Skepticism was running high ahead of the 2023 summit of the Group of 20, or G20, held in New Delhi in early September. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping announced that they would not attend. At one moment, it was touch and go whether U.S. President Joe Biden – whose wife, Jill, was ill with COVID-19 – would...Read more

When city governments spend more money than they take in, officials often search for ways to generate revenue. One increasingly common source of money is traffic tickets. And research shows police officers issue more traffic tickets when cities are financially in a deficit.

But police represent only one aspect of this revenue-...Read more

What do you get when you combine a tiny legislative majority, a former president itching for influence and a rogue group of lawmakers who like making headlines? House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s hellish life these days. The pressure has been fierce on McCarthy to fashion an agreement with his caucus to stave off a government shutdown. But ...Read more

One summer afternoon in the late 1980s, my mother and I passed by a tea house on our trip out of town. The crowded building was usually a boisterous place filled with chatter, laughter, and the happy, clacking shuffle of mahjong tiles. At the moment we were passing, however, a great hush came over the teahouse: People were held spellbound by ...Read more

Five Americans held as hostages by Iran have been returned to the United States following a political deal in which President Joe Biden agreed to unfreeze US$6 billion in Iranian funds held in South Korean banks in exchange for the prisoners.

Hostage-taking has been frequently used by both states and insurgent groups as a means to ...Read more

After nearly four years in the design phase, plans for a memorial to honor the lives of those killed in the Las Vegas Strip massacre in October 2017—the nation’s deadliest mass shooting— have been approved by the Clark County commission earlier this month.

Meanwhile, plans for a memorial for the nation’s second-deadliest mass shooting, ...Read more

COMPTON, Calif. -- California voters eked out a win for children more than two decades ago based on a "sin tax." Proposition 10 slapped cigarettes with a hefty surcharge to pressure smokers to give up their habit and used the money to improve the health and well-being of young children and their families.

It worked.

When the measure passed in ...Read more

HILLSBORO, Ore. — “Oregon’s been at this for decades,” the governor’s office assures potential investors in its so-called Silicon Forest. The Lone Star State’s governor calls it a “race that Texas must win for our state, our workforce, our national security, and our future.” And New York’s governor boasts on the state’s ...Read more

The flight deck of the USS George Washington is already streaked with tire marks from aircraft landings just three months after the warship was welcomed back into the Navy fleet.

But as the carrier and its crew transition from a brutal six-year maintenance cycle, there is still much to be done to prepare for its next mission.

The Washington ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — It was a shocking sight on a July morning in 2019: An FBI van parked outside Los Angeles City Hall and agents upstairs, scouring the headquarters of the city attorney's office.

The government was there to collect evidence in a complex criminal case growing out of a scandal that erupted years earlier at another powerful city ...Read more

LaFAYETTE, Ala. — Charity Hodge had mixed feelings when she spotted a Facebook post announcing that her longtime primary care doctor was ready to retire after decades of serving their rural community.

“I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, no!’” Hodge recalled while sitting in an exam room on a July afternoon, waiting to see the physician, Terry ...Read more

CHICAGO -- Malachi Castner, 23, said he didn’t always sleep on the Blue Line train to avoid the cold and rain. He didn’t always start his day early by shooting up. He was once a teenager on his high school’s wrestling team.

But it was after he tweaked his back while wrestling an opponent as a junior in high school and a doctor prescribed ...Read more

CHICAGO — The Winnetka, Illinois, Village Council hosted a study session to consider enacting regulations for bluff and steep slope construction and destruction after residents raised concerns about billionaire Justin Ishbia removing bluffs from his lakefront property.

Trustees debated whether to allow lakefront homeowners — many of whom ...Read more