LOS ANGELES — Federal contractors tasked with clearing ash and debris from the Eaton and Palisades wildfires improperly sent truckloads of asbestos-tainted waste to nonhazardous landfills, including one where workers were not wearing respiratory protection, according to state and local records.

From Feb. 28 to March 24, federal cleanup crews ...Read more

LOS ANGELES - As immigration raids continue to sweep through Santa Ana's car washes and Home Depot parking lots, spreading fear across the 77% Latino community, the city has created a $100,000 fund to help affected families cover basic necessities such as food, rent and utilities.

The emergency fund was proposed by Mayor Valerie Amezcua, who ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Amid exploding fireworks, more than 130 firefighters battled a fire that had engulfed four homes in Pacoima and critically injured a woman on Thursday night, authorities said.

The Los Angeles Fire Department responded to three burning one-story homes in the area of 12933 W. Corcoran St. around 9 p.m. Fireworks were exploding ...Read more

MIAMI — The sales pitch for erecting a detention center for detainees in the heart of the Everglades is the swamp and creatures surrounding it. The wildlife has become both a presidential punchline and the government’s official name for the controversial camp: Alligator Alcatraz.

But environmentalists worry that the rapidly constructed ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Weeks after President Donald Trump took office, multiple government webpages referencing gender and sexual orientation abruptly disappeared from the internet.

Many returned after a February court order. But they came with an unusual addition: a disclaimer from the Department of Health and Human Services denying facts provided by...Read more

BOISE, Idaho — Childhood friends of Bryan Kohberger, who pleaded guilty Wednesday to stabbing four University of Idaho students to death in November 2022, have tracked his murder case from afar and said they felt shocked the former Pennsylvania resident suddenly agreed to a plea deal to spare his life.

“I won’t lie, I kind of spiraled ...Read more

TAMPA, Fla. — A pastor from Wimauma was deported to Guatemala on Wednesday after spending more than two months in immigration custody, according to his family.

Maurilio Ambrocio was arrested on April 17 during a routine check-in at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Tampa, a visit he had made for more than 10 years without...Read more

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — The former teacher at Richneck Elementary School who was shot by a 6-year-old student in early 2023 can proceed with her lawsuit against the school’s former assistant principal, a judge ruled Thursday.

But Newport News Circuit Court Judge Matthew W. Hoffman tossed the claims that Abby Zwerner filed against two other ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said that his administration may begin sending out letters to trading partners as soon as Friday setting unilateral tariff rates ahead of a July 9 deadline for negotiations.

“We’re probably going to be sending some letters out, starting probably tomorrow, maybe 10 a day to various countries saying what ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The massive tax and spending package that cleared the House on Thursday didn’t just deliver President Donald Trump a big win. It also handed both parties a message for the midterms.

Democrats were united in their opposition to the bill, while Republicans saw two defections: the fiscally conservative Rep. Thomas Massie of ...Read more

Two hundred U.S. marines are going to be sent to to Florida to support President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts, the U.S. Northern Command announced on Thursday

The marines will be deployed from an air base in North Carolina to the Sunshine State to “augment U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement interior enforcement,” the ...Read more

NEW YORK — The good news for 20-year-old asylum-seeker Joselyn Chipantiza-Sisalema is that a Manhattan federal judge has left the door open on her bid to stay in the U.S. and avoid what her family says is persecution and certain death if she returns to Ecuador.

The bad news is that federal agents, lying in wait outside the courtroom, arrested...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump was “heavily engaged” in Republicans’ budget reconciliation process at every step and a big player in an endgame “full-court press,” according to sources. But he left it to GOP leaders and his vice president to twist the arm of one key Senate holdout.

As a group of conservative holdouts left the ...Read more

Kenneth Colley, a British actor known for playing Admiral Piett in the original “Star Wars” trilogy, has died at age 87.

Colley died at his home in England on Monday, according to a statement shared by his agent, Julian Owens.

Before his death, Colley been admitted to a hospital for an arm injury he suffered in a fall, but he quickly ...Read more

CHICAGO — Late Wednesday night, assailants armed with at least one rifle rolled up outside an album release party for a local drill rapper in River North and opened fire on a crowd gathered on the sidewalk.

Within a matter of seconds, police Superintendent Larry Snelling said, the attackers were able to shoot an astonishing 18 people, killing...Read more

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Abortion services are poised to resume in Kansas City and across Missouri after a Jackson County judge on Thursday blocked a series of restrictions that temporarily banned access.

Jackson County Circuit Court Judge Jerri Zhang, in an order issued late Thursday afternoon, halted requirements that abortion providers must ...Read more

SpongeBob SquarePants would, in theory, have little use for stamps. They would get soggy in that pineapple under the sea.

Neither would Patrick Star (no fingers on the ends of those arms), Mr. Crabs (claws) or Squidward Tentacles (his name says it all). One could argue that even the fans of "SpongeBob SquarePants" wouldn't have much use for ...Read more

NEW YORK — Sean “Diddy” Combs has ducked a possible life sentence after his acquittal on sex trafficking and racketeering charges, but prison time is still a possibility for the multimillionaire rap mogul.

Following a nine-week trial, a federal court jury in Manhattan on Wednesday convicted Combs of ferrying people across the U.S. and ...Read more