The secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS, plays a significant role in every American’s access to health care and in the nation’s overall well-being.

Under the secretary’s leadership, the multiple agencies that constitute HHS oversee the financing of Medicare and Medicaid, conduct research to improve ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump's executive order rejecting liberal "gender ideology" and restoring the "biological truth" of two sexes sets the stage for a legal battle in blue states over transgender students and adults.

Trump says his administration will only recognize "two sexes, male and female" in federal policy, and not "gender ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate’s Veterans Affairs Committee voted overwhelmingly to make Doug Collins the next secretary of Veterans Affairs. The vote moves the former Georgia congressman toward a confirmation vote on the Senate floor, which could occur in a matter of days.

Both the Republican chair of the Veterans Affairs Committee and its ...Read more

CHICAGO — Michael Madigan was so important to ComEd’s legislative agenda in Springfield that the utility was willing to bend over backwards to make the then-powerful House speaker happy, showering his cronies with do-nothing contracts, giving special treatment to 13th Ward internship applicants, and putting a Madigan-recommended candidate on...Read more

BANGKOK — On the fifth floor of a large Bangkok mall, gay newlyweds milled about on a long rainbow carpet, posing for photographs while other couples still waiting to marry lined up to submit the required documents.

"Today is a milestone for the success of gender equality in Thailand," declared Permsup Saiaung, who had come with her partner ...Read more

LANSING, Mich. — The Michigan House approved bills Thursday that would retain the state's tipped wage for restaurant workers and limit the reach of paid sick leave laws that are set to take effect on Feb. 21.

The tipped wage bill was approved in a 63-41 vote, while the paid sick leave bill passed 67-38, getting support from a few Democrats. ...Read more

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — It was a cloudy Saturday morning on the Space Coast when 12-year-old Tal Ramon anxiously waited with his family for the return of his father Ilan on Space Shuttle Columbia in 2003.

Ilan and his six crewmates flying on STS-107 never made it home.

Now 22 years later, Tal was back in Florida, this time under gloomy skies ...Read more

Even as their son fled from his eastern Altadena condo in the early evening of Jan. 7 — not long after the Eaton fire ignited— Justin Chapman’s parents remained in their family home about a half-mile away.

Their neighborhood just west of North Lake Avenue had yet to receive any evacuation alerts, Chapman said, so his parents felt safe at ...Read more

WASHINGTON — A federal judge in Washington state on Thursday temporarily blocked, nationwide, President Donald Trump’s executive order to restrict birthright citizenship, the first legal roadblock in a flurry of high-profile initiatives in his first days back in the White House.

The ruling came after a hearing in a challenge from Washington...Read more

SAN DIEGO — A hiker was shot and robbed Wednesday by “suspected cartel members” while hiking with a group near the boundary of San Diego and Imperial counties near the U.S.-Mexico border, the Border Patrol’s El Centro Sector said on social media.

On the sector’s Facebook page, officials said: “A group of U.S. citizens hiking in the ...Read more

President Donald Trump’s early actions on health care signal his likely intention to wipe away some Biden-era programs to lower drug costs and expand coverage under public insurance programs.

The orders he issued soon after reentering the White House have policymakers, health care executives, and patient advocates trying to read the tea ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The state unveiled its revamped fire relief website on Thursday, offering a one-stop shop to help Los Angeles County firestorm survivors access vital services.

Fire victims can use the website to find information on how to apply for Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster relief, file insurance claims, replace documents and...Read more

CHICAGO — As political division and mistrust surfaced again this inauguration week for Americans, some suburbs and Illinois towns are looking to put into action a system that proponents hope can boost fairness and increase trust in the election process: ranked choice voting.

Evanston, Skokie, Oak Park, Naperville, Berwyn and downstate Peoria ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The University of California is aiming to speed up the faculty discipline process amid criticism that cases take too long to complete — including one involving a UC Davis professor accused of posting threats to Zionist journalists that included emojis of blood and a hatchet.

UC officials told the Board of Regents at a meeting...Read more

MIAMI — Planning a weekend road trip in North Florida to frolic in the record-setting snowfall?

You may have missed your opportunity to make a “Snow in Florida” TikTok video. Meteorologists aren’t predicting more snow because the front that led to the winter scenes has moved on.

But Pensacola, which set a record with nine inches of ...Read more