LOS ANGELES — Daisy Markley found her child's limp body slumped over at the end of their bed. One pill was all it took to kill Jax Markley, a transgender teen from Santa Clarita who overdosed on fentanyl just months after graduating from high school.

"I'll never forget the sound of my wife's scream calling me upstairs," Matt Markley said, ...Read more

Kirk Vartan pays more than $2,000 a month for a high-deductible health insurance plan from Blue Shield on Covered California, the state’s Affordable Care Act marketplace. He could have selected a cheaper plan from a different provider, but he wanted one that includes his wife’s doctor.

“It’s for the two of us, and we’re not sick,” ...Read more

Deep in the Amazon, Canaima National Park in Venezuela is a green wonderland. Home to Angel Falls, the tallest uninterrupted waterfall in the world at more than 3,200 feet, it serves as a source of national pride, a showcase of the country’s uniqueness and natural beauty, the Venezuelan equivalent of the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone and Niagara ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The “squad” has shrunk.

Nancy Pelosi, at 84, is approaching the twilight of her long political career.

And House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries? More than 40% of Americans have no idea who he is, a recent Pew Research Center poll found.

What Republicans need is a new boogeyman. Gone are the days when the party could drag ...Read more

NOTE : If you or someone you know may be experiencing a mental health crisis, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by dialing or texting “988.”

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Adriana Pentz’s brother could be alive today.

In 2017, Luc-John Pentz was 30 years old and starting to struggle, burdened by life’s stressors and trying to cope by leaning heavily on...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- As thick clouds of smoke rolled across Los Angeles in early January, Allison Shultz opened a freezer and took out a stash of pristine white pigeon feathers.

The ornithology curator at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County placed handfuls of feathers between two small screens and clipped them together with zip ties. She...Read more

Researchers racing to develop bird flu vaccines for humans have turned to a cutting-edge technology that enabled the rapid development of lifesaving covid shots.

There’s a catch: The mRNA technology faces growing doubts among Republicans, including people around President Donald Trump.

Legislation aimed to ban or limit mRNA vaccines was ...Read more

Among the thousands of federal workers who’ve been forced out or taken buyouts in the past month, surely some would be perfect fits for the many vacancies in Pennsylvania’s state government.

That, at least, is the thinking of Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, who recently directed his state to not only offer aid to laid-off constituents, but ...Read more

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that the government will deport lawful permanent residents who support Hamas and came to the U.S. as students with an intent “to rile up all kinds of anti-Jewish student, antisemitic activities,” referencing the Palestinian rights protests at universities in 2024.

“And if you end up having...Read more

China said it has forcefully cracked down on the fentanyl trade and condemned President Donald Trump’s tariffs, as the world’s two largest economies remain at odds over the conditions for any talks to cool tensions.

Officials from China’s Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Public Security said in a briefing on Wednesday the country has ...Read more

Boston Public Schools has not made significant improvements for student outcomes despite an agreement made with the state five years ago, the nonprofit organization Boston Policy Institute found in a new report.

“The study finds that while the intervention prompted BPS to address long-standing operational and administrative deficiencies, it ...Read more

The Department of Homeland Security issued a notice on Wednesday requiring millions of immigrants to register their presence in the United States with the federal government or face stiff penalties.

Those who must register include people who entered the U.S. without being processed by immigration authorities as well as Canadians without ...Read more

DENVER — Nearly 26 years later, the Columbine High School massacre officially claimed another life.

The Jefferson County Coroner’s Office, in a newly completed autopsy report, ruled last month’s death of Anne Marie Hochhalter, a 43-year-old paralyzed in the 1999 shooting, was a homicide.

Hochhalter died of sepsis, with complications from...Read more

RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein told the General Assembly during his first State of the State address on Wednesday evening that he’s ready to sign the next Helene recovery bill.

He also told lawmakers he wants to cut taxes on middle-class families but freeze other planned tax cuts, and that he will launch his own ...Read more

MIAMI — A former member of the Cuban intelligence agency was arrested on Wednesday by federal agents who said he fraudulently obtained a green card to live legally in the United States.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced the man’s arrest but did not disclose his name.

Nestor Yglesias, a spokesman for Homeland Security ...Read more

Emine Emanet walked free from a New Jersey immigrant-detention center and into the arms of her family on Wednesday, two weeks and a day after she and her husband were arrested by ICE agents at their Haddon Township restaurant.

The Jersey Kebab owner hugged her eldest son, Muhammed, and then her husband, Celal, raising her arms and crying out as...Read more

NEW YORK —Political bigwigs and common community folks filled a Harlem church on Wednesday to bid a rousing farewell to civil rights icon Hazel Dukes, 92, the longtime NAACP leader who died earlier this month without ever taking a break from the struggle.

Right up until the end, speaker after speaker said, Dukes was on the front line, ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Three people have been arrested and charged with fraudulently trying to obtain tens of thousands of dollars in federal disaster-relief money by falsely claiming their properties were destroyed in the Eaton and Palisades wildfires, federal authorities announced Wednesday.

Joyce Turner, a 55-year-old Texas resident; Tyrone D. ...Read more