Moderna Inc. said the U.S. government would buy 200 million more doses of its COVID 19 vaccine in a deal that included the potential for buying other COVID candidates in testing, including booster shots.

The new doses bring the total amount of Moderna vaccine ordered by the U.S. government to 500 million doses, of which 217 million doses had ...Read more

Sandboxes aren’t just play areas for toddlers. Increasingly, state and national governments around the world are creating so-called regulatory sandboxes: programs that allow software companies to skirt regulations in order to test a new product or service.

The most common U.S. sandbox programs serve companies that make financial technology, ...Read more

CHICAGO – Five people were shot just west of Garfield Park late Tuesday, marking the city’s second mass shooting that day, according to Chicago police.

Four men and a woman suffered gunshot wounds during the attack in the 3800 block of West Monroe Street about 9:20 p.m., authorities said in a media notification. One of the people was in ...Read more

WASHINGTON – The U.S. House Tuesday passed a bill intended to prevent flood and other disaster victims from being forced to pay back federal relief funds disbursed in error.

The legislation, from Missouri Republican Rep. Sam Graves, was in response to the 2019 story of a Holt County man who was told he owed the Federal Emergency Management ...Read more

LOS ANGELES – Denise Dunning opened an email in spring that said an anonymous donor wanted to make a donation to Rise Up, a California-based nonprofit she leads that works to improve the rights of women and girls across the globe. She thought it was spam. It wasn’t — and a multimillion donation is headed her way.

Long Beach City College ...Read more

MIAMI – Royal Caribbean International has postponed the inaugural sailing of its Odyssey of the Seas cruise ship “out of an abundance of caution” after eight crew members tested positive for COVID-19, the company’s CEO said.

Odyssey of the Seas was set to sail from Fort Lauderdale on July 3 and make stops in the Caribbean. Its sailing ...Read more

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Renowned rapper Kodak Black caused a commotion this week when he secretly recorded a public official apologizing to him over the phone.

Broward County Commissioner Mark Bogen called the rapper Monday to apologize for opposing a proclamation in honor of Black’s charitable work. Bogen said he was reacting to Black’s ...Read more

LOS ANGELES – Austin Beutner, the outgoing leader of the Los Angeles Unified School District, took the stage of the Hollywood Bowl on Tuesday to declare that the state of the city's schools is excellent. But as he focused on accomplishments, others in the audience were pondering the work ahead.

The superintendent of the nation's second-...Read more

DETROIT – Michigan lawmakers in both legislative chambers approved massive federal pandemic relief measures on Tuesday, paving the way for more than $6.6 billion to go to schools and families in need.

The House and Senate passed separate, multi-billion dollar bills with essentially unanimous support, indicating the legislative logjam on ...Read more

Nearly a year after police officers in Loveland, Colorado, injured an elderly woman with dementia and then laughed at footage of her arrest, two of those officers are facing criminal charges while the rest of the department undergoes additional training. The fallout has drawn national attention to a problem that experts say is widespread across ...Read more

IRVINE, Calif. — To Irvine detectives, Cheng Zhang’s story initially strained belief. His wife and 12-year-old stepdaughter were missing — kidnapped from their apartment, he claimed — and he had waited more than a week to report it.

Zhang, a 42-year-old Uber driver, said he had been knocked out by a stranger at his door with an ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Maria Lopez was skeptical when President-elect Joe Biden announced early in the year that he would send a groundbreaking legislative package to Congress that would overhaul U.S. immigration policy and offer a pathway to citizenship for 11 million people, including herself and her parents.

Lopez, 31, a Mexican immigrant who lives...Read more

LOS ANGELES — When California legislators voted to ban private prison contracts in 2019, advocates hailed the first-of-its-kind law as a victory for immigrants who they said have long suffered in facilities run by corporations that cut corners and provide substandard living conditions and medical care.

Not everyone saw it that way. Geo Group,...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — After the first rape last month, women in Philadelphia’s sex-work and strip-club industries were on edge for days, sharing physical descriptions of the attacker on Instagram and whispering to coworkers to drive home in pairs.

”This is just one of those stories that caught wind,” said a woman who performs under the name ...Read more

On a busy night shift in the psychiatric emergency room, during a monthlong psychiatry rotation for medical school, I first met my patient, a teenager.

She was hunched over a stretcher at the far end of the hallway. Before the pandemic, she spent lots of time with her friends and loved going to school. Then COVID-19 lockdowns turned school ...Read more