LOS ANGELES — A cluster of workers at Ventura County berry farms have been diagnosed with a rare disease often transmitted through sick animals’ urine, according to a public health advisory distributed to local doctors by county health officials Tuesday.

The bacterial infection, leptospirosis, has resulted in severe symptoms for some ...Read more

FERGUS FALLS, Minn. -- A federal jury convicted two men on all counts for their roles in a human smuggling network that arranged the passage of a family of four migrants who ultimately froze to death as they got lost in a blizzard trying to illegally cross from Canada into America.

Harshkumar Patel and Steve Shand were found guilty of ...Read more

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Return to Nature Funeral Home owners Jon and Carie Hallford appeared in state court on Friday to plead guilty to 190 counts of abusing a corpse.

The funeral home located in Penrose, about 35 miles southwest of Colorado Springs, came under a multi-agency investigation in October 2023 after reports of a complaint about...Read more

DENVER — An intense persuasion campaign is heating up across more than 1,200 miles, from Colorado Springs to Alabama, as both states’ congressional delegations battle over landing the permanent headquarters of the U.S. Space Command.

Colorado’s elected officials want to keep the command at Peterson Space Force Base, where it has been ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Mitch McConnell’s decision to head the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense will give the outgoing GOP leader sweeping influence on funding for personnel, operations, equipment and modernization efforts across the U.S. military.

It will also mean that Kentucky’s major military bases — including Fort Knox, Fort ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — An atmospheric river dumping rain across Northern California and several feet of snow in the Sierra was making its way across the state Friday, bringing flooding and threatening mudslides along with it.

The storm, the first major rainmaker of the season, initially strengthened into a bomb cyclone, a description of how it rapidly...Read more

WASHINGTON — There were no trays of cheeseburgers and other fast-food items stacked on a table at the White House on Thursday as President Joe Biden welcomed the reigning NBA champion Boston Celtics. That could soon change, however, with the return of Donald Trump.

It was less than six years ago, in January 2019, when that surreal scene ...Read more

ATLANTA — All votes have been counted and President-elect Donald Trump’s clear victory in Georgia is confirmed.

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger certified the election results Friday after two audits and unanimous approval by county election boards across the state.

The final count showed Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris by...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Miles Pfeffer, the man accused of shooting and killing Temple University Police Officer Christopher Fitzgerald in 2023, was stabbed multiple times in the Curran Fromhold Correctional Facility, where he has been held awaiting his murder trial.

Around 6:40 p.m. Thursday, another incarcerated man, Rafael Venegas, ran out his cell ...Read more

NEW YORK — Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan on Friday indefinitely adjourned President-elect Donald Trump’s punishment for covering up a hush money payoff to porn star Stormy Daniels after his first election victory.

In a brief order, the judge confirmed Trump’s sentencing would not go ahead next Tuesday and set a new schedule...Read more

DETROIT — A Midland man was arrested by federal agents this week on charges of sexual exploitation of minors for allegedly paying to watch livestreamed child pornography.

Nathaniel Ray Coady, a former real estate agent in Midland, made an initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Bay City on Wednesday after agents with the Department of ...Read more

DETROIT — Police and school officials in Macomb Township are trying to understand how a middle school student was able to obtain a staff communication device to falsely report a shooting.

On Thursday around 1:40 p.m., staff initiated a lockdown after a report someone has been shot in the hallway of Clintondale Middle School, police said in a ...Read more

Officials in blue states are vowing to build a “firewall” of reproductive health protections as they anticipate federal and state attacks on abortion access under the Trump administration.

“We’re going on offense,” Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, a Democrat, told Stateline. “We are in an unprecedented war on American ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The unusual disclosures from two inspectors general at U.S. spy agencies that they are leaving their posts before Inauguration Day are raising concerns among some lawmakers about the independence that national security watchdogs will have in Donald Trump’s second term.

Thomas Monheim, the IG at the Office of the Director of ...Read more

President-elect Donald Trump will bring legal baggage to the White House in January, even if he succeeds in pausing or getting rid of the four federal and state criminal indictments against him.

Trump’s reelection is expected to end the two federal cases, given the Justice Department’s policy against prosecuting sitting presidents. His ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Linda McMahon once claimed an unearned education degree from East Carolina University.

Now the New Bern native is nominated to lead President-elect Donald Trump’s Department of Education.

Trump announced Tuesday that McMahon, best known as a founder of World Wrestling Entertainment, is nominated to be the next education ...Read more