The skies in the Eastern U.S. were starting to become clearer Friday, after smoke from the worst wildfires in Canadian history enveloped the region.

Air quality has already improved in most areas, including New York City, with levels falling into the moderate range. Only a few parts of eastern Maryland and Cape Cod in Massachusetts are ...Read more

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — An invasive fish species last seen in Missouri in 2019 is now back, and there are concerns it could continue to spread throughout the state.

A northern snakehead fish was captured May 19 in Wayne County in the foothills of the Ozarks, according to the Missouri Department of Conservation. It’s the second ever sighting of ...Read more

A federal judge in Florida who handled Donald Trump’s dispute last fall with the Justice Department over classified documents found at his home appears to have been initially assigned to the former president’s new criminal case, according to a person familiar with the matter.

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon’s name is on the summons that...Read more

Former President Donald Trump’s indictment by a federal grand jury in Miami includes at least one charge under the Espionage Act of 1917, according to Trump’s attorney and reports in The New York Times.

The Espionage Act has historically been employed most often by law-and-order conservatives. But the biggest uptick in its use ...Read more

Edwin Bautista was a senior at the University of Texas at Austin and part-time technician at a consulting firm when inflation started to ravage his spending power. After his rent surged past $1,000 a month in early 2021 he feared he would have to move out — until he got a $7,300 lifeline from the federal Emergency Rental Assistance Program.

...Read more

NEW YORK — An attorney for indicted Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., asserted Friday his client’s $500,000 bond on criminal charges was paid by relatives who are entitled to anonymity in his high-profile prosecution.

Defense attorney Joseph Murray laid out his concerns about publicly identifying the family members in a six-page federal court ...Read more

A federal judge in Florida who handled Donald Trump’s dispute last fall with the Justice Department over classified documents found at his home appears to have been initially assigned to the former president’s new criminal case, according to a person familiar with the matter.

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon’s name is on the summons that...Read more

There are three separate criminal investigations into former President Donald Trump — one in Georgia, a second in New York and the third led by the U.S. Department of Justice.

On Thursday, Trump announced that he had been indicted by a federal grand jury in Miami in the DOJ probe on charges that he mishandled classified documents.

Here’s ...Read more

MIAMI — The family of an Illinois woman who was killed in a Florida Keys parasailing tragedy last year has expanded a lawsuit against the owner of the boat. The suit now also targets the boat’s captain and mate, as well as the resort where the boat was docked.

Lawyers for Srinivasrao Alaparthi filed the amended wrongful death lawsuit in ...Read more

The United Nations has joined the U.S. in suspending the delivery of aid in Ethiopia, plunging the humanitarian situation in the country into even deeper uncertainty.

The U.S. Agency for International Development stopped distributing food after an investigation showed supplies from international donors was being diverted or sold. The U.N.’s ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The House Ways and Means Committee is preparing to consider a package of tax breaks for individuals and businesses next week, laying out GOP priorities ahead of potential bipartisan tax talks later this year.

Several lawmakers said after leaving a closed-door meeting of panel Republicans on Thursday that the goal is to complete a...Read more

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Florida’s top three elected Republicans wasted little time in condemning the Justice Department’s decision to indict former President Donald Trump.

Gov. Ron DeSantis and U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott — all of whom have courted and benefited from the MAGA faction of the Republican Party devoted to Trump �...Read more

The COVID-19 pandemic shined a light on the deep need that people feel for human touch and connection in hospital settings. Having relatives peering through windows at their loved ones or unable to enter hospitals altogether exacerbated the lack of human intimacy that is all too common in health care settings.

Opportunities for ...Read more

Uncommon Courses is an occasional series from The Conversation U.S. highlighting unconventional approaches to teaching.

“From Magic Mushrooms to Big Pharma”

I’m from the foothills of the Appalachians in southern Ohio, where my Grandma Mildred would go out into the woods, which she called her medicine cabinet, to find ...Read more

In a surprising ruling on June 8, 2023, the conservative leaning U.S. Supreme Court threw out Republican-drawn congressional districts in Alabama that a lower court had ruled discriminated against Black voters and violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

At issue in the case that was before the court, Allen v. Milligan, ...Read more

A shooting at a car wash in the Arab town of Yafa an-Naseriyye in Israel left five dead on Thursday, in what’s considered to be one of the country’s deadliest incidents in recent years.

The attack may be related to criminal gangs and linked to a feud between two families in the region, BBC News reported, citing Israeli media.

There’s ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — After George Floyd's murder in May 2020, California's Democratic-controlled Legislature passed a wave of new laws to change how cops do their jobs, from banning chokeholds to decertifying officers with misconduct records and increasing investigations into fatal police shootings.

Despite those wins for progressives, law ...Read more

A federal grand jury in Florida indicted former President Donald Trump on June 8, 2023, on multiple criminal charges related to classified documents he took from the White House to his home in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, according to multiple sources cited in The New York Times and The Associated Press.

Trump himself said on his social media...Read more

China’s ambassador to South Korea warned that Seoul’s embrace of pro-U.S. policies could bring it harm and the country has much to gain economically through friendly ties with Beijing.

Ambassador Xing Haiming said in a Thursday night meeting with South Korean opposition leader Lee Jae-myung that he would be grateful if Seoul freed itself ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump has been indicted over his refusal to return classified documents found at his Florida home, according to three people familiar with the matter.

The indictment in Miami federal court is extraordinary, as a former president has never been charged with committing federal crimes.

It will almost ...Read more