LOS ANGELES -- Aunt Cecelia's ashes used to be over there, in a wooden box on the shelf. Her niece steps gingerly across the charred rubble of this house that used to be and points to the exact spot.

"So this was the end of the wall," Angel Baltazar says. "The box was set right here."

A small clump of ashes buried in a sea of ash. Baltazar ...Read more

The Trump administration’s sudden firing of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention employees gutted training programs across the nation whose participants bolstered the workforce of state and local public health departments that for decades have been starved of resources.

The programs are designed to cultivate a new generation of public ...Read more

A growing number of states have made it easier for doctors who trained in other countries to get medical licenses, a shift supporters say could ease physician shortages in rural areas.

The changes involve residency programs — the supervised, hands-on training experience that doctors must complete after graduating medical school. Until ...Read more

Aaron Bass likes some things about Shapiro Developmental Center, a home he shares with some 500 others on a site along the Kankakee River that first housed Illinois residents with disabilities nearly 150 years ago.

He enjoys spending time outdoors, playing bingo and supervised outings to Burger King, the dollar store or local library to check ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California Gov. Gavin Newsom is pressuring Oakland to expand its police department’s ability to chase suspects, referencing the public’s desire for a crackdown on crime. He said that voters had recently taken more tough-on-crime positions and “expressed in pretty clear terms they want change.”

Weeks later, a ...Read more

More than three years ago, health insurance giant Centene Corp. settled allegations that it overcharged Medicaid programs in Ohio and Mississippi related to prescription drug billing.

Now at least 20 states have settled with Centene over its pharmacy benefit manager operation that coordinated the medications for Medicaid patients. Arizona was ...Read more

President Donald Trump has long needled news outlets that got under his skin.

He branded CNN and others “fake news.” He repeatedly railed against journalists as the “enemy of the people” during his first term — rhetoric that news groups tried to shrug off or wore as a badge of honor.

But six weeks into Trump’s second administration...Read more

To hear Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tell it, making America healthy again means making American food healthy again.

The nation's top health official says hundreds of additives should be removed from the U.S. food supply out of concern that they're contributing to a rash of chronic health problems.

Plenty of Americans share his wariness. In a Gallup ...Read more

Nevada Assembly leaders want Joe Lombardo to consider recruiting state employee candidates from the pool of federal employees who have been laid off since the start of the Trump administration, according to a Wednesday letter to the Republican governor.

Democrats leading the 42-member body said they were concerned about the impact of federal ...Read more

As the Trump administration continues to slash the federal workforce, the National Park Service — which has lost nearly 10% of its staff to the sweeping cuts — just reported that 2024 set a record high for visits to its parks.

Nearly 332 million people showed up to hike, camp or simply get a breath of fresh air in America’s national parks...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is considering exempting certain agricultural products from tariffs imposed on Canada and Mexico, the latest move by the administration on Wednesday to offer relief to certain sectors from the sweeping new import taxes.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins told Bloomberg News that “everything is on the ...Read more

Immigration enforcement supporters clashed with sanctuary city advocates outside City Hall Wednesday as a congressional committee heard from Mayor Michelle Wu in Washington.

Some protesters from both sides met face-to-face in showdowns, triggering Boston Police officers to intervene and break up multiple verbal confrontations. No arrests were ...Read more

New York Attorney General Letitia James told schools on Wednesday that President Trump’s attempts so far to ban diversity, equity and inclusion programs were on shaky legal ground — paving the way for a showdown with the White House.

In joint guidance led by James, a coalition of 14 attorneys general said neither an executive order nor a ...Read more

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday waded into the decadeslong debate over nuclear waste, hearing debate over whether a private company can build a repository designed to store tons of spent fuel that has stacked up over the years at commercial power plants across the country.

The case examines whether the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has the ...Read more

U.S. prosecutors charged 10 Chinese citizens and two government agents for computer hacks that targeted dissidents, religious groups, news outlets and American government agencies.

The Chinese government paid Anxun Information Technology Co., a cybersecurity firm also known as i-Soon, to hack and steal information in a manner that obscured its ...Read more

President Donald Trump gave his new administration high marks in a bullish speech to Congress on Tuesday, arguing he is making fast work of his promised agenda on immigration, the economy, international trade and global conflicts, and that the U.S. is stronger for it.

"We have accomplished more in 43 days than most administrations accomplish in...Read more

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — A hearing on legislation that would allow terminally ill people to end their lives with the help of a physician was postponed Wednesday as lawmakers sought more time to refine the proposal, which advocates are again pushing after failing to get a version through the General Assembly last year.

The measure would legalize ...Read more

President Donald Trump warned Hamas there will be “hell to pay” if the militant group doesn’t immediately release its hostages in Gaza.

Trump issued the caution in a social media post Wednesday that followed a rare direct meeting between a U.S. official and Hamas, designated a terrorist organization by the United States and other nations....Read more

President Donald Trump recently signed an executive order designating English as the official language of the United States, marking the first time in the country’s 248-year history that the government has established a formal tongue.

“From the founding of our Republic, English has been used as our national language,” the order, which was...Read more