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Bizuayehu Tesfaye/Las Vegas Review-Journal/TNS

'It's very awful': Pedestrian deaths put Las Vegas road safety in focus

Current News / News & Features /

LAS VEGAS — As he stood on the steps of the Regional Justice Center the morning of May 3, Arbor View senior Brayden Boulter didn’t talk about his plans for the future, his upcoming graduation ceremony or his last days as a high schooler.

Instead, he talked about what he called a “dangerous” crosswalk steps away from his high school in ...Read more

Amy Maxmen/KFF Health News/TNS

HIV testing and outreach falter as Trump funding cuts sweep the South

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JACKSON, Miss. — Storm clouds hung low above a community center in Jackson, where pastor Andre Devine invited people inside for lunch. Hoagies with smoked turkey and ham drew the crowd, but several people lingered for free preventive health care: tests for HIV and other diseases, flu shots, and blood pressure and glucose monitoring.

Between ...Read more

John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune/TNS

How the new Pope Leo XIV's childhood church in Chicago fell into disrepair -- and what may lie ahead

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CHICAGO — Above the door of the church in the last blocks of Chicago, the Virgin Mary still stands with her arms wide open.

The double doors beneath the statue’s feet are shut, but a disintegrating wooden side door swings freely, leading to a set of stairs with chipped paint scattered on them. Above, a pool of blue light from a stained-...Read more

Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune/TNS

Illinois weather enthusiasts alarmed at how federal cuts may endanger lives and diminish pursuit

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CHICAGO — Melanie Snow and her husband talk about the weather like it’s gossip.

Every day, they read National Weather Service discussions — technical documents from the agency where meteorologists explain the reasoning and rationale behind forecasts — from weather events in Chicago and across the country.

“We avidly consume those,”...Read more

OLEG KARGOPOLOV/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

The researchers charged with defending the planet against asteroids

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In December, astronomers identified that the asteroid YR4 had a small but not insignificant chance of striking Earth in 2032, a scenario that experts postulated could have more explosive potential than 500 Hiroshima nuclear bombs.

Researchers reclassified YR4 as a non-threat in February, but the interim period when the asteroid was considered a...Read more

Joe Raedle/Getty Images North America/TNS

States push to combat human trafficking amid federal funding cuts

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For help, call 1-888-373-7888 or text *233733 for the 24/7 National Human Trafficking Hotline, a national, toll-free hotline.

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States are moving to strengthen protections against human trafficking, but some advocates warn that federal funding cuts could undermine efforts to support survivors.

This year, lawmakers in several states have ...Read more

Trump fires US Copyright Office chief Perlmutter, Politico says

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President Donald Trump fired the top official at the U.S. Copyright Office on Saturday, Politico reported.

The termination of Shira Perlmutter on Saturday came two days after Trump fired the head of the Library of Congress, which has oversight of the copyright office, the report said. The White House did not respond to Politico’s request for ...Read more

Matthew Hatcher/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Inside Villanova in the 1970s, when the future Pope Leo XIV arrived on campus

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PHILADELPHIA — In the summer of 1973, the war was still raging in Vietnam, the Watergate scandal was unfolding in Washington, and protests roiled college campuses nationwide. But at leafy Villanova University just outside Philadelphia, trouble was on the home front.

The staid Catholic institution on the Main Line stood at a cultural ...Read more

Leon Neal/Getty Images North America/TNS

Keir Starmer's Trump win fails to calm Labour Party's worries about Farage

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Keir Starmer’s double victory in securing trade deals with India and the U.S. this week still isn’t enough to pacify restive lawmakers in the U.K.’s governing Labour Party.

Last week, the British premier faced a breakdown in party discipline after hemorrhaging seats in local elections dominated by the insurgent populist Nigel Farage’s ...Read more

Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Trump hails progress after first day of US-China trade talks

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Senior U.S. and Chinese negotiators spent hours behind closed doors in Switzerland on Saturday as they held high-stakes talks that offer the clearest opportunity yet for the two countries to de-escalate their trade war, with President Donald Trump calling it a “very good” meeting.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice ...Read more

Genya Savilov/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Putin offers talks with Ukraine on May 15 but skirts truce

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Russian President Vladimir Putin offered to hold direct talks with Ukraine in Istanbul on May 15, saying he didn’t rule out reaching an agreement on a ceasefire in the war.

“We’re in the mood for serious talks with Ukraine,” Putin said in late-night comments to reporters at the Kremlin. Russia was ready to “resume direct negotiations ...Read more

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images North America/TNS

Trump vs. Massachusetts: Brazilian child rapist in home day care ICE flashpoint

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BOSTON — The governor is being called out for the “appalling” case of an illegal immigrant child rapist found at a Cape Cod home day care.

It’s a startling arrest, Gov. Maura Healey’s administration argued Friday night, that dates back to the waning months of the Biden presidency that’s now being highlighted as Massachusetts, Boston...Read more

K.C. Alfred/The San Diego Union-Tribune/TNS

DHS calls for death penalty in Del Mar smuggling case -- a steep escalation from previous sentences

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SAN DIEGO — On the Saturday morning after Thanksgiving in 2022, a panga piloted by two cousins from Baja California capsized as it approached the shoreline off Imperial Beach. The cousins and five of the undocumented immigrants they were transporting made it safely onto the beach, but three others drowned.

The cousins were eventually ...Read more

Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Forensic testing links skull remains to Northern California woman missing since 1987

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LOS ANGELES — A man was walking along a rocky, picturesque shoreline of Trinidad Head, located about 25 miles north of Eureka, when he spotted something unusual and unnerving.

The unidentified man's discovery in February 1993 turned out to be a partial human skull that he handed over to the nearby Fortuna Police Department.

To help identify ...Read more

Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Trump executive order envisions housing homeless veterans at VA center in West LA

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LOS ANGELES — President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday directing the Department of Veterans Affairs to create a center for homeless veterans on its West Los Angeles campus.

The order set a goal of housing up to 6,000 homeless veterans at the center, which Trump named the National Warrior Independence Center, and ordered federal...Read more

Joe Raedle/Getty Images North America/TNS

Bill shielding Florida elected officials' addresses from public headed to governor

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ORLANDO, Fla. — New legislation meant to protect elected officials and their families from harassment worries government watchdogs who say it would also prevent voters from knowing if their lawmakers live in their districts as required.

The Florida Legislature in April overwhelmingly approved the bill (SB 268), which would exempt disclosure ...Read more

Antonio Masiello/Getty Images North America/TNS

Heartbreak and acceptance for Philly's Catholic Filipinos over pope

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PHILADELPHIA — As Philadelphians and Catholics rejoiced at the announcement of the new pope, with his ties to Villanova University, among local Filipinos, there was some disappointment.

The election of Pope Leo XIV meant Filipino cardinals who had been front-runners in the papal process would not ascend to the Catholic Church’s highest post...Read more

Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times/TNS

'We Did It, Bolinas!!!' Remote Northern California town gets its post office back

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LOS ANGELES — For more than two years, a big wooden sign in west Marin County has displayed a set of hand-painted numbers, dutifully changed each morning.

"Days Without a Bolinas Post Office," the sign reads. The number Friday: 806.

The sign has been a charming, if sad, reminder to the 1,200 or so residents of Bolinas of the loss of their ...Read more

Aaron Flaum/Hartford Courant/TNS

Michigan pauses program to lethally gas nuisance geese at Belle Isle, other sites

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LANSING, Mich. — The Michigan Department of Natural Resources has paused a pilot program that allowed for the collection and lethal gassing of nuisance Canada geese, according to a Friday letter from M. Scott Bowen, the state agency's director.

Bowen announced the decision in a message to a group of Democratic lawmakers who had expressed ...Read more

HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

US to probe reports of swabs on its citizens arriving in China

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The U.S. embassy in China said it received reports that American citizens are being subjected to “invasive medical testing” upon arrival in the country.

“We are looking into these reports,” the embassy in Beijing said in a response to a query by Bloomberg. “The U.S. Mission to China has no greater priority than the safety and security...Read more