It sounds like something from a science fiction novel, but Alabama officials’ plan to use robots to improve care for rural pregnant women and their babies is real.

During a January White House roundtable touting the first grants to states under a new $50 billion rural health fund, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet ...Read more

Every day, the Ohio River sends billions of gallons of water flowing past Louisville’s pumping station, where the Kentucky city’s utility sucks it up to turn it into tap water.

To ensure it tastes good and is safe to drink, a small team of scientists and technicians is constantly testing the water for pH, odors, heavy metals, and microbes. ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Connor Cipolla, an Eaton wildfire survivor, last year praised Southern California Edison's plan of burying more than 60 miles of electric lines in Altadena as it rebuilds to reduce the risk of fire.

Then he learned he would have to pay $20,000 to $40,000 to connect his home, which was damaged by smoke and ash, to Edison's new ...Read more

Lori Kelley’s deteriorating vision has made it hard for her to find steady work.

The 59-year-old, who lives in Harrisburg, North Carolina, closed her nonprofit circus arts school last year because she could no longer see well enough to complete paperwork. She then worked making dough at a pizza shop for a bit. Currently, she sorts recyclable ...Read more

BALTIMORE — Small, possibly portable, nuclear reactors that can’t melt down are moving toward reality in the United States, with what may be the first two coming online or beginning construction this year.

The US Army just transported its first small reactor for testing, and the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, is working on what ...Read more

Whoopi Goldberg is setting the record straight about why her name appears in the Epstein files.

“Now, in the name of transparency, can you put up… my name is in the files,” Goldberg said on Tuesday’s episode of “The View” as an email from 2013 was displayed on the screen.

Goldberg went on to explain that her name appears in emails ...Read more

The Justice Department’s top antitrust cop, Abigail Slater, resigned Thursday in a move that raises concerns that the Trump administration will soften its stance on challenging anticompetitive conduct by the biggest companies.

Slater’s announcement, posted to the website X, came after the White House requested her resignation, according to ...Read more

High Speed Rail Authority CEO Ian Choudri went on leave Tuesday, one day after it was reported that police arrested him and his fiancée earlier this month.

Rail authorities confirmed Monday that they were investigating Choudri after Folsom police arrested him and Lymudila Starostyuk after someone called 911 and accused Starostyuk of pulling ...Read more

Minneapolis City Council members debated on Tuesday whether to deny renewals of liquor licenses to two downtown hotels that housed federal immigration officers during the crackdown that has rattled the city and captured the attention of the nation.

The hotels at issue are Canopy by Hilton and Depot Renaissance Hotel, which have been the targets...Read more

Massachusetts Republicans are denouncing Gov. Maura Healey’s call to defund ICE as the governor has ramped up her criticism of the federal agency since launching her reelection campaign in January.

Appearing on Sunday’s edition of WCVB’s “On the Record” program, Healey was asked about her recent executive order and legislation she ...Read more

SPRINGFIELD — One day before Gov. JB Pritzker’s scheduled budget address, Illinois’ four top legislative leaders briefed on the plan Tuesday agreed it will have to hew to the line in a tight fiscal year, with one Democratic leader saying he doesn’t expect the governor to embrace calls by some progressive lawmakers to more aggressively ...Read more

When Assemblymember Mia Bonta, D-Alameda, came to the Legislature after a long tenure at educational nonprofits, she realized she could no longer say she works with children.

“I work with adults who work with adults who work with adults who work with children,” she said Tuesday.

The mother of three said the state’s ballooning child ...Read more

Illinois residents have seen more than $1.1 billion in medical debt erased, with the help of a state program that launched less than a year-and-a-half ago.

More than 500,000 Illinois residents have so far benefited from the program, with average debt relief of about $1,200 per person, according to the governor’s office. In some cases, the ...Read more

Hundreds, and possibly thousands, of juvenile Chinook salmon were found dead in the lower Yuba River after a large water pipe burst at the New Colgate Powerhouse on Friday, according to a local conservation group.

Aaron Zettler-Mann, executive director of South Yuba River Citizens League, explained that flows on the lower Yuba River briefly ...Read more

TALLAHASSEE — After intense pushback from Gov. Ron DeSantis and his allies, Florida House Republicans backed off a proposal to stop him from using an emergency fund to carry out his immigration efforts.

House Republicans plan to pass an amendment Thursday that would allow the administration to continue to pay for the Alligator Alcatraz ...Read more

The Trump administration has appealed a federal judge’s order requiring that the National Park Service restore all the slavery-related exhibits it abruptly removed last month from the President’s House Site in Philadelphia.

The U.S. attorneys representing the federal government argued previously that the White House has full discretion over...Read more

Washington's record-setting December floods caused $182.3 million in damage to roads and other public infrastructure, Gov. Bob Ferguson said Tuesday as the state submitted a formal application for federal disaster aid.

At a news conference, Ferguson said the state is asking President Donald Trump for a major disaster declaration that would ...Read more

Disaster preparedness funds that were destined for Washington communities are still being held up by the Trump administration, despite a court ordering their release, Attorney General Nick Brown said Tuesday.

Brown and a coalition of states on Tuesday asked a federal court in Massachusetts to enforce its December order requiring the Federal ...Read more

North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson and a coalition of fellow Democratic attorneys general on Tuesday accused the Trump administration of ignoring a court order requiring it to restore a federal disaster preparedness program.

They called on the court to enforce an order from December requiring the Federal Emergency Management Agency to...Read more