LOS ANGELES -- Members of the notorious MS-13 street gang were charged in a years-long string of grisly homicides in the Los Angeles area, including some in which victims were hacked to death in the Angeles National Forest.

Members of the Los Angeles Police Department, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, the Los Angeles County District...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Bryan Ruiz's hands were still shaking an hour after he learned the $300,000 in medical school loans he took out to become a dentist were being wiped away by California taxpayers.

A year out of medical school, Ruiz thought it would take decades to pay off the debt, particularly since he had accepted a less lucrative ...Read more

TIJUANA, Mexico -- There was confusion on Monday among northbound migrants in Tijuana, following the Trump administration's latest effort to ban virtually all foreigners from filing for asylum in the United States.

Many, like Milsa Garcia, hadn't even heard of the plan. The 33-year-old Guatemalan woman has been in this sprawling border town for...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- Shortly after federal authorities took down a national college admissions scam in March, officials at USC launched their own investigation with emails to dozens of students.

They did not mince words: The school wanted to know whether the 33 students had lied on their applications to USC. Some of the students understood what was ...Read more

CHICAGO -- The alligator that eluded authorities for a week in Chicago's Humboldt Park lagoon was caught overnight and will be featured at a news conference to be held later Tuesday morning, according to Chicago officials.

City animal control officials said the capture was "safe and humane" but gave no other details. They have scheduled a news ...Read more

BALTIMORE -- When Dominique Foster was just 7-months-old, her father threw her through a glass door.

Now, more than four decades later, Baltimore Police have again arrested her father, Lawrence Banks, and this time they've charged him with her murder.

Foster, a 43-year-old mother of six, was discovered on May 12, her dismembered body hidden in...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- Aftershocks of the magnitude 7.1 earthquake near Ridgecrest have been creeping into areas close to two major earthquake faults, a development that is generating interest and some concern among seismologists over whether it could trigger another huge temblor.

Both faults are capable of producing new earthquakes of magnitude 7 or ...Read more

MIAMI -- Joanna Berens freely admits that she once doubted if an academic such as Elizabeth Warren could win the presidency.

That was before she watched one of the senator's televised town halls.

"She doesn't just have some sound bites," said Berens, a 57-year-old event planner, marveling at what she remembers seeing minutes before she was set...Read more

President Donald Trump's vicious verbal assaults on four women of color who are members of Congress have sparked an avalanche of well-earned criticism, including from some of his supporters. As regular readers know, I'm fascinated by history, so I've been wondering where Trump's tweeted comments rank among the most racist ones made by presidents...Read more

WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump delivered some of the most incendiary comments of his presidency on Monday, signaling that he intends to build his reelection bid as much around divisive racial and cultural issues as on low unemployment and economic growth.

The rhetoric sparked unusual pushback from several Republicans, and led to a ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- Seventy current and former Customs and Border Protection personnel are under investigation as part of an administrative probe into a secret Facebook group in which members used dehumanizing and derogatory language toward Latina members of Congress and deceased migrants.

On Monday, officials for the first time provided details of ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- Who is running the Pentagon?

These days it can change with dizzying speed as the Trump administration struggles to find nominees for top civilian and military jobs whom President Donald Trump likes and who can survive Senate confirmation.

The latest job shuffling came Monday as Trump formally nominated acting Defense Secretary ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- The Trump administration moved Monday to in effect end asylum for the vast majority of migrants who arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border, an enormous shift in policy that could block hundreds of thousands of people from seeking protection in the U.S. -- and is certain to draw legal challenges.

The new rule, published in the Federal ...Read more

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Beleaguered Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello vowed not to step down even as the streets of San Juan were choked with demonstrators calling for his ouster following the release of profane chats with aides that disparaged political opponents and ordinary Puerto Ricans.

In a statement Sunday evening, Rossello said "...Read more