A gunman took hostages and opened fire inside a crowded nightclub in Orlando, Florida, early Sunday morning, killing 49 people and wounding 53 others before SWAT officers killed him, authorities said. Police Chief John Mina said the shooter had an assault-style rifle, a handgun and a “suspicious device” with him during the attack, which is being investigated as an act...

Heavy snow and wind shut down highways Tuesday in Colorado and Wyoming, closed schools in Nebraska and forced more than 1,000 travelers to sleep overnight in Denver’s airport after hundreds of flights were canceled just as Thanksgiving travel moved into high gear. The storm was heading to South Dakota, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin, while a “bomb cyclone” weather phenomenon...

South Dakota sparked online guffaws Monday by rolling out an anti-drug campaign featuring people saying, “Meth, I’m on it,” and the governor said the backlash proves the effort to raise awareness is working. The nearly $1.4 million campaign aimed at tackling the state’s methamphetamine epidemic includes $449,000 paid to the Minneapolis-based ad agency that created the tagline. A press release...

Bradley International Airport has been named the fifth best airport in America, according to the Conde Nast Traveler 2019 Readers’ Choice Awards.

An enterprising Minnesota college student who drove to Iowa every weekend to buy hundreds of Krispy Kreme doughnuts that he then sold to his own customers in the Twin Cities area has been warned by the confectionary giant to stop. There have been no Krispy Kreme stores in Minnesota for 11 years. Jayson Gonzalez, 21, of Champlin, Minnesota, would drive...

An enterprising Minnesota college student who drove to Iowa every weekend to buy hundreds of Krispy Kreme doughnuts that he then sold to his own customers in the Twin Cities area has been warned by the confectionary giant to stop. There have been no Krispy Kreme stores in Minnesota for 11 years. Jayson Gonzalez, 21, of Champlin, Minnesota, would drive...

California will be the first state to ban the sale and manufacture of new fur products and the third to bar most animals from circus performances under a pair of bills signed Saturday by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The estate of musical legend Prince is objecting to President Donald Trump’s use of a Prince song before a campaign rally in Minneapolis Thursday night. The Trump campaign played Prince’s “Purple Rain” as the audience at the rally waited for the president to begin speaking.

President Donald Trump was defiant in the face of an impeachment probe Thursday as he sought to convert the threat to his presidency into a weapon on the campaign trail, with biting and unsupported attacks on potential Democratic challenger Joe Biden. Confronting an investigation provoked by his unprecedented calls for Ukraine and then China to assist in digging up dirt...

Singer R. Kelly was a no-show for an initial court appearance in a Minnesota case in which he is accused of offering a 17-year-old girl $200 to take off her clothes and dance in 2001. Kelly, who is jailed in Chicago on sexual abuse and other counts, was charged in Minnesota in August with soliciting the girl after meeting her...

Valerie Harper, who scored guffaws, stole hearts and busted TV taboos as the brash, self-deprecating Rhoda Morgenstern on back-to-back hit sitcoms in the 1970s, has died. Longtime family friend Dan Watt confirmed Harper died Friday, adding the family wasn’t immediately releasing any further details. She had been battling cancer for years, and her husband said recently he had been advised...

Valerie Harper, best known for her role of Rhoda Morgenstern on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” has died at 80.

Prince’s estate will take over management of the late rock star’s studio complex near Minneapolis. Graceland Holdings, which runs Elvis Presley’s tourist attraction in Memphis, Tennessee, had been operating Prince’s Paisley Park in Chanhassen as a museum since October 2016.

Amanda Blum enjoys trying new recipes and experimenting in the kitchen, but like many home cooks she’s reluctant to buy expensive and bulky kitchen appliances. So she was delighted to learn about Kitchen Share, a nonprofit near her home in Portland, Oregon, that loans out kitchen equipment. Bloom, who likes to preserve fruits and vegetables at this time of year,...

United Airlines is setting an earlier cutoff time for when pilots must stop drinking alcohol before flights. The airline is telling pilots they must abstain from alcohol for 12 hours before flights, up from the previous eight hours.

A Delta Air Lines pilot who was scheduled to fly from Minnesota to San Diego, California, was arrested before the flight for allegedly being intoxicated, authorities said. Gabriel Lyle Schroeder, 37, was taken into custody by airport police at Minneapolis−Saint Paul International Airport on Tuesday morning, NBC News reported. Airport spokesman Patrick Hogan told NBC News that Schroeder drew suspicion...

President Donald Trump accused Rep. Ilhan Omar of professing a “love” for al Qaeda and talking about “how great” and “how wonderful” al Qaeda is. That is false. Trump also misleadingly claimed polls showed Omar only has 8% support, not mentioning that a similar figure is from a poll of white likely general-election voters without a bachelor’s degree.

Gabriele Grunewald, one of the country’s top middle-distance runners, has died at her home in Minneapolis after inspiring many with her long and public fight against cancer. She was 32. Her husband, Justin Grunewald, said she died Tuesday night. “It was one of the most peaceful passings I’ve seen. Everything she did was timed in her own time and perfect,”...

Hundreds of boxes. Millions of records. From Michigan to New Mexico this month, attorneys general are sifting through files on clergy sex abuse, seized through search warrants and subpoenas at dozens of archdioceses. They’re looking to prosecute, and not just priests. If the boxes lining the hallways of Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s offices contain enough evidence, she said, she...