CNN – National

By Rachel Ramirez, CNN As California plunges even deeper into its multiyear megadrought after an alarmingly dry winter, officials are eyeing what experts say is one of the leading culprits in the crisis: water-guzzling grass lawns. Residents and businesses in the counties around Los Angeles were told this week that they would need to limit

By Melissa Alonso, CNN Police have arrested a 74-year-old man in the 1988 killing of 11-year-old Melissa Tremblay in Massachusetts, the Essex District Attorney’s Office announced Wednesday. Marvin C. McClendon Jr. was arrested Tuesday in Bremen, Alabama, and placed in the custody of the Cullman County Sheriff’s Office, District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett said at a

By Nicole Chavez, CNN In the aftermath of George Floyd‘s killing, several nooses were left around Saginaw, Michigan. Nearly two years later, a man is facing federal hate crime charges for it, the Justice Department says. Kenneth David Pilon, 61, was charged this week with six counts of interfering with federally protected activities, a misdemeanor

By Mark Morales, CNN Prosecutors are pushing back against allegations that the accused Brooklyn subway shooter‘s constitutional rights were violated when FBI agents took DNA samples from him, according to court fillings. Federal public defender Mia Eisner-Grynberg said FBI agents entered Frank James’ cell at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn on Tuesday and took

By Evan McMorris-Santoro and Meridith Edwards, CNN Author Melissa Hart refuses to give in to other parents challenging the content of books aimed at children and young adults. While parents, lawmakers and others speculate about the intent of authors and educators, the mother of a nonbinary teen is determined to promote inclusive content because “representation

By Elizabeth Wolfe and Amanda Musa, CNN A shooting spree in Mississippi left four people dead and resulted in a police standoff with the suspect Wednesday, which ended when a SWAT team found him dead inside a local business, officials said. Police say the suspect, Jeremy Reynolds, 32, first fatally shot three people at a

By Kevin Conlon, CNN The judge in the sentencing of the shooter who pleaded guilty to killing 17 people in 2018 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, reversed course Wednesday, opting against starting over in selecting the jury that will decide whether Nikolas Cruz gets the death penalty or life in prison.

By Amir Vera and Rebekah Riess, CNN Lily Peters, a 10-year-old girl who prosecutors say was killed by an eighth grader in Wisconsin, suffered strangulation and blunt force trauma, according to the Chippewa County coroner. The autopsy findings are preliminary, with the cause of death determined to be homicide, county coroner Ron Patten told CNN

By Stephanie Elam, CNN The West is in the grips of a climate change-fueled megadrought, and Lake Mead — the largest manmade reservoir in the country and a source of water for millions of people — has fallen to an unprecedented low. The lake’s plummeting water level has exposed one of the reservoir’s original water