SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Three quarters of California voters believe the state should restrain home building in areas at high risk of wildfires, a new survey has found.

The University of California, Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies Poll, prepared for the Los Angeles Times, shows bipartisan support for such restrictions after deadly fires...Read more

Climate change is about big things: melting ice sheets, rising seas, the feverish temperature of the planet.

But scientists say it's also about little things -- namely, microbes.

Everywhere you look on Earth, you'll find these single-celled organisms making a living. And in the process, they produce and consume greenhouse gases including ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- A key California lawmaker has amended contentious legislation to tighten vaccine exemptions amid a national measles outbreak, sharpening its focus on bad doctors while easing the list of medical conditions that doctors could cite in allowing schoolchildren to skip required immunizations.

The amendments to SB 276 made ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- The four top congressional leaders from both parties plan to sit down again Wednesday morning with senior Trump administration officials to try to hammer out an agreement on next year's spending levels.

The talks at the Capitol will include acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- Jon Stewart ratcheted up pressure on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to reauthorize the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund in a late-night television appearance Monday night.

On "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," the comedian continued to lobby for restoring payments to 9/11 responders and survivors who face medical...Read more

WASHINGTON -- Documents sought under the Freedom of Information Act were withheld by the Interior Department under a practice that allowed political appointees to review the requests, internal emails and memos show.

The policy allowed high-ranking officials to screen documents sought by news organizations, advocacy groups and whistleblowers, ...Read more

HONG KONG -- With her term likely reduced to lame duck status, Hong Kong's leader offered her most forceful apology yet for championing a massively unpopular extradition bill, but still declined to accede to the demands of 2 million people who took to the streets last Sunday to call for her ouster.

Speaking solemnly at a news conference Tuesday...Read more

WASHINGTON -- Americans gave less money to charities last year partly because the Republican tax law changes made many people ineligible for tax breaks that can inspire donations.

Giving by individuals fell an estimated 3.4%, after adjusting for inflation, last year, according to a report released Tuesday by Giving USA. The numbers reflect the ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump will pull out all the stops Tuesday in Orlando, Florida, when he announces his re-election bid in a state he narrowly won in 2016 and needs again as he tries to reconfigure the electoral map that put him in the White House.

But Democrats are already countering his expected message of a strong economy and ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) tried again this week to shift focus away from a divisive debate over impeachment and move it to a signature issue that Democrats credit with helping them win back a majority in that chamber: health care.

After a panel discussion on the Democrats' health policy agenda in Monterey Park, Calif....Read more

MEBANE, N.C. -- Braydon Smith had a $30 gift card to spend as he was walking down an aisle at Academy Sports + Outdoors and saw an ax and a machete.

The 11-year-old decided he could use them to help cut down trees and branches for campfires. His dad put up the extra $15 to make the purchase possible.

"Me and my Dad go camping a decent amount,"...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- It was a typical Friday night at Costco.

The cavernous Corona store was packed, and customers waited in line for food samples -- the quintessential Costco experience.

An off-duty Los Angeles police officer, his wife and their baby were among those in the tasting queue. So was 32-year-old Kenneth French and his parents, who were ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- Cory Booker spent the first five months of his presidential bid dispensing a message of love and unity. But it hasn't caught on with a Democratic electorate that is seething with anger toward President Donald Trump and desperate to throw him out of office.

The New Jersey senator long seen as a potential star of Democratic politics...Read more

CHICAGO -- A gunman opened fire on a Chicago Transit Authority bus Monday evening, leaving three people wounded, two of them seriously, authorities said.

The shooting occurred on a northbound No. 75 bus in the 7700 block of South State Street in the Chatham neighborhood just before 6:20 p.m., police said.

Police said a 35-year-old man was ...Read more