Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has opened an investigation into claims of nonprofit organizations registering noncitizens to vote in the state.

“Texans are deeply troubled by the possibility that organizations purporting to assist with voter registration are illegally registering noncitizens to vote in our elections,” Paxton said in a ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California lawmakers intend to shelve legislation that would have required Google to pay news outlets for distributing their content, and in its place announced a new public-private partnership between the state and the tech giant that will fund programs to research artificial intelligence and bolster local journalism.

...Read more

SAN DIEGO — A pair of dismantled pressurizers that departed the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station by rail had to be returned to the now-shuttered power plant after it was discovered that one of the giant pieces of equipment had leaked fluid during the trip.

Surveys conducted by the plant’s operator, Southern California Edison, said “...Read more

Five hundred young sturgeon were released at four locations into the Saginaw River system last week as part of an ongoing effort by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Michigan State University to rebuild the giant fish's population.

The sturgeons came from the Black Lake Stream Side Rearing Facility in Onaway, a facility opened by...Read more

LAS VEGAS — Former Clark County public administrator Robert Telles took the witness stand Wednesday in his own murder trial over the killing of Las Vegas Review-Journal investigative reporter Jeff German.

Telles, 47, is standing trial on a count of murder with a deadly weapon against a victim 60 or older. He took the witness stand shortly ...Read more

A Texas-based telecommunications company is being ordered to pay a $1 million penalty following robocalls that used an AI-generated recording of President Joe Biden’s voice to discourage people from voting in the New Hampshire primary election, violating state election laws, according to a news release from the Federal Communications ...Read more

WASHINGTON — A Senate Ethics Committee adjudicatory review of former New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez’s alleged violations of the Senate rules has been closed after the embattled lawmaker’s resignation took effect on Tuesday.

Menendez, who for months resisted calls for his resignation, was facing a possible expulsion depending on the results ...Read more

CHICAGO — Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg extolled the Democratic ticket as a joyful and talented team headed toward victory as he spoke to California delegates at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday.

"Thank you for producing the next president of the United States, Kamala Harris," he told a few hundred delegates and ...Read more

BALTIMORE — A newly launched $5 million grant program aims to help nonprofit groups assisting small businesses and communities hurt by the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse.

The Greater Baltimore Committee and the Baltimore Community Foundation said they are accepting letters of interest on a rolling basis.

While the reopening of the Port of...Read more

Fitness guru Richard Simmons died from heart disease and complications from a fall, his family confirmed Wednesday.

“This morning, Richard Simmons’ brother, Lenny, received a call from the L.A. Coroner’s office,” family spokesperson Tom Estey told People in a statement. “The coroner informed Lenny that Richard’s death was accidental...Read more

DETROIT — The mother of a 15-year-old girl who fell asleep in a Detroit courtroom and ended up in a jail uniform and handcuffs has sued the judge who took her into custody, and her attorneys said Wednesday the judge's actions were inappropriate.

The girl fell asleep while on a field trip Aug. 13 in Judge Kenneth King's 36th District Court ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Choosing the right watermelon can be tricky. Sometimes they're not ripe, or maybe they have too many seeds.

Then there's the possibility the "melons" are actually $5 million worth of methamphetamine painted to look like fruit so they can be smuggled across the border.

That was the sight U.S. Customs and Border Protection ...Read more

ATLANTA — In yet another sign of the dysfunction within Georgia’s prison system, federal indictments announced Wednesday exposed alleged widespread conspiracies orchestrated by inmates to deliver contraband to state prisons using drones.

The newly unsealed federal indictments charge 23 defendants, most of them current or former prisoners ...Read more

With Kamala Harris' formal anointing as the Democratic nominee for president, European allies are relieved by what they see as a diminishing threat of another Donald Trump presidency — but an undercurrent of anxiety remains.

A scant six weeks ago, when the former president was riding high in the polls after a triumphal Republican convention, ...Read more

ATLANTA — In the past month, the State Election Board has approved a series of contentious rules.

Donald Trump has praised the three members of the board, who voted for the measures, calling them “pit bulls.” Democrats along with some Republicans have blasted the new rules. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger called the board members �...Read more

Human-wildlife overlap is projected to increase across more than half of all lands around the globe by 2070. The main driver of these changes is human population growth. This is the central finding of our newly published study in the journal Science Advances.

Our research suggests that as human population increases, humans and animals...Read more