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Christina House/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Federal contractors improperly dumped wildfire-related asbestos waste at LA area landfills

Current News / News & Features /

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

Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times/TNS

'We are in a crisis': Santa Ana creates emergency fund for families harmed by ICE raids

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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

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Multiple homes burn in massive Pacoima fireworks explosion; 1 critically injured

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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

Pedro Portal/El Nuevo Herald/Pedro Portal

Detention center driving out wildlife, damaging Everglades, critics contend

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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

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images North America/TNS

'Chaotic and deeply frightening': Once a global gold standard, US government health guidance is falling apart

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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

California fireworks explosions: 1 killed in Simi Valley, 2 critically injured in Bay Area

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California has seen a spate of accidental fireworks explosions leading up to the Fourth of July, with a Wednesday morning detonation killing one person in a Simi Valley home and a similar incident critically injuring two people in a Bay Area residence.

The Ventura County Fire Department responded to a residential structure fire in the 1600 ...Read more

Kyle Green/Pool/Getty Images North America/TNS

'Disgusted': Kohberger's former friends, peers react to guilty murder plea

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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

Luis Santana/Tampa Bay Times/TNS

Florida pastor deported to Guatemala after weeks in detention

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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

Stephen M. Katz/The Virginian-Pilot/TNS

Lawsuit filed against former school official by ex-teacher who was shot can move forward, judge rules

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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

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images North America/TNS

Trump may start telling nations new tariff rates on Friday

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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

ALEX WROBLEWSKI/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Sweeping tax and spending bill hands both parties a midterm message

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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

Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/TNS

The U.S. military is sending 200 Marines to Florida to support ICE operations

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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

Barry Williams/New York Daily News/TNS

ICE agents blasted by families, officials for arresting migrants in NYC courts despite open cases

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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

Yuri Gripas/Abaca Press/TNS

Trump worked phones on 'big beautiful bill' -- but left some arm-twisting to others

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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

Clemens Niehaus/Geisler-Fotopres/DPA/Zuma Press/TNS

'Star Wars' actor Kenneth Colley dies at 87

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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

Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune/TNS

Chicago police dig in after drive-by attack at album release party kills 4, wounds 14 others

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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

News briefs

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Trump has big plans for America’s next birthday. Historians have questions

WASHINGTON — As Americans mark the Fourth of July holiday this weekend, the Trump administration is planning ahead for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence next year, a moment of reflection for a nation beset by record-low patriotism and divided ...Read more

ANGELA WEISS/GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/TNS

Abortions can resume in Kansas City after Missouri ruling, Planned Parenthood says

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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

USPS/USPS/TNS

SpongeBob and friends are USPS stamps: You can snail-mail any pineapple under the sea

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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

Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images North America/TNS

Sean 'Diddy' Combs' still facing prison for NYC criminal case following mixed verdict

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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