By WILL WEISSERT Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — They start the day often as low-profile Cabinet secretaries. They end it that way, too, God willing. But, when the rest of the government is gathered together for a big event, like President Donald Trump 's joint congressional address ...

By LEAH WILLINGHAM Associated Press CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A West Virginia judge ordered that a monitor be put in place to oversee state child protective services placements in hotels and camps on Friday after a 12-year-old boy in state care attempted suicide in a hotel room last ...

By CHRIS MEGERIAN, ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON and MATTHEW LEE Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal employees are starting to receive another email requiring them to explain their recent accomplishments, a renewed attempt by President Donald Trump and billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk to ...

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — An appointee of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott wiped away tears and gave an emotional defense of her credentials after a tense exchange over diversity hiring policies, which was later followed by the state's top Republicans rushing to support her publicly. Texas Water Board ...

By WILL WEISSERT, ZEKE MILLER and AAMER MADHANI Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for being "disrespectful" Friday in an extraordinary Oval Office meeting, then abruptly called off the signing of a minerals deal that ...

By SOPHIA TAREEN and MELISSA PEREZ WINDER The Associated Press JOLIET, Ill. (AP) — A jury found an Illinois landlord guilty of murder and hate crime charges Friday for the brutal killing of a 6-year-old whose mother rented rooms in the man's home, an attack that spiked fears over ...

By HANNAH FINGERHUT Associated Press DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa became the first U.S. state to remove gender identity protections from its civil rights code on Friday when Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law a bill that opponents say will expose transgender people and other Iowans to ...

Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — New York's governor ordered a state school to remove a job posting for a Palestinian studies teaching position this week, saying she wanted to ensure "antisemitic theories" would not be taught. The job posting at Hunter College had called for a historian ...

By FERNANDA FIGUEROA Associated Press As President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order designating English as the official language of the United States, activists and advocacy groups are alarmed by what that will mean for non-English speakers when it comes to immigration, ...

By ASHRAF KHALIL Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — For decades, the thousands of blooming cherry blossom trees in the nation's capital have served as both a magnet to visitors and the unofficial start of the tourist season for Washington, D.C. This year, the peak bloom for the iconic ...

By SETH BORENSTEIN AP Science Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal weather and oceans agency touches people's daily lives in unnoticed ways, so massive firings there will likely cause needless deaths and a big hit to America's economy, according to the people who ran it. The first round ...

By PHILIP MARCELO and JENNIFER PELTZ Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — After years as one of U.S. authorities' most wanted men, Mexican drug cartel boss Rafael Caro Quintero was brought into a New York courtroom Friday to answer charges that include orchestrating the 1985 killing of a ...

By The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Key Republicans and Democrats in Congress have been stalwart supporters of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but the blowup between the Ukrainian leader and President Donald Trump is threatening to change that. Zelenskyy had traveled to ...

By MARK SCOLFORO Associated Press A police officer who was shot to death while responding to an armed man with hostages inside a Pennsylvania hospital intensive care unit was remembered Friday as a dedicated public servant who did not hesitate to run toward danger and died a ...

By STAN CHOE AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks rallied on Friday to close out their dreary February on a brighter note. The S&P 500 jumped 1.6% to trim its loss for the month, enough to make it the worst only since December instead of since April. It had dropped in five ...

By OLIVIA DIAZ and BEN FINLEY Associated Press RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Retired Army Maj. Gen. Cedric T. Wins will step down in June from his post as the first Black superintendent of the Virginia Military Institute after the school's board voted against extending his contract Friday. In a ...

By ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON Associated Press FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance on Friday berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy over the war in Ukraine, accusing him of not showing gratitude after he challenged Vance on the question of ...

By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER, ERIC TUCKER and BYRON TAU Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Several senior leaders in Washington's federal prosecutors office have been demoted to jobs handling misdemeanors or other low-level matters, in the latest move by President Donald Trump's U.S. attorney ...

By MEAD GRUVER Associated Press CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — President Donald Trump is taking a step toward granting the U.S. mining industry's biggest wishes by singling out one metal as a focus of his domestic minerals policy: copper. From talk of acquiring Greenland and its vast mineral ...

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER and ANNE D'INNOCENZIO AP Business Writers WASHINGTON (AP) — Ongoing tariff threats from Washington and potentially sweeping government job cuts have darkened consumers' mood and may be weighing on an otherwise mostly healthy economy. Data released Friday showed that ...