has an inflation rate that remains chronically below the Fed’s target level.