The right to a secret ballot, free from prying eyes of nosy neighbors or election workers, is supposed to be protected by the Georgia Constitution and state laws.

But in many voting locations, it’s all too easy to snoop on the choices of another voter who is using Georgia’s tall, bright touchscreens, according to election security advocates...Read more

Oct. 1 will see new laws regulating guns, where to carry them and how to store them as Maryland continues to grapple with the U.S. Supreme Court decision that upended the state’s former rules.

There have already been challenges to these policies from people who see them as too restrictive.

Senate Bill 1, sponsored by Senate Judicial ...Read more

MIAMI — Davonte Barnes, the 24-year-old admitted “lookout” during a mass shooting outside a Northwest Miami-Dade music venue could spend the rest of his life in prison after a jury late Friday found him guilty of a string of murder and attempted murder charges.

Barnes wasn’t accused of firing a single round. And more than two years ...Read more

As the U.S. and its allies fret over Canada’s allegation that India orchestrated the murder of a Sikh separatist leader, the scandal is providing a political boost to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

India has gone on the offensive since Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused Modi’s government of orchestrating the murder of Hardeep ...Read more

No cause of death has been disclosed for Dianne Feinstein, the longtime California senator who struggled with evident health problems in her final years before her death Thursday night.

She was absent from the U.S. Senate for nearly three months earlier this year while recovering from a case of shingles that led to encephalitis, a rare ...Read more

On a cool autumn morning 45 years ago, Dianne Feinstein was the first to find the body.

It was November 1978, and San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk had just been shot dead in his City Hall office.

"I could smell the gunpowder. Harvey was on his stomach," Feinstein told the Los Angeles Times in an interview in 2018. "I tried to find a pulse;...Read more

Tropical storms Philippe and Rina continued to make their way through the Atlantic, but forecasters don’t anticipate Florida to be affected, according to Friday’s 5 p.m. Eastern time advisory from the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

The positioning of the two storms has forecasters pondering the possibility of the two storms merging.

...Read more

NEW YORK — The New York Public Library is pushing back against the unprecedented rise in the banning or challenging of books in libraries and schools across the U.S. with an ambitious project open to teens and young adults in New York and beyond.

Over the next eight months, young readers will have the chance to read from a selection of books ...Read more

NEW YORK — A New York City massage therapist is reportedly suing actor Kevin Spacey, alleging the 64-year-old actor booked several massages with him at a Flatiron District hotel, then solicited sexual favors.

The unidentified plaintiff claims his encounters with “The Usual Suspects” star happened in the late summer of 2016 at the New York...Read more

NEW YORK — Fentanyl exposure was confirmed as the cause of the day care center death of a 1-year-old Bronx boy, the city Medical Examiner’s office said Friday.

Nicholas Feliz-Dominici’s death was ruled a homicide caused by “acute fentanyl intoxication.”

Law enforcement officers on Thursday arrested Felix Herrera, 34, who had fled the...Read more

WASHINGTON — Sen. Dianne Feinstein was the most senior Democrat on two of the Senate's most powerful committees, and her death could set off a cascade of changes that affect California's power in Washington.

Soon after news broke Friday that Feinstein, 90, had died overnight, Republican leaders indicated that they would not attempt to block ...Read more

NEW YORK — A record-breaking downpour dumped over half a foot of paralyzing rain across New York City on Friday, snarling travel by land, across the city subways and at major airports.

Both Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams put New York City under a state of emergency as cars bobbed in floodwaters and basements flooded, with the FDNY ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Sen. Dianne Feinstein wasn’t feeling well this week, so she skipped a Thursday morning Judiciary Committee meeting, as has become her custom since her health declined in recent months. But she had told Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., that she would be available if he needed her for an important vote.

He needed her....Read more

Though California Gov. Gavin Newsom pledged in 2021 to appoint a Black woman to the U.S. Senate if Sen. Dianne Feinstein retired, he has kept his deliberations private and shrugged off rumors of who could be his top choice. Now, with the death of Feinstein at 90, the question of whom Newsom might appoint to replace the senator has become more ...Read more

NEW YORK — A sea lion got a taste of freedom — and murky brown floodwaters — after a deluge of rain battering NYC caused the Central Park Zoo sea lion pool to flood over on Friday.

The zoo was closed on Friday because of the inclement weather — but the intrepid sea lion swam outside her enclosure as several inches of rain overwhelmed ...Read more

DETROIT — The Oxford High School school shooter is eligible to spend the rest of his life in prison, an Oakland County judge ruled Friday, arguing that his chances of being rehabilitated are "slim" and setting up a key sentencing hearing in two months when victims can share their opinions.

The teen faces a sentence of either life without ...Read more

SEATTLE — One might think of local southern resident orcas as sea pandas, playfully spy hopping through their day. The local porpoises will tell you different.

Scientists for decades have observed fish-eating orcas mauling and killing Dall’s and harbor porpoises. But why do they do it? It’s not to eat them, the southern residents that ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Fifty-nine women have served in the United States Senate since its founding in 1789. Twenty-four of those lawmakers govern today, a loss of one seat since California Democrat Dianne Feinstein’s death was announced Friday.

More than 2,000 people have served in the Senate total, according to the congressional body’s ...Read more