After Michelle Obama’s office confirmed that the former First Lady will not be present at Donald Trump’s inauguration, many people have speculated about the reason for her absence.

A source close to the “Becoming” author says she simply does not want to be “pretend” with someone she feels is a threat to American democracy.

“There...Read more

Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire deal, bringing at least a temporary halt to the war in Gaza that has killed tens of thousands of people in the last 15 months and touched off broader turmoil across the Middle East, people familiar with the matter said.

Details of the agreement were still unclear and the fate of the dozens of hostages ...Read more

U.S. health officials banned the artificial food coloring Red No. 3, which has been linked to cancer and is currently in scores of products from candy to cold medicine.

The dye will no longer be allowed in U.S. food or ingested drugs starting Jan. 15, 2027, according to a Food and Drug Administration document posted online.

Red No. 3 is used...Read more

WASHINGTON — More than 15 months into Israel's devastating war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the two sides have agreed to a cease-fire deal that would pause fighting and free some Israeli hostages in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners, according to U.S. officials Wednesday.

U.S., Qatari and Egyptian negotiators spent months ...Read more

TAIPEI, Taiwan — The last time Donald Trump was president, he imposed a slew of tariffs on China that upended global trade. He's threatening to do it again.

Round One inadvertently pushed China and Mexico closer together on trade and foreign investment, as China sought new trade partners and a detour for its exports to reach the U.S.

This ...Read more

Pam Bondi, the onetime Florida attorney general, is President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the U.S. Department of Justice.

On Wednesday, she appeared at a confirmation hearing held by the Senate Judiciary Committee. Democrats grilled Bondi on her lobbying clients, her relationship with Trump and her legal work to question the results of ...Read more

BOSTON — Boston Mayor Michelle Wu in her first term has hired 301 new employees with a third of them earning more than $100,000, as she’s renewed her legislative push for tax relief for homeowners while budget cuts have been raised as an alternative.

Wu, in a Tuesday letter to the City Council, said the average salary among those newly ...Read more

BALTIMORE — Maryland’s wealthiest earners would pay more in state taxes, while corporations and other workers would get a tax cut under a budget plan Gov. Wes Moore will introduce Wednesday — marking the first time the Democrat has thrown his political weight behind policies that could directly impact most Marylanders’ pocketbooks.

...Read more

ORLANDO — SpaceX is ready to send up its first test flight of the year for its Starship and Super Heavy rocket from Texas on Wednesday, and will once again go for a booster catch back at the launch site.

The seventh test flight overall for the 396-foot-tall combined rocket is aiming for liftoff from SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Boca Chica,...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The most extreme level of a red flag fire warning, a “particularly dangerous situation,” returned to parts of Los Angeles and Ventura counties Wednesday morning, heightening concerns about the potential for new fires to start.

The period of highest risk was expected to begin just before sunrise through midday. Mountain wind ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — If you need to have a medical procedure done at a California hospital, you might have trouble finding out how much it costs.

Nearly 21% of California hospitals fully complied with a federal rule designed to protect patients by revealing what health care facilities charge for drugs, surgeries and other services, according ...Read more

LAS VEGAS — The Las Vegas Police Protective Association will join President-elect Donald Trump’s Presidential Parade next week following his swearing-in ceremony, according to the Trump-Vance Inaugural Committee.

The association, which endorsed Trump in the 2024 election, is made up of more than 3,700 active and retired police and ...Read more

BALTIMORE — An overhaul of Maryland’s personal income taxes would give two-thirds of filers an average tax cut of about $173 while raising hundreds of millions of dollars more from those making more than $500,000 under a budget plan proposed Wednesday by Gov. Wes Moore.

The shift is aimed at filling a massive state budget deficit and making...Read more

DENVER — The surge in immigrants arriving in Colorado last year softened the enrollment decline in the state’s public schools, which for years have been losing students — and funding — as birth rates fall across the nation.

The arrival of thousands of migrant students didn’t fully offset falling enrollment, which dwindled to an 11-...Read more

WASHINGTON — Once a bitter critic of President-elect Donald Trump, Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida headed into his first Senate hearing Wednesday as nominee for secretary of State.

Rubio, with extensive experience on Capitol Hill and in foreign policy circles, appears to be the least controversial in Trump's list of Cabinet picks, many...Read more

SAN DIEGO — San Diego has been slow to revamp how it monitors and removes flammable brush on city-owned land, despite a 2023 audit saying the city’s efforts are poorly coordinated and not comprehensive enough.

Brush management is considered a crucial strategy to help prevent the kind of large wildfires that have devastated the Los Angeles ...Read more