SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — A former Illinois sheriff’s deputy was sentenced Thursday to 20 years in prison for fatally shooting Sonya Massey, a Black woman who had dialed 911 to report a possible prowler outside her Springfield home. Sean Grayson, who is white, was convicted in October of second-degree murder in a police brutality case that prompted protests over systemic racism and led to a U. S. Department of Justice inquiry. Grayson, 31, testified at trial that he feared Massey was about...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats voted to block legislation to fund the Department of Homeland Security and several other agencies Thursday, threatening a partial government shutdown as they continued to negotiate with Republicans and the White House on new restrictions for President Donald Trump’s surge of immigration enforcement. As the country reels from the deaths of two protesters at the hands of federal agents in Minneapolis, Republicans and the White House have indicated they are open to...

JUNO BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Cheers rose from a bundled-up crowd as a loggerhead sea turtle that survived a likely shark attack trundled back into the ocean after months of rehabilitation in Florida, carrying a satellite tracker to see how she fares with only three flippers. The air on the beach was chilly, with temperatures in the 40s Fahrenheit (roughly 4 to 9 degrees Celsius ). But the Atlantic Ocean has hovered around a comfortable 77 F (25 C), said Heather Barron, chief science officer and a...