Isaret Jeffers doesn’t have millions of followers. But she has enough to feel like she’s doing something valuable.

Hours before Hurricane Milton hit Florida, Jeffers, a community activist who works with the Hispanic population and farmworkers in Plant City, rushed to post in Spanish on her Facebook account that there was still time to ...Read more

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A group of anti-abortion advocates are trying to force Florida’s abortion amendment off the ballot this November or void any votes cast for it, citing a report from the administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis that said there was “widespread” fraud in the petition gathering for the effort.

A lawsuit filed Wednesday in the...Read more

LOS ANGELES — In what could be the closing chapter in a landmark legal battle, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to pay $880 million to victims of clergy sexual abuse dating back decades in the largest settlement involving the Catholic Church.

Attorneys for 1,353 people who allege that they suffered horrific abuse at the hands of ...Read more

LAS VEGAS — The brother of Las Vegas Review-Journal investigative reporter Jeff German spoke calmly on Wednesday, before a judge decided how long former Clark County Public Administrator Robert Telles will spend in prison until he is eligible for parole for killing the journalist.

“We have a lot of anxiety about the future safety of our ...Read more

Israel stepped up airstrikes on Lebanon and said a senior Hezbollah commander in the south of the country had been killed, the latest escalation of its conflict with the Iran-backed militant group.

The Israeli military reported the assassination of Hezbollah’s head of the Qana area on Wednesday. Lebanese officials said Israeli strikes on the ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday cleared the way for a climate-change rule adopted by the Biden administration that would force coal-fired power plants to cut their carbon pollution 90% by 2032 or shut down.

By a 7-1 vote, the court rejected a series of emergency appeals from Republican-led states and the coal and electric power ...Read more

CHICAGO — The brother of James Weiss, the politically connected business owner convicted of bribing two state elected officials, was sentenced to two months in jail Wednesday for lying to federal investigators about his brother’s mob contacts, including connections to notorious Outfit hit man Frank “The German” Schweihs.

Joseph “Joey�...Read more

NEW YORK — A lawyer for Long Island serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann is seeking a hearing to challenge the use of what he called “faulty” DNA evidence that he said was analyzed by a dubious West Coast crime lab.

Much of the evidence against Heuermann, 61, an architect from Massapequa charged with six murders, is from DNA, and the ...Read more

It’s been nearly a decade since the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide, but on Election Day California voters will decide whether to enshrine that right into the state’s constitution.

Proposition 3 would effectively repeal 2008’s controversial Proposition 8, which attempted to ban same-sex marriage in the state. The...Read more

NEW YORK — A 69-year-old Brooklyn man died when he was trapped in his apartment early Wednesday by a fire sparked by an exploding e-bike battery, FDNY officials said.

The victim was killed by the blaze that broke out about 3:40 a.m. Wednesday in his second-floor apartment on Brighton 3rd St. near Brightwater Court in Brighton Beach.

FDNY ...Read more

ORLANDO — The National Hurricane Center lowered its outlook Wednesday that an Atlantic system approaching the Caribbean will develop into the season’s next tropical depression or storm, while also keeping tabs on a second system already in the Caribbean.

As of the NHC’s 2 p.m. tropical outlook, the broad area of low pressure in the ...Read more

Sean “Diddy” Combs is being sued by a woman who claims she was gang-raped after saying she believed the embattled music mogul had something to do with the 1996 murder of rapper Tupac Shakur.

Ashley Parham alleges in her civil suit that her first encounter with Combs came in 2018 when a friend of Diddy’s she met in a bar connected them via...Read more

WASHINGTON — Drug overdose deaths dropped a record amount during the past year, according to provisional data the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released Wednesday.

The CDC reported that 94,758 individuals died because of drug overdoses in the 12-month period ending May 2024 — a 15 percent drop from the previous 12-month period....Read more

RALEIGH, N.C. — The parents of a girl killed at Raleigh’s 2022 Christmas parade is now suing the city and two special events employees for failing to safely plan and manage the event.

The lawsuit filed by Trey and April Brooks claims trailers used in the parade were unsafe, the parade emergency plan was inadequate, and employees of the city...Read more

ATLANTA — The Fulton County District Attorney’s Office is asking the Georgia Court of Appeals to reinstate six criminal charges against Donald Trump and five of his codefendants in the election-interference case.

In a brief filed Tuesday, the DA’s office asked the appellate court to overturn a March decision by Superior Court Judge Scott ...Read more

MIAMI — South Florida streets could be underwater this week, without a tropical storm or hurricane in sight.

The next few days mark one of the highest tides of the year, known as a king tide. That tide could be strengthened by offshore winds blowing more water ashore, plus a drizzle of rain on already-soggy ground.

“Tide forecasts show ...Read more

A couple’s wedding night turned “tragic” when the groom was shot to death in front of his bride, loved ones told news outlets.

Tyrek Burton, 37, was outside a North Carolina wedding venue when he was killed during a possible road-rage incident late Saturday, Oct. 12, the Greensboro Police Department wrote in a news release and told TV ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court justices sounded closely split Wednesday on San Francisco's dispute with the Environmental Protection Agency over how to stop polluted water from flowing into the Pacific Ocean during heavy storms.

At issue was a technical dispute over the language used in permits issued by EPA.

The case poses the question: Can...Read more

CHICAGO — A day and a half of intensive questioning yielded no new jurors by midday Wednesday in the corruption trial of Michael Madigan, as the already sluggish pace of jury selection slowed to a crawl.

From Tuesday morning to midday Wednesday, 18 prospective jurors were questioned, some of whom were on the witness stand for 45 minutes or ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Elon Musk's SpaceX is suing the California Coastal Commission, just days after the agency tasked with protecting the state's coast and beaches rejected a plan for the company to launch up 50 rockets into space this year.

In the federal suit, filed Tuesday in the Central District of California, the company accuses the state ...Read more