SAN DIEGO — Sheriff Kelly Martinez is not avoiding a proposed deposition in the federal lawsuit challenging her administration of San Diego County jails, a lawyer defending the Sheriff's Department in the class-action case said Wednesday.

Rather, it was the county's outside lawyer who opposed the idea of Martinez answering questions under ...Read more

NEW YORK — After coming under fire for calling migrants “excellent swimmers,” Mayor Eric Adams sought to clarify the comment Wednesday, saying it was based on in-person conversations he has had with newly arrived asylum seekers living in city shelters.

The mayor made the remark during a Tuesday press conference while talking about wanting...Read more

Deaths from drug overdoses fell last year in the United States as fewer people lost their lives to fentanyl and other opioids, marking the first time the death toll had dropped in five years, according to newly released estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Federal officials said the numbers show a 3% decline in the ...Read more

Since the earliest days of the pandemic, health officials have gauged the threat of COVID-19 by comparing it to the flu.

At first, it wasn't even close. People hospitalized in 2020 with the then-novel respiratory disease were five times more likely to die of their illness than were patients who had been hospitalized with influenza during the ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Sen. Bernie Sanders, who remains popular in California after winning the state's 2020 Democratic presidential primary, on Wednesday announced he is throwing his support behind two ballot measures related to rent control and restrictions on oil drilling.

"Landlords should not be allowed to raise rents to whatever they want, ...Read more

BOSTON — Homeless families, including migrants, who are placed at a former correctional center turned overflow shelter will sleep in a prison that was last formally inspected by health regulators in 2015, the year the facility closed, according to public records.

Gov. Maura Healey plans to open up the Bay State Correctional Center in Norfolk ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Testimony began Tuesday in the trial of a lawsuit brought by Black Lives Matter L.A. co-founder Melina Abdullah against the city of Los Angeles, with a Los Angeles police sergeant telling a jury that he ordered officers to approach the activist's home with guns drawn even though he was "70%" certain they were responding to a fake...Read more

Despite having pledged to tamp down tensions with Guyana, the Venezuelan regime is increasing its military presence at its border with that country, while raising the volume of its saber-rattling against the neighboring nation amid the poor showings at the polls of ruler Nicolás Maduro ahead of July’s presidential election.

Satellite photos ...Read more

BALTIMORE — The race for Baltimore mayor may have been called for incumbent Mayor Brandon Scott, but challenger Sheila Dixon said Wednesday she’s not giving up.

In a statement by her campaign team, the former mayor said she will wait for more mail-in ballots to be counted before making any statements on the race.

“In respect to all who ...Read more

Does the "no limits" relationship have limits?

Russian President Vladimir Putin is embarking on his first foreign trip since his splashy inauguration to a fifth term in office, and his destination is no surprise: China.

The two-day state visit beginning Thursday is expected to be heavy on pomp and ceremony, with effusive toasts and carefully ...Read more

DETROIT — Pro-Palestinian protesters said Wednesday they had "decorated" the front lawn of University of Michigan Board of Regents Chair Sarah Hubbard's home with "scenes of genocide in Palestine" and taped documents listing demands for divestment from Israel to the door of her home, along with those of the seven other regents.

Police arrived...Read more

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Democrats in the Missouri Senate broke the record for the longest filibuster in the chamber’s history on Wednesday while blocking a vote on a plan to make it harder for voters to amend the state constitution.

The group of nine Democrats has spent more than 46 hours straight halting the legislation in the General ...Read more

MIAMI — A Fort Lauderdale man whose estranged wife has been missing in Spain since early February was charged with kidnapping her in a federal grand jury indictment filed by prosecutors on Wednesday.

The indictment accuses David Knezevich, 35, of traveling from Miami to Madrid to kidnap his wife between Jan. 27 and Feb. 5. The wife, who is ...Read more

BALTIMORE — A day after a preliminary report revealed new details about what happened in the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore after a vessel strike, members of Congress peppered officials behind the federal response with questions about the ship’s power outage, the safety of other bridges and how to pay for a new bridge....Read more

BALTIMORE — At what is slated to be the last bill-signing ceremony of the year, Gov. Wes Moore will sign sweeping juvenile justice legislation Thursday morning, signaling a win for prosecutors and law enforcement who say crime among Maryland youth is out of control.

The legislation will create oversight to ensure the Department of Juvenile ...Read more

CHICAGO — More than a decade after the killing of 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton put a national spotlight on Chicago’s entrenched problem with gun violence, Illinois prosecutors worked to salvage a conviction against the alleged shooter before the state’s highest court in Springfield.

Pendleton, an honors student and majorette who performed...Read more

MIAMI — A European investment manager accused of laundering millions of dollars through Miami’s banking system that prosecutors say was stolen from Venezuela’s government in a vast corruption scheme pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court.

Luis Fernando Vuteff, 53, was convicted in Miami of playing a supporting role in a money laundering ...Read more

NEW YORK — Dozens of pro-Palestine protesters walked out of New York University’s main graduation ceremony at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday amid persistent antiwar demonstrations at the Greenwich Village school.

The NYU Palestine Solidarity Coalition, a coalition of various student groups, had promoted an “autonomously planned” walkout on...Read more

New York police are searching for a man they allege punched Emmy-winning actor Steve Buscemi in Manhattan last week.

Police named 50-year-old Clifton Williams as the suspect behind the alleged assault that left the "Boardwalk Empire" and "The Big Lebowski" star's left eye bloodied and bruised, The Times confirmed Wednesday. Police responded ...Read more

ATLANTA — Conservative activists are preparing to question the validity of thousands of Georgia voter registrations this summer, an election-year effort under the state’s new voter challenge law.

The coming wave of voter eligibility challenges will seek to disqualify voters who appear to have moved from Georgia, building on 250,000 ...Read more