NEW YORK — A push to digitize the entrance exam to New York City’s specialized high schools is reigniting a long-standing debate over a process that relies on a single test to admit students.

Ahead of the next round of testing, the city has proposed ditching bubble sheets to develop a computer-based version of the Specialized High Schools ...Read more

A new Gold Rush is taking shape on a quiet stretch of Kansas prairie. There, a clutch of startups backed by the likes of Bill Gates are searching below the surface for naturally occurring hydrogen, a fuel that can generate power without adding to climate change.

Finding it in vast quantities would revolutionize the energy transition. But the ...Read more

Indiana residents and federal officials are urging state health regulators to stop two rival hospitals in Terre Haute from merging. The deal, if approved, would leave residents with a hospital monopoly.

Union Health, a nonprofit whose main hospital is licensed as a 341-bed facility, would buy the county’s only other acute care hospital, the ...Read more

LAS VEGAS — Hanging on Judy Reiber’s kitchen wall is a photo of a particularly bad snowstorm that finally convinced her it was time to leave Colorado. What she didn’t know then was that the Nevada heat would kill her.

Reiber is only one of at least 402 people who have died from heat-related illnesses this summer, marking the deadliest ...Read more

Mexico is looking beyond the incoming Trump administration’s threats of tariffs, betting on a bright future for global merchandise trade no matter what actions its northern neighbor and biggest trading partner takes.

While Donald Trump promises 60% levies on goods imported from China and 20% on the rest of the world, Mexico is making a ...Read more

The Australian government won’t proceed with legislation that would have forced social media sites to crack down on misinformation on their platforms after failing to win enough cross-party support.

“Based on public statements and engagements with Senators, it is clear that there is no pathway to legislate this proposal through the Senate,�...Read more

CHICAGO — During her arrest earlier this month for driving under the influence of alcohol after crashing a car in Uptown, Cook County Board of Review Commissioner Samantha Steele repeatedly told police officers she was an elected official, made crude comments about one of the arresting officers and refused to cooperate with officer requests, ...Read more

BOSTON — Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley says a bill that would eliminate federal DEI programs is an “utter disgrace,” demanding Republicans who back the legislation not to quote Martin Luther King, Jr.

If approved, the “Dismantle DEI Act of 2024” would ban diversity, equity and inclusion programs within the federal government and ...Read more

Nearly 200 countries agreed to triple the amount of money available to help developing countries confront rapidly warming temperatures.

But the deal reached at the close of the two-week COP29 summit in Azerbaijan resulted from fractious and at times openly hostile negotiations, producing an agreement that even its supporters may see as ...Read more

Donald Trump is returning to the White House after one of the most remarkable political comebacks in U.S. history. His side hustle as the frontman for a fledgling high-end watch brand, however, is less of a success so far.

The majority of the $100,000 wristwatches endorsed by and featuring the name of the U.S. president-elect have yet to be ...Read more

SEATTLE — More than 95,000 customers in the region remained without power Saturday, four days after a deadly bomb cyclone battered Western Washington.

Deadly, easterly winds of up to 74 mph hit Tuesday, leaving more than half a million customers without power, injuring dozens and killing two people.

The storm’s aftermath has left ...Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Sunny skies on Saturday morning gave Bay Area residents a break from the two days of heavy rains that pounded the region, breaking daily rainfall records in cities from Santa Rosa to San Jose.

“We still are going to have rain these next few days, but it’s nothing like what we went through,” said meteorologist Dylan ...Read more

Poland’s ruling party chose Warsaw’s mayor as its candidate in next year’s presidential election, as Prime Minister Donald Tusk seeks an ally to help deliver on his legislative agenda.

Rafal Trzaskowski won the primaries among Civic Platform party members with 75% of votes against 25% for his opponent, Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, ...Read more

NEW YORK — The look of the city is about to change dramatically: Under new city regulations, the outdoor dining sheds that have become a distinctive part of the post-COVID landscape must come down by the end of the week.

Restaurants willing to meet new, tougher rules for the setups can put them back up in the spring — but many have chosen ...Read more

ATLANTA — Two corporate landlords with portfolios of Georgia rental homes are accused of violating fair housing laws through a “blanket ban” on people with criminal histories, according to an Indiana-based housing group.

Federal class action lawsuits filed Wednesday against Progress Residential and Tricon Residential allege the companies ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump picked Brooke Rollins as U.S. secretary of agriculture, tapping a member of his first-term White House team and elevating another loyalist to his incoming administration.

Rollins’ commitment to supporting farmers, food self-sufficiency and the restoration of agriculture-dependent American small ...Read more

Nearly 200 countries agreed to triple the amount of money available to help developing countries confront rapidly warming temperatures.

But the deal reached at the close of the two-week COP29 summit in Azerbaijan resulted from fractious and at times openly hostile negotiations, producing an agreement that even its supporters may see as ...Read more

COP29 host Azerbaijan released a final draft of a climate finance deal, calling on rich nations to commit at least $300 billion a year in climate financing to the developing world.

The draft, which came early Sunday morning in Baku, set the stage for a hard-won financing agreement after two weeks of fraught negotiations.

The final funding ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — For more than 15 years, one of the world's most famous gemstones — the 180,000-carat Bahia Emerald — has been held in Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department custody, its ultimate fate uncertain amid more than a decade of discord, disagreement and courtroom wrangling.

Now, a federal judge has ruled that the smuggled stone ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump selected Brooke Rollins, who heads a policy institute created to promote his agenda, as his nominee for U.S. secretary of agriculture.

Rollins’ commitment to supporting farmers, food self-sufficiency and the restoration of agriculture-dependent American small towns “is second to none,” Trump ...Read more