SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Assemblywoman Wendy Carrillo, D-Los Angeles, was leading a hearing in the California Legislature when a caller began speaking Spanish over the public comment phone line.

“Hago un llamado para pedir a los legislators que aseguran que los trabajadores excluidos del seguro de desempleo ser un mayor prioridad este año,” ...Read more

CHICAGO — A year ago, former Afghan soldiers Rahimullah Zaland and Khan Madin Ashana fled their home country as the United States withdrew the last of its troops in dramatic airlifts in the final weeks of August. They spent months traveling separately through different countries, looking for a safe haven before landing in Chicago.

“When I ...Read more

Approaching a van that distributes supplies for safer drug use in Greenfield, Massachusetts, a man named Kyle noticed an alert about xylazine.

“Xylazine?” he asked, sounding out the unfamiliar word. “Tell me more.”

A street-outreach team from Tapestry Health Systems delivered what’s becoming a routine warning. Xylazine is an animal ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Ana Lopez was 14 when her mother shared some gossip about a woman in their Huntington Beach neighborhood who, rumor had it, had gotten an abortion.

"How could they kill that innocent baby?" Bertha Valdez asked her daughter. "Catholic people don't do that."

"Se va a ir al infierno," Lopez recalls her mother telling her. "She's ...Read more

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica — On Father's Day of last year, Octavio Enríquez shared pizza and soda with his two children. Then he told them he was leaving.

A Nicaraguan journalist known for rigorous investigations, his latest reporting had led him dangerously close to President Daniel Ortega, a former leftist revolutionary who ruled his nation — ...Read more

Anshu Jain, Cantor Fitzgerald’s president who was known for his time leading Deutsche Bank traders into the lender’s investment banking heights, died five years after being diagnosed with duodenal cancer. He was 59.

“We are deeply saddened that our beloved husband, son, and father, Anshu Jain, passed away overnight,” his family said in...Read more

Hundreds of Mexican military troops were flown into Tijuana on Saturday to beef up street patrols after armed gangs hijacked and burned at least a dozen vehicles in the border city, the latest in a wave of attacks hitting civilians across the country.

U.S. consulate staff were ordered to shelter in place Friday evening but no one was reported ...Read more

Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro and challenger Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva pledged to preserve 600 reais ($118) in monthly government aid to poor families while campaigning for election in October.

Front-runner Lula said during a Facebook live event on Saturday that he’s the only candidate committed to keeping the aid at that level. The law ...Read more

William “Marty” Martin, a renowned snake researcher who dedicated his life’s work to the study of timber rattlesnakes, died last week after he was bitten by a snake on the property of his West Virginia home, his wife said. He was 80.

Martin, who was described as the “ambassador of rattlesnakes” in a 2019 profile on the online journal ...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — The National Hurricane Center continues to keep its eye on a system in the Gulf of Mexico with a small chance to develop into tropical depression.

In its 8 p.m. Saturday tropical update, the NHC said the weak low pressure area located off the Texas coast has increased shower and thunderstorm activity.

“Although there is ...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — When Ann Beal Salamone went to visit her son in prison last week she wore a white T-shirt with “MY VISITS Matter” written in the center of a big red heart.

On her way out, another visiting mother noticed the T-shirt and asked where she could get one as well. The two women began to chat and were joined by a correctional ...Read more

Alec Baldwin must have pulled the trigger on a revolver in the fatal shooting on the set of “Rust” last year, according to an FBI forensics report.

The feds found that the old school weapon, a .45 Colt (.45 Long Colt) caliber F.lli Pietta single-action revolver, could not be fired without someone pulling the trigger, ABC News reported ...Read more

NEW DELHI — The U.S. expressed concern that an Indian company hid the origin of Russian oil, processed it and shipped some products to New York, according to a deputy governor of India’s central bank.

India was notified of the case by the U.S. Treasury, Michael Patra, deputy governor in charge of monetary policy at the Reserve Bank of India...Read more

RALEIGH, N.C. — Six children and teenagers were shot at a night club in Raleigh Friday night.

The six victims, ranging in age from 12 to 17, were shot during a fight at a private event geared toward teenagers at Club Dreams, 2414 Paula St., according to police.

“The incident started out as an altercation inside of the club,” said Raleigh...Read more

WASHINGTON — Two top House Democrats asked the U.S. Director of National Intelligence to provide a “damage assessment” after the FBI said it seized highly classified documents at former President Donald Trump’s estate in Florida.

A classified briefing on the assessment’s progress is also sought “as soon as possible,” House ...Read more

SAN DIEGO — The smuggler who was at the helm of an overloaded 40-foot vessel that capsized off Point Loma last year, causing three migrants to drown and sparking a chaotic rescue effort, was sentenced Friday to 18 years in prison.

Antonio Hurtado, 40, who had been living aboard the aging trawler-style boat, was illegally shuttling 32 migrants...Read more