LOS ANGELES — A wildfire in Yosemite National Park that resulted in two helicopter pilots dying in a crash was sparked by an abandoned campfire, authorities said.

The Dome fire, first reported on Sept. 15 around 7 a.m. near the southern entrance of Yosemite, about a quarter-mile north of Chilnualna Falls, has grown to 5,585 acres and was 39% ...Read more

President Donald Trump on Wednesday is expected to announce a commitment by South Korea to invest $54 billion in a liquefied natural gas pipeline in Alaska, a White House official said.

White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said Trump will “announce major energy infrastructure investments that deliver on his day one promises to unleash ...Read more

The remaining two criminal cases related to the hazing death of a 21-year-old fraternity pledge at Michigan State University five years ago have been resolved in a way that will give the men involved nonpublic criminal records.

Ethan Cao and Andrew Nguyen were charged with hazing resulting in death after new Pi Alpha Phi member Phat Nguyen, who...Read more

NEW YORK — Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board were due to arrive in Brooklyn on Wednesday to probe the apparent dragging death of a subway passenger earlier this week. Three investigators were dispatched by the federal agency, NTSB spokesman Keith Holloway told the Daily News.

As previously reported by the Daily News,...Read more

California is set to bring back a program aimed at reducing conflict between wild animals and people, as the state’s rebounding wolf population continues to cause concern among ranchers.

Newsom signed a bill restoring the program Tuesday ahead of a “fireside chat” focused on biodiversity and natural resources, during which he described ...Read more

DETROIT — An Ann Arbor nurse helped a Mexican immigrant escape from federal custody by letting him flee Trinity Health Ann Arbor Hospital, unsealed federal court records alleged.

The case against Chloe Renae Freeman, 29, of Whitmore Lake describes a daring night-time escape during the nationwide crackdown on illegal immigration and an ongoing...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — A Hennepin County judge signaled his intent Wednesday to issue a temporary gag order in the state murder case against Vance Boelter, barring the convicted killer and all witnesses from public statements prior to trial.

The decision comes just two days after public defenders Bryan Leary and Raissa Carpenter filed a motion asking ...Read more

LANSING, Mich. — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is urging Michigan voters to oppose a ballot proposal that would call a new constitutional convention to rewrite the state's governing document.

In a webinar Wednesday, the Democratic governor came out in opposition to the proposal largely on the grounds that a convention could be used to "roll back and ...Read more

NEW YORK — A former NYPD sergeant admitted Wednesday that he posed as an ICE agent and demanded a Queens woman report with her family to an immigration facility to settle what prosecutors called a “personal vendetta.”

Atickul Islam, 30, threw away his police career and possibly his freedom with text messages he sent March 29, 2025, when ...Read more

BALTIMORE — Three of the 17 people facing firearms charges following a weekend shooting near Towson University are enrolled there as students, the university said Wednesday.

A Towson University spokesperson confirmed that Joseph Duwana, 21, Kevin Kotchi, 21 and Kenneth Nambou, 23, are listed as students for the fall semester.

All three men ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — A fifth person has died amid Pennsylvania’s growing measles outbreak, state health officials confirmed on Wednesday.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health said in a news release that an unvaccinated resident of Lancaster County tested positive for measles and has died.

Health officials said they would not release any ...Read more

Hundreds of thousands of immigrants with legal status are at risk of losing government health coverage starting Oct. 1, state data shows, signaling that the impact of Medicaid changes in President Donald Trump’s signature legislation from 2025 may be greater than anticipated.

Many lawfully present immigrants will be among the first people to ...Read more

NEW YORK — New York City will press ahead with its rollout of the controversial pied-à-terre surcharge as planned while appealing a judge’s decision ordering Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration to restart the process.

Court papers filed in the Second Division, Appellate Department by the city Law Department late Tuesday triggered an ...Read more

BATON ROUGE, La. — Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill and the attorneys general in Arkansas and Alabama filed a lawsuit Tuesday in the U.S. Supreme Court, suing California, Massachusetts and New York to invalidate the so-called “shield laws” that have allowed providers in those states to send abortion medication to people in states ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The National Urban League and several local housing nonprofits nationwide challenged part of the Trump administration’s last-minute cancellation of congressionally appropriated funds.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday night in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, focuses on one portion of the $810 million cancellation...Read more

WASHINGTON — Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., sued former special counsel Jack Smith on Wednesday, alleging that his prosecution of the president also unconstitutionally pulled in her records as a member of Congress.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, moves a political fight over the sweep of ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Proposition 42 is a proposed constitutional amendment that would do two big things: block new state taxes on personal property, including financial assets, and limit certain retroactive state taxes.

It would apply to new taxes enacted or taking effect on or after Jan. 1, 2026 — a provision aimed squarely at the Prop. 40...Read more

PITTSBURGH — Carnegie Mellon University will open an innovative campus in Miami after a $3 billion donation from hedge fund CEO Kenneth Griffin, whose nationally historic gift will also aim to bolster CMU’s flagship Pittsburgh campus.

The gift from Griffin — the founder of Citadel whose nearly $50 billion net worth makes him the 37th ...Read more

BOSTON — Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell has released a new report detailing nearly 1,000 cases of child sex abuse allegedly committed by 270 clergy across the Fall River, Worcester and Springfield dioceses, first publicly exposed in 2002, and the institutional failures that allowed the abuse to occur and continue.

The report ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill last week to narrow an exemption to the California Environmental Quality Act for manufacturing facilities. But the long-running political struggle over the cornerstone law continues apace, with both sides now turning their full attention from the Capitol to the voters.

That’s because one ...Read more