CHICAGO — Mayor Brandon Johnson is all but giving up on his proposed $300 million property tax hike before aldermen kill it, and pushing them to find other revenue in its place to avert layoffs.

Johnson’s administration is combing over alternatives to the tax jump ahead of a meeting Wednesday where the City Council is expected to vote it ...Read more

NEW YORK — A Manhattan judge has delayed a highly-anticipated decision in Donald Trump’s hush money case following his election victory at the request of the president-elect’s lawyers and the Manhattan district attorney, according to court documents filed Tuesday.

State Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan granted a joint motion to postpone...Read more

SAN DIEGO — San Diego has finished pulling more than 155,000 pounds of debris out of just one prominent riverbed encampment, illustrating how complex and expensive responding to homelessness can be when it’s allowed to last for years.

The operation required a multimillion-dollar state grant and some of that money will now be spent helping ...Read more

SAN DIEGO — Escondido, San Marcos and Lemon Grove have become the first inland cities in San Diego County to raise their local sales tax rate a full cent higher than the county’s base rate of 7.75%.

Voters in those cities easily approved sales tax hikes last week. They join coastal cities Chula Vista, National City, Imperial Beach, Solana ...Read more

The Shoe Fire in Shasta County is now fully contained, U.S. Forest Service officials announced this week, but with forecast rains come new concerns.

Forest Service crews contained the month-long blaze that burned through timber and chaparral in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest after it had charred 5,124 acres.

“The impact of the fire has ...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. – The National Hurricane Center on Tuesday increased again its forecast odds a Caribbean system will develop into the season’s next tropical depression or storm.

As of its 7 a.m. tropical outlook, the NHC said a tropical wave in the central Caribbean Sea was producing disorganized showers and thunderstorms.

“Environmental ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — After the onset of COVID-19 drove down business for childcare providers, the federal government stepped in to help. Grant funding came through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) in 2021 to stabilize the already-fragile sector, helping providers survive the most difficult and straining times.

But that funding ran out about a ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Before he was reelected, President Donald Trump openly threatened to use — or abuse — his power by ordering federal prosecutors to pursue criminal cases against those he deems enemies.

There's little in the law that would stop him.

That's because the Supreme Court has made clear the Constitution gives the president total ...Read more

BOSTON — A new long COVID study could be a “game changer,” according to local researchers who found that an AI tool can identify hidden cases of the mysterious condition from patient health records.

While some diagnostic studies suggest that about 7% of the population suffers from long COVID, this new approach from Mass General Brigham ...Read more

MEXICO CITY — Car bombs. Massacres. The slaying of a Roman Catholic priest.

A cartel war that has engulfed a major city. A mayor of another large city beheaded after he dared to call for peace.

Six weeks after taking office, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum is contending with a nationwide wave of violence, and is facing increasingly ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The morning after former President Donald Trump won a second term on a promise to deport millions of immigrants, a line formed outside a Riverside County, California, legal aid organization before it had even opened its doors.

Legal permanent residents wanted help applying for citizenship. Asylum seekers who had given the ...Read more

The United States has almost 2 million people behind bars in prisons, jails and detention centers – the largest such population in any country. Although incarcerated people are locked away from the outside world, they are even more vulnerable to the impacts of disasters, such as hurricanes and wildfires, than the rest of society.

...Read more

Book bans in U.S. schools and libraries during the 2021-22 school year disproportionately targeted children’s books written by people of color – especially women of color – according to a peer-reviewed study we published. They also tended to feature characters of color.

In addition, we found book bans were more common in right-...Read more

I’m a historian of the medieval papacy and editor of the forthcoming three volumes of the Cambridge History of the Papacy. So it was more or less mandatory for me to see the new movie “Conclave.”

Based on Robert Harris’ 2016 novel, the film shows the politics behind electing a pope to lead the world’s 1.36 billion Catholics....Read more

It is not easy to teach about race in today’s political and social climate.

One hundred and sixty years after the United States abolished slavery, racial differences continue to spark pervasive misunderstanding, engender social separation and drive political and economic disparities. American educators are naturally intimidated and,...Read more

Among the first world leaders to speak with Donald Trump following his election victory on Nov. 5, 2024 was Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Congratulating the U.S. president-elect, Zelenskyy expressed confidence in the “potential for stronger cooperation” between the two nations.

Others are less sure. For many foreign ...Read more