WASHINGTON — The Senate Judiciary Committee favorably reported Todd Blanche’s bid to be attorney general after some Republican senators delayed the vote over the Trump administration’s controversial “weaponization” fund.

Key GOP holdouts on the committee, Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., voted in favor of advancing...Read more

WASHINGTON — The prospect of an interim deal focused on the Strait of Hormuz appeared to be gaining traction on Tuesday, with Qatar saying a proposal had been drafted and both American and Iranian officials sounding hopeful about an agreement to reopen the crucial waterway.

President Donald Trump discussed efforts to deescalate U.S.-Iran ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California’s legal campaign against the Trump administration has preserved more than $200 billion in threatened federal funding, Attorney General Rob Bonta said Tuesday. During the first 18 months of President Donald Trump’s second term, the state filed 82 lawsuits and submitted 120 friend-of-the-court briefs in other ...Read more

Austin Scott James continues his recovery days after he was critically wounded Saturday while confronting the killer in a mass shooting at an Idaho In-and-Out that left three dead including a Stockton woman who trained workers at the restaurant.

More surgeries are ahead for James, the Antelope High School graduate and son of a Sacramento County...Read more

A California federal judge held the Trump administration in civil contempt for violating a court order requiring them to forensically image any cellphone used by agents present at 15 identified immigration operations.

U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong ordered the government to pay $500 per day until they complied. The July 28 ...Read more

The U.S. Southern Command has activated a new military headquarters to coordinate operations against drug cartels and other transnational criminal organizations across the Western Hemisphere, marking a significant reorganization of the military’s regional security mission.

The new Joint Task Force-Western Hemisphere, activated Monday, ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Out-of-service equipment managed by Southern California Edison started the deadly Eaton fire that killed 19 people and destroyed much of Altadena in January 2025, according to a long-awaited report by state and county fire officials.

The report, released Tuesday by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and ...Read more

RALEIGH, N.C. — A budget bill is likely to soon be on its way to the governor’s desk, with a variety of funding changes and power shifts. It’s much smaller than the comprehensive, long-delayed $34 billion budget bill Democratic Gov. Josh Stein signed into law in July.

But what is known as a budget technical corrections bill has more than ...Read more

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The University of Alaska Board of Regents voted Tuesday to eliminate higher tuition rates for students with out-of-state residency.

Regents voted unanimously in favor of the change, but final approval will not occur until November, when regents vote on tuition rates for the 2027-28 school year.

University finance ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Hours before President Donald Trump is scheduled to headline a Tuesday evening fundraiser at his Rancho Palos Verdes golf course, authorities announced that they had arrested a heavily armed individual seen wandering the grounds Sunday.

L.A. County sheriff’s deputies responded to the golf course around 3:30 p.m. Saturday after...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Out-of-service equipment managed by Southern California Edison started the deadly Eaton fire that killed 19 people and destroyed much of Altadena in January 2025, according to a long-awaited report by state and county fire officials.

The report, released Tuesday by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The prospect of an interim deal focused on the Strait of Hormuz appeared to be gaining traction on Tuesday, with Qatar saying a proposal had been drafted and both American and Iranian officials sounding hopeful about an agreement to reopen the crucial waterway.

President Donald Trump discussed efforts to deescalate U.S.-Iran ...Read more

PITTSBURGH — A federal agency that aims to make healthcare safer and less expensive has canceled two grants to University of Pittsburgh researchers, adding to the institution’s recent string of funding losses.

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality canceled a grant worth about $2 million to Leslie P. Scheunemann, an assistant ...Read more

CHICAGO — Mayor Brandon Johnson praised on Tuesday the “maturation” of Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, whose handling of sexual harassment issues involving former state Rep. Harry Benton has made him politically vulnerable in leading the supermajority House Democratic caucus in Springfield.

“Watching his maturation has...Read more

BOSTON — Massachusetts residents are looking down the barrel of $300 million in federal penalties, equivalent to an additional $90 per taxpayer annually, if the payment error rate in the state’s SNAP program fails to improve significantly from current levels, according to a new study released by the Fiscal Alliance Foundation.

The study, ...Read more

The Cuban government has announced it is opening up banking, pharmacies, gas stations, elder-care homes, port terminals and — almost unnoticed — the practice of law and architecture to private companies for the first time in six decades.

Prime Minister Manuel Marrero signed the new decree that takes effect Tuesday. In 2024, when the economy...Read more

WASHINGTON — Todd Blanche cleared the first hurdle Tuesday on his path to confirmation as attorney general, setting the stage for a vote by the full Senate this week as Republicans race to shore up support among three potential holdouts in their party.

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 12 to 10 along party lines to advance his nomination, ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration’s planned deployment of National Guard troops in Washington, D.C., through the end of his presidential term will cost $1.43 billion, or $51 million a month, in addition to the amount spent so far, according to a new Pentagon estimate.

The new estimate of the costs going forward, first reported by The ...Read more