After three months, more than five dozen witnesses and an array of thorny legal scuffles, attorneys in the landmark corruption trial of ex-speaker Michael Madigan are slated to begin presenting closing arguments Wednesday.

First, though, they will conduct an abbreviated hearing on the legal instructions jurors should hear — a process that has...Read more

A body part from a deceased animal being tested for rabies caused deep concern at the highest level of the state Department of Public Health last year after the improperly sealed package leaked and potentially exposed swathes of the public health workforce to the disease last year.

The animal was a raccoon, DPH spokeswoman Nancy Nydam said.

�...Read more

The ceasefire agreement that paused the war between Israel and the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon will likely be extended when it expires next week, according to several people familiar with the matter.

The Iran-backed group and the Israelis are unlikely to resume full-scale fighting despite needing more time to implement the original terms of ...Read more

ATLANTA — Atlanta HIV educator and activist Masonia Traylor is calling for extensive outreach efforts to convey the risks of HIV to Black women and Black gay men in Georgia. She sat down with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution to explain how stigma hampers efforts to reach at-risk populations.

Q: Atlanta has the third-highest rate of new HIV ...Read more

LANSING, Mich. — The Michigan Senate on Wednesday authorized its Democratic leader to pursue legal action against the Republican-led Michigan House for failing to send nine bills from the last session to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's desk.

The authorization, outlined in a resolution Wednesday, would allow Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks, R-...Read more

DENVER — The high school graduation rate in Colorado inched up during the last academic year to its highest level in a decade as 84.2% of students received their diplomas on time, according to new state data released Wednesday.

At the same time, the statewide dropout rate — the number of students who left school before graduating — fell ...Read more

As she surveyed the charred remains of her old Altadena neighborhood, Jocelyn Boyd stared in silent disbelief.

Loma Alta Park, where the public swimming pool once served as a summertime sanctuary for her and other Black residents, had been ravaged by the Eaton fire.

Standing outside a nearby community garden whose plants were mostly untouched...Read more

LAS VEGAS — More than 39,000 Nevadans will see increases to their Social Security payments thanks to a law former President Joe Biden signed this month.

The Social Security Fairness Act — which became law Jan. 5. — eliminates the reduction of Social Security benefits for those who are entitled to public pensions from work not covered by ...Read more

His foreign minister just abruptly resigned. A deadly wave of violence between fighting guerrilla groups is endangering his nation’s hard-won peace accord, and 17 of his countrymen, former soldiers accused in the July 2021 assassination of Haiti President Jovenel Moïse, are locked up in a Haitian jail.

Nevertheless Colombian President ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sacramento’s first inspector general — hired in 2021 to investigate police misconduct amid an outcry over George Floyd’s murder the preceding year in Minneapolis — has left his position.

Dwight White oversaw investigations into use-of-force incidents that resulted in serious injury or death, in-custody deaths and ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Even as the flames still raged, the impulse to quickly restore two devastated communities to what they once were became a political imperative.

First Gov. Gavin Newsom, then Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, issued orders designed to speed the rebuilding of damaged and destroyed homes by stripping away bureaucratic and regulatory ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Union leaders and elected officials who represent tens of thousands of federal workers in Maryland are reviewing what they say are potentially harmful impacts of President Donald Trump’s moves to implement a hiring freeze, end work-from-home policies and, eventually, remove thousands of workers from the federal payroll.

The ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — ASAP Rocky is about to hit the peak of his career — or have the worst year of his life.

The 36-year-old Brooklyn rapper and Rihanna paramour is set to drop his first solo album in nearly a decade and was announced as a co-headliner for Los Angeles’ Rolling Loud festival this March. The self-proclaimed “Fashion Killa” is ...Read more

CHICAGO — When reports surfaced over the weekend that mass deportations could potentially begin in the Chicago area Tuesday, Martin Ramos informed his boss that he was taking time off from work, stocked up on groceries and decided his kids would skip soccer practice this week.

Ramos — who emigrated from Guadalajara, Mexico, without the ...Read more

Los Angeles is burning, but it isn’t alone. In recent years, fires have blasted through cities in Colorado, the southern Appalachians and the island of Maui, along with Canada, Australia, Portugal and Greece. What wasn’t burned was smoked in.

Is this another case of a future not only dire but strange, without a narrative to join ...Read more

President Donald Trump aims to upend the immigration system in the United States in his first few days in office. On Jan. 20, 2025, Trump signed various executive orders that temporarily prevent refugees from coming to the U.S. and block immigrants from applying for asylum at a U.S. border, among other measures.

Another executive ...Read more