Recently, a middle-aged woman came to see me in my ophthalmology clinic because her eyes felt gritty and uncomfortable. She had seen another doctor a month earlier who diagnosed her with eyelid inflammation and wrote her a prescription.

As I examined her eyes, she mentioned in passing the prescription medication she’d been using –...Read more

As the 2026 midterm elections approach, the U.S. Supreme Court has been busy with voting rights cases.

In mid-September, the court barred the Trump administration from carrying out its proposed restrictions on mail-in voting for the midterm elections.

In late September, the court ruled that the Trump administration could ...Read more

Wherever Marci Bakely went, her ex-boyfriend seemed to know. When the Georgia single mother drove to the grocery store or a date, he often texted within minutes.

According to a Washington Post investigation, Bakely’s ex-boyfriend, Braselton Police Chief Michael Steffman, searched her license plates and those of her teenage daughter ...Read more

It used to be considered against the law in America to starve a member of an endangered species to death or harm it by destroying its home.

That’s changing as the federal government chips away at the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Under the Trump administration’s new interpretations of the law, as long as the animal isn’t directly...Read more

The U.S. Supreme Court begins its new term on Oct. 5, 2026. One of the cases that the justices have agreed to hear is a First Amendment religious liberty case, St. Mary Catholic Parish v. Roy.

The case arose because Colorado’s new Universal Preschool Program only provides funding to preschools that agree to abide by a ...Read more

The run-up to the midterm elections is turning into a food fight — literally.

The summer was marred by a massive foodborne outbreak that sickened scores of people and the recall of tens of thousands of pounds of imported meat, turning the safety of the U.S. food supply into a topic of national conversation and a political cause.

Late-night ...Read more

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Anchorage resident Bob Butera is a nonpartisan voter — one of more than 381,000 such voters in Alaska. Before 2022, Butera regularly faced an election year conundrum: which partisan primary ballot to pick?

“I want to choose a Republican in one race and maybe a Democrat in another,” Butera said. “I was prevented ...Read more

Amye Joseph says America’s political polarization has made it an “interesting time” in her Tennessee household. She and her husband, Charlie, have been married 35 years. She’s a Republican. He’s a Democrat.

But their shared disenchantment with profit-driven healthcare has provided a unifying target: pharmacy benefit managers, known as...Read more

LOS ANGELES — A Black police officer asked whether a monkey was named "Tyrone," to the laughter of a roomful of Latino and Asian colleagues.

A Latina cop described how to inflict maximum pain: "You hit Black people in the liver — I heard they got weak livers," she said, according to an LAPD internal affairs report.

The report said their ...Read more

Voters in nine states will weigh changes to their criminal legal systems and drug policies this fall.

The Nov. 3 ballot measures include questions about pretrial release, fentanyl and human trafficking penalties, immigration enforcement, traffic cameras, drug cartels and marijuana regulation.

The measures reflect a recent increase in ballot ...Read more

About half of rural voters identify with Make America Healthy Again, a sprawling political movement championed by the Trump administration, but most said President Donald Trump’s healthcare policies have not benefited their communities, according to a new poll from The Associated Press in partnership with KFF.

About 8 in 10 rural voters — ...Read more

As physicians continue to navigate care for patients with complex pregnancies in states with abortion bans, a group of maternal-fetal medicine specialists has developed new guidelines to help providers in those states navigate legal risks for themselves and medical challenges for their high-risk patients.

Maternal-fetal medicine specialists ...Read more

The two candidates to become California’s next governor painted vastly different portraits of the state they want to lead during a televised CNN debate Wednesday night — though they both agreed the state faces tremendous challenges.

Democrat Xavier Becerra, leading in polls, cast the state as an economic engine and a critical bulwark ...Read more

Climate change is causing billions of dollars’ worth of damage every year from floods, fires, droughts and other consequences of a rapidly warming planet.

Dozens of states, cities, counties and tribes have sued major oil companies. The lawsuits demand reimbursements for the costs of recovery efforts, reconstruction and work to ...Read more

DUBLIN, CAlif. — A married man and woman in their 70s have been charged with using two guns to shoot and kill their son-in-law, who was embroiled in a bitter custody battle with the suspects’ daughter, in what prosecutors call a pre-planned daytime ambush at a local playground.

Shouyong Zhang and Shili Chen, both 77, were charged Wednesday ...Read more

SANTA ANA, Calif. — U.S. immigration officials are moving to revoke the citizenship of a former psychology professor who was imprisoned for her role in the killing of a man she says raped her three decades ago in an Orange County case that angered sexual assault victims worldwide.

Norma Patricia Esparza, 52, was released from prison in 2018 ...Read more

NEW YORK — Cornell University has agreed to Gov. Hochul’s demand for an independent review by outside counsel of the university’s response to gang rape allegations at a college fraternity house.

“I spoke with Cornell’s president today, and the university has agreed to bring in outside counsel for an independent investigation,” ...Read more

A pilot of a jet carrying more than 170 passengers to Tel Aviv stabbed his colleague and tried to crash the plane in what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu branded a serious security incident.

Catastrophe was narrowly avoided after passengers and members of the crew stormed the cockpit of the FlyDubai plane that had taken off in Dubai ...Read more

California voters will decide whether to establish a $7.5 billion state scientific research arm — similar to the National Institutes of Health — after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill that will put the proposal on the March 2028 ballot.

The new state fund would aim to blunt federal research cuts by the Trump administration and ensure state ...Read more

RALEIGH, N.C. — Agencies required under a bill passed by Republican state lawmakers to sign agreements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — which allow their officers to carry out immigration enforcement duties typically performed by federal agents — have now done so.

On Tuesday, The News & Observer reported that the State ...Read more