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Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Los Angeles faces little relief from fires as winds persist

Current News / News & Features /

Dry, hot winds will fan blazes in Los Angeles into midweek — and some forecasts show little relief from the gusts for the rest of January — as Southern California struggles with one of the worst starts to a year for wildfires.

While good progress has been made blunting two of the region’s smaller blazes, the largest were raging almost ...Read more

Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Vance says Gaza hostage deal possible before Biden term ends

Current News / News & Features /

Vice President-elect JD Vance said he believes a deal to release hostages held by Hamas in Gaza could be struck before President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House in a week.

The signal comes as Trump has escalated threats against Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist group, to agree to a hostage deal before his Jan. 20 inauguration or...Read more

Jessica Griffin/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS

New noninvasive asthma test may help doctors tailor treatment for kids

Current News / News & Features /

Impacting millions of children in the U.S. alone, asthma can be particularly problematic to diagnose with specificity — leaving the majority of kids without treatments that target their subtype of the condition.

Using a new, noninvasive nose swab test, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have for the first time detected multiple ...Read more

Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Burglary suspects dressed as firefighters arrested in L.A. fire zone, officials say

Current News / News & Features /

Los Angeles authorities said they arrested 29 more people overnight in the fire zones, including one burglary suspect who was allegedly dressed as a firefighter.

Of the arrests, 25 people were apprehended in the Eaton fire zone, four in the Palisades fire zone, authorities said.

"We have people who will go to all ends to do what they do," Los ...Read more

Officials investigating whether Southern California Edison equipment ignited Hurst fire

Current News / News & Features /

Fire agencies are investigating whether downed Southern California Edison utility equipment played a role in igniting the Hurst fire near Sylmar, company officials said.

The company issued a report Friday saying that a downed conductor was discovered at a tower in the vicinity of the fire, but that it "does not know whether the damage observed ...Read more

Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Vance says Gaza hostage deal could come before Biden term ends

Current News / News & Features /

Vice President-elect JD Vance said he believes a deal to release hostages held by Hamas in Gaza could be struck before President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House in a week.

The signal comes as Trump has escalated threats against Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist group, to agree to a hostage deal before his Jan. 20 inauguration or...Read more

Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times/TNS

'This is your Hurricane Katrina': Assessing the long road ahead for L.A.

Current News / News & Features /

Craig Fugate, who led the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the Obama administration, has seen a lot of natural disasters. He knows the difference between destruction and utter devastation, and puts the nation's truly cataclysmic events — those that erase entire communities in a blink — in a category all their own.

The wildfires that ...Read more

Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Inconvenient truths about the fires burning in Los Angeles from two fire experts

Current News / News & Features /

Not quite six years ago, wildfire expert Jack Cohen, who lives in Missoula, Mont., visited Pacific Palisades to instruct firefighters and property owners on how to protect homes against wildfires.

Three days of training, including a tour of the community, left Cohen hopeful, but the feeling faded when it became clear that his lessons were not ...Read more

Christina House/Los Angeles Times/TNS

In 'a mass erasure of heritage,' numerous historic landmarks lost in L.A.

Current News / News & Features /

Will Rogers' ranch home. Pasadena Waldorf School. Robert Bridges House. The Bunny Museum. Andrew McNally House. Theatre Palisades. The Zane Grey Estate.

The Palisades and Eaton infernos have laid waste to more than 30 structures considered historic in what preservationists believe is the single worst loss of such properties in the region's ...Read more

Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Newsom suspends landmark environmental laws to ease rebuilding in wildfire zones

Current News / News & Features /

Landmark California environmental laws will be suspended for wildfire victims seeking to rebuild their homes and businesses, according to an executive order signed Sunday by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Requirements for building permits and reviews in the California Environmental Quality Act and the California Coastal Act — often considered onerous by ...Read more

Courtesy Blue Origin/TNS/TNS

Blue Origin now shooting for early Monday debut launch of New Glenn rocket

Current News / News & Features /

Blue Origin pushed again its planned debut launch of its New Glenn rocket from the Space Coast, now targeting an early Monday morning liftoff.

The 321-foot-tall rocket making its debut on the NG-1 mission is targeting a three-hour window from 1-4 a.m. Monday for liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Launch Complex 36.

It had been...Read more

Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Los Angeles faces little relief from fires as winds persist

Current News / News & Features /

Dry, hot winds will fan blazes in Los Angeles into midweek — and some forecasts show little relief for the rest of the month — as Southern California struggles with one of the worst starts to a year for wildfires.

While good progress has been made blunting two of the region’s smaller blazes, the largest are raging almost out of control ...Read more

From watts to warheads: Secretary of energy oversees big science research and the US nuclear arsenal

Current News / News & Features /

The U.S. Department of Energy was created in 1977 by merging two agencies with different missions: the Atomic Energy Commission, which developed, tested and maintained the nation’s nuclear weapons, and the Energy Research and Development Administration, a collection of domestic energy research programs.

Today the department ...Read more

Israelis and Palestinians warring over a homeland is far from unique

Current News / News & Features /

The ongoing horrors unfolding in Israel and Gaza have deep-rooted origins that stem from a complex and contested question: Who has rights to the same territory?

I am a scholar of international affairs, as well as territory and nationalism. Territory has been a central cause of conflict throughout history.

Today, Israelis and ...Read more

Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Inconvenient truths about the fires burning in Los Angeles from two fire experts

Current News / News & Features /

Not quite six years ago, wildfire expert Jack Cohen, who lives in Missoula, Mont., visited Pacific Palisades to instruct firefighters and property owners on how to protect homes against wildfires.

Three days of training, including a tour of the community, left Cohen hopeful, but the feeling faded when it became clear that his lessons were not ...Read more

Barbara Haddock Taylor/The Baltimore Sun/TNS

Despite Baltimore crime being down, some residents still feel unsafe: 'The perception is that it's the same'

Current News / News & Features /

Crime is down in Baltimore, but concerns about it still pervade the congregation of Southern Baptist Church in Broadway East, the sanctuary’s pastor says.

“People are talking about crime and the ethos of the lack of safety,” Bishop Donte L. Hickman Sr. said. “For people that come out, whether it’s in the day or in the night, (they) ...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Column: The 6 biggest ways wine will change in 2025

Current News / News & Features /

It’s that time of new year, when I consult my crystal glass to glimpse where the wine world is going next. Some powerful, important trends are still ongoing, some wacky ones are thankfully disappearing, and others are brand-new.

Let’s start with one thing that will stick around for the foreseeable future: climate change.

The past 10 years ...Read more

Samantha Liss/KFF Health News/TNS

Indiana state senator moves to scrap hospital monopoly law he helped create

Current News / News & Features /

On the heels of a scuttled hospital merger between rivals in Terre Haute, Indiana, a state senator introduced a bill that would forbid similar mergers in the future.

Last year, nonprofit Union Health tried to acquire the only other acute care hospital in Vigo County by leveraging a state law it helped create that allows hospital monopolies. Now...Read more

Secretary of defense must perform a ‘delicate dance’ between the president, Congress and the public

Current News / News & Features /

Senate confirmation hearings are slated to begin on Jan. 14, 2025, for Pete Hegseth, whom President-elect Donald Trump has chosen to serve as the next secretary of defense. It’s a massive job, broadly affecting Americans’ security at home and abroad and overseeing huge numbers of people and immense amounts of money.

The ...Read more

Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Firefighters gain ground on deadly LA wildfires, but more wind is on the way

Current News / News & Features /

LOS ANGELES — Calmer winds and higher humidity helped firefighters make progress Saturday battling an unprecedented fire siege that has devastated the foothill community of Altadena and coastal enclave of Pacific Palisades — but officials warned that Santa Ana gusts will pick up again next week and cautioned the public to stay on alert.

“...Read more