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WASHINGTON – The White House is considering dramatically expanding its much-litigated travel ban to additional countries amid a renewed election-year focus on immigration by President Donald Trump, six people familiar with the deliberations said.

A document outlining the plans – timed to coincide with the third anniversary of Trump’s January 2017 executive order – has been circulating the White House.

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill lashed out at Boeing on Friday after the release of a batch of emails and text messages in which company employees questioned the safety of the now-grounded 737 Max, called the aircraft a “joke” and talked about how they concealed problems from regulators.

In the messages, released nearly a year after two deadly Max crashes plunged the vaunted aircraft manufacturer into the biggest crisis in its history, employees also called proposed pilot training on the jet a “turd,” wrote that few of those on the Max team were intereste

WASHINGTON – Confronted by persistent questions about his military action in the Middle East, President Donald Trump and his top officials offered a string of fresh explanations Friday, with Trump now contending Iranian militants had planned major attacks on four U.S. embassies.

Only hours earlier, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had said the U.S. didn’t know when or where attacks might occur. Trump and other officials insisted anew that Iranian Gen.

BURRAGATE, Australia – Two wildfires merged to form a massive inferno Saturday in southeast Australia, and a man suffered serious burns protecting a home during a night of treacherous conditions during the nation’s unprecedented fire crisis.

Authorities were assessing the damage after firefighters battled flames fanned by strong winds through the night and lightning strikes sparked new blazes in New South Wales and Victoria, Australia’s most populous states.

A Crystal Lake man was arrested on Friday in connection with a stabbing that took place on Thursday in unincorporated Crystal Lake that left one man wounded, the McHenry County Sheriff's Office said Friday night.

Michael Vrba, 35, was arrested and charged with attempted first-degree murder, home invasion, residential burglary, aggravated domestic battery and aggravated battery.

On Thursday, sheriff’s deputies responded at about 6:22 a.m.

A Lake in the Hills man – a teacher and former wrestling coach in Cook County – was arrested on Friday for allegedly possessing child pornography, police said in a release sent Friday evening.

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After spending the past five years in and out of the McHenry County Jail, a Wisconsin prison, and an Elgin mental health center, a man who was found unfit to stand trial on multiple sexual abuse charges was released on Friday from the McHenry County Jail.

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SPRINGFIELD – House Speaker Michael Madigan said Thursday he will not initiate a House-led inquiry into a recently unearthed 2012 email written by a state government insider that alluded to a possible cover-up of a “rape in Champaign” and other criminal activity.

The email was uncovered in an open records request by the WBEZ-FM radio station in Chicago. The email was sent by Michael McClain – a former lobbyist for the public utility Commonwealth Edison and a close Madigan confidant – to two high-ranking members of then-Gov.

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers added 145,000 jobs in December and the unemployment rate held steady at 3.5%, signaling that the job market remains strong at the start of 2020 even if hiring and wage gains have slowed somewhat more than a decade into an economic expansion.

Friday’s snapshot from the Labor Department showed hiring slipped from robust gains of 256,000 in November, which were given a boost by the end of a strike at General Motors.

WASHINGTON (AP) — At home and in their own lives, Americans by and large have an upbeat view of the year to come. When it comes to how the country will fare in 2020, well, that's another matter.

A new poll released Friday by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that close to 4 in 10 Americans expect a better year ahead for them personally, while another half expect things to stay about the same.