SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Rattlesnakes can be found all over California, especially in hotspots such as Lake Berryessa, Carrizo Plain National Monument and the San Joaquin Valley.

In California, a number of animals hunt and kill rattlesnakes — including a particularly ravenous kind of reptile.

Certain snakes “will eat anything,” Cal Poly ...Read more

Definitions of critical race theory and diversity, equity and inclusion, recently approved by the Kansas Board of Regents, worry some Kansas professors and academic freedom advocates who say they could create a chilling effect in classrooms.

Kansas lawmakers this year passed a provision attached to a large budget bill that prohibits state ...Read more

Wildfire smoke has been pouring across the northern U.S. from fires in Canada and Minnesota, turning skies an eerie shade of orange in several states in July 2026. In the West, smoke has also been spreading into communities in Colorado and neighboring states as more wildfires burn in hot, dry conditions.

University of Colorado ...Read more

Gov. Ron DeSantis may have announced that Alligator Alcatraz is closed and the tents are gone, but that’s not enough for civil rights lawyers or a Florida federal judge.

Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation want the state and feds to confirm in federal court that the controversial immigration detention center hastily ...Read more

TAMPA, Fla. — Leaders at Tampa General Hospital welcomed U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Thursday as they vowed to improve patient access to nutritious food.

The announcement came about a week after the Department of Health and Human Services launched "The Make Hospital Food Healthier Pledge." The campaign asks hospitals to ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump used a rare prime-time address Thursday night to renew his attacks on the security of U.S. elections, telling Americans that the nation’s voting system is “so broken” that “no one can possibly defend it,” an unprecedented effort by a sitting president to undermine public confidence in domestic ...Read more

The U.S. launched fresh strikes against Iran as hostilities across the Middle East continued to escalate and shipping traffic slumped in the critical Strait of Hormuz.

American forces carried out a sixth consecutive night of strikes intended to degrade Iran’s ability to attack commercial shipping, hitting coastal surveillance and air defense ...Read more

Roller coasters parked. Beaches empty. Scoreboards blank. A skyline disappeared. As the eerie haze settled in over the city, summer quieted to a standstill.

Local air quality hit hazardous levels Thursday in Chicago and various suburbs, prompting beach and pool closures as day camps and other summer activities moved indoors. Some organizers ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The trunk line that ruptured early Thursday, sending thousands of gallons of water rushing down Sunset Strip and surrounding communities, was installed 110 years ago and has emerged as the latest example of L.A.’s struggles to overhaul its aging water system.

The break was on a riveted steel pipe from 1916 that forms the major...Read more

A key figure in the Feeding Our Future fraud investigation who fled the country after his indictment nearly four years ago is now in custody back in Minnesota after his arrest in Somalia.

Abdikerm Abdelahi Eidleh, 42, of Burnsville, was booked Thursday into the Sherburne County jail one week after his arrest in Mogadishu on numerous federal ...Read more

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Minnesota set a record for poor air quality Thursday as large swaths of the state remained under a hazardous air quality warning triggered by smoke from wildfires in the northern part of the state and Canada.

“The smoke’s come back with a vengeance,” said Minnesota Pollution Control Agency Meteorologist Ryan Lueck on ...Read more

What’s the most remarkable thing about the not-food-in-your-food recall of frozen Pillsbury Bread Roll dough that might have glass: that it involved 735,840 rolls or that the public didn’t learn about the June recall until this week?

For your discussion and decision information, here’s more on the recall by Pillsbury parent company ...Read more

CHICAGO — Mayor Brandon Johnson’s budget team put city employee layoffs on the table Thursday to help close a budget deficit they said could reach $90 million through the end of this year.

While acknowledging the final shortfall wouldn’t firm up until next month, Budget Director Annette Guzman told aldermen at a Budget Committee meeting ...Read more

A San Ysidro, California, man was sentenced Thursday to more than five years in prison for impersonating a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent to defraud more than two dozen people, many of them undocumented immigrants seeking green cards and U.S. citizenship.

Davyd George Brand Jimenez, 55, pleaded guilty in April to 10 counts of ...Read more

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed immediate reforms to a state fund that paid as much as $1,700 weekly to people claiming that such common ailments as allergies, asthma and erectile dysfunction hampered their ability to work.

The new law tightens eligibility requirements for the Subsequent Injuries Benefits Trust Fund, which was ...Read more

Local elected officials and environmental organizations called on negotiators of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement to include binding solutions to the Tijuana River sewage and pollution crisis in any extension or renewal of the trade pact during a news conference Thursday near the U.S.-Mexico border.

The event, held at the John J. ...Read more

As Canada grapples with hundreds of active wildfires, the rest of North America is feeling the impacts with air quality alerts.

In Philadelphia and elsewhere, the air quality score is considered unhealthy, particularly for the most sensitive people.

Whether you are planning to go out or stay home, here’s what three experts had to say about ...Read more

SpaceX tried to get its 13th suborbital test flight of its Starship and Super Heavy rocket off the ground from Texas on Thursday, but its engines had an automatic shutdown just as they were beginning to fire with the countdown clock hitting zero.

“We’re not going to be launching today. We got all the way down to startup, triggered a hold on...Read more

WASHINGTON — The House Budget Committee approved a fiscal 2027 budget resolution Thursday as the first step toward passing a filibuster-proof reconciliation bill to provide tens of billions of dollars for defense, farm aid and voting restrictions.

The panel advanced the GOP-backed budget resolution on a strictly party-line vote of 20-14 after...Read more