SACRAMENTO, Calif. — In a rare rebuke of the state’s corrections department, an independent prison oversight office said the department erred in not dismissing a high-ranking administrator who tried to silence a subordinate after making repeated sexual and racist comments to her.

After a hiring authority dismissed the corrections ...Read more

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the newly expanded BRICS group showed that a “multipolar world” is being created, in a challenge to the U.S.-dominated global order.

BRICS “meets the aspirations of the main part of the international community, the so-called world majority,” Putin said Wednesday at the formal opening of the leaders�...Read more

LOS ANGELES — To one group, UCLA has become a hotbed of antisemitism and anti-Israeli bias, a campus led by an administration that has not taken enough action to address pro-Palestinian demonstrations that violate university rules and veer into anti-Jewish tropes and slogans.

To another, the university has become a site of repression against ...Read more

Federal prosecutors on Wednesday are expected to play a first wave of nearly 200 secretly recorded conversations in the landmark corruption trial of former House Speaker Michael Madigan, including series of calls between the powerful speaker and his associates allegedly plotting the ouster of then-state Rep. Lou Lang in 2019.

Lang, a Skokie ...Read more

CHICAGO — For Edwin Galletti, voting is not just about a voter’s personal political feelings. It’s very much about contributing to the collective voice of the people, he said at a rally in North Lawndale Tuesday morning.

And, “today, North Lawndale is speaking,” said Galletti, a vice president of UCAN, a social service agency that has...Read more

Beef is one of America’s most beloved foods. In fact, today’s average American eats three hamburgers per week.

American diets have long revolved around beef. On an 1861 trip to the United States, the English novelist Anthony Trollope marveled that Americans consumed twice as much beef as Englishmen. Through war, industry, ...Read more

During a campaign speech in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, on Oct. 19, 2024, Donald Trump promised to save the country from immigrants: “I will rescue every town across America that has been invaded and conquered, and we will put these vicious and bloodthirsty criminals in a jail or kick them out of our country.”

Depicting immigrants as a...Read more

In just about any discussion of a poll about the very close presidential race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, you’ll hear the phrase “within the poll’s margin of error.” Those words signal that it is a tight race with no clear leader, even if one of them has a slightly larger percentage of ...Read more

For all its prominence as a key battleground state, North Carolina hasn’t done much swinging in U.S. presidential elections.

The last time a majority of North Carolinians voted for a Democratic candidate was 2008 for Barack Obama. The time before that was 1976 for Jimmy Carter. In the past 12 presidential elections, Republicans have...Read more

Homelessness has surged across the United States in recent years, rising 19% from 2016 though 2023. The main cause is a severe shortage of affordable housing. Rising homelessness has renewed debates about use of public space and how encampments affect public safety.

The U.S. Supreme Court recently weighed in on these debates with its ...Read more

The legacy of slavery in America remains a divisive issue, with sharp political divides.

Some argue that slavery still contributes to modern economic inequalities. Others believe its effects have largely faded.

One way to measure the legacy of slavery is to determine whether the disproportionate riches of slaveholders have ...Read more

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Big Medicare changes will go into effect in 2025, giving Floridians more reason to sift through plans and make smart choices.

The 5.1 million Floridians who qualify for Medicare will have from Oct. 15 through Dec. 7 to choose original Medicare or one of the Medicare Advantage plans offered in their county.

Changes to ...Read more

When Pam McClure learned she’d save nearly $4,000 on her prescription drugs next year, she said, “it sounded too good to be true.” She and her husband are both retired and live on a “very strict” budget in central North Dakota.

By the end of this year, she will have spent almost $6,000 for her medications, including a drug to control ...Read more

STONE MOUNTAIN, Ga. — As principal of Dunaire Elementary School, Sean Deas has seen firsthand the struggles faced by children living in extended-stay hotels. About 10% of students at his school, just east of Atlanta, live in one.

The children, Deas said, often have been exposed to violence on hotel properties, exhibit aggression or anxiety ...Read more

OMAHA, Neb. – Republican Rep. Don Bacon stood in his campaign office tucked behind a busy commercial stretch on the city’s outskirts and pondered his place on the political spectrum.

Democrats say he’s a committed member of former President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement, while some of his fellow Republicans dismiss him as “a commie ...Read more

TAMPA BAY, Fla. — Florida’s largest open water estuary and the millions of people who have built their lives around it barely had enough time to detox from the last hurricane-fueled wave of pollution before the next one hit.

Just as the Tampa Bay area was cleaning the mess from Hurricane Helene, along came Milton. The hurricane double-...Read more

NEW YORK — New York State leads the nation in rat-infested cities with five, including third-ranked New York City.

Orkin released its annual rundown of 50 cities where it treated the most places for rodents in the year ending Sept. 1. They included Albany, which was 31st nationally, followed by Buffalo at number 41, Rochester at 43 and ...Read more

Experts say it was bound to happen: The H5N1 bird flu that ravaged dairy herds in 13 states was inevitably going to arrive in California.

But exactly how it happened is still being investigated by the state.

However, Anja Raudabaugh — the chief executive of Western State Dairies, a trade organization for California dairy farmers — was able...Read more