ATLANTA — A judge stopped a planned hand count of ballots on election night in Georgia, ruling Tuesday that it would create “administrative chaos” if poll workers were required to handle millions of ballots without being trained.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney put the State Election Board’s hand-count requirement on ...Read more

A little more than two months after two giant pandas — the first sent to the U.S. in 21 years — debuted at the San Diego Zoo, fans can now do a virtual pop-in.

Panda Cam is live.

"Xin Bao and Yun Chuan have acclimated beautifully to their expansive, bamboo-filled homes and now their playful antics and natural behaviors can be observed from...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco is not the type of elected official who shies away from making controversial public statements.

The right-wing firebrand, who is rumored to be considering a 2026 gubernatorial run, put himself back into the political spotlight over the weekend when he said his deputies probably had thwarted a...Read more

CHICAGO — The corruption trial of former House Speaker Michael Madigan inched closer to opening statements Tuesday as lawyers spent another long day questioning potential jurors about their backgrounds and feelings about the landmark case.

A total of 13 people were interviewed, but no final decisions were made on who might serve on the panel ...Read more

NEW YORK — Disturbing allegations continue to mount against accused serial predator Sean “Diddy” Combs — including in new lawsuits claiming he molested a 16-year-old boy at one of his infamous Hamptons parties and pistol-whipped and sexually assaulted a male worker in a Macy’s stockroom — amid the possibility of more charges against ...Read more

Ahead of potentially dangerous conditions that could lead to wildfires, Pacific Gas & Electric Co. is warning of possible public safety power shutoffs across a wide swath of Northern and Central California beginning as early as Thursday night.

The utility, blamed for sparking several wildfires across the region including the deadliest blaze in ...Read more

Former President Donald Trump will speak at an airport in Latrobe, Pa., on Saturday as both campaigns hustle around Pennsylvania in the final stretch of the election.

Trump is slated to speak around 6 p.m. at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport, with supporters arriving hours earlier. The site is less than 70 miles away from the Butler Farm Show ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Former Fulton County special prosecutor Nathan Wade on Tuesday defended his work investigating Donald Trump, telling a congressional panel that Georgia’s criminal case against the former president and his allies was driven by facts — not politics.

Departing Capitol Hill after roughly four hours of closed-door questioning, ...Read more

Canada’s closest allies signaled they will continue to pursue stronger ties with Narendra Modi’s government, despite Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s allegations that Indian diplomats secretly collected intelligence on Sikh separatists living in Canada who were then threatened, extorted or killed.

The extraordinary claims, backed by ...Read more

Yosemite National Park officials say visitors won't be required to make reservations to drive into the park for the remainder of the year.

Park officials made the announcement on a Facebook post last week and said they originally planned on extending the requirement until Oct. 27 but ended it about a week sooner after monitoring "visitor use ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court sidestepped a brewing gun safety issue for now, telling a federal appeals court to reconsider a ruling that 18- to-20-year-olds have a broad constitutional right to carry a firearm.

In a two-sentence order Tuesday, the justices opted not to take up an appeal by Pennsylvania officials, instead ordering a ...Read more

Tropical Storm Helene has caused 95 confirmed deaths in North Carolina, Gov. Roy Cooper said at a Tuesday press conference. And almost as many, 92, remain missing.

Buncombe County has had the most Helene-related deaths, with 42. Yancey County has had 11 confirmed deaths; Henderson County has had seven; and Haywood County has had five, the North...Read more

Political scion Robert F. Kennedy Jr. hoped to “impregnate” political reporter Olivia Nuzzi during their alleged affair, according to a recently revealed court filing.

Nuzzi’s former fiancé Ryan Lizza claims in documents obtained by the Daily Beast that after he discovered Nuzzi, 31, had been “cheating” on him for almost a year with ...Read more

Several hundred people with blindness and low vision and their allies protested outside the San Francisco headquarters of Uber and Lyft on Tuesday accusing the rideshare companies of illegally denying rides to blind people and their service animals, and stigmatizing would-be passengers.

Organizers with the National Federation of the Blind, a ...Read more

BOISE, Idaho — Nearly eight months after the first failed execution in Idaho history, the state prison system has in place changes to its lethal injection procedures in efforts to maintain capital punishment and avoid a repeat occurrence.

The Idaho Department of Correction over the summer retrofitted its execution chamber at the maximum ...Read more

BALTIMORE — A judicial reform workgroup has recommended that the state adopt a constitutional amendment to end contested elections for circuit court judges to increase accountability and diversity on the bench.

“The Workgroup repeatedly heard that voters are ill-informed about the judges for whom they are currently casting a ballot,” the ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Sean “Diddy” Combs was so upset about the way his son was being disciplined by a UCLA football coach in 2015 that he went to the coach’s office and fought with him, briefly choked an intern and put another member of the coaching staff in a headlock, according to a document newly obtained from Los Angeles County prosecutors....Read more

ATLANTA — Georgia voters shattered a first-day record for early voting Tuesday as the state prepared to play a critical role in the hotly contested presidential election.

By late afternoon, more than 281,000 Georgia voters had already cast ballots, far more than the 136,000 voters who cast ballots on the first day of early voting in 2020 and ...Read more

Former President Donald Trump said that any telephone conversations he may have had with Vladimir Putin since leaving office were a “smart thing,” though he declined to confirm the recently reported calls during an appearance at the Economic Club of Chicago on Tuesday.

“I don’t comment on that,” Trump said. “But I will tell you that...Read more