More than half of the 410 hospitals in California have at least one building that likely wouldn’t be able to operate after a major earthquake hit their region, and with many institutions claiming they don’t have the money to meet a 2030 legal deadline for earthquake retrofits, the state is now granting relief to some while ramping up ...Read more

Words matter. Especially when uttered by a president, and especially overseas. “Speak softly, and carry a big stick,” Theodore Roosevelt advised, though he never envisioned a successor who would prove capable of obliterating cities half a world away in under half an hour.

That nuclear stick is pretty big indeed, capable since 1945 of ...Read more

SEOUL, South Korea — You'd be hard pressed to find anyone here who had anticipated that Han Kang would be awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in literature, the world's highest literary honor.

Although the South Korean novelist had already tallied up a number of other prestigious international accolades and is widely read here, she is 53, and the ...Read more

OAKLAND, Calif. — The patient was in his 60s, an African American man with emphysema. The oximeter placed on his fingertip registered well above the 88% blood oxygen saturation level that signals an urgent risk of organ failure and death.

Yet his doctor, Noha Aboelata, believed the patient was sicker than the device showed. So she sent him ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- Nine years ago, when an aging oil pipeline ruptured near the coast of Santa Barbara County, an inky darkness spread over the waters. The massive slick of oil engulfed and killed hundreds of marine animals, including, seals, dolphins and pelicans. And the acrid smell of petroleum polluted the coastline’s air.

On May 19, 2015, a ...Read more

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — When Missouri voters decide in less than three weeks whether to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution, the ballot measure before them will include a legal definition of fetal viability more strict than current state law.

How Missouri defines fetal viability – generally the point at which a fetus can survive ...Read more

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Nick Allen steps on broken ceramic pieces along a wooded path into a clearing.

The burnt umber fragments clank aloud, announcing his presence.

“Outreach, it’s Nick,” Allen calls out.

His colleague Kevin Morgan explains that the shards are common at the entrance of homeless encampments and serve as an alarm system.

...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Standing on the far left corner of the three acres he owns in Rolling Hills, James Bellis, 40, points to a crack he’s been monitoring in the yard since August. It started from Quail Ridge Road, right above his property, and was about 240 feet long and an inch wide when he first noticed it — but now it runs more than 450 feet ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance on Wednesday said at a rally in Pennsylvania that former President Donald Trump did not lose the 2020 election as Trump has falsely claimed since contesting President Joe Biden’s victory four years ago.

On the campaign trail, Vance has repeatedly sidestepped directly answering ...Read more

North Korea has defined South Korea as a “hostile state” in its constitution, driving a wedge deeper between the nations after Pyongyang stoked tensions earlier this week by blowing up its sections of roads that linked it to the southern part of the peninsula.

The new label was revealed by state media Thursday in a dispatch that also ...Read more

Housing remains a top issue for Massachusetts voters ahead of this year’s election, according to a new poll released by UMass Amherst and WCVB, as more residents report the state is on the “wrong track.”

When asked what the most important problem facing the state is, residents overwhelmingly point to “‘housing’ but also mention ...Read more

ATLANTA — Former President Bill Clinton has crisscrossed Georgia for Vice President Kamala Harris. Former President Barack Obama has hit other battleground states. Now his wife, Michelle Obama, has scheduled a stop in Atlanta.

The former first lady will headline an Oct. 29 rally for When We All Vote, the nonpartisan voter outreach initiative ...Read more

BOSTON — Most of the ballot questions on the Massachusetts ballot this November seem to be headed for voter approval at this point, according to a new UMass Amherst/WCVB poll, with only the legalization of psychedelics remaining a tossup.

“With only a few weeks to go until Election Day, voters in the commonwealth are poised to make ...Read more

RALEIGH, N.C. — Gov. Roy Cooper signed an executive order Wednesday increasing the maximum weekly unemployment payment available to North Carolinians in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.

The executive order applies statewide and authorizes the current maximum weekly payment of $350 to be raised to $600.

The payments paid out by the state ...Read more

CHICAGO — Two days of intensive questioning this week have yielded no new jurors in the corruption trial of Michael Madigan, as the already sluggish pace of jury selection slowed to a crawl Wednesday.

Although U.S. District Judge John Robert Blakey has been insistent he would not rush the parties though the important process, the judge for ...Read more

NEW YORK — In the history of narco-corruption in Mexico, no higher-ranking official than Genaro García Luna has ever faced justice in the United States.

He's nowhere near as infamous as Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, the former Sinaloa cartel leader now serving life in prison. He doesn't have a nickname or a Netflix series. But according to ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The California Board of Parole Hearings reversed a decision made in August to allow the early release of Andrew Stuart Luster, a serial rapist who drugged young women in college bars during the late 1990s and later was captured by a bounty hunter when he fled to Mexico to avoid his trial.

Luster, a great-grandson of cosmetics ...Read more

NEW YORK — Mayor Eric Adams’ legal defense trust received less than $100,000 in donations over the past three months, a sharp downturn in fundraising that raises questions about how he’ll be able to afford his high-priced team of lawyers as he faces a federal corruption indictment.

New filings released late Tuesday show Adams’ trust ...Read more