You may never have heard of Brooklyn, Illinois. You might not be aware it’s one of the country’s first Black settlements, or that it’s thought to be the first majority-Black town in America to incorporate and the oldest such town still in existence today.

You also probably don’t know that it’s dying.

Established in the early 1830s as...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Six years after he entered office vowing to be California’s “health care governor,” Democrat Gavin Newsom has steered tens of billions in public funding to safety net services for the state’s neediest residents while engineering rules to make health care more accessible and affordable for all Californians.

More ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Time is running out to get your Real ID in California.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security will soon require people to have a federally approved document — such as a passport or a Real ID driver’s license — on hand for domestic plane travel.

On Monday, the California Department of Motor Vehicles urged ...Read more

When Michael Adams was researching health insurance options in 2023, he had one very specific requirement: coverage for prosthetic limbs.

Adams, 51, lost his right leg to cancer 40 years ago, and he has worn out more legs than he can count. He picked a gold plan on the Colorado health insurance marketplace that covered prosthetics, including ...Read more

In Pawtucket, Rhode Island, near a storefront advertising “free” cellphones, J.R. sat in an empty back stairwell and showed a reporter how he tries to avoid overdosing when he smokes crack cocaine. KFF Health News is identifying him by his initials because he fears being arrested for using illegal drugs.

It had been several hours since his ...Read more

LAS VEGAS — Maurice Clark huddled in his tent along dusty railroad tracks as two homeless-outreach workers began asking him questions to determine whether he would qualify for free or subsidized housing.

Did he use drugs? Had he ever been in jail? How many times had he been to an emergency room? Had he been attacked on the streets? Tried to ...Read more

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — More than three years have passed since federal health officials arrived in central Appalachia to assess an alarming outbreak of HIV spread mostly between people who inject opioids or methamphetamine.

Infectious disease experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention made a list of recommendations following ...Read more

WASHINGTON — It might be the end of personal political brands in congressional races, which could complicate Democratic chances of flipping the Senate next year.

Heading into the 2024 election, Senate Democrats had a tough catalog of states to defend and needed their incumbents to continue overperforming to have any chance of maintaining ...Read more

Powerful Santa Ana winds, near hurricane strength at times, swept down the mountains outside Los Angeles and pushed wildfires into several neighborhoods starting Jan. 7, 2025. Over 1,000 stuctures, mostly homes, had burned and at least five people had died by Jan. 8. Officials urged more than 100,000 residents to evacuate, but with the winds ...Read more

The Biden administration is racing to put out an executive order meant to shore up U.S. cybersecurity in its dwindling days in office, according to four people familiar with the matter.

The executive order, which has cleared some internal hurdles and is close to being published, incorporates lessons from a series of major breaches during the ...Read more

The 447th session of the Maryland General Assembly began Wednesday with its regular fanfare, though talk of the massive budget deficit lawmakers are set to tangle with marked speeches and discussions.

“We know this is going to be a challenging session,” Senate President Bill Ferguson, a Baltimore Democrat, said from the rostrum. “It’s ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump’s nominees will begin testifying before the U.S. Senate next week as Republicans rush to install the new cabinet soon after the Jan. 20 inauguration.

Several of Trump’s picks have caused consternation on Capitol Hill, perhaps none more so than former Fox News host Pete Hegseth to run the Pentagon...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Republican Assemblyman Bill Essayli on Wednesday called on California Gov. Gavin Newsom to convene a special legislative session to overhaul the state’s wildfire response as firefighters battled ongoing blazes in Los Angeles that have claimed five lives and forced over 70,000 people to evacuate.

Newsom declared a state ...Read more

When the U.S. House approved the Republican-led bill requiring the detention of undocumented immigrants charged with theft-related crimes, two New Jersey Democrats were notably absent from Tuesday's vote.

U.S. Reps. Mikie Sherrill and Josh Gottheimer, both Democrats running in the crowded gubernatorial primary, were the only New Jersey ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — More than 1,100 homes, businesses and other buildings have burned and at least five people are dead in wildfires scorching communities across Los Angeles County, making this one of the most destructive firestorms to hit the region in memory.

The five bodies were found in three structures in Altadena, where the Eaton fire ...Read more

Midway through a three-year plan initiated by Gov. JB Pritzker to move out roughly half the residents of Choate Developmental Center in downstate Anna following years of reported resident abuse, a watchdog report has found “concerning barriers” to achieving Pritzker’s goals.

Equip for Equality, a federally mandated independent ...Read more

In his fifth annual address, Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear touted the state’s historic private-sector economic investment and encouraged residents — and lawmakers — to rise above political and ideological differences and see each other first as neighbors, not adversaries.

A year into his second and final term as Kentucky’s governor, ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — By Wednesday morning, it looked as if a bomb had detonated on Sunset Boulevard.

As the catastrophic Palisades fire receded from one of the city’s iconic thoroughfares, smoke and ash rendered the once-picturesque landscape into something oddly lunar.

There were charred buildings, some slightly damaged, others fully destroyed. ...Read more

Daniel Lurie, an heir to the Levi Strauss fortune, took office as San Francisco’s new mayor on Wednesday with a vow to upend the status quo in a city struggling to revive itself as a thriving tech and financial hub.

Speaking outside of City Hall, Lurie said he plans to bolster police presence in tourist zones, spur much-needed housing ...Read more

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The state of Alaska on Monday sued the Biden administration over restrictions set on an upcoming oil and gas lease sale in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

The state argues in the complaint that the restrictions were designed to severely limit oil exploration and drilling in the refuge, a 19 million-acre area where the...Read more