LOS ANGELES — At least 90 people have been infected with E. coli in a multistate outbreak that health officials say likely stems from onions served on McDonald's Quarter Pounders and could see the fast food chain taken to court.

At least 27 people have been hospitalized, two have developed dangerous kidney complications and one person in ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Rancho Santa Margarita Mayor Carol Gamble, a founding member of the city's first council in 2000, will plead guilty to making a false affidavit on paperwork she filed to get on the ballot, according to Orange County Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer.

Wednesday's announcement comes a week after Fullerton City Council candidate Scott ...Read more

Every four years, national media turn their attention to the Rust Belt, a term that describes Midwestern industrial and manufacturing states whose economies were decimated by the decline of those industries in the 1970s. This region contains the coveted states of Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

Many rural parts of these ...Read more

In the 2024 election, the two major-party campaigns and many news reporters are spending a lot of time talking about independent voters – those who are neither aligned with the Republican Party nor the Democratic Party. Despite the power that political independents are anticipated to have over the election results, there’s a lot that ...Read more

Sixty-four years ago this November, public schools in New Orleans began to desegregate. School buildings once designated as “white” opened their doors to Black students. The integration process, which deeply divided the city, was led by four first-grade girls.

Tessie Prevost, Leona Tate and Gail Etienne were the first Black ...Read more

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — It’s an innovation that just a few years ago was so uncontroversial hardly anyone noticed: A voting system allowing people to move more quickly through early voting lines and reduce the chance of making a mistake that could invalidate a vote. The setup drew a universally positive response in comment cards filled out ...Read more

TAIPEI, Taiwan — China's 1.4 billion consumers once spent with enough abandon to help drive the global economy. Now one of the hottest topics on Chinese social media is how to save money.

"The main thing is just not to starve to death," one video blogger advised in a post detailing how she subsisted on snack samples and free meals from ...Read more

Two major state programs to combat illegal cannabis recently sent out news releases lauding their collective seizures of some $544 million worth of illicit weed.

But when it comes to reining in California's sprawling black market, experts say it's just a drop in the bucket.

Those in the thick of the fight against illegal pot, like Mendocino ...Read more

As U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken traversed Haiti’s gang-controlled capital in early September, a sinister plot was unfolding.

On the afternoon of Sept. 5, a man driving a motorcycle was fatally shot next to a hospital not far from the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince, in what has been described by authorities as an extrajudicial police...Read more

LOS ANGELES — To investigators at the scene of Polly Klaas' abduction in early October 1993, the story strained belief. A thick-bearded stranger had entered the 12-year-old girl's room while she was hosting a Friday night sleepover. He had a knife. He told the three girls he would slit their throats if they screamed.

He tied their hands using...Read more

Five NC State parks damaged by Hurricane Helene will reopen, at least partially, on Friday.

The soon-to-open parks are: Grandfather Mountain, Gorges, Crowders Mountain, Lake Norman and Rendezvous Mountain.

The state closed all North Carolina parks west of I-77 after Helene struck Sept. 26, noting that each would reopen after the damage could ...Read more

MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif. — Emily Markstein, a sinewy rock climber and skier who has spent seven years living and working in the Sierra resort town of Mammoth Lakes, opens a large sliding door and welcomes a stranger into her home.

One of the gleaming multimillion-dollar mansions nestled among towering pine trees and granite peaks in this ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Fewer Los Angeles County voters are turning in early ballots compared to the last presidential race, but officials said Tuesday that given the heated national election they are stepping up security measures to prevent voter tampering or intimidation.

There have been "no credible threats here in Los Angeles County to polling ...Read more

The president’s attempt to call out a Trump-rally speaker’s comments regarding Puerto Rico has backfired in spectacular fashion.

President Joe Biden’s late-game unforced error came in response to comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s Sunday appearance at former President Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally in New York City, where ...Read more

North Korea fired a suspected intercontinental ballistic missile toward waters off its east coast, further raising tensions in the region after the U.S. warned that its dispatch of troops to Russia could widen the war in Ukraine.

The missile was fired at a lofted angle from an area near Pyongyang early Thursday, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of ...Read more

MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s Lower House voted to shield changes to the constitution from being impacted by Supreme Court decisions, days before a meeting of the top court to review a controversial overhaul of the country’s judiciary.

The ruling coalition approved Wednesday a constitutional amendment in the Lower House to protect the government...Read more

PITTSBURGH — The Mt. Lebanon School District will not appeal a court ruling that said parent rights were violated when a first-grade teacher read two books with transgender characters and did not give parents the chance to opt their children out of the lesson, a new court filing shows.

In all, the district of almost 5,500 students elected to ...Read more