By ED WHITE and CHRISTOPHER L. KELLER Associated Press
Updated
President Donald Trump has threatened to deploy the National Guard to Chicago and other big cities as a way to fight crime. Yet, behind the aggressive talk, data actually shows that most U.S. violent crime has been in a steady decline. Homicides through the first six months of 2025 were down significantly in Chicago, New York City, Seattle, Baltimore, San Francisco and Portland, Oregon. It's a continuation of a trend since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. Aggravated assaults were also down, with the exception of New York, where they were virtually unchanged. The Associated Press relied on numbers from AH Datalytics, which tracks crimes across the country.
A year after the catastrophic collapse of Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge, Maryland leaders are honoring the six construction workers killed that night. State and local leaders reflected on the tragedy at a ceremony Wednesday. The Port of Baltimore was closed for months after the collapse, but made an impressive rebound during the second half of 2024. Officials say the new bridge should be finished sometime in 2028. They unveiled designs last month for what will become Maryland's first cable-stayed bridge. It could cost upwards of $1.7 billion, but Congress has agreed to cover the full price tag for rebuilding.
