NEW YORK — The look of the city is about to change dramatically: Under new city regulations, the outdoor dining sheds that have become a distinctive part of the post-COVID landscape must come down by the end of the week.

Restaurants willing to meet new, tougher rules for the setups can put them back up in the spring — but many have chosen ...Read more

ATLANTA — Two corporate landlords with portfolios of Georgia rental homes are accused of violating fair housing laws through a “blanket ban” on people with criminal histories, according to an Indiana-based housing group.

Federal class action lawsuits filed Wednesday against Progress Residential and Tricon Residential allege the companies ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump picked Brooke Rollins as U.S. secretary of agriculture, tapping a member of his first-term White House team and elevating another loyalist to his incoming administration.

Rollins’ commitment to supporting farmers, food self-sufficiency and the restoration of agriculture-dependent American small ...Read more

Nearly 200 countries agreed to triple the amount of money available to help developing countries confront rapidly warming temperatures.

But the deal reached at the close of the two-week COP29 summit in Azerbaijan resulted from fractious and at times openly hostile negotiations, producing an agreement that even its supporters may see as ...Read more

COP29 host Azerbaijan released a final draft of a climate finance deal, calling on rich nations to commit at least $300 billion a year in climate financing to the developing world.

The draft, which came early Sunday morning in Baku, set the stage for a hard-won financing agreement after two weeks of fraught negotiations.

The final funding ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — For more than 15 years, one of the world's most famous gemstones — the 180,000-carat Bahia Emerald — has been held in Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department custody, its ultimate fate uncertain amid more than a decade of discord, disagreement and courtroom wrangling.

Now, a federal judge has ruled that the smuggled stone ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump selected Brooke Rollins, who heads a policy institute created to promote his agenda, as his nominee for U.S. secretary of agriculture.

Rollins’ commitment to supporting farmers, food self-sufficiency and the restoration of agriculture-dependent American small towns “is second to none,” Trump ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — In an effort to fight the sexual exploitation of children, federal authorities will teach Los Angeles Unified School District students, staff and parents how to stay safe online.

A memorandum of understanding between the nation's second-largest school district, the U.S. Attorney's Office and Homeland Security Investigations was ...Read more

SAN DIEGO — The deployment of military troops to the southwestern border is nothing new.

Presidents both Republican and Democrat have called on military support in San Diego and elsewhere many times over the years to assist with border security tasks, from surveillance to reinforcing barriers.

But President-elect Donald Trump’s hint this ...Read more

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling alliance won an election in Maharashtra by a wide margin, signaling policy continuity in a state which houses most of India’s billionaires and is home to some of the country’s biggest investments.

The Mahayuti coalition, led by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, is ahead with 228 seats of the 288-...Read more

Cameron James Pettit, one of three men charged in Mac Miller’s 2018 overdose death, has been released from federal lockup.

Pettit, 33, who allegedly sold the fentanyl-laced drugs to the rapper two days before his death, was released from California’s Federal Correctional Institution Mendota on Oct. 11, according to online inmate records. A ...Read more

WASHINGTON — In the waning days of his administration, President Joe Biden is pushing to strengthen Ukraine’s position against Russia before the return of Donald Trump to the White House.

That’s because the president-elect has pledged to promptly end the grinding war started by Russia’s Vladimir Putin almost three years ago. That likely...Read more

WASHINGTON — Scott Bessent, the veteran hedge fund manager who Donald Trump picked to become the next Treasury secretary, wants tariffs, a shadow chair for the Federal Reserve and maybe a weaker dollar.

If confirmed by the Senate, he will have a sprawling remit: oversee public financing, economic sanctions and the Internal Revenue Service; ...Read more

NEW YORK — Cops have arrested the man they say swiped a $3,000 gold-plated rose from a 9/11 memorial at a Midtown church.

Members of the New York Police Department's Manhattan Warrant Squad grabbed Deikel Alcantara, 21, for Wednesday’s theft at the Church of St. Francis of Assisi on West 31st Street near Seventh Avenue, down the block from ...Read more

Nearly a year after the Biden administration gave Florida the green light to become the first state to import lower-cost prescription drugs from Canada — a longtime goal of politicians across the political spectrum, including President-elect Donald Trump — the program has yet to begin.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis hailed the FDA’s approval ...Read more

A California agency charged with slowing health costs has set a lofty goal for insurers to direct 15% of their spending to primary care by 2034, part of the state’s effort to expand the primary care workforce and give more people access to preventive care services.

The board of the state Office of Health Care Affordability in October set its ...Read more

On Thursday, Nov. 26, 1789, George Washington woke early. Assisted by his enslaved valets – William “Billy” Lee and the young Christopher Sheels – he powdered his hair, put on his favorite black velvet suit, tied his white neckwear and donned his yellow gloves.

Finally ready, he set out to travel the short distance from the ...Read more

Thanksgiving doesn’t ring in the ear for months on end, unlike another holiday that lies just ahead. Yet readers may remember a couple of hymns that roll around each November in church, around the dinner table, or even – for readers of a certain age – in school. One I remember well is “Come, Ye Thankful People, Come.” Then there’s...Read more