Florida officials quietly ended a probe into Walt Disney World’s former Reedy Creek Improvement District, concluding that no laws were broken, according to a newly released memo.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement closed its case “due to a lack of a criminal predicate,” the state’s Chief Inspector General Melinda Miguel wrote in ...Read more

A woman in Sonoma County tried to get away with retail theft by pretending to be a 12-year-old girl, police say. But her alleged ruse failed, and the 29-year-old was arrested. It turned out she already had an outstanding warrant connected to some $250,000 in stolen goods, authorities said.

Now, Corenesha Brooks of Antioch faces five felony ...Read more

To many locals, it feels like Santa Cruz's picturesque coast is being battered like never before.

Waves from strong winter storms and a pair of tsunamis have caused millions of dollars in damage to the wharf and marina area in recent years, including an onslaught of dangerous waves this week that washed almost 150 feet of its wharf out to sea. ...Read more

Since the turn of the century, major hurricanes hitting the U.S. have had one key feature in common.

Location.

The Gulf of Mexico coastline transformed into a bullseye for major storms, which have taken aim from Corpus Christi, Texas, to Marco Island and destroyed communities in their wake. Eighteen hurricanes reaching Category 3 strength or ...Read more

LAS VEGAS — For less than a year, the desert landscape and sacred mountains of Avi Kwa Ame have been spared from the sprawl of developers and the wandering eye of the mining industry.

South of Las Vegas, the more than 500,000-acre site is holy to Yuman-speaking Native American tribes, which credit the region with being their source of life ...Read more

The coming 12 months can’t promise the bumper crop of elections we saw during 2024, when countries home to about half the world’s population headed to the polls. Still, voters will cast ballots in several important elections throughout the year – and many of the themes persist: the impact of inflation, the rise of the populist right and...Read more

On Dec. 31, while many people are preparing for their New Years Eve parties, some Roman Catholic Christians will also mark the feast day for St. Silvester.

Little is known for certain about Silvester’s life, but he lived during a transformational period in the history of Christianity. From 314-335 C.E., Silvester was the bishop of ...Read more

Imagine a world where food on grocery store shelves is ranked by its healthiness, with simple, research-backed scores. In some countries, that world already exists.

Nutrient profiling systems, or NPSs, support clear front-of-package labels that assess food quality based on nutrient content. Nutri-Score in France is a rainbow-colored ...Read more

SEATTLE — Starting this spring, the University of Washington will try a new approach to helping students and employees in mental health crises, based on a philosophy that's become increasingly mainstream: Mental health professionals are better equipped than police to respond to some emergencies.

In emergencies that don't involve a safety risk...Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif. — The beleaguered head of Santa Clara County’s child welfare agency announced his resignation Thursday, a year after damning investigations by the Bay Area News Group and the state of California found numerous child safety failures that led to the death of an infant and put other vulnerable children in harm’s way.

In a ...Read more

Fourteen former Baltimore Gas and Electric employees are petitioning to intervene in the utility company’s case with the Maryland Public Service Commission over proposed rate hikes, contending the company wastes money and pushes the costs onto consumers.

BGE, owned by utility conglomerate Exelon, must demonstrate to the PSC it used “good ...Read more

Elon Musk’s deputy Steve Davis has spent more than 20 years helping the billionaire cut costs at businesses like SpaceX, the Boring Company and Twitter — making the engineer by training a natural choice for his new role at Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE for short.

Davis is helping recruit staff at DOGE, Musk’s ...Read more

South Korea’s parliament is set to vote Friday on impeaching Acting President Han Duck-soo, potentially deepening a political crisis that has rattled financial markets and disrupted diplomacy efforts.

The vote is scheduled for Friday afternoon at the National Assembly. The main opposition Democratic Party filed the impeachment motion on ...Read more

A mystery seller is asking $200 million for an empty waterfront lot next door to the properties Jeff Bezos bought in South Florida.

The roughly 1.84 acre lot (0.74 hectare) is located at Indian Creek, a man-made barrier island that’s been dubbed “Billionaire Bunker.” Ilya Reznik, who’s brokering the transaction, declined to identify the...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced Thursday that it recently had seized 22,000 counterfeit Pennsylvania vehicle inspection stickers that were shipped from Israel to Philadelphia with a total value — if they were real — of more than $1.4 million.

Customs and Border Protection officers encountered 10,000 suspected ...Read more

A statewide crackdown on retail crimes resulted in the arrest of at least 117 people in connection with the theft of nearly $40,000 in merchandise, according to authorities.

The California Highway Patrol and several other police departments carried out the operation on Dec. 20, resulting in the arrests of 117 people and recovering $38,000 in ...Read more