SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California public health officials are dipping into state and federal stockpiles to equip up to 10,000 farmworkers with masks, gloves, goggles, and other safety gear as the state confirms at least 21 human cases of bird flu as of early November. It’s the latest reminder of the state’s struggle to remain prepared amid ...Read more

Since he took the helm of the Southern District of New York federal prosecutor’s office in 2021, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams has been on the warpath against public corruption.

Most recently, Williams secured an indictment in September against Eric Adams, accusing the New York City mayor of bribery, fraud and campaign finance crimes stemming...Read more

In a name-your-poison twist, a new study from the University of Illinois adds to the evidence that Chicago-area waterway pollution is slowing the relentless advance of the invasive silver carp.

Researchers turned their attention to a section of the Illinois River, about 50 miles from Chicago, where the silver carp’s progress stalled out more ...Read more

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Amid China’s crackdown on LGBTQ+ rights, queer influencers are using creative strategies, subtle hashtags and coded language to stay one step ahead of social media censors and provide much-needed support to the community.

A decade ago, LGBTQ+ communities were gaining greater visibility and acceptance in China’s ...Read more

If you bring a baby into the Hurley Children’s Center clinic in downtown Flint, Michigan, Mona Hanna will find you. The pediatrician, who gained national prominence for helping uncover the city’s water crisis in 2015, strode across the waiting room in her white lab coat, eyes laser-focused on the chubby baby in the lap of an unsuspecting ...Read more

After months of divisive rhetoric on the campaign trail, including vows to crack down on border control and aggressively ramp up deportations, tensions surrounding immigration in southwestern Pennsylvania have skyrocketed in the days since President-elect Donald Trump's win.

Amid claims from Trump that he will carry out "the largest deportation...Read more

Xi Jinping used his final meeting with Joe Biden to send a clear message to Donald Trump: China wants to be friends, but is ready for a fight if necessary.

With Biden set to leave the White House in January, China’s leader took Saturday’s meeting as a chance to spell out his approach toward Trump. That entails finding a way for the world�...Read more

Political speculation about the future of Sen. Laphonza Butler — the short-term replacement appointed to the chamber after the death of Dianne Feinstein — has run rampant in political circles. Would she return to California and run for office? Become the next leader of the Democratic National Committee?

Asked Saturday evening whether she ...Read more

President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Brendan Carr, the senior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission, as its chair, he said in a statement.

Carr has served at the agency since 2012, including as an adviser to a later chair, Ajit Pai, and has worked as its general counsel. Trump during his first presidency nominated Carr to serve...Read more

After almost 1,000 days resisting the Russian invasion, Ukraine’s allies are pushing Volodymyr Zelenskyy to consider new ways to lure Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table as they seek an end to the fighting.

Donald Trump will return to the White House in January pledging a quick end to the war. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz urged Putin to...Read more

SpaceX executed a Sunday evening launch from Kennedy Space Center with a Monday launch attempt from Cape Canaveral on tap.

First up was a Falcon 9 rocket from KSC’s Launch Pad 39-A on the Optux X/TD7 mission to launch a geostationary communication satellite built by Northrop Grumman for the Australian company Optus at 5:28 p.m. ET.

This was ...Read more

Former Tropical Storm Sara continues to weaken as it moves through Central America after being downgraded to a tropical depression Sunday morning. In its wake, Honduras saw “tremendous” amounts of rain that is still causing life-threatening conditions.

As of the 4 p.m. advisory, Sara was a weakening tropical depression straddling the area ...Read more

San Diego County voter turnout in the Nov. 5 election appears to have been the lowest for a presidential election in 20 years, reflecting a trend that primarily hurt Democrats on the national level.

That’s despite the fact that tens of thousands more people registered to vote around the county in that time.

Low turnout may have been a factor...Read more

A fight between a teacher’s union and business groups over the fate of the MCAS was the most expensive ballot question battle in Massachusetts during the 2024 election cycle, according to the most recent accounting, with nearly $20 million spent between the two sides since the start of the year.

The staggering amount, last updated in state ...Read more

Steve Shand worried as he waited for the first group of smuggled Indian migrants to cross the border from Canada into Minnesota one frigid winter night.

“It’s 16 degrees cold as hell,” Shand texted an alleged smuggler from his van in December 2021. “They going to be alive when they get here?”

The migrants arrived safely, and Shand ...Read more

A carrot company headquartered in Bakersfield is linked to a national outbreak of E. coli, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC announced Sunday that the multistate outbreak stems from Grimmway Farms, which is one of the largest growers, producers and shippers of carrots in the world. The company has ...Read more

Joe Biden announced new conservation efforts and funding as he became the first sitting U.S. president to visit the Amazon region, touring part of a rainforest nature preserve and meeting with local environmental activists.

With his time in the White House ending in January, Biden said he’s leaving President-elect Donald Trump and the U.S. a ...Read more

The U.S. is approaching a final decision to lift some restrictions on Ukraine’s use of western-made weapons to strike limited military targets in Russia, according to people familiar with the matter.

The discussions have been shaped by North Korea ramping up support for President Vladimir Putin’s army and a decision would also follow an ...Read more

Officials asked 130 families in Orange County, N.Y., to evacuate to a shelter as a precaution after the nearly-contained Jennings Creek Fire jumped a containment line.

The move Saturday gave firefighters maneuvering room for the heavy equipment needed to combat the blaze straddling the New York-New Jersey border. The fire has been smoldering ...Read more

As communities across the Bay Area continue to grapple with jarring scenes of human suffering on the street, counties in the region are rolling out new state-mandated mental health courts aimed at getting people with serious psychiatric disorders into treatment and housing.

Statewide, most counties must launch CARE courts — conceived of by ...Read more