BALTIMORE — Maryland state parks are in their busy season, with yearly attendance still millions more than before the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We were discovered in and after the pandemic, and we stayed discovered,” Tim Hamilton, the business and marketing manager for the Maryland Park Service, said in an interview with The Baltimore Sun. “...Read more

ATLANTA — Crime and gun violence among young people in the metro Atlanta area are decreasing, and law enforcement officials say it’s not the boys in blue on patrol but rather city-run youth programs that are shifting the trend for kids.

Recent headlines about shootings in metro Atlanta involving young victims have raised alarm about gun ...Read more

MIAMI — Miami-Dade County’s jail system has agreed to drive local immigration detainees to federal detention centers — an arrangement that could include trips to the state-run facility in the Everglades branded as “Alligator Alcatraz.”

The administration of Mayor Daniella Levine Cava quietly signed the updated agreement with ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles County leaders are once again scrambling to stem the flow of illicit drugs into the county's troubled juvenile halls.

After nine people were rushed to the hospital last week following suspected drug exposure at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Downey, county supervisors asked the probation department Tuesday to ramp up ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — A baby died after his mother left him and his 2-year-old sibling inside a car while she was getting lip filler at a Bakersfield medical spa on a 101-degree day, authorities said.

Bakersfield Police criticized Maya Hernandez for "placing the value of her appearance over the safety and well-being of her children" in a report ...Read more

Virginia Guevara came to the United States from Tegucigalpa, Honduras, in the 1990s, before the country was granted Temporary Protected Status following the devastating destruction caused by Hurricane Mitch in 1998.

Guevara, 48 at the time, found a new and better life in the U.S. by working as a kitchen helper. Now, at 78, she faces possible ...Read more

President Donald Trump reiterated his displeasure with Vladimir Putin over the war in Ukraine and confirmed he’s sending more defensive weapons to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government, sweeping aside an earlier pause by the Pentagon.

“He’s killing too many people so we’re sending some defensive weapons to Ukraine and I’ve ...Read more

Russia launched a record number of drones and missiles at Ukraine on Wednesday after U.S. President Donald Trump reiterated his displeasure with Vladimir Putin and confirmed he’s sending more defensive weapons to Kyiv.

Ukraine’s air defense forces said Russia launched around 730 drones, including Iranian Shahed-type strike drones, as well ...Read more

Search crews slogged through thick mud and debris Tuesday in central Texas, where more than 100 people are confirmed dead after catastrophic flooding.

Authorities described the search as grueling and slow-moving, with unstable rubble piles and high water complicating recovery efforts along the Guadalupe River. Governor Greg Abbott, visiting ...Read more

Houthi attacks on cargo ships in the Red Sea killed three crew members, sank one vessel, and left a second without propulsion in signs the Tehran-backed group is once again escalating assaults in the vital trade route.

The attacks resulted in the “tragic loss of three mariners, with many others injured and the complete loss of the MV Magic ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested four men on Tuesday on suspicion of interfering with immigration enforcement operations and placing homemade tire spikes allegedly intended to disable law enforcement vehicles, federal authorities said.

Border Patrol Sector Chief Gregory K. Bovino identified the men as Jenaro-Ernesto Ayala, 43;...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — After overcoming homelessness, Kristy Smith became an advocate for others, designing tools to help Sacramento residents get off the street and into permanent shelter. A new bill would shut down her work.

Smith, along with 16 homeless and 15 formerly homeless people, signed a letter from the Sacramento Homeless Union last ...Read more

DOLTON, Ill. -- The village of Dolton, which is where you may find yourself if you’re traveling south through Chicago and run out of Chicago to travel through, which we have heard more about in the past 30 days or so than since it was established 130-odd years ago, which is now best known to the world as the hometown of Pope Leo XIV, is like a...Read more

After Robert F. Kennedy Jr. became the nation’s top health official in February, pediatrician Jeff Couchman started getting a lot of questions from worried parents.

“They’d ask: ‘Are vaccines going to be available? Can we give my kid every possible shot today just to make sure?’” said Couchman, who practices at Mesquite Pediatrics ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — You've probably heard the phrase: "Save the bees." But new research suggests we may need to be more specific about which bees we're saving.

Europeans introduced western honeybees (Apis mellifera L.) to the Americas in the early 1600s. They play an essential role in pollinating crops and flowering plants, and are often hailed as ...Read more

MEXICO CITY — By his own admission, the Mexican lawman known as El Diablo — The Devil — supervised a scourge of torture, murder, kidnappings, land grabs and other abuses while amassing a fortune in cartel bribes that bankrolled purchases of homes, cattle and a fleet of buses.

Edgar Veytia's transgressions came while he was the top cop in ...Read more

Gov. Ned Lamont signed two landmark climate bills recently that set a goal for Connecticut to be carbon neutral by 2050 and to fortify the state’s infrastructure against severe weather, despite recent federal rollbacks that seek to dismantle nationwide carbon standards that have been in place for years, according to officials.

The new laws ...Read more

A group of small businesses that won an order finding President Donald Trump’s sweeping global tariffs illegal urged a federal appeals court to uphold that decision and block the trade levies.

The U.S. Court of International Trade ruled on May 28 that Trump exceeded his authority by imposing broad tariffs, a power granted to Congress in the ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court cleared the way Tuesday for the Trump administration to lay off tens of thousands of federal employees and downsize their agencies without seeking the approval of Congress.

In an 8-1 vote, the justices lifted an order from a federal judge in San Francisco who blocked mass layoffs at more than 20 departments and...Read more