As Democrats and Republicans duel over redistricting, line-drawers in more states are carving cities into multiple districts for political gain.

Republican lawmakers in conservative states have long sliced left-leaning college towns, such as Austin, Texas; Columbus, Ohio; and Athens, Georgia, into pieces. Then they combine those smaller chunks ...Read more

BILLINGS, Mont. — Nurses fill the hospital room to turn a patient from his stomach to his back. The ventilator forcing air into him is most effective when he’s on his stomach, so he is in that position most hours of the day, sedated and paralyzed by drugs.

Lying on his stomach all those hours has produced sores on his face, and one nurse ...Read more

When Denise Williams’ baby boy was 2 months old, she became alarmed by a rattling sound in his lungs and took him to the emergency room. While undergoing treatment, he spiraled into a disabling neurological disorder.

Now 2 years old, Markeano is attached to breathing and feeding tubes. He can’t walk or move his arms.

“If I want him to ...Read more

When Randy Moore became chief of the Forest Service seven weeks ago, he took over an agency reeling from one of the worst wildfire seasons in history. There had already been about 100 big fires, and the agency’s 27,000 firefighters were stretched thin. Underscoring the sense of emergency, on the day we spoke, crews had wrapped fire-resistant ...Read more

Symptomatic COVID-19 after vaccination is extremely rare, especially when you’re relatively young and healthy. After a year and a half of reporting on and successfully avoiding this virus, I convinced myself there was little chance I would get infected.

But after my husband and I drove to the beach in late August, he tested positive, with ...Read more

AUSTIN, Texas — A Florida state representative has introduced an abortion bill weeks after Texas' new abortion law went into effect.

State Rep. Webster Barnaby's bill would require doctors to alert women who are seeking an abortion if a "fetal heartbeat" is detectable and prohibits a physician from conducting an abortion if it's detected. ...Read more

As it reels from surging gun violence, New York City on Wednesday urged the Supreme Court to shoot down a lawsuit seeking to undermine local gun regulations.

In an amicus brief to the nation’s top court, Mayor de Blasio and the city’s top lawyer outlined the need to maintain laws regulating concealed handguns in the five boroughs, detailing...Read more

SAN DIEGO — A San Diego federal judge ruled on Wednesday that a California law banning possession of a baton or billy club is constitutional, noting the prohibition's longstanding nature of being on the books for more than a century.

The decision is the latest from U.S. District Court Judge Roger Benitez, who has been given jurisdiction over ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Officials across the U.S. government have grown concerned in recent weeks that suspected sensory attacks against American personnel are escalating as an intelligence probe into the phenomenon known as “Havana syndrome” gains steam.

A panel of experts and scientists has been examining what is causing the suspected attacks for ...Read more

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Missouri attorney general's office is appealing a judge's decision to not recuse himself and disqualify other judges in Jackson County from hearing local prosecutors argue Kevin Strickland is innocent.

Earlier this month, Judge Kevin Harrell denied a motion filed by the attorney general that argued Harrell and other ...Read more

In May 1887, a deliberately set fire tore through San Jose’s Chinatown on Market Street, destroying homes and businesses and displacing 1,400 people. The fire happened not long after the City Council had declared Chinatown — the second on that site and one of five in the city’s history — to be a public nuisance in the way of plans to ...Read more

The alleged leader of a violent Baltimore Crips gang was mistakenly released from federal detention last week and has been recaptured.

Trayvon Hall, 30, who federal prosecutors say led the Baccwest Eight Tray Gangsters in Southwest Baltimore, was serving a three-year sentence for a gun conviction when authorities obtained a racketeering ...Read more

In a move long sought by critics of how the military handles allegations of sexual assaults and harassment, those cases will be removed from the military chain of command and handed over to a new special victims prosecution office by 2027, the Defense Department announced Wednesday.

The change is one of several the Pentagon plans to make based ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Female firefighters are being hazed and retaliated against by male firefighters at the Los Angeles Fire Department, according to graphic testimony given to a city commission hearing this week.

LAFD Battalion Chief Kris Larson, president of the Los Angeles Women in the Fire Service, told the LAFD's Board of Fire Commissioners ...Read more

SAN DIEGO — An alleged boss for Mexico's Sinaloa cartel has been charged by a San Diego federal grand jury on accusations of overseeing drug-trafficking operations at the Arizona border, according to an indictment unsealed Wednesday.

Sergio Valenzuela Valenzuela, 52, who goes by the nicknames "Gigio" and "Yiyo," was indicted in 2018 and ...Read more

NEW YORK — Donald Trump’s lawsuit against the New York Times and his niece Mary Trump over an award-winning investigative report on his tax avoidance — for which she provided crucial documents — is just the former president’s “latest stunt,” her lawyer said.

Donald Trump accused Mary Trump and the Times in the lawsuit of ...Read more

A federal court judge has dismissed all outstanding lawsuits against Ohio State University over its handling of sexual abuse allegations against former university doctor Richard Strauss.

Judge Michael H. Watson issued an opinion late Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Columbus granting Ohio State's motion to close the case, saying plaintiffs ...Read more