LOS ANGELES — As L.A. County fires continue to wreak havoc, a fire-tracking app run by a Bay Area nonprofit is gaining popularity.

Watch Duty, launched in 2021, combines publicly available maps of fire incidents and evacuation order and warning zones — similar to what can be found on the Cal Fire website — with shelter locations, National...Read more

Several high-profile Haitian politicians trying to find a way out of a corruption scandal that has the country’s leadership mired in political infighting are proposing a reconfiguration of the nine-member Transitional Presidential Council in hopes of saving the shaky process.

Three groups — the December 21 Agreement, the Collective of ...Read more

A man was arrested Wednesday afternoon after trying to enter the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center with a machete and knives during the Jimmy Carter casket viewing.

The man was stopped at a security screening around 2 p.m., Capitol Police said.

Officers spotted the machete in the man’s bag as it passed through a X-ray machine. A follow-up search ...Read more

Bird flu is increasingly sparking concern across the country and in Illinois, following news this week of the first human death from the virus in the U.S., and of birds found throughout Illinois with suspected cases of the illness.

Doctors, however, say there’s no need to panic at this point — though they’re watching the virus’s ...Read more

The first thing Miles Soboroff noticed on Tuesday morning was the wind.

It was about 8 a.m., and he was sitting in front of his computer at his in-laws' home on the west side of the Pacific Palisades in the Marquez Knolls neighborhood. He and his pregnant wife, Shana Tavangarian Soboroff, have been temporarily living there while building a ...Read more

Navy helicopters from Naval Airstation North Island will join other fire-fighting helicopters in the skies over Southern California, officials at the Pentagon announced on Wednesday, Jan. 8.

The helicopters, known as the MH-60S Seahawk, are operated by several squadrons at the San Diego base and are being prepared to assist, said Steve Fiebing,...Read more

Several wildfires were burning in the Los Angeles area Wednesday, destroying more than 1,000 structures and forcing tens of thousands of people to evacuate.

As of Wednesday, at least five people had died as a result of the Palisades Fire, which sparked Tuesday morning in Pacific Palisades, according to the California Department of Fire and ...Read more

MIAMI — Blame the Oren Alexander snag on a “clerical error.”

Oren — one of three wealthy Alexander brothers charged with forcing dozens of women to have sex with them — was not accidentally flown by the U.S. Marshals Service on Tuesday to New York before his bond hearing in Miami federal court that afternoon.

But he almost was.

It ...Read more

BALTIMORE — The Maryland Board of Public Works approved a $75 million general engineering consultant services contract for the Key Bridge rebuild project on Wednesday.

Bridging Maryland Partnership — a joint venture of WSP USA in New York, Baltimore-based RK&K, and Johnson, Mirmiran & Thompson in Cockeysville — was initially selected by ...Read more

LAS VEGAS — A judge ordered a six-year prison sentence for a former FBI informant who admitted to tax evasion and lying to authorities about an alleged multimillion-dollar bribery scheme involving President Joe Biden, his son and a Ukrainian energy company that became a focal point of an impeachment inquiry by congressional Republicans.

...Read more

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — At the Beverly Hills Hotel lobby Wednesday, there is an edge of anxiety mixed in with the upscale elegance.

Three preteen boys are scrambling around with their puppy as concerned adults stand by trying to check in and out of rooms. The boys are discussing the weather.

“It just looks like a regular day,” says one ...Read more

LANSING — The first two bills introduced by Michigan Senators to start the new legislative session Wednesday would expand the state's open records law to the Legislature and the governor's office.

Traditionally, the bill number, Senate Bill 1 or SB 1, is given to a policy priority of Senate leadership. For the 2025-26 term, Senate Majority ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — President Joe Biden announced that he became a great-grandfather Wednesday following a briefing on the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles.

"The good news is, I'm a great-grandfather as of today," Biden said at a Santa Monica firehouse.

The president and first lady Jill Biden already had a trip scheduled to Los Angeles to ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Billowing wildfire smoke rolled over large swathes of Los Angeles County on Jan. 8, prompting school closures and triggering air quality advisories across the region.

From Altadena to Santa Monica, the outbreak of three fast-spreading wildfires have scorched more than 25,000 acres within two days, releasing towering plumes of ...Read more

NEW YORK — The NYPD still hasn’t laid down the law on how an elected official like the mayor can use the cops assigned to their security detail, according to a report by the city government’s internal watchdog agency.

The report issued Wednesday by the city Department of Investigation amounts to a review of whether the NYPD improved its ...Read more

Republicans resumed control of the Michigan House Wednesday, returning Michigan to a period of divided government and breaking up the historic trifecta of control Democrats held through 2023 and 2024.

All 110 members — 58 Republicans and 52 Democrats — voted in favor of electing Matt Hall, the former House minority leader, to lead the ...Read more

Former U.S. Rep. George Santos has leveraged his criminal notoriety as a con man and serial liar into a lucrative cottage industry with a nearly million-dollar windfall.

That includes more than $400,000 in Cameo appearances and another $400,000 to participate in a documentary, according to court filings.

But the disgraced ex-congressman still ...Read more