LAS VEGAS — Case manager Bryon Johnson flashed a light into a dark tunnel beneath the glitz of the Las Vegas Strip on a recent fall afternoon. He stepped into an opening in a concrete ditch littered with trash and discarded clothing to search an underground world for his homeless clients.

Beneath the Caesars Palace hotel and casino, Johnson ...Read more

SAN DIEGO — A decades-long effort to save a critically endangered Hawaiian crow from extinction is taking a new strategy — relocating the birds to a different island than their historical home. And the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance is playing a key role.

The ‘alalā is native to the Big Island where earlier reintroductions were tried. ...Read more

WASHINGTON — A new president with an ambitious agenda. Stark ideological divisions within both parties. And a deeply divided House with Republicans holding a slender majority.

Those are some of the dynamics that will be in play during the 119th Congress. But Democrats and Republicans are already looking at the 2026 midterm elections.

“[We�...Read more

MIAMI — When leaders of Florida’s most populous county met in September to pick a site for what could become the nation’s largest trash incinerator, so many people went to the government center to protest that overflow seating spilled into the building’s atrium.

“MIRAMAR SAYS NO TO INCINERATOR! NOT IN OUR BACKYARD,” read green T-...Read more

At a hearing in the summer, San Diego County Superior Court Judge John Thompson wrestled with the decision before him.

"There are very few things that I find now after sitting on the bench for 36 years that are difficult. This is one of them," he said, according to a June 26 court transcript. "Every fiber of my being tells me I should deny ...Read more

BALTIMORE — The drop in homicides in Baltimore City over the past two years has significantly outpaced the decrease in the country as a whole, a shift that academic and law enforcement experts largely credit to the work of two men: Baltimore City State’s Attorney Ivan Bates and Mayor Brandon Scott.

Baltimore City recorded 201 homicides in ...Read more

DENVER — Seven-year-old Abdullahi Shongolo fled the Somali civil war in 1992, walking through dense African jungle for two weeks. He encountered hyenas, lions and violent militias before reaching a Kenyan refugee camp.

During the twelve years he and his nine siblings lived in the camp, he learned enough English to plead his family’s case to...Read more

The sister of Sam Altman accused the OpenAI chief executive officer of sexually abusing her for almost a decade, in a lawsuit filed in federal court.

Ann Altman, 30, alleged that Sam Altman abused and manipulated her while they were growing up in Missouri in the late 1990s to early 2000s. According to the lawsuit filed Monday, the alleged ...Read more

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has denied a request to investigate the Tijuana River Valley for a superfund designation, a label issued to some of the most toxic places in the nation needing long-term cleanup.

In a Jan. 3 letter to local elected officials, the federal agency said a site inspection of the river valley – the first ...Read more

BOSTON — Norfolk Superior Court Judge Beverly Cannone is sitting tight on deciding whether Karen Read’s defense can use its preferred dog bite expert in her second trial scheduled to begin in April.

After yet another marathon hearing to determine the fate of Dr. Marie Russell’s testimony in the retrial, Cannone took the prosecutors’ ...Read more

Gov. Maura Healey called for the abolition of broker’s fees renters are often forced to pay when signing a lease agreement, as the Boston City Council is set to reintroduce legislation that would shift that responsibility away from tenants.

Healey, on GBH’s Boston Public Radio Tuesday, said she supported doing away with broker’s fees as a...Read more

President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to oversee what he has promised to be the country’s largest ever deportation effort says he will need tens of billions of dollars to carry out the mission, but it will ultimately reduce taxpayers’ burden.

“That’s a lot of money. It is,” Tom Homan, who Trump named to lead deportation operations as ...Read more

The sister of Sam Altman accused the OpenAI chief executive officer of sexually abusing her for almost a decade, in a lawsuit filed in federal court.

Ann Altman, 30, alleged that Sam Altman abused and manipulated her while they were growing up in Missouri in the late 1990s to early 2000s. According to the lawsuit filed Monday, the alleged ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — A fire broke out Tuesday night in the hills above Altadena near Eaton Canyon, prompting a response from firefighters.

The fire has burned more than 200 acres and prompted evacuations in the area west of the Eaton Canyon Golf Course, according to the U.S. Forest Service.

Officials also told people living on these streets to ...Read more

Most Americans believe history will judge President Joe Biden’s time in office harshly, according to new polling.

In the latest Gallup poll, 54% of respondents said they think Biden will be remembered as a poor or below average president. A much smaller share, 19%, said they believed he’ll go down as an outstanding or above average ...Read more

Federal District Court Judge Aileen Cannon on Tuesday temporarily blocked the release of special counsel Jack Smith’s final report on his probes of President-elect Donald Trump.

The Florida jurist, who delivered several Trump-friendly rulings in the classified documents case, ordered the Department of Justice to keep the report sealed until ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — A fire was burning out of control Tuesday in Pacific Palisades, destroying homes and forcing residents to abandon their vehicles and flee amid a potentially “life-threatening and destructive” windstorm.

Wide swaths of the Palisades, Topanga and Malibu were under an evacuation order by the afternoon, as residents fought ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Amid the devastating and fast-moving fire in Pacific Palisades, the grounds of the Getty Villa have caught fire, the museum confirmed Tuesday.

Fire officials said that trees and brush were ablaze and that flames were approaching structures, but the museum said the Villa and its art had been spared so far. A video on the social ...Read more