WASHINGTON — Jimmy Carter ended his one-term presidency in defeat. For years he was derided as a weak leader.

But over time a fundamental shift took place in how Carter was regarded, fueled by his decades of post-presidential good works and the enduring power of his White House achievements.

Perhaps more than any single post-World War II ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump appears ready to let Senate and House Republicans settle their differences over budget reconciliation strategy without putting his thumb on the scales for either the all-in-one measure brewing in the House or the Senate’s bifurcated approach.

Trump met with Senate Republicans on Wednesday night ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Friends, family and even a long-deceased former rival honored Jimmy Carter on Thursday at the late president’s state funeral at Washington National Cathedral.

The eulogies — two written years ago before the authors themselves died — all served, in part, as subtle rebukes to the current political climate, emphasizing Carter�...Read more

The oceans are heating up as the planet warms.

This past year, 2024, was the warmest ever measured for the global ocean, following a record-breaking 2023. In fact, every decade since 1984, when satellite recordkeeping of ocean temperatures started, has been warmer than the previous one.

A warmer ocean means increased ...Read more

“We take nothing by conquest…Thank God,” wrote the National Intelligencer and Washington Advertiser, an influential Washington newspaper, in February 1847.

The United States had just purchased 55 per cent of Mexico for US$15 million as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The pact concluded the bloody Mexican-American War, ...Read more

When wildfires spread into neighborhoods, they burn all kinds of materials found in cars and houses and everything around them – electronics, paint, plastics, furniture.

Research shows that the mix of chemicals released when human-made materials like these burn is different from what is emitted during a vegetation fire and is ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — At least 20 people have been arrested on suspicion of looting during the wildfires raging in Los Angeles, according to officials.

L.A. Supervisor Kathryn Barger said during a Thursday news conference that people have been arrested by L.A. County Sheriff's deputies in evacuated zones.

"I promise you, you will be held accountable...Read more

NEW YORK — New York’s highest court on Thursday rejected Donald Trump’s effort to stop his sentencing from going ahead Friday, leaving the matter in the hands of the Supreme Court.

In a letter to Trump’s attorney, Todd Blanche, a New York Court of Appeals clerk said Associate Judge Jenny Rivera had reviewed a proposed order that Trump�...Read more

CHICAGO — Attorneys have proposed a $7.5 million payout to settle the first of more than 150 federal lawsuits alleging phony arrests by corrupt ex-Chicago police Sgt. Ronald Watts and his team, records show.

Ben Baker sued Watts and the city in 2016, alleging the longtime tactical sergeant in charge of the Ida B. Wells housing complex pinned ...Read more

ATLANTA — More than two inches of snow fell in metro Atlanta on a Friday in January, 11 years ago. It began late in the morning, when hundreds of thousands of students were in schools and many of the region’s 2.6 million workers were in their places of employment.

And on that day — Jan. 28, 2014 — almost everyone tried to go home around...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles fire officials said Thursday that “thousands” of homes appear to have been damaged or destroyed in the firestorm in Pacific Palisades, an estimate that would significantly heighten the scale of the disaster.

Officials are still trying to do a complete count of the losses but said preliminary estimates are grim. ...Read more

Snow is now expected to reach the Kansas City metro from a winter storm pushing across the southern United States overnight Thursday, according to the National Weather Service.

While initial forecasts indicated the metro would likely only see a dusting with minimal overall impacts, the weather service reported that Kansas City’s chance of ...Read more

If a wildfire has been 100 percent contained, does that mean it’s out? What about controlled?

What do those containment percentages in daily fire updates mean, anyway?

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection uses a variety of technical firefighting terms in its incident reports on wildfires burning across the state — ...Read more

ATLANTA — Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is asking the Georgia Supreme Court to overturn the lower court opinion that removed her from the 2020 election interference case involving incoming President Donald Trump and more than a dozen others.

In a Wednesday court filing, Willis’ office argued that the Georgia Court of Appeals ...Read more

ATLANTA — Gov. Brian Kemp has issued a state of emergency ahead of the severe winter weather expected to start in metro Atlanta in the overnight hours, though forecasts are now calling for less snow to reach the area.

Still, freezing temperatures could lead to slick, hazardous road conditions.

The state of emergency, which coincides with one...Read more

ATLANTA — In 2020, former Atlanta Mayor Kiesha Lance Bottoms called the creation of the Office of Inspector General a step to ensure the city has “the strongest safeguards possible to prevent corruption in City Hall.”

Officials were reeling at the time from investigations into the city’s innerworkings by multiple federal agencies. And ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Santa Ana winds are infamous for driving fast-moving fires in Southern California, pushing embers well beyond a blaze’s boundary and into neighborhoods and across major roadways.

But officials say the winds that fueled devastating fires in three parts of Los Angeles County were much more erratic and unpredictable than a ...Read more