National News

U.S. health officials will ban most flavored e-cigarettes popular with underage teenagers, but with major exceptions that benefit vaping manufacturers, retailers and adults who use the nicotine-emitting devices. Read more here.

The top Republican in the New York State Assembly was charged New Year's Eve with driving while intoxicated in his state-issued vehicle, just a week after he wrote a newspaper column warning citizens against getting behind the wheel drunk. Read more here.

Julián Castro ended his presidential campaign on Thursday after the former Housing and Urban Development secretary failed to gain traction in the large field of Democratic candidates. Read more here.

David Stern, the basketball-loving lawyer who took the NBA around the world during 30 years as its longest-serving commissioner and oversaw its growth into a global powerhouse, died Wednesday. He was 77. Read more here.

The sale of marijuana for recreational purposes became legal Wednesday in Illinois to the delight of pot fans — many who began lining up hours early at dispensaries. Read more here.

When a machete-wielding attacker walked into a rabbi's home in Monsey, New York, during Hanukkah and a gunman fired on worshippers at a Texas church 14 hours later, the two congregations in different regions of the country joined a growing list of faith communities that have come under attack in...

All of the West Virginia correctional cadets seen apparently giving a Nazi salute will be fired, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice announced. Read more here.

Alarms went off in Jack Wilson's head the moment a man wearing a fake beard, a wig, a hat and a long coat walked into a Texas church for Sunday services. Read more here.

Handwritten journals containing anti-Semitic references were found in the home of the man charged with federal hate crimes Monday in the stabbing and slashing of five people celebrating Hanukkah at a rabbi's house north of New York City, authorities said. Read more here.

The stabbing of five people at a Hanukkah party in New York is being called an act of domestic terrorism. Local people of Jewish faith say this recent rash of anti-Semitic attacks is making them feel uneasy. Read more here.