News

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A Mexican national who is in the U.S. illegally was sentenced Thursday to 39 years in a Michigan prison for killing his girlfriend, a crime that suddenly was thrust into the U.S. presidential race because of the man’s immigration status. “The actions I took on the night of March 22 do not define who my people are. I apologize with the utmost respect to all immigrants from all walks of life,” Brandon Ortiz Vite told a judge in Grand Rapids. Ortiz Vite, 26, pleaded guilty in September to murder and other crimes. Ruby Garcia was found shot to death on the side of a Grand Rapids highway. She and Ortiz Vite had been in a car on U.S. 131, arguing about their relationship, when he shot her in the head, removed her body from the car and drove aw...

As President-elect Donald Trump prepares a return to the White House, advisers thinking about how to staff his administration are weighing the merits of stacking Trump’s Cabinet with elected officials versus the mix of businesspeople, political outsiders and loyalists who fill up his Rolodex, three sources engaged in discussions about the transition said. Two sources involved in the transition process said Trump is expected to place a premium on Cabinet selections from outside of government service, as opposed to sitting lawmakers, for two reasons. He sees some of his first-term outside selections, including investor Steven Mnuchin, whom he appointed to lead the Treasury Department, and Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon nominated to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development,...

Rashida Jones is paying tribute to an icon, culture shifter, genius and, most importantly, her late father, Quincy Jones . Quincy Jones, who worked with a slew of iconic singers like Frank Sinatra to Michael Jackson, died Sunday at 91. Days after the legendary music producer’s death, his 48-year-old daughter penned an emotional and heartfelt message about life with her dad. “My dad was nocturnal his whole adult life. He kept ‘jazz hours’ starting in high school and never looked back,” “The Office” actor wrote alongside a throwback photo of her as a baby with her dad snuggling her to his face. “When I was little, I would wake up in the middle of the night to search for him. Undoubtedly, he would be somewhere in the house, composing (old school, with a pen and sheet mu...

On the wide-open roads of America, Yifei Xu has conducted an experiment in humanity. Far from his home in Shanghai, he cycled across the United States for more than four months — enduring rain, rugged terrain and uncertainty in a foreign land all to prove what he believes to be a universal truth. “I want to show that human nature is good!” Xu said. The 33-year-old relied solely on the kindness of strangers for every meal, approaching everyday Americans with the same pitch: “Hello, I am a cyclist come from China, can you offer me some food to eat?” Xu previously biked across Russia, England and France. And though not all of his U.S. encounters were positive, Xu said the vast majority of the responses he got — in places like Catawissa, Pennsylvania, and Bennington, Nebraska — pro...

Dozens of Black people across the country said they have received text messages telling them they had been “selected” to pick cotton “at the nearest plantation.” The messages came just hours after the polarized presidential election came to a close this week. On Wednesday morning, Monèt Miller, a publicist from Atlanta, was reeling over Donald Trump winning the White House when she received a text message from an unknown phone number. “Our Executive Slaves will come get you in a Brown Van,” the message read, “be prepared to be searched down once you’ve enter the plantation.” Miller, 29, was shocked. She wondered how the person got her phone number, and questioned whether she was being watched. In a panic, she responded, “Who is this?! I’m going to find who you are” and shared a...

Fluoride — long heralded as one of the greatest public health achievements of the 20th century — could be removed from public water systems under the influence of one of President-elect Donald Trump’s advisers, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Kennedy — who has no training in either medicine or dentistry — called fluoride “an industrial waste associated with arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss” and other problems on the social media platform X . “I think fluoride is on the way out,” Kennedy said Wednesday on MSNBC . “The faster that it goes out, the better.” Whether to add fluoride to water supplies is decided and funded by local jurisdictions, not the federal government. Still, Kennedy said that if tapped, he would advise communities on fluoridated water. Dentis...

Days after the New York State Police lauded one of its troopers as a hero, they have launched a criminal probe into his claim that he was shot and wounded during a traffic stop on a Long Island highway. “Based on our investigation so far, we have reason to believe that the incident did not occur the way it was reported,” Maj. Stephen Udice said Wednesday, nearly a week after Trooper Thomas Mascia claimed he had been shot. State Police previously said that at around 11:45 p.m. on Oct. 30 Mascia was shot on a shoulder of the Southern State Parkway in West Hempstead in Nassau County, about 30 miles east of Manhattan, as he approached what he believed to be a stranded motorist. Mascia had been patrolling westbound, State Police Superintendent Steven James said a week ago. Masci...

Dairy workers who’ve been exposed to bird flu should be tested for the virus even if they don’t have symptoms and be offered Tamiflu to cut their risk of getting sick, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday. The recommendation coincides with a new report finding asymptomatic bird flu infection in some workers. Those cases were discovered using blood, or serology, testing and seem to have been transmitted from sick animals, not people. “There is nothing that we’ve seen in the new serology data that gives us any concern about person-to-person transmission,” Dr. Nirav Shah, the CDC’s principal deputy director, said during a media briefing. To date, 46 people have been diagnosed with bird flu, also known as H5N1, in the United States this year. ...

Three people were charged in relation with the death of singer Liam Payne , Argentina's public prosecutor said Thursday. The prosecutor's statement said that during the investigation, "illicit conduct was discovered from which three people were charged with the crimes of abandonment of a person followed by death, supply and facilitation of narcotics." Payne, a former member of One Direction, fell from the balcony of a Buenos Aires hotel on Oct. 16. Someone who was with Payne daily while he was in Buenos Aires is charged with abandoning a person following death, prosecutor Andrés Madrea's statement said. A hotel employee is accused of supplying Payne with cocaine twice while he stayed at the hotel, the statement said, and a third person is accused of supplying drug...

A social media influencer known for drag-racing videos died in a car crash early Wednesday on a New York City expressway. Andre Beadle, 25, of the Bronx, was speeding as he was driving a 2023 BMW shortly before 1:15 a.m. on the Nassau Expressway in Jamaica, Queens, New York police said. “The driver lost control and veered to the right, causing the vehicle to travel off the right side of the roadway into the right shoulder, striking a metal pole,” police said in a statement. “This caused the vehicle to veer back across the eastbound lanes to the left shoulder, ejecting the operator from the vehicle.” Beadle was declared dead at a hospital, police said. The investigation, police said, is ongoing. Beadle, who amassed 246,000 Instagram followers and nearly 60,000 Yo...