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President Yoon's security chief quits as new arrest bid looms

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South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s security chief resigned Friday, a week after leading a team that blocked an attempt to arrest the impeached president over his short-lived imposition of martial law.

Park Chong-jun offered to resign earlier in the day as he appeared for police questioning over alleged obstruction of duties last week. His...Read more

Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Death toll in Los Angeles wildfires rises to 10, officials report

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LOS ANGELES — The confirmed death toll in the Los Angeles wildfires doubled Thursday night — from five fatalities to 10.

The office of the Los Angeles County medical examiner announced it was investigating 10 fire-related deaths as of 9 p.m. Thursday. No information was available on the identity of the deceased or the location of the deaths...Read more

Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Firefighters battle to protect NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Mt. Wilson

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Officials said they are making progress in protecting two key institutions from the Eaton fire.

Don Fregulia, an operations section chief for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, which has joined in the Eaton fire response, said that efforts to protect Mt. Wilson had proved successful and he expected that to remain the ...Read more

Brandon Bell/Getty Images North America/TNS

The warning signs to notice if someone is freezing to death

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You don’t have to actually freeze to death in order to die of cold.

And according to the Mayo Clinic, people who are dying of cold usually don’t realize it.

As sleet, snow or cold rainfall is expected in metro Atlanta on Friday amid freezing temperatures, Southerners who aren’t used to these conditions need to be careful to protect their...Read more

Scott Olson/Getty Images North America/TNS

Trump's immigration plans could imperil long-term care workforce

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WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump’s vowed crackdown on immigration could strain an already struggling elder care workforce that relies on foreign-born workers in nursing homes and home health settings.

Industry players and experts argue that increasing the long-term care workforce requires more immigration, and Trump’s plans could...Read more

Jessica Ebelhar/Las Vegas Review-Journal/TNS

Southern Nevada's desert tortoises getting help to cross the road

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Long before Southern Nevada built its winding highways, desert tortoises roamed freely without consequence. For these federally protected animals, crossing the street without a dedicated path could mean a death sentence.

Along a 34-mile stretch of U.S. Highway 93 near Coyote Springs, fencing and underground tortoise crossings will allow for ...Read more

Renée C. Byer/rbyer@sacbee.com/The Sacramento Bee/TNS

Full-day Head Start preschool program expands income eligibility

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Each day after outside play time, preschool teacher Dometila Casillas sits her classroom of 3- to 5-year-olds down on a rug to read a story together. Wednesday, she read “The Very Hungry Caterpillar.”

Each time the initially tiny insect eats an additional piece of fruit, Casillas asks the kids, “guess what?”

“He was still very hungry...Read more

Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune/TNS

Bird deaths plummet at Chicago's McCormick Place Lakeside Center after safety film installed

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CHICAGO — For more than 40 years, migrating birds have been crashing into McCormick Place Lakeside Center.

The glassy, low-lying convention building on the shores of Lake Michigan has been the scene of about 1,000 deadly collisions per year, according to Dave Willard, retired Field Museum bird division collections manager.

In 2023, the death...Read more

Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times/TNS

More than 9,000 structures damaged or destroyed in Palisades and Eaton fires, officials estimate

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LOS ANGELES — Officials said Thursday that at least 10 people were killed and more than 9,000 homes, businesses and other buildings appeared to have been damaged or destroyed in the Palisades and Eaton fires.

Around 5,300 of these structures were destroyed in the Palisades fire, while another 4,000 to 5,000 structures were estimated to be ...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Scam targets New Yorkers, steals $2.2M in cryptocurrency through fake job offers

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A team of tech-savvy scam artists stole millions in a nation-wide cryptocurrency con that duped unsuspecting victims, including some in New York, searching for remote work into transferring money in the fraudsters’ digital wallets, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced Thursday.

The network of scammers cold-texted their victims, ...Read more

SUSAN WALSH/Getty Images North America/TNS

Trump special counsel report release left in limbo by court

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WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court won’t block Attorney General Merrick Garland from releasing a special counsel’s report detailing the findings of his criminal investigations into President-elect Donald Trump.

But in a Thursday order rejecting requests by Trump and his former co-defendants to stop the report from becoming public, the ...Read more

Jason Getz/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution/TNS

Georgia's Barrow County to install weapons detectors after Apalachee High gun arrest

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ATLANTA — After weeks of pressure from parents and students, and the arrest of a 14-year-old student who allegedly had a weapon at Apalachee High School this week, the Barrow County Board of Education voted Thursday to install weapons detectors in its high schools.

District leaders intended to discuss safety recommendations later this month, ...Read more

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Donald Trump says meeting with Putin is being arranged

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WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump said a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin is being set up.

At a meeting with Republican governors at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, the incoming president told a reporter that Putin “wants to meet” and added, “we’re gonna — we’re setting it up.” Any such meeting, were it to happen...Read more

Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times/TNS

He was the first to report the Palisades fire. He's still battling to save his home

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LOS ANGELES — Nick Libonati was drinking Turkish tea with his sister on Tuesday morning as he started his day in Pacific Palisades.

She leaned over to pour the 21-year-old boot salesman more tea in their home office when she glanced out the window.

“She screams, ‘Fire!’” Libonati recalled.

The Los Angeles Fire Department has said ...Read more

Nancy Lane/Boston Herald/TNS

Illegal immigrant in Massachusetts indicted for repeated rape of child under 10

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BOSTON — An illegal immigrant with a criminal record living in Lowell is in jail on $1 million bail after being charged with raping a girl in Massachusetts beginning when she was 5 years old.

Maynor Francisco Hernandez-Rodas, 38, a citizen of Guatemala, according to the Suffolk District Attorney’s office, faces four counts of aggravated ...Read more

Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Why hydrants ran dry as firefighters battled California's deadly fires

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LOS ANGELES — As crews have fought the fast-spreading fires across the Los Angeles area, they have repeatedly been hampered by low water pressure and fire hydrants that have gone dry. These problems have exposed what experts say are vulnerabilities in city water-supply systems not built for wildfires on this scale.

The water system that ...Read more

MATIAS J. OCNER/Miami Herald/TNS

Critics 'appalled' as real estate developer offers to give away prehistoric relics found in Florida

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MIAMI — The Related Group real estate development company has offered to donate hundreds of thousands of ancient artifacts and other relics unearthed at the site of a long-buried Native American town in Brickell to universities across the country — drawing sharp rebukes from archaeologists, some Native American activists and at least one of ...Read more

Federico Parra/AFP/GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/TNS

Venezuelan government frees opposition leader María Corina Machado after violent detention

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The Venezuelan government released opposition leader María Corina Machado on Thursday after capturing her in a violent raid in which shots were fired and drones were used to pinpoint her location, members of her team told the Miami Herald.

Machado, deemed as the top leader of the Venezuelan opposition, was expected to appear on video Thursday ...Read more

Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images North America/TNS

'We're not going anywhere': Biden says federal government will cover 100% of disaster aid

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WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden pledged Thursday that the federal government will cover 100% of disaster assistance costs to California for the next 180 days and emphatically tied the devastating wildfires to human-caused climate change.

Biden referenced a phrase from the poem “Easter, 1916” by poet William Butler Yeats, who wrote, “...Read more

Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images North America/TNS

Vice President Kamala Harris cancels overseas trip to focus on wildfire response

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WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris is canceling a three-nation overseas trip to remain in the U.S. and assist in the federal response to the catastrophic wildfires in her home state of California.

“In response to the historic wildfires in Los Angeles, the vice president has made the decision to cancel her and the second gentleman’s...Read more