RALEIGH, N.C. — The North Carolina Senate voted to repeal a health and safety exception to the state’s longstanding ban on wearing masks in public, and enhance penalties for wearing a mask while committing another crime.

Senators approved the bill, which was introduced as a substitute to existing legislation last week and cleared two ...Read more

House Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday appointed former Rep. Vicky Hartzler — a conservative Christian who was once brought to tears speaking out against a bill to provide federal protections to same-sex marriages — to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

Her appointment to the commission, a bipartisan federal agency ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Democrats who backed Maryland Senate primary winner Angela Alsobrooks brushed aside concerns Wednesday that they might miss the millions of dollars Rep. David Trone was willing to spend to keep the seat under the party’s control.

But a win in November will mean a previously little-known county official must defeat a former ...Read more

KYIV, Ukraine — Was it guitar-hero time? Or a tone-deaf attempt at wartime solidarity?

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken garnered some mixed reviews in the Ukrainian capital on Wednesday after busting out his ’80s-rock chops at a bedraggled but beloved Kyiv bar.

Some Ukrainians cheered Tuesday night’s packed-house performance as a ...Read more

For many NASA scientists, flying aboard a decked-out Douglas DC-8 plane provided them some unique glimpses of Earth: the Moai on Easter Island, Central Park in New York and Mount Vesuvius in Italy.

On Wednesday, some of the same scientists who worked on that “flying laboratory” looked on as it made one last flight over Ames Research Center ...Read more

BERKELEY, Calif. — A group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators took over UC Berkeley’s Anna Head Alumnae Hall on Wednesday, just a day after a large encampment in Sproul Plaza was taken down following an agreement between administrators and demonstrators.

“This is an active crime scene,” said UC Berkeley spokesperson Dan Mogulof. “They�...Read more

WASHINGTON — Biden administration officials expressed confidence Wednesday about the government’s ability to safeguard U.S. elections but noted the threat landscape remains complex with the presence of foreign adversaries and generative artificial intelligence.

The officials appeared before the Senate Intelligence Committee for a wide-...Read more

Students and supporters calling for University of California, Irvine administrators to drop suspensions of students involved in a Gaza Solidarity Encampment on campus and meet other demands kicked up the pressure on Wednesday.

A couple hundred supporters gathered at the Pro-Palestinian encampment in the afternoon in response to a call for an ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California Democrats worried about deeper child care and social safety net cuts in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s revised budget want the state to instead close more prisons.

That way, they argue, there would be more funding for the programs in jeopardy.

Assemblyman Isaac Bryan, D-Los Angeles, and Assemblyman Corey Jackson, D-...Read more

The U.S. warned Israel it risks creating a power vacuum across swaths of Gaza and urged the country’s leaders to focus more on post-war planning for the Palestinian territory.

“We can’t have anarchy and a vacuum that’s likely to be filled by chaos,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters on Wednesday during a trip to ...Read more

Students and supporters calling for University of California, Irvine, administrators to drop suspensions of students involved in a Gaza Solidarity Encampment on campus and meet other demands kicked up the pressure on Wednesday.

A couple hundred supporters gathered right outside the walls of the Pro-Palestinian encampment in the afternoon in ...Read more

ATLANTA — Morehouse College President David A. Thomas said that he is prepared to shut down Sunday’s commencement exercises rather than have it disrupted before a national audience and with President Joe Biden on the stage.

In an interview with NPR’s Ayesha Rascoe, Thomas was asked if the school was “open to scenarios where you would ...Read more

BERKELEY, Calif. – Less than 24 hours after UC Berkeley administrators and protestors concluded negotiations, a small clean-up crew dressed in white jumpsuits was busy scrubbing away the remnants of a pro-Palestine encampment that ballooned to dozens of tents over the past few weeks and seemingly disappeared overnight.

Demonstrators began ...Read more

A Florida elementary school principal is facing charges after allegedly beating a special needs student in an incident that was caught on camera.

Dontay Prophet, 33, was arrested and accused of whipping the child with a charging cable and putting him in a chokehold at Destiny Leadership Academy, a private school in Ocala.

The Marion County ...Read more

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