Pushing the government to the brink of a partial shutdown, the White House is insisting that Congress provide $5 billion to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border despite lawmaker resistance from both parties. Without a resolution, parts of the federal government will shut down at midnight Friday. "We're going to do whatever is necessary to build the border wall to stop this ongoing crisis of illegal immigration," White House senior adviser Stephen Miller said Sunday. Get More

Hospital officials who treated the 7-year-old Guatemalan girl who died in U.S. Border patrol custody said she appears to have died from sepsis shock, according to the most detailed timeline of her death released by the Department of Homeland Security. Autopsy results that will provide the official cause of death were still pending early Monday, NBC News reported. Sepsis is the body's extreme response to an existing infection somewhere in the body that can lead to rapid organ failure and death, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Get More at NBC News

Twice as many high school students used nicotine-tinged electronic cigarettes this year compared with last year, an unprecedented jump in a large annual survey of teen smoking, drinking and drug use. It was the largest single-year increase in the survey's 44-year history, far surpassing a mid-1970s surge in marijuana smoking. The findings, released Monday, echo those of a government survey earlier this year. That survey also found a dramatic rise in vaping among children and prompted federal regulators to press for measures that make it harder for kids to get them. Get More

A mother who had her toddler yanked from her arms by New York police in a widely seen video said in an interview published Sunday that she went into "defense mode." "In my head, I told myself they're not going to let me leave," Jazmine Headley told The New York Times. "I was so afraid. I was combative with my thoughts." The video captured the chaotic scene that unfolded Dec. 7 as officers tried to remove Headley from a crowded Brooklyn social services office, where she had sat on the floor for two hours because of a lack of chairs. Police were called when she refused a security guard's order to leave. Headley told the Times she was sitting on the floor with her back against the wall and talking to her son, who was in a stroller. She said she refused, pointing out trash and recycling bins against the wall on the other side of her son's stroller. Get More

Saudi Arabia issued an unusually strong rebuke of the U.S. Senate on Monday, rejecting a bipartisan resolution that put the blame for the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi squarely on the Saudi crown prince and describing it as interference in the kingdom's affairs. It's the latest sign of how the relationship between the royal court and Congress has deteriorated, more than two months after Khashoggi was killed and dismembered by Saudi agents inside the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul. The assassins have been linked to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. U.S. Senators last Thursday passed the measure that blamed the prince for Khashoggi's killing and called on Riyadh to "ensure appropriate accountability." Senators also passed a separate measure calling for the end of U.S. aid to the Saudi-led war in Yemen. Get More

President Donald Trump keeps changing his story in the swirling investigations into Russia election interference and hush money payments to women who say they had affairs with him. He insists that payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal during the 2016 campaign were "private transactions" and that any crime committed would be the fault of his former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, not him. That's a change from what the president said before. Trump previously had denied knowledge of payments and dismissed any hint of a crime. In the special counsel's probe into contacts between Russia and the Trump campaign, Trump tried to cast doubt on whether his former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, had lied to the FBI. Flynn in fact pleaded guilty to doing just that. Get More

Racial justice. Obstruction of justice. Social justice. The Justice Department. Merriam-Webster has chosen "justice" as its 2018 word of the year, driven by the churning news cycle over months and months. The word follows "toxic," picked by Oxford Dictionaries, and "misinformation," plucked by Dictonary.com. Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster's editor at large, told The Associated Press ahead of Monday's announcement that "justice" consistently bubbled into the top 20 or 30 lookups on the company's website, spiking at times due to specific events but also skating close to the surface for much of the year. Get More

Police in Northern California say they'll pursue criminal charges against a wildfire cleanup worker who posted photos of himself posing at destroyed properties. Officials in the devastated town of Paradise said Saturday that the photos and accompanying captions by Rob Freestone are "unacceptable and reprehensible." One shows a grinning Freestone with a flower pot on his head in front of a charred home. Another shows him jumping on a burned-out trampoline with the caption: "Trampolines are stupid ... it used to be called a Jumpoline until your mom got on it." Get More

Google will spend more than $1 billion on a major Manhattan real estate expansion, a move that could add more than 7,000 jobs in the next several years. The search giant made the announcement Monday morning in a blog post. The new campus, Google Hudson Square, will be more than 1.7 million square feet and located at 315 and 345 Hudson St. It will be the primary location for its New York-based Global Business Organization. A signed letter of intent was also signed for 550 Washington St. in the West Village. The company hopes to move into the Hudson Street offices by 2020 and the Washington Street building by 2022. Get More

As a first-generation Asian American running for a seat in the Maryland state legislature, Democrat Lily Qi felt disconnected from the party establishment. She had worked for years as Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett's chief administrator overseeing economic and workforce development. But she lacked the political base and union endorsements of some other delegate candidates, and she knew that immigrants like herself were rarely sought out by politicians in Maryland or elected to office. Get More

A pair of beagle mixes are on the mend after authorities say someone threw them out of a moving vehicle on a snowy New York highway. The dogs were rescued by a passing trucker, but one was so badly mangled that a front leg had to be amputated. New York State Police on Saturday asked for the public's help in finding the suspect or suspects in the incident Wednesday morning on Interstate 81 near Whitney Point, about 16 miles (26 kilometers) north of Binghamton. So far, they said, they have no leads. "These animals have been through a lot, and people need to understand that this is not OK," said Amberly Ondria, shelter manager for the Broome County Humane Society. "This is not something that should be done." Get More

A U.S. Coast Guard serviceman shot and killed his wife and 7-year-old son, then killed himself early Sunday in Miami, officials said. The Coast Guard member's daughter was also shot, but was found alive, officials said. The 8-year-old girl was airlifted to Nicklaus Children's Hospital in critical condition. The double-murder-suicide happened around 12 a.m. Sunday in the 11400 block of SW 242nd Lane in Miami. Investigators say the man, identified by the U.S. Coast Guard as John Presnar, started shooting during a domestic dispute with his wife. Get More