CNN – National

By Deidre McPhillips, CNN Google searches for “college rankings” spike each year in the months that follow the release of US News & World Report’s annual lists of Best Colleges. The company says that about 40 million people read those lists last year; that’s more than 10 times the number of graduating high school seniors

By Amir Vera and Andy Rose, CNN Britt Reid, the former Kansas City Chiefs assistant coach, pleaded guilty Monday to driving while intoxicated in connection with a crash last year that left a 5-year-old girl with a brain injury. The girl, Ariel Young, suffered a severe traumatic brain injury, a parietal fracture, brain contusions and

By Nouran Salahieh and Josh Campbell, CNN A federal judge on Friday blocked enforcement of a new Arizona law that would have restricted citizens and journalists from filming police in certain circumstances. The law, signed by Republican Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey in July, made it a crime to video record within eight feet of law

By Hannah Sarisohn and Steve Almasy, CNN Clark County Public Administrator Robert Telles was charged with murder with a deadly weapon in the stabbing death of Las Vegas investigative journalist Jeff German, according to a criminal complaint filed Monday. In the chilling case that has raised concerns about press freedoms in the United States, German

By Theresa Waldrop, CNN The US Environmental Protection Agency is investigating the water crisis that has affected the roughly 150,000 residents of Jackson, Mississippi, who remain under a boil-water advisory. “I can confirm that the EPA Office of Inspector General began sending personnel to Jackson to collect data and conduct interviews,” Jennifer Kaplan, a spokesperson

By Melissa Alonso and Eric Levenson, CNN The man accused of kidnapping and killing Memphis teacher Eliza Fletcher has been indicted on aggravated rape charges for a separate 2021 incident, according to court documents. Cleotha Henderson, 38, appeared in a Shelby County courtroom Monday after he was indicted Thursday on charges of aggravated rape, kidnapping

By Dakin Andone and Kristina Sgueglia, CNN Three children found unresponsive early Monday on the Coney Island shoreline in Brooklyn are dead, and a woman believed to be their mother is now being questioned, New York Police Department officials said. The 30-year-old woman, believed to be the mother of the 7-year-old boy, 4-year-old girl and

By Emma Tucker, CNN Calls for tougher prison sentences are growing in Memphis, Tennessee, as word spreads the suspects in two violent attacks there this month had been released from prison before serving their full sentences for prior convictions. But experts told CNN research shows harsher penalties are not an effective deterrent to violent crime.

By Alexandra Meeks, CNN It can take years for new words to get accepted into the dictionary, even if they’re already staples in the American vocabulary. Words like “pumpkin spice” and “metaverse” were among the 370 new definitions Merriam-Webster added to the dictionary this month. Also included on the list is a slew of informal

By Nouran Salahieh and Tina Burnside, CNN A mudslide trapped multiple drivers in Southern California as storms drenched the region and brought flash flood warnings Sunday evening. Several motorists were rescued after their vehicles became stuck in a mud and debris flow on Pine Canyon Road in the Lake Hughes area, about 65 miles north

By Kiely Westhoff, CNN A former Major League Baseball pitcher who retired from the sport to become a New York City area police officer was killed in a wrong-way crash Sunday, authorities said. Anthony Varvaro, 37, was on his way to an assignment at Manhattan’s World Trade Center 9/11 ceremony when the crash happened, the

By Amir Vera and Nouran Salahieh, CNN A wall of smoke from the Mosquito Fire in the Sierra Nevada mountains is creating hazardous conditions in Northern California, choking the air with smoke as strong winds complicate firefighting efforts. The smoke’s impact was most visually clear in a time-lapse video posted by the NWS in Reno,

By Raja Razek, CNN One person died and four people were injured after a motorboat flipped on the Colorado River Saturday afternoon, according to the National Park Service. The incident occurred in an area of the river called Bedrock Rapid in Grand Canyon National Park, NPS said in a tweet Saturday. “Today at 2:12 p.m.,

By Zoe Sottile, CNN A prominent advocacy group has called on consumers to avoid lobster because of major threats to the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale, but Maine politicians are not happy about the guidance. The California-based Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch has published recommendations on sustainable seafood since the 1990s, ranking different seafood

By Michelle Watson and Rebekah Riess, CNN A man arrested in the killing Sunday of an Arvada, Colorado, police officer has been identified in a news release from the police department. Sonny Thomas Almanza was arrested late Sunday evening and faces eight charges, including first-degree murder of a police officer, possession of a weapon by

By Yenny Sanchez, CNN US Customs and Border Protection officers at the Del Rio Port of Entry in Texas said they have have seized a shipment of methamphetamine valued at $11.9 million, making it the largest ever seizure of the drug at the port. The drugs were found within a tractor trailer, the CBP said

By Michelle Watson, CNN Authorities have captured a man accused of killing an eight-year-old girl whose body was found at his central California home nearly six months ago, Lt. Joe Perez said in a news conference Sunday. Investigators found the body of Sophia Mason at the home of her mother’s boyfriend, Dhante Jackson, in Merced