South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law on Tuesday in an emergency national address televised live as he accused the opposition of trying to paralyze the administration amid a deepening political rift.

Yoon said the decision was made to protect freedom and constitutional order, and that it will not have an impact on South ...Read more

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Missouri voters must continue to show photo ID at the polls, but a series of restrictions on voter registration drives cannot be enforced, under a pair of court decisions that ensures legal fights over the state’s elections will continue.

In twin rulings last week, Cole County Circuit Court Judge Jon Beetem upheld a 2022 ...Read more

SEATTLE — The federal government can continue using King County-owned Boeing Field to conduct deportation flights despite county objections, a federal appeals court ruled last week, clearing a possible local impediment to President-elect Donald Trump's promised mass deportations.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers nine Western ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats on Tuesday approved their leadership team for the next Congress, with Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar elevated to the No. 3 spot as the chair of the Steering and Policy Committee.

She joins New York Sen. Charles E. Schumer, who will continue to lead the soon-to-be minority party for a fifth term, and Illinois Sen. ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court hears oral arguments Wednesday in a dispute over a Tennessee ban on certain medical treatments for transgender children, in a case that could set the boundaries on gender identity policies for states and Congress.

The state’s law prohibits prescription of puberty blockers, hormones and surgery for minors, but ...Read more

French lawmakers will hold a no-confidence vote Wednesday, with far-right leader Marine Le Pen expected to join forces with a left-wing coalition to topple the government.

Prime Minister Michel Barnier used a constitutional mechanism on Monday to force through an unpopular budget, leading to a leftist coalition and Le Pen’s National Rally to ...Read more

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The woman on the telephone, Sylvia — too frightened to want her last name revealed — entered the United States illegally 20 years ago when she was 13, brought across the southern border by her mother, fleeing domestic abuse.

Her memories of Guatemala are faint.

Now, 33, with two teenage sons of her own, born as ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Russell Vought is well-known on Capitol Hill and thus far at least looks like a shoo-in to be confirmed as President-elect Donald Trump’s budget director, as he was during Trump’s first term on a party-line vote in 2020.

The hard-charging Vought is a revered figure on the right with his pledges to upend the “deep state” ...Read more

Within days of Donald Trump’s election victory, health care entrepreneur Calley Means turned to social media to crowdsource advice.

“First 100 days,” said Means, a former consultant to Big Pharma who uses the social platform X to focus attention on chronic disease. “What should be done to reform the FDA?”

The question was more than ...Read more

BALTIMORE — Cannabis-related emergency room visits are on a downward trend in Carroll County, according to Maryland Department of Health statistics.

The health department’s interactive dashboard, which debuted last week, displays data for cannabis-related emergency room visits since 2019. The data are based on visits when the patient’s ...Read more

In mid-May, Mandi Rokx had a 3-month-old baby and a letter from a Florida agency warning that they both would be cut from Medicaid, the health insurance program for people with low incomes or disabilities.

Under a Florida law passed in 2021, Rokx was supposed to receive 12 months of continuous coverage after giving birth. But the letter from ...Read more

Weeks before Election Day, more than 150 volunteers boarded early morning buses in Sacramento and traveled east, through the towering mountains of the Humboldt–Toiyabe National Forest and across the Nevada border to convince voters to approve a ballot measure that they, as Californians, could not vote on themselves.

When the group of mostly ...Read more

BALTIMORE – Given that more than $1 of every $10 in wages paid in Maryland comes from the U.S. government, many residents will be closely watching to see whether President-elect Donald Trump’s administration moves to fullfill his campaign promise of cutting back on the federal workforce and relocating some agencies from the DMV to other ...Read more

Nearly a fifth of office space across the country sits empty, a record high vacancy rate that’s expected to keep growing.

Seeking both to boost their economies and ease their housing shortages, cities are taking steps to encourage the conversion of unused office space into much-needed housing. They include reductions in approval times, ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California lawmakers have a duty to balance taking on the incoming Trump administration with making the state a more affordable place to live, Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas said Monday.

Rivas, who was again elected speaker by his Democratic colleagues at the start of a new legislative session, called housing affordability...Read more