WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump plans to highlight his record on crime and safety during a visit to New York on Friday, pivoting to one of his strongest issues as he looks to boost Republicans in battleground races ahead of the November midterms. Trump is visiting the Nassau County Police Academy in suburban Long Island,…

MINNEAPOLIS — Federal agents launched a sweeping undercover surveillance operation earlier this year targeting progressive organizations, labor unions and other groups protesting the immigration crackdown then raging through Minneapolis, according to court documents filed Thursday. The program, dubbed Operation Puppet Master, was aimed at what officials called a network of conspirators helping “violent opportunists and…

ORLANDO — Authorities are searching for a trio of modern tomb raiders that they say has stolen family heirlooms and other valuables from cemeteries in at least nine states. The suspects — a mother and daughter, and the daughter’s boyfriend — “went on a tour of the eastern half of the United States,” breaking into…

A court order that struck down regulations on firearm suppressors and certain guns took effect Thursday after the U.S. Justice Department did not file an appeal before a seven-day deadline set by a federal judge in Texas. The ruling allows people to purchase silencers, short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns and certain other firearms without registration, while…

PHOENIX — Hundreds of Navajos were recruited by the Marine Corps during World War II to create a code based on their native language. Their efforts frustrated the Japanese force and ended up playing a vital role in U.S. victories in the Pacific War. The program remained secret for decades and in 1982, President Ronald…

Tennessee and Oklahoma put inmates to death within 30 minutes of each other Thursday and Alabama followed suit hours later as U.S. states executed three men by lethal injection in one day for the first time since 2010. The Tennessee man was executed for killing a motel maid in 1985 and the Oklahoma man for…

The World War II Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., has been vandalized, with bubbles filling a fountain and “Clean hands dirty $” written in red paint WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON (AP) — The World War II Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was vandalized Thursday, with bubbles filling a fountain and…

NEW YORK — A New York City police officer who was the first prosecuted under a local law banning chokeholds and some other methods of restraint was convicted Thursday. Omar Habib was convicted of the misdemeanor established in the law that was passed after George Floyd ‘s killing, along with felony strangulation and misdemeanor assault,…

BARDSTOWN, Ky. — White House border czar Tom Homan defended Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s plan to give officers gloves that deliver painful electric shocks, calling them a tool to help officers end confrontations without using deadly force. “It’s another device to help someone get compliant when they are not,” Homan said Thursday in an interview…

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is ordering the U.S. Navy to remove the advanced system used to launch fighter jets from its newest type of aircraft carrier and return to using older steam catapults that he has long said he prefers, according to a directive issued Thursday. The new mandate would likely cost billions of…