FRESNO, Calif. -- California law enforcement has learned that Mexican drug traffickers are using a dangerous pesticide banned in the United States to grow marijuana in remote areas of California's Sierra Nevada mountains, and are going after their operations.

The pesticide, carbofuran, is toxic to wildlife and humans and can cause permanent ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump repeated his claim Wednesday that American Jews who vote for Democrats are "disloyal," refusing to back away from divisive language that has been widely criticized as anti-Semitic and anti-democratic, and called himself "the chosen one" who is confronting China on trade.

"If you vote for a Democrat, you're ...Read more

BALTIMORE -- The West Baltimore 17-year-old convicted of murdering Officer Amy Caprio last year was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday in Baltimore County Circuit Court in Towson.

Last May, Dawnta Harris was convicted of felony murder for killing Caprio. An eight-day trial revealed that in May 2018 Harris and three other teens drove out to ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- A mother found unresponsive in an Ontario home where the bodies of her two daughters were discovered Tuesday has been named as a suspect in their deaths, police said Wednesday.

Investigators launched a homicide investigation after a teenage girl and her infant sister were found dead in their home. Officers responded to the home ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- School officials in Orange County are reopening an investigation into a group of high school students caught on video with their arms raised in a Sieg Heil salute while singing a Nazi marching song as additional racist images continue to surface.

The initial video, which surfaced Monday and was taken during an off-campus event ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- Saying he could no longer be "complicit" in the Trump administration, Chuck Park, an eight-year State Department veteran most recently posted to a U.S. consulate in Mexico, last week became the latest American diplomat to publicly and pointedly call it quits.

"Over three tours abroad, I worked to spread what I believed were ...Read more

MIAMI -- Most Walmart shoppers return their electric courtesy scooter provided by the store after they are done making their purchases.

Not Florida man John Davis, cops say.

According to a Pinellas County sheriff's arrest report, at around 10:30 p.m. Saturday, the 58-year-old Palmetto resident rode his scooter out of a St. Petersburg-area ...Read more

MIAMI -- The U.S. government unveiled a new rule Wednesday that allows the administration to detain children until they can be deported, stripping away current legal protections for youths and possibly leading to indefinite detention.

The rule would end the so-called Flores agreement, a 22-year-old federal court agreement that says officials ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., unveiled a new labor plan Wednesday that includes a proposal to let federal employees go on strike.

"Under current law, federal employees are not guaranteed the same labor rights as workers in the private sector. While they have the ability to unionize, they are prohibited from going on strike," a plan ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- Federal officials suppressed a lengthy environmental document that details how one of California's unique salmon runs would be imperiled by Trump administration plans to deliver more water to Central Valley farms.

The July 1 assessment, obtained by the Los Angeles Times, outlines how proposed changes in government water ...Read more

VIENNA -- The shroud of mystery surrounding Russia's latest deadly nuclear accident will become increasingly difficult to maintain once the data starts to roll in.

That's the lesson of a team of scientists who showed last month -- days before the Aug. 8 explosion that killed five Russians -- that "a sizeable, yet undeclared nuclear accident" ...Read more

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- On the first day of classes at UNC-Chapel Hill, exactly a year after protesters tore down the Silent Sam Confederate statue, hundreds of students, faculty and community activists commemorated a new year by celebrating the fall of the statue.

The event was marked with speeches about the rights of indigenous people and ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- An infusion of federal funding will help expand or strengthen the U.S. Geological Survey's earthquake early-warning system around Lake Tahoe, Death Valley, Mammoth and Bishop.

The University of Nevada, Reno, which runs the seismic network in eastern California, will use $1 million from the USGS to upgrade obsolete seismic sensors...Read more