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Mark Rightmire/The Orange County Register/TNS

Homeless deaths dropped dramatically in California's Orange County, but hundreds still met tragic ends

Current News / News & Features /

The youngest homeless person to die in Orange County this year was Infant Female Radford. Stillborn. July 29. “No fixed abode.”

The oldest was Michelle Marie O’Neal, 88. Arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease. July 25. “No fixed abode.”

Their names echoed through the Lutheran Church of the Cross in Laguna Woods on Saturday — the ...Read more

Andrew Harnik/Getty Images North America/TNS

Trump picks Miran to head his Council of Economic Advisers

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President-elect Donald Trump is nominating Stephen Miran to lead his Council of Economic Advisers, enlisting a former Treasury official who served in Washington during his first administration.

“Steve will work with the rest of my economic team to deliver a great economic boom that lifts up all Americans,” Trump said in a statement Sunday ...Read more

Mikhail Klimentyev/Sputnik/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Trump keeps door open to Putin offer for talks on war in Ukraine

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President-elect Donald Trump suggested he’s open to meeting Vladimir Putin to discuss ending the war in Ukraine sparked by Russia’s 2022 invasion.

The Russian president offered on Thursday to hold talks with Trump, saying, “I’ll be ready to meet if he wants.” Speaking at his annual news conference, Putin said he doesn’t know when ...Read more

Homeless woman dies after she's lit on fire while sleeping in Brooklyn subway car: NYPD

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A man lit a sleeping homeless woman on fire in a Brooklyn subway car, then apparently watched calmly as she burned to death early Sunday, cops and sources said.

Chilling video obtained by the Daily News shows the woman standing near the door of a stopped subway car at the Coney-Island-Stillwell Ave., burning alive, while a man sits on a bench ...Read more

Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune/TNS

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson's difficult 2025 budget fight portends even harder financial situation for 2026

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One issue loomed in aldermen’s anxious speeches last week in the lead-up to a vote on Mayor Brandon Johnson’s budget for next year: 2026.

Though the mayor ultimately eked out a 27-23 win on his $17.1 billion 2025 spending plan, City Council members both for and against it warned the chaos and delays that punctuated the past few months may ...Read more

Ali Haj Suleiman/Getty Images North America/TNS

Israel and Turkey are shaping a new Syria from their borderlands

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Syria’s leadership isn’t the only aspect of the country to be changing as a result of this month’s toppling of longtime dictator Bashar Assad. The blurring of its borders is also underway — from Israel to the southwest and Turkey to the north.

Israel’s military wasted no time advancing on Syria after Assad was overthrown by Islamist-...Read more

Woman dies after she catches fire in Brooklyn subway car; NYPD suspects homicide

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A woman died after she was apparently lit on fire in a Brooklyn subway car, and police are investigating her death as a possible homicide, sources said.

Harrowing video obtained by the Daily News shows the woman standing near the door of stopped subway car at the Coney-Island-Stillwell Ave. stop, burning alive, while a man sits in a bench on ...Read more

Dave Chan/Getty Images of North America/TNS

Liberal push to oust Trudeau gains steam in Ontario, CBC Says

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More than 50 Liberal Party members of parliament from Ontario came to a “consensus” during a conference call that Justin Trudeau must step down as prime minister, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported.

That would represent about a third of the Liberal caucus, which has 153 seats in Canada’s House of Commons. However, there’s no ...Read more

Andrew Harnik/Getty Images North America/TNS

Trump picks Stephen Miran to head Council of Economic Advisers

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President-elect Donald Trump is nominating Stephen Miran to lead his Council of Economic Advisers, enlisting a former Treasury official who served in Washington during his first administration.

“Steve will work with the rest of my economic team to deliver a great economic boom that lifts up all Americans,” Trump said in a statement Sunday ...Read more

Loren Elliott/Getty Images North America/TNS

Plans to transform an iconic San Francisco highway into a park ignite recall furor

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SAN FRANCISCO — On a recent Sunday on the far edge of the Outer Sunset, a cozy oceanfront neighborhood with rows of pastel bungalows, hundreds of people enjoyed a stretch of the iconic coastal road known as the Great Highway.

A dad taught his kid how to ride a bike. A young couple strolled with their baby in a bassinet. Two surfers hauled ...Read more

Amy Davis/Baltimore Sun/TNS

Baltimore's wastewater plants have made improvements. Will they bring lasting change?

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BALTIMORE — All around the Back River Wastewater Treatment Plant, Mike Hallmen points to evidence that change is afoot.

Water-filled chambers that were once clogged with mucky brown sediment or choked by vegetation now run clear. Construction crews repair the concrete wall of a massive circular tank. Below the golden egg-shaped domes of the ...Read more

Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune/TNS

How Chicago's zoo animals stay warm during cold, snowy winters

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CHICAGO — A chilly Chicago winter doesn’t necessarily mean the African lions at the Lincoln Park Zoo have to go inside. In fact, as temperatures dip — even as cold as 10 degrees or in the snow — the pride may huddle up on heated rocks in their exhibit to spend more time relaxing outdoors.

“They also have access to indoor holding areas...Read more

Anonymous livestock veterinarian/Anonymous livestock veterinarian/TNS

How America lost control of the bird flu, setting the stage for another pandemic

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Keith Poulsen’s jaw dropped when farmers showed him images on their cellphones at the World Dairy Expo in Wisconsin in October. A livestock veterinarian at the University of Wisconsin, Poulsen had seen sick cows before, with their noses dripping and udders slack.

But the scale of the farmers’ efforts to treat the sick cows stunned him. They...Read more

Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images North America/TNS

Nicotine pouches are selling fast -- and falling into minors' hands

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Just a year after he became chief executive officer of Philip Morris International Inc., Jacek Olczak swooped on rival nicotine pouch maker Swedish Match in a $16 billion deal.

Olczak wanted the company’s vast U.S. distribution network and popular Zyn nicotine pouches, which are about the size of a chiclet and meant to be placed between a ...Read more

PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

High-speed rail financial crisis could get worse under Trump

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The future of California's decades-long dream to one day connect Los Angeles and San Francisco via high-speed rail is again under threat as a Trump administration redux looms.

His selected Cabinet officials and a California congressman have vowed to pull federal funds from the ongoing rail project, which is budgeted at roughly $100 billion more...Read more

Brandon Bell/Getty Images North America/TNS

Elon Musk's preschool is the next step in his anti-woke education dreams

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Jared Birchall, Elon Musk’s money manager and the head of his family office, is listed as the chief executive officer. Jehn Balajadia, a longtime Musk aide who has worked at SpaceX and the Boring Co., is named as an official contact.

But they’re not connected to Musk’s new technology venture, or the political operation that’s endeared ...Read more

MANDEL NGAN/GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/TNS

Biden mulls tariff break for solar modules from Mexico

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The Biden administration is mulling exempting Mexico from tariffs on imported solar equipment, a last-minute change that would primarily benefit Maxeon Solar Technologies Ltd.

The exemption being weighed by senior officials in the waning weeks of Joe Biden’s presidency was described by people familiar with the matter who asked not to be ...Read more

Iceland's Social Democrats reach deal for new government

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Iceland’s new ruling coalition agreed on a platform of budget restraint to fight inflation and a referendum on continuing European Union entry talks.

Following negotiations since early December, the election-winning Social Democrats on Saturday signed a government deal with the center-right Liberal Reform Party and the People’s Party that ...Read more

Nelvin C. Cepeda/The San Diego Union-Tribune/TNS

Trump's 'culture defender' set to remake DOJ civil rights unit

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WASHINGTON — The civil rights division of the Justice Department has for decades protected the rights of racial, ethnic and religious minorities, as well as women — the groups that have been the most common victims of illegal discrimination in the U.S.

President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to lead the office, Harmeet Dhillon, has a very ...Read more

Luis Acosta/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Trump demands Panama lower transit fees or return canal to US

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WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump said Saturday that the Panama Canal is charging “exorbitant prices and rates of passage” on U.S. naval and merchant ships, and he demanded that fees be lowered or else Panama should return the canal to the U.S.

“The fees being charged by Panama are ridiculous, especially knowing the ...Read more