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On a warm Sunday morning in Miami, Sen. Ruben Gallego stepped out of a car and approached parishioners exiting a church beneath palm trees, handing out flyers in this Dominican neighborhood. Gallego left some of his staff members behind as he drummed up support for a fellow Democrat running to be the next mayor of the majority-Hispanic city. “Mucho gusto,” he told the churchgoers, Spanish for “nice to meet you.” “Soy Ruben Gallego de Arizona,” he said, introducing himself without mentioning he is a U.S. senator. Miami Dec 10 What Democrat Eileen Higgins' victory in Miami mayoral election may mean for Trump impact with jackie nespral Dec 14 NBC6 Impact: One-on-one with Miami's new mayor-elect Eileen Higgins The Arizona Democrat is emerging as a crucial surrogate for a party desperately seeking to win back the Latino support that slipped in 2024 with the election of President Donald Trump. His fall travels have included trips to New Jersey, Virginia and Florida, where he campaigned for Democrats who went on to win their elections. Strategists say Gallego is flexing his muscle as a rising star for the party while also laying the groundwork for a 2028 presidential run despite not being a household name like California Gov. Gavin Newsom or U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. It’s a role Gallego is expected to continue next year, when Democrats hope to break Republicans’ hold on Congress and counter Trump’s agenda. “Ruben Gallego is going to be our not-so-secret, secret weapon,” said Maria Cardona, a longtime Democratic operative and member of the Democratic National Committee. A surrogate in high demand Senator Ruben Gallego has his photo taken while he campaigns with Eileen Higgins during her campaign for Miami Mayor on Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025, in Miami. Gallego is among the Democrats named as possible 2028 contenders who had the busiest travel calendar in 2025. He stumped for Democratic female candidates in New Jersey’s and Virginia’s gubernatorial races and Miami’s mayoral race. “Ruben brings instant validation to them not only because his last name is Gallego,” said Chuck Rocha, who mobilized Latinos for U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential bid in 2020 and for Gallego in 2024. “He’s risked his life for his country, he grew up in an immigrant household from nothing, and now he’s a U.S. senator. That’s the kind of guy you want standing beside you talking to Latinos about why they should vote for this white woman.” In the 2024 presidential election, Trump made inroads in heavily Puerto Rican areas of eastern Pennsylvania, turned South Texas’ Rio Grande Valley and improved his numbers along Florida’s Interstate 4 corridor by focusing heavily on the economy and border security. But results from recent elections have shown signs that key voting groups, including Hispanics, were shifting away from Republicans. And in Miami, Eileen Higgins became the first Democratic mayor to be elected in nearly 30 years. “We’re going to places where there’s big Latino populations,” Gallego told The Associated Press in Miami. “Obviously, they swung a little too much in our opinion toward Trump last time, and we wanna talk to Democrats and we wanna talk to Latinos, we wanna talk to candidates about how to get that population back into our corner.” Gallego himself outperformed Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024, when he won a Senate seat in Arizona by more than 2 points while Trump carried the state by nearly 6 points. And, he gives the Republican president credit for his border security measures and, at times, praises Trump’s blunt style for not overthinking economic proposals when crafting his populist messaging with ideas such as “no tax on tips.” “We need to be identified as someone who’s pro-working class,” Gallego said at a recent event. How affordability is personal Gallego grew up in poverty in Chicago’s Little Village, a predominantly Mexican neighborhood on the city’s southwest side. He was raised by a single mother after his father left the…

Two people are facing charges in connection with multiple thefts at a Target store in North Miami Beach, police said. Shamiyah Katrail Sinquefield, 25, Samantha Oshin Wright, 30, were both arrested Saturday on charges of retail theft-multiple thefts, records showed. Sinquefield also faces five charges of accessory after the fact. Shamiyah Katrail Sinquefield and Samantha Oshin Wright The two suspects were arrested at the Target at 14075 Biscayne Boulevard where both were known to Target’s loss prevention department employees, arrest reports said. According to the arrest reports, the two are accused of multiple thefts at the store dating back to August involving over $1,000 worth of merchandise being stolen. The pair was seen in surveillance videos stealing items and leaving the store without paying, the reports said. Sinquefield, of Miami Gardens, and Wright, of Miramar, were both booked into jail and later appeared before a judge, who granted them pre-trial release but ordered them to stay away from the store.

Click here for a look back at all of the weekend’s developments in the Brown University shooting investigation. What to KnowA shooter dressed in black killed at least two people and wounded nine others in a classroom at Brown University on Saturday during final exams.School officials said they were told that 10 people who were shot were students. An 11th person was injured by fragments from the shooting, but it wasn’t immediately clear if that victim was a student.A person of interest who was taken into custody on Sunday morning has been released after authorities determined the evidence pointed “in a different direction.” Police renewed their search Monday for the gunman who killed two Brown University students and wounded nine others, a day after they released a person of interest after determining the evidence pointed “in a different direction.” Authorities announced the man’s release at news conference late Sunday, marking a setback in the investigation into Saturday’s attack on the Ivy League school’s campus. It unraveled progress authorities thought they had made at the start of the day when they announced they had detained him at a Rhode Island hotel in connection with the attack and lifted a campus lockdown. “We have a murderer out there,” said Attorney General Peter Neronha, while Providence Mayor Brett Smiley acknowledged that ”the news is likely to cause fresh anxiety for our community.” Despite an enhanced police presence at Brown, officials are not recommending another shelter-in-place order like the one that followed the Saturday afternoon shooting, when hundreds of officers searched for the shooter and urged students and staff to shelter in place. The lockdown, which stretched into the night, was lifted early Sunday, but authorities have not yet released information about a potential motive. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

A man is facing charges after he allegedly tried to sexually batter a woman at knifepoint inside a laundry room at an apartment complex in Hialeah, police said. Luis Antonio Rodas-Martinez, 21, was arrested Sunday evening on charges of attempted sexual battery with a weapon causing serious bodily injury and kidnapping with a weapon or aggravated battery, Miami-Dade jail records showed. Luis Antonio Rodas-Martinez According to an arrest report, on Dec. 9, Hialeah Police responded to an attempted armed sexual battery at the complex and met with victim, who said she was doing laundry in the laundry room when she was approached by a man who was armed with a knife. She said he pinned her against a washing machine, placed the knife to her upper torso, pulled down her pants and thrusted himself against her while trying to rape her, the report said. The victim started yelling for help and a neighbor who heard her went to the laundry room and saw the victim pinned against a washer with the suspect behind her and holding a knife to her, the report said. The suspect saw the neighbor and took off running. Investigators reviewed surveillance video and determined the suspect lived in the area and identified Rodas-Martinez as the suspect, the report said. The investigators showed a surveillance image of the suspect to Rodas-Martinez’s brother who identified him in the photo, the report said. Rodas-Martinez was arrested and booked into jail. He was expected to appear before a judge on Monday.

(CNN) — The latest data on respiratory illness in the United States shows that shoppers and merry-makers are spreading more than just holiday cheer: They’re also...