SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie, who won election in November on the pledge to crack down on the city’s fentanyl crisis, has announced a new public health policy that will more forcefully push treatment on drug users seeking clean needles and other supplies tied to their addiction.

The new policy, to take effect April 30, ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sutter County in Northern California has the lowest vaccination rates among transitional kindergarten and kindergarten students in the state, according to new data from the California Department of Public Health.

Only 73% Sutter County kindergarten students were up to date on their childhood vaccinations in the 2023-24 ...Read more

CHICAGO — Dirty air remains a chronic problem in the Chicago area.

Shortly before President Joe Biden left office, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reclassified the region from “moderate” to “serious” violations of federal regulations limiting lung-damaging smog, also known as ground-level ozone.

Better understanding about ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Rafael Leyva was only 8 years old when his mother was stabbed with a knife and died in the young boy's lap.

Soon after that, his brother and sister were sent to live with their uncle in California, while Rafael — or Rafa as his siblings call him — remained the ward of an orphanage in Mexico.

Now, in a tale of rising ...Read more

Under an emerging Republican plan to require some Medicaid recipients to work, between 4.6 million and 5.2 million adults ages 19 to 55 could lose their health care coverage, according to a new analysis.

The study, conducted by Urban Institute researchers with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, calculated that up to 39% of the 13....Read more

LOS ANGELES — With the top city and county elected officials sitting in his jury box, the judge lectured for more than an hour, excoriating what he called the Rocky Horror Picture Show of homeless services in Los Angeles.

But when it came time to reveal the drastic remedy anticipated by a courtroom full of spectators, U.S. District Judge ...Read more

When epidemiologist Sophia Newcomer tries to evaluate how well Montana might be able to ward off the measles outbreak spreading across the U.S., she doesn’t have much data to work with.

A federal state-by-state survey last year showed that just over 86% of Montana’s 2-year-olds had recently received the measles, mumps, and rubella ...Read more

For many California residents, the Los Angeles wildfires earlier this year were the latest and most searing example of the devastating effects of climate change. Some estimates have pegged the damages and economic losses from the fires at more than $250 billion.

“We’ve had disaster after disaster after disaster,” said Assemblymember Dawn ...Read more

GAYLORD, Mich. — Life remained at a standstill in this northern Michigan community for the fourth day in a row on Wednesday.

Residents were relieved an overnight storm didn’t pack the wallop of the one Saturday that caused tens of thousands of people in northern Michigan to lose power. But the snow and rain Wednesday slowed recovery efforts...Read more

Public health advocates in Georgia have canceled a major annual conference, more than 100 public health workers have been let go and state agencies are now limiting other spending as the Trump administration last week abruptly canceled pandemic health grant money that was awarded but not yet spent.

Georgia agencies dealing with public health, ...Read more

The Israeli army carried out multiple airstrikes in different parts of Syria on Wednesday, including the capital Damascus, and “almost completely destroyed” a military airport in another major city as Israel continues to degrade the war-torn country’s military capabilities.

The airstrikes, carried out in five different areas, lasted for ...Read more

ATLANTA — After a decade of fierce debate, Georgia approved one of the most divisive bills in recent state history by passing a “religious liberty” measure that supporters say protects faith-based beliefs from government overreach and critics decry as a license to discriminate.

Republicans muscled the initiative through the Georgia House ...Read more

The U.K. refrained from retaliation and said it would maintain its push for a U.S. trade deal after President Donald Trump slapped tariffs of 10% on all imports from Britain as part of a wider global package which he dubbed “Liberation Day” for his country.

“Our approach is to remain calm and committed to doing this deal, which we hope ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump did not blink Wednesday while resurrecting an economic policy approach last used 95 years ago, a move that will shape his second term and help decide the fate of his “Make America Great Again” movement.

“My fellow Americans, this is Liberation Day,” Trump said at a Rose Garden event to announce ...Read more

After Andrea Martinez gave birth to her daughter, she could take only four weeks of leave — two weeks paid, two weeks unpaid. As a single mother with one income, she returned to work quickly to support her three children and sent her newborn to a daycare.

“This situation created a significant hardship for me, especially since I had a C-...Read more

NEW YORK — A group of Columbia University students on Wednesday afternoon chained themselves to locked campus gates to protest the arrest of pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil.

“We demand to know the names of the Columbia trustees who facilitated the abduction of our beloved friend by collaborating with the Trump administration,” ...Read more

SAN DIEGO — The number of people seriously hurt falling off the U.S.-Mexico border wall in San Diego County has dropped sharply since the Trump administration intensified security measures, according to the two trauma hospitals that treat those injuries.

University of California, San Diego Health said Wednesday it has treated 25 individuals ...Read more

Crop prices tend to spike when there’s a shock to the global economy.

President Donald Trump’s new round of tariffs announced Wednesday will certainly act like a defibrillator across farm country, but experts say it will only deepen the ongoing downturn in U.S. agriculture.

“We invite retaliation by imposing tariffs and do damage to our ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Four Republicans joined Democrats in the Senate to pass, 51-48, a joint resolution Wednesday that would effectively end President Donald Trump’s steep tariffs on Canadian goods in a vote that revealed GOP resistance to the administration’s sweeping trade agenda.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., was a co-sponsor of the measure offered ...Read more