NEW YORK — Shootings dropped to record levels in New York City during the first three months of this year, NYPD officials said Thursday.

The city saw a 23% drop in shootings for the first three months of the year compared to the same period last year, from 182 incidents to 140.

Crime in the subway system has dropped by 18%, helped by a ...Read more

BOSTON — It’s the third day of juror selection in the Karen Read retrial.

Attorneys have added seven to the final jury pool over the previous two days. There was a total of 19 jurors selected for trial in the first go-around. That meant seven of them would serve as alternates, though the alternates wouldn’t be selected until just before ...Read more

As Ecuador approaches a decisive presidential runoff election on April 13, the race between incumbent President Daniel Noboa and leftist candidate Luisa González is locked in a virtual dead heat. The election encapsulates a nation at a crossroads, with voters deeply divided over security concerns, economic instability and political governance. ...Read more

ATLANTA — President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown has in its early stages separated local families and led to a surge in detainee populations inside Georgia’s immigrant jails. There are signs that the administration’s deportation campaign also has begun impacting the local labor market.

According to HireQuest, a recruiting agency...Read more

Meteorologists began warning that extremely dangerous storms were likely coming days before tornadoes tore across the Central and Eastern U.S. in March and April 2025. But pinpointing exactly where a tornado will touch down still relies heavily on seeing the storms developing on radar. Chris Nowotarski, an atmospheric scientist, explains why,...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The Trump administration is reviewing the curriculum of a sex education program in California for medical accuracy and age appropriateness, a move that has sparked backlash from LGBTQ+ advocates worried about queer and transgender sexual health information being censored.

Last week, California was asked to submit all educational...Read more

Layoffs of federal employees and cutbacks to federal agencies have direct consequences for the Philadelphia area.

I am a law professor at Villanova University outside Philadelphia, and my research focuses on the work of the administrative agencies that compose the federal government.

I believe that understanding the federal ...Read more

A community-led partnership in Colorado designed to negotiate health care prices lowered health care premiums in 2020 and 2021, we find in our new paper in the Journal of Risk and Insurance. The nonprofit organization is called the Peak Health Alliance.

As health care premiums continue to rise nationwide, many employers have formed so...Read more

Since the mid-2000s, the Medicare system has dramatically transformed. Enrollment in Medicare Advantage – the private alternative to the traditional Medicare program administered by the government – has more than quadrupled. It now accounts for the majority of Medicare enrollment.

Employers, including state government agencies, ...Read more

The job of director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention carries immense responsibility for shaping health policies, responding to crises and maintaining trust in public health institutions.

Since the Trump administration took office in January 2025, the position has been held on an interim basis by Susan Monarez, whom ...Read more

Five years ago, the CEO of one of the largest pain clinic companies in the Southeast was sentenced to more than three years in prison after being convicted in a $4 million illegal kickback scheme.

But after just four months behind bars, John Estin Davis walked free. President Donald Trump commuted Davis’ sentence in the last days of his first...Read more

SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie, who won election in November on the pledge to crack down on the city’s fentanyl crisis, has announced a new public health policy that will more forcefully push treatment on drug users seeking clean needles and other supplies tied to their addiction.

The new policy, to take effect April 30, ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sutter County in Northern California has the lowest vaccination rates among transitional kindergarten and kindergarten students in the state, according to new data from the California Department of Public Health.

Only 73% Sutter County kindergarten students were up to date on their childhood vaccinations in the 2023-24 ...Read more

CHICAGO — Dirty air remains a chronic problem in the Chicago area.

Shortly before President Joe Biden left office, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reclassified the region from “moderate” to “serious” violations of federal regulations limiting lung-damaging smog, also known as ground-level ozone.

Better understanding about ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Rafael Leyva was only 8 years old when his mother was stabbed with a knife and died in the young boy's lap.

Soon after that, his brother and sister were sent to live with their uncle in California, while Rafael — or Rafa as his siblings call him — remained the ward of an orphanage in Mexico.

Now, in a tale of rising ...Read more