A federal judge on Thursday halted — at least for now — attempts to implement President Donald Trump’s executive order limiting mail voting. The move stalled the directive for a second time only about a week before the first mail ballots are due to be sent out for the rapidly approaching midterm elections. U.S. District…

BIG SUR, Calif. — Fire crews with water-dropping aircraft attacked a small wildfire that prompted new evacuations Thursday along California’s remote Big Sur coast, where a much larger blaze has been burning for nearly three weeks. The Plaskett Fire erupted the previous day in steep terrain in Monterey County near Highway 1. Officials briefly closed…

McMINNVILLE, Tenn — U.S. officials said about 90 U.S. citizens remained unaccounted for Thursday, a day after catastrophic flash floods engulfed a border area of China and Nepal, killing hundreds of people. A spiritual organization said that 22 Americans associated with it were unaccounted for. In a statement, the U.S. State Department said it is…

Air traffic controllers in Washington and the pilots of President Donald Trump’s helicopter met to discuss communication issues one week before a jet and the chopper were allowed to take off at the same time, the National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday. Both sides met to discuss the failures in communications and agreed to an…

ATLANTA — Georgia prison officials plan to execute a man next month who was convicted of fatally shooting two real estate agents in Atlanta’s suburbs more than two decades ago. Stacey Humphreys, 53, was convicted of malice murder in the 2003 killings of 33-year-old Cyndi Williams and 21-year-old Lori Brown. He is set to receive…

MINNEAPOLIS — Documents released a year after the deadly shooting at a Minneapolis Catholic church and school provide a detailed account of the swift and widespread response by law enforcement officers — who arrived within minutes and began triaging injured students. But the nearly 1,500 photos and hundreds of pages cataloging witness interviews, evidence and…

CHICAGO — A beluga whale died days after it was transported hundreds of miles to a Chicago aquarium from a shuttered Ontario park as part of an ongoing effort to rescue Canada’s last captive whales. The whale, a 23-year-old female named Peekachu, died suddenly Tuesday as caretakers tried to rehydrate her, Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium said…

BROWNSVILLE, Texas — An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer charged with shooting a man and lying about it during the immigration crackdown in Minneapolis was released from a Texas jail Thursday, after a judge refused to order his return to Minnesota. Christian Castro was released at the break of dawn from a detention center in…

A 22-year-old college student killed by Pennsylvania police responding to a possible burglary had just realized he was at the wrong home and was waiting for friends to come get him when he was shot, his father said Wednesday. Police in Upper Pottsgrove Township, northwest of Philadelphia, responded around 12:30 a.m. Sunday to a 911…

A U.S. military judge has set a summer 2028 trial date for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and three others accused of plotting the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks A U.S. military judge on Wednesday set a summer 2028 trail date for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and three others accused of plotting the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The…