The Environmental Protection Agency is releasing its long-awaited regulations on the disposal of coal ash, the byproduct of coal-powered electricity. The report is expected to classify coal ash like garbage, rather than a hazardous material, leaving it up to states to regulate.

Attorney General Eric Holder on Thursday extended anti-discrimination protections to cover transgender identity. Reversing a Justice Department position adopted during the George W. Bush administration, Holder directed his department to recognize that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 covers actions based on gender identity, including transgender discrimination.

Two arrests have been made in the case of Jada, a Texas 16-year-old who was reportedly raped at a party in July, and pictures of her unconscious, naked body went viral on social media. Supporters countered with the hashtag #IAmJada. MSNBC's Ronan Farrow is now reporting that one adult and a minor have been arrested in the case. In an interview with Farrow, Jada said, "I would like to see justice. Justice in full effect and that's it."

After this week’s thaw, you will be able to legally bring back from Havana maybe a dozen — up to $100 worth — of high-end native cigars for personal use. Here are a couple of surprising facts about the smokable that you should know.

More than 70 years after South Carolina sent a 14-year-old black boy to the electric chair in the killings of two white girls in a segregated mill town, a judge threw out the conviction, saying the state committed a great injustice.

Bobby Shmurda, the 20-year-old MC known for the Billboard Hot 100 hit “Hot N—a,” has been arrested in New York City. Shmurda, born Ackquille Pollard, was arrested in connection with an NYPD investigation into drug trafficking and gang violence, as NBC New York reported. After a search of Shmurda’s car and a recording studio where he was arrested, police found three guns, according to the Daily Beast.

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia showed defiance and anger at the West in his annual news conference in Moscow today, showing no sign of softening his position on Ukraine despite the financial turmoil in his country. He promised to maintain social welfare programs at their current level, and said that Russia’s economy would return to growth within two years.

On Tuesday night, Texas Gov. Rick Perry -- long a public fan of Judaism -- marked the beginning of the Jewish festival of Hanukkah by comparing it to the Boston Tea Party, which was celebrating its 241st anniversary the same day. There is a parallel to be drawn here -- but Perry chose the wrong tea party and the wrong lessons.

Soon after taking office, North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory and U.S. Rep. Mark Sanford of South Carolina accepted six-figure stock payouts from an online mortgage broker accused by regulators of deceiving its customers. More than a dozen securities lawyers and ethics experts told the AP that such stock payouts are uncommon for elected officials, and raise significant concerns. These experts gave differing opinions about whether laws were broken, but "there is no question (this) raises a host of red flags for prosecutors and regulators," said Jacob Frenkel, who handled corruption cases as a federal prosecutor and served as senior counsel in the Securities and Exchange Commission's Division of Enforcement.

American Alan Gross has been released from a Cuban prison after five years, as part of an agreement that also includes the release of three Cubans jailed in the United States. Gross was detained in December 2009 while working for the U.S. Agency for International Development. Cuba considers USAID’s programs illegal attempts by the U.S. to undermine its government, and Gross was tried and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Militants from the Pakistani Taliban have attacked an army-run school in Peshawar, killing 141 people, 132 of them children, the military say. In response, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has decided to lift a moratorium on the death penalty in terrorism cases.

Concerned about threats to moviegoers, theater owners are starting to pull "The Interview" from their holiday lineups amid a relentless cyberattack that has wreaked havoc on Sony Pictures Entertainment. The dropping of the film from the lucrative holiday season delivers yet another blow to Sony Pictures, which Tuesday was hit by a lawsuit on behalf of current and former employees whose confidential information was exposed in the attack.

Bank of America has failed two of 31 tests designed to see whether it is complying with a national mortgage settlement’s rules, a report Tuesday from the settlement’s watchdog shows. The tests involve sending pre-foreclosure letters to borrowers and notifications to people seeking mortgage modifications.

The Senate on Monday confirmed President Obama’s nominee for surgeon general, ending a long fight over gun control and politics that had left the country without a permanent top doctor for a year and a half.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday that police officers may use evidence seized during a traffic stop even if the reason the officers pulled the car over was based on a misunderstanding of the state's law.

Taliban gunmen stormed a school in northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday, killing more than 100 people, most of them children, in the worst terrorist attack in Pakistan in years. Hundreds of students were trapped inside the compound as security forces exchanged fire with the gunmen, officials said.