SAN DIEGO — Chu Ding, a 53-year-old agent with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, had just finished a Costco run when he noticed a pickup stopped in the parking lot blocking his car.

He tapped on the passenger window to indicate to the driver that he was leaving and that he could take his space. The truck moved away a few feet but ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — A Philadelphia judge has been placed on administrative leave after a colleague accused him of attempting to influence his decision in a criminal case, sources in the criminal justice system said.

Common Pleas Court Judge Scott DiClaudio was removed from the bench last month after a fellow judge said DiClaudio approached him ...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — The National Hurricane Center on Saturday began forecasting a system to form later this week near Florida with a chance to develop into the season’s next tropical depression or storm.

In its 8 p.m. tropical outlook, the NHC said it expects a broad area of low pressure to over the next couple of days near the southeastern U.S...Read more

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A 2.2-magnitude earthquake hit the North Carolina mountains late Friday, government seismologists confirmed.

The quake struck at 11:23 p.m. and was centered about 5.6 miles west of Rosman, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Charlotte is about 140 miles east of Rosman.

At least two people said on social media that ...Read more

CHICAGO — With his features hidden by a mask and a black thermal shirt, prosecutors said Lontray Clark ignited a fire in a building with 13 apartments, then returned to his car and banged his hand on the center console.

“(I) lit they house on fire,” Clark told his cousin, according to prosecutors.

The building soon became engulfed in ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Shasta County Sheriff’s Office has issued a mandatory evacuation order for residents near the Green Fire, a lightning-started wildfire that has been burning since July 1 near Shasta Lake, according to a Saturday news release from the U.S. Forest Service.

The fire is 0% contained and has so far burned 8,395 acres, ...Read more

Mexico is projecting confidence that it will fend off a new set of 30% tariffs that President Donald Trump threatened Saturday to impose next month, with talks already underway to avert the worst.

After Trump went public with his plan by posting on social media, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum noted in speeches near the northern border ...Read more

Opposing groups from the French overseas territory of New Caledonia reached an agreement that aims to set out its future status following riots that rocked the Pacific archipelago last year.

The draft deal signed early Saturday among the groups and the government would create a New Caledonia state that would nevertheless remain part of France, ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A fireworks executive and longtime pyrotechnician appears to have operated in the margins dividing local, state and federal agencies charged with permitting and regulating businesses dealing in explosives, before the deadly series of blasts that killed seven people July 1 at a fireworks facility in Esparto.

The company, ...Read more

Columbia University may be nearing a deal with the Trump administration to reinstate federal funding to the university over civil rights issues, according to reports by multiple news outlets.

The deal would require Columbia to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to those affected by the alleged violations, increase transparency in its hiring ...Read more

The Trump Organization plans to expand to Romania, as President Donald Trump’s family deepens its ties in the Balkans and pursues a lineup of new foreign deals.

The company will partner with local real estate developer SDC Imobiliare on Trump Tower Bucharest, according to a statement dated Friday. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The ...Read more

SEATTLE — Four children who are U.S. citizens have been detained with their mother for about two weeks after she was arrested by Border Patrol agents at Peace Arch Park near the U.S.-Canada border in June, U.S. Rep. Maxine Dexter, D-Ore., said Friday.

The Portland, Oregon-based mother and her young kids were taken into custody on June 28 ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and his allies have seized upon a new way to criticize the head of the U.S. central bank: his handling of an expensive renovation of the Fed’s headquarters.

The construction project offers the clearest example yet of how Trump and those in his orbit are looking for every opportunity to scrutinize Jerome ...Read more

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A Texas-based company gave $10,000 to Florida’s Republican Party days before getting state contracts to help with transportation at a state-run detention facility for migrants in the Everglades.

IRG Global Emergency Management Inc. made the donation on June 24, according to state campaign finance filings, days after ...Read more

BOISE, Idaho — Nearly record-low rain in the spring combined with extreme heat could put a strain on agriculture and worsen fire risk throughout Idaho, weather officials have warned.

Most of the state is under drought after a particularly dry spring, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, prompting water shortages, while the Boise area’s ...Read more

A masked gunman fatally shot a University of California, Berkeley business professor while he visited his kids in Greece, according to several media reports.

Przemysław “Przemek” Jeziorski, an associate marketing professor at the university’s Haas School of Business, reportedly died while visiting his children in Athens, according to a ...Read more

MERRITT ISLAND, Fla. — The nation’s spaceports can now take advantage of tax-free bonds for the first time after Trump signed the “Big Beautiful Bill” last week, and the Space Coast looks to benefit.

U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody on Friday detailed what it means for Florida from the headquarters of Space Florida, the state’s aerospace ...Read more

MIAMI — When she was a Miami-Dade commissioner, Daniella Levine Cava passed legislation that created a county office to help permanent visa holders in the Miami area become U.S. citizens. Now in her second term as mayor, Levine Cava has proposed eliminating the county’s Office of New Americans, according to budget documents.

This year, ...Read more