CNN – National

By Laura Ly, CNN New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced Wednesday that shootings and homicides have decreased in New York City over the past year, despite an overall rise in major crime categories. New York Police Department data shows that since January, NYC has seen an over 17% drop in shootings and an over

By Caroll Alvarado, Amanda Musa and Emma Tucker, CNN The woman suspected of stealing a car that had 5-month-old twins inside was taken into custody Thursday in Indianapolis, but one of the children was not located with her and remains missing, Columbus police said Thursday. Suspect Nalah Jackson was arrested at approximately 2 p.m. Thursday

By Sharif Paget, CNN Authorities in North Carolina have released a school bus surveillance video they say shows missing 11-year-old Madalina Cojocari just days before her mother and stepfather said they last saw her. “Today, we are releasing surveillance video from her school bus as Madalina got off at her stop on November 21, 2022,

By Chris Boyette and Taylor Romine, CNN Seventeen people were injured in Humboldt County, California, when a powerful a 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck Tuesday, also damaging roads and buildings and knocking out power and water to thousands of people, authorities said. At least two people died after the earthquake hit at 2:34 a.m. Tuesday in

By Alexandra Meeks, CNN Today is the first official day of winter, hence the bitter cold sweeping across most of the US. In the Northern Hemisphere, the winter solstice marks the shortest day of the year, when the Earth is at its furthest tilt away from the sun. Depending on how close you are to

By Tavleen Tarrant, CNN The city of Buffalo, New York, filed a lawsuit against several gun manufacturers and distributors Tuesday, alleging they fueled violence in the city by making or providing “thousands of firearms recovered in crimes committed in the City of Buffalo and New York State.” The suit filed in the Erie County branch

By Nouran Salahieh, CNN As a Trump-era migration policy remains in limbo, so are the lives of thousands of migrants waiting across the United States border, many sleeping out in the cold in encampments or overcrowded shelters, hoping to cross to request asylum. In Matamoros, Mexico, near the US border across from Brownsville on the

By Amanda Musa and Paula Newton, CNN Eight teenage girls were charged with murder Tuesday in the stabbing death of a 59-year-old Toronto man in what police are calling a “swarming” attack. The man was found stabbed Sunday shortly after 12 a.m., following a report of an assault in the area of York Street and

By Nouran Salahieh and Cheri Mossburg, CNN After convicting former film producer Harvey Weinstein of rape and sexual assault, a Los Angeles jury could not reach a unanimous verdict Tuesday on alleged aggravating factors that could have increased his sentence. The three charges Weinstein was convicted of — rape, sexual penetration by foreign object and

By Justin Gamble, CNN New Jersey state legislators hope to pass a bipartisan resolution recognizing January as Muslim Heritage month statewide. Advocates for the resolution want the measure to pass both state houses before the end of the current legislative session, Republican State Sen. Joseph Pennacchio — who is a sponsor of the resolution —

By Ray Sanchez, CNN A former Texas police officer was sentenced to nearly 12 years in prison Tuesday following his manslaughter conviction for shooting Atatiana Jefferson in her own home in 2019. Aaron Dean, the 38-year-old White former Fort Worth police officer, had faced up to 20 years in prison for killing Jefferson, a 28-year-old

By Caroll Alvarado, CNN A man has been sentenced to life in prison without parole after being found guilty of killing eight people in Pike County, Ohio, CNN affiliate WLWT reported. George Wagner IV was sentenced Monday by Judge Randy Deering after being convicted of murder in the shooting deaths of seven members of the

By Caroll Alvarado and Carolyn Sung, CNN The Faculty Senate Executive Committee at Purdue University Northwest (PNW) released a letter demanding Chancellor Thomas L. Keon resign after making an offensive statement during a commencement ceremony earlier this month, the committee tells CNN. A video posted to PNW’s official YouTube page shows Keon taking the podium

By Taylor Romine and Jay Croft, CNN A Texas man was charged with felony vandalism with a hate crime allegation after allegedly vandalizing a menorah in California and carving a Nazi symbol into its base, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office said Tuesday. Eric Brian King, 47, allegedly threw items at a nine-foot-tall menorah

By Chris Boyette, CNN While conducting a safety audit of schools in Uvalde, Texas, an inspector posing as an intruder was able to gain access to a school cafeteria through a door that did not properly lock, the school district’s superintendent said at a school board meeting Monday. Auditors tested three schools in Uvalde in

By Jason Hanna, Caroll Alvarado and Stella Chan, CNN A 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck Northern California’s Eureka area early Tuesday, the US Geological Survey said, leaving at least two people dead, drawing reports of damage to roads and homes, shaking residents from their sleep and leaving tens of thousands without electricity. The epicenter of the

By Josh Campbell, CNN Police in California have arrested a suspect in connection with an alleged online scam authorities said led to the suicide death of a 17-year-old boy in February. Jonathan Kassi, 25, was arrested Thursday by Los Angeles police officers on an arrest warrant, the San Jose Police Department announced Monday. The warrant

By Paradise Afshar, CNN A skier was rescued on Friday in Teton County, Wyoming, near Jackson Hole after getting caught in an avalanche and carried about 500 yards. Matt Hansen, communication director for Teton County Search and Rescue Foundation, told CNN that two skiers were on a ski tour that began on a trail head

By Celina Tebor and Eric Levenson, CNN The flashy, jewelry-flaunting Brooklyn pastor who reported being robbed while preaching at his church this past summer was arrested on federal charges Monday — unrelated to the July incident — for allegedly defrauding a parishioner, trying to extort a businessman and lying to the FBI, according to a

By Kristina Sgueglia and Nicki Brown, CNN New York City unveiled the “Gate of the Exonerated” in Central Park Monday to honor the group of Black and Hispanic teens known as the “Central Park Five” who were wrongfully convicted of beating and raping a White female jogger in the park more than 30 years ago.

By Ray Sanchez and Eric Levenson, CNN A jury began deliberations Monday on a sentence for the former Texas police officer who was convicted of manslaughter last week for shooting Atatiana Jefferson in her own home in 2019. Aaron Dean, the 38-year-old White former Fort Worth police officer, faces up to 20 years in prison

By Matt Lait and Samira Jafari, CNN Drew Griffin, CNN’s award-winning Senior Investigative Correspondent, known for getting even the cagiest of interview subjects to engage in a story, died Saturday after a long battle with cancer, his family said. He was 60. A gifted storyteller, Griffin had a well-earned reputation for holding powerful people and

By Gloria Pazmino, CNN As New York continues to grapple with a growing influx of asylum-seekers, two buses carrying migrants arrived in the city Sunday, with at least 10 to 15 more buses expected over the next few days, according to an email from Mayor Eric Adam’s office obtained by CNN. The email sent Sunday

By Pete Muntean and Chris Boyette, CNN At least 36 people on a Hawaiian Airlines flight were injured, with 20 taken to emergency rooms, after their plane encountered “severe turbulence” on a flight from Phoenix to Honolulu on Sunday, authorities said. Eleven patients were in serious condition, Honolulu Emergency Medical Services said in a statement.

By Rosa Flores, CNN Border authorities in the Rio Grande Valley have encountered between 900 and 1,200 migrants daily during the past two weeks, according to a federal law enforcement source familiar with daily operations in South Texas. These types of numbers are reminiscent of the 2019 surge, when agents encountered at least 1,000 migrants

By Zoe Sottile, CNN The Big Apple is getting just a little bit brighter tonight. The world’s largest menorah will be lit on Sunday night in Manhattan to mark the start of Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights. The 36-foot tall menorah was erected in Manhattan’s Grand Army Plaza, near midtown, on Thursday. Israeli artist

By Amir Vera, Hannah Sarisohn and Tina Burnside, CNN In the span of three weeks, shootings in Atlanta have killed four children between the ages of 11 and 16, and Mayor Andre Dickens said Sunday the recent trend is unacceptable. “A week before Christmas, families should be preparing to celebrate,” Dickens wrote in a statement.

By Melissa Alonso and Zoe Sottile, CNN An iguana caused “a large-scale outage” in Lake Worth Beach, Florida earlier this month — the third iguana-triggered outage in the city this year. The outage impacted about 1,400 customers in Lake Worth Beach in Palm County, city spokesman Ben Kerr told CNN. The power was restored within

By Eric Levenson and Tina Burnside, CNN The parents of missing 11-year-old North Carolina girl Madalina Cojocari were arrested Saturday for failure to report her missing, the Cornelius Police Department said in a news release. Madalina’s mother Diana Cojocari, 37, and her stepfather Christopher Palmiter, 60, were arrested on Saturday for failure to report the

By Yenny Sanchez, CNN Here’s your flippin’ chance to name a baby penguin. The Tulsa Zoo is asking the public for help naming an African penguin chick that hatched to parents Dassen and Ireland on October 3. Since the chick’s sex hasn’t yet been determined, the zoo has provided three gender-neutral names to vote on:

By Tina Burnside, CNN A man and woman in Arkansas have been arrested and face capital murder charges after the body of the woman’s 6-year-old son was discovered beneath the floor of a home Friday night, according to the Arkansas State Police. The mother, 28-year-old Ashley Roland, and Nathan Bridges, 33, are being held at

By AJ Willingham, CNN Welcome to the weird two-week stretch where nothing really gets done and everyone’s just riding it through the holidays. (Well, unless you work in the restaurant industry, or shipping, or retail, or the healthcare industry, or janitorial services, or at a gas station, or an airport, or a place of worship,

By Rikki Klaus, CNN When high school student Trevor Reed was automatically enrolled in a Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC) class in 2020, both he and his mother objected. “We don’t have to look far outside of our family to see the effect that the military has, especially when you have to go off

By John Blake, CNN On a frigid December night outside a suburban Chicago church, a group of parents and wide-eyed children line up to see Santa Claus. He awaits them with the classic St. Nick look: pink, cherubic cheeks, twinkling eyes, a gray beard and a plump belly — squeezed into a red suit with

By Jalen Brown, CNN A year after his Tennessee home was burned down and a racial slur was spray-painted on his property, Alan Mays says he’s still pleading with authorities for answers to what he’s calling a hate crime. Authorities are actively investigating the cause of the fire that destroyed the family’s seven-bedroom home in

By Zoe Sottile, CNN For the third year in a row, a Montana city is embracing the holiday spirit by allowing defendants to pay off some of their court fines with donations to the local food bank. Butte, Montana, launched the initiative in 2019, according to City Court Judge Jerome McCarthy. The project has brought

By Tavleen Tarrant, CNN New York became the tenth state to ban the sale of cosmetics tested on animals after Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a measure into law Thursday evening. The law, known as the New York Cruelty-Free Cosmetics Act, prohibits the sale and manufacturing of cosmetics that have been tested on animals. It is

By Tavleen Tarrant, CNN The State of New York has determined that New York City’s ban on foie gras, stuffed goose or duck liver, violates state law, according to documents filed in New York City Superior Court. The state Department of Agriculture and Markets informed city officials Wednesday that the ban “unreasonably restricts” the operations

By Hannah Sarisohn, Colin Jeffrey, CNN An individual hacked into a North Carolina high school’s intercom system Thursday and allegedly made antisemitic remarks over the loudspeaker, according to CNN affiliate WTVD. Jackie Jordan, principal at Enloe Magnet High School in Raleigh, issued an apology letter to parents following the incident, according to the letter obtained

By Paradise Afshar and Christina Maxouris, CNN El Paso, Texas, Mayor Oscar Leeser declared a state of emergency on Saturday evening following a surge of migrants who have recently arrived in the community and he says are living in unsafe conditions. The mayor, who had previously declined to issue a state of emergency, said “hundreds”

By Lauren Koenig and Zoe Sottile, CNN Police responded to reports of antisemitic graffiti at a Maryland high school on Saturday, school officials and police say. Graffiti reading “Jews Not Welcome” was discovered spray-painted on a sign outside Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Maryland, just outside Washington, DC, according to the school’s principal. This

By Zenebou Sylla, Celina Tebor and Christina Maxouris, CNN New York is hoping to receive $3 billion from the federal government through 2026 to handle the influx of migrants that city leaders have been grappling with for months, according to a new government report. The city Comptroller’s Annual State of the City’s Economy and Finances

By Paradise Afshar and Zoe Sottile, CNN P-22, a mountain lion who has spent years in Los Angeles’ Griffith Park, has been euthanized after likely suffering injuries in a “vehicle strike,” officials say. The big cat made made headlines last month after he attacked and killed a resident’s leashed chihuahua. He was captured by authorities

By Zoe Sottile, CNN An Arizona man driving in the high-occupancy vehicle lane was ticketed after a police officer realized his passenger wasn’t a person at all. It was an inflatable Grinch. The man was spotted by an Arizona state trooper last week, according to a Tuesday tweet from the Arizona Department of Public Safety.

By Nick Valencia and Ray Sanchez, CNN For more than three years, Jimmy Hill has kept a weekly vigil outside the offices of the Fulton County district attorney in Atlanta, distributing fliers about his son’s death at the hands of police and demanding justice. This week, former Atlanta police officer Sung Kim was indicted on

By Nick Valencia and Ray Sanchez, CNN For more than three years, Jimmy Hill has kept a weekly vigil outside the offices of the Fulton County district attorney in Atlanta, distributing fliers about his son’s death at the hands of police and demanding justice. This week, former Atlanta police officer Sung Kim was indicted on

By Kaitlan Collins, CNN American college student Kenny DeLand Jr. has been reunited with his mother in Lyon, France, and is on his way back to the US, according to a French diplomatic official. DeLand Jr., who was reported missing more than two weeks ago in France, told relatives on Friday that he was safe

By Mary Kay Mallonee and Jason Hanna, CNN The number of firearms that TSA officers intercepted at airport security checkpoints in 2022 is the highest on record for a single year — and the vast majority of the weapons were loaded, the US Transportation Security Administration said Friday. TSA officers caught 6,301 firearms at checkpoints

By Tina Burnside and Andy Rose, CNN Five people were in critical condition after a “domestic situation” in Memphis Friday night ended in a shooting, police say. Officers responding to a report of a shooting in a north Memphis neighborhood shortly before 8 p.m. discovered two men and three women had been shot, according to

By Rebekah Riess, CNN Two children and a young adult died in a home fire early Saturday morning in Pittsburgh, authorities say. A woman was taken to the hospital and is reported in serious condition, the Pittsburgh Bureau of Fire said. Another woman and eight children were safely evacuated. A firefighter was taken to the

By Nicquel Terry Ellis, CNN Kyra Kyles recalls the time early in her career when an abrupt staffing change at her communications job caused managers to look to her to fill a leadership role. Kyles said she knew she could handle the promotion. In fact, Kyles had already been performing some of the job responsibilities

By Mark Morales, CNN The New York Police Department has agreed to prohibit officers from detaining anyone while running background checks on outstanding warrants in many instances, including in the event a person encounters police for minor violations, according to a class action lawsuit settled by the city on Friday. Officers will only be able

By Rachel Ramirez, CNN Winter in drought-stricken California is off to a fast start with a series of storms bringing a generous amount of rain and snow across Western states. And it’s already starting to make a dent in California’s drought conditions, according to the latest US Drought Monitor released Thursday morning. The barrage of

By Faith Karimi, CNN The deaths of Canadian billionaires Barry and Honey Sherman have been shrouded in mystery from the beginning. On December 15, 2017, a realtor giving a tour of the couple’s Toronto mansion around midday discovered their bodies, fully dressed, beside their indoor basement swimming pool. They were semi-seated side by side, with

By Zoe Sottile, CNN Two far-off planets are likely made of water, according to research conducted using NASA’s Hubble and Spitzer telescopes. The so-called “water worlds” are orbiting a red dwarf star, the smallest and coolest kind of star, according to a news release from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The aqueous planets are 218 light-years

By Paradise Afshar and Christina Maxouris, CNN While search teams in Hawaii are looking for a medical transport aircraft officials believe crashed with three people aboard, the governor issued an emergency proclamation to bolster medical airlift services — which he said are a critical need in the isolated island chain. The aircraft went missing off

By Tavleen Tarrant, CNN A 63-year-old man was assaulted in what police are calling an antisemitic attack in New York’s Central Park on Wednesday, according to the New York Police Department. The man was walking in the park when another man in his mid-40’s allegedly ambushed him from behind, causing the older man to fall,

By Alta Spells and Christina Maxouris, CNN Disgraced former South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh, who has been accused of killing his wife and son and being involved in financial crimes and fraud schemes, is now facing a new set of tax evasion charges. Murdaugh was indicted by the South Carolina State Grand Jury on nine

By Lauren del Valle, CNN Frank James, the man authorities have said was behind the mass shooting inside a New York City subway that left dozens injured in April, now faces 10 counts of a terrorist attack and other violence against a mass transportation system, according to a superseding indictment returned by a federal grand

By Rebekah Riess and Emma Tucker, CNN A transgender woman who is scheduled to be executed in Missouri next month for murdering a woman in 2003 has filed a clemency application with the governor, citing struggles with brain damage and childhood trauma, the petition says. Amber McLaughlin — listed in court documents as Scott McLaughlin

By Andy Rose, Carolyn Sung and Christina Maxouris, CNN The father of the man accused of killing seven people and wounding dozens more at the Highland Park, Illinois, Fourth of July parade was taken into custody Friday and facing felony reckless conduct charges, prosecutors announced. Robert Crimo Jr., is charged with seven counts of felony

By Brad Parks and Andy Rose, CNN Two teens were killed and two others were wounded in a shooting outside Benito Juarez High School southwest of downtown Chicago Friday afternoon, police said. No suspects were in custody, Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown told reporters Friday at a news conference. Brown said he didn’t have any

By Abby Phillip and Ray Sanchez, CNN Brittney Griner departed a medical military facility in Texas on Friday and returned home to Arizona, vowing in an Instagram post to play in the WNBA this season as she took another step in her reintegration into American life after her detention in Russia. “It feels so good

By Dakin Andone, CNN The use and imposition of the death penalty in America saw a continued decline in 2022 as polls showed public support for capital punishment stayed near historic lows, according to a year-end report by the Death Penalty Information Center. While several factors have contributed to what the non-profit describes as the

By Saskya Vandoorne and Jason Hanna, CNN An American college student who was reported missing more than two weeks ago in France has told relatives he is safe in Spain, his family said Friday, seemingly resolving at least part of a mystery that sparked a multinational search. Kenny DeLand Jr. called his relatives early Friday,

By Holmes Lybrand, CNN A Minnesota man who federal authorities say expressed admiration for mass shooters was arrested Wednesday after allegedly trying to purchase hand grenades and a firearm component that converts an AR-15 style rifle into an illegal machine gun, the Justice Department announced. River Smith, 20, has been charged with one count each

By Joe Sutton and Amanda Jackson, CNN Winston-Salem State University, a historically Black institution in North Carolina, has addressed the use of law enforcement on its campus amid the online spread of a video that shows a Black student being arrested in a classroom after an apparent dispute with a professor. The incident Wednesday began

By Stephanie Elam, CNN California’s air regulators approved an aggressive plan Thursday for the state to reach carbon neutrality by 2045 — in line with legislation signed by Governor Gavin Newsom earlier this year. The plan, approved by the California Air Resources Board, looks to move one of the largest economies in the world to

By Shimon Prokupecz and Matthew J. Friedman, CNN Texas Department of Public Safety investigators looking into the botched response at Robb Elementary School have become increasingly troubled by the actions of two officials — former Uvalde schools police chief Pedro “Pete” Arredondo and former Uvalde Police Lt. Mariano Pargas — according to law enforcement officials

By Taylor Romine and Emma Tucker, CNN The man accused of attacking comedian Dave Chappelle while he was performing at the Hollywood Bowl earlier this year pleaded no contest to two charges and was subsequently sentenced to 270 days in county jail Wednesday, officials said. Isaiah Lee pleaded no contest to misdemeanor battery charges and

By Lauren del Valle, CNN Prosecutors in Michigan disclosed more evidence in recent court filings they say shows the mother of Oxford High School shooter Ethan Crumbley knew about his unhealthy mental state when the parents bought him a gun last November. “You know my biggest fear was that he was gonna turn the gun

By Amanda Musa, CNN Claudine Gay will serve as Harvard’s 30th president, the University announced Thursday. Gay is the first person of color and the second woman to hold the role of Harvard University’s president. Born to Haitian immigrants, Gay received her Ph.D. in government from Harvard in 1998. She is also the recipient of

By Ray Sanchez and Andy Rose, CNN A former Forth Worth, Texas, police officer was found guilty of manslaughter Thursday in the 2019 shooting of 28-year-old Atatiana Jefferson in her home. Aaron Dean, who is White,  faces up to 20 years in prison for the conviction. Jefferson was Black. He had pleaded not guilty to

By Michelle Watson, CNN The city of Virginia Beach has reached a $3 million settlement with the family of Donovon Lynch — a 25-year-old man who was fatally shot by a police officer last year — the city and the family said in a joint statement. Lynch died after he was shot in the torso