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Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group/TNS

They entered the country legally to flee desperate conditions. Now, they could be deported

Current News / News & Features /

SAN JOSE, Calif. — As an activist fighting the oppressive Nicaraguan regime, Carmen risked her life to save others.

With the help of sources inside the government, she alerted dissenters who were on its blacklist. She would warn them to flee, helping them escape arrest, torture or death.

Then early one winter morning, she got a call from a ...Read more

Alejandro A. Alvarez/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS

While conspiracy theories fill the void, the Northeast Philly crash has left aviation experts baffled

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PHILADELPHIA — As Med Jets 056 taxied for takeoff, the red-and-white symbol of the Rod of Asclepius painted on its tail fin marked the aircraft's purpose: lifesaving.

The sleek and swift Learjet 55 — operated by the Mexican air ambulance service Jet Rescue — was topped off with fuel, assigned a runway at Northeast Philadelphia Airport, ...Read more

Wayne Mckown/Dreamstime/TNS

Some parents, educators push back on Missouri bill requiring cursive be taught in school

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Lisa Meinen-Doerksen, a mother of two children at Border Star Montessori in Brookside, said she likes cursive writing. She believes it has helped her children’s fine motor skills and their ability to write from left to right.

However, when she thinks about public education, teaching her children cursive writing is not at ...Read more

Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group/Karl Mondon

'Absolute hell': Residents struggle against nature, bureaucrats, banks and builders to recover from 2020 Santa Cruz Mountains inferno

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SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Just a month after she bought her red-doored dream home, Ana Wold’s little gray Boulder Creek house burned to the ground in the 2020 Santa Cruz Mountains firestorm. Now she’s walking away from a half-built replacement, putting it up for sale after more than four years of battles with an insurance company and a contractor....Read more

Wash, dry, enroll: Finding Medicaid help at the laundromat

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SUITLAND, Md. — At a SuperSuds Laundromat just south of Washington, D.C., a steady stream of customers loaded clothes into washers and dryers on a recent Sunday morning, passing the time on their phones or watching television.

Amid the low hum of spinning clothes, Adrienne Jones made the rounds in a bright yellow sweatshirt, asking customers ...Read more

'Get on it AY-sep!' Foreign words have invaded Korea. The government is fighting back

Current News / News & Features /

SEOUL, South Korea — Kim Hyeong-bae, a South Korean linguist, had a problem: how to translate the word "deepfake" into Korean.

A senior researcher at the National Institute of Korean Language, a government regulator, Kim works in the public language department. His job is to sift through the many foreign words that clutter everyday speech and...Read more

Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times/TNS

After critics blast move to pay LA wildfire recovery czar $500,000, he'll do it for free

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LOS ANGELES — Faced with fierce criticism over her chief wildfire recovery officer’s planned salary of $500,000 for 90 days of work, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass reversed course Saturday evening and said Steve Soboroff would receive no compensation.

Soboroff’s original salary, which would have been funded entirely by charitable ...Read more

Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Insurance commissioner: Wildfire victims should be paid, without itemizing lost contents

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California’s elected insurance commissioner has asked the state’s insurers to make maximum payments for the contents of homes destroyed in last month’s Southern California fire disaster without requiring policyholders to provide a complete inventory of all they lost.

Commissioner Ricardo Lara’s office encouraged insurers to make the ...Read more

Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Asian communities faced language barriers during LA wildfires, UCLA study says

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LOS ANGELES — A new University of California, Los Angeles study published this week found Asian communities affected by the recent fires in Los Angeles County had difficulty accessing information about emergency evacuations and recovery efforts because of language barriers.

The study, which is part of a research series examining the effect ...Read more

Jonathan Weiss/Dreamstime/TNS

Gold, checks and Confederate money: Postal Service supervisor pleads guilty to $300,000 mail theft

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LOS ANGELES — A former United States Postal Service supervisor from Compton has admitted to being a serial mail thief, pilfering more than $300,000 worth of checks, gold and collectible currency while on the job, authorities said.

Joivian Tjuana Hayes, 36, of Compton, pleaded guilty Friday to one count of theft of mail matter by a Postal ...Read more

Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Musk's DOGE team now seeks access to Treasury's accounting data

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WASHINGTON — Elon Musk will dispatch a DOGE team to Parkersburg, West Virginia, next week, where it will gain read-only access to the U.S. government’s central accounting system, according to a source familiar with the effort.

The planned visit opens a new window into some of the government’s most sensitive financial data. It comes after ...Read more

Scott Luxor/South Florida Sun Sentinel/TNS

South Florida beaches seeing oily tar balls wash ashore; Coast Guard investigating

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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — South Floridians enjoying a pleasant Saturday at the beach found themselves stepping in dark, greasy balls of oil, possibly because of a spill offshore, officials say. The Coast Guard is now investigating the source.

Reports of the tar balls extended from Port Everglades to Palm Beach, the U.S. Coast Guard Southeast ...Read more

Ian Forsyth/Getty Images North America/TNS

Modi's party wins election in national capital after decades

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party pulled off a victory in India’s national capital in a sign of his continuing popularity.

In a post on X, Modi announced his party’s win in Delhi. “It is our guarantee that we will leave no stone unturned in developing Delhi, improving the overall quality of life for the people and ensuring that Delhi...Read more

Jeff Swensen/Getty Images North America/TNS

Pittsburgh at the 'epicenter' of the climate crisis, local leaders claim at rally

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PITTSBURGH — An assault on climate protection is also an assault on the Pittsburgh region's public health, workforce, and overall well-being.

That was the central message from more than 100 people who rallied Saturday at the Flagstaff Hill Pavilion in Oakland in protest of President Donald Trump’s efforts to derail investment in clean ...Read more

Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium/Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium/TNS

Seattle-area zoo welcomes endangered Malayan tapir calf

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SEATTLE — The Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium in Tacoma this week welcomed a white striped and speckled Malayan tapir calf.

It’s the second time a tapir, rare and endangered, has been born at the zoo since it opened 120 years ago, zoo officials said.

The 20-pound healthy newborn, which looks like a fuzzy “walking watermelon” because of ...Read more

Alex Wong/Getty Images North America/TNS

California wildfire aid will have conditions, US House Speaker Mike Johnson says

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WASHINGTON — U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson was adamant that any wildfire aid for California will include conditions aimed at preventing future blazes — because, he said, “bad policy choices” hurt prevention efforts.

The Louisiana Republican told The Bee on Friday that conditions are “part of our discussion, for sure” as he, ...Read more

Sam Morris/Las Vegas Review-Journal/TNS

More than 500 eggs stolen from West Seattle cafe

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SEATTLE — More than 500 eggs were stolen from a cafe near Seattle on Wednesday morning.

The thieves hit the Luna Park Cafe in West Seattle, located on Southwest Avalon Way, around 4:42 a.m., according to Seattle police.

Security footage shows two men entering the restaurant’s refrigerator and stealing about 540 eggs, some bacon, ground ...Read more

Seth Herald/GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/TNS

Georgia latest state to consider mandatory Ten Commandments posters in schools

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ATLANTA — Georgia public schools would have until July 1 to hang posters displaying the Ten Commandments in three different places on each campus, if lawmakers approve a bill filed this week.

House Bill 313, filed by GOP Rep. Emory Dunahoo, makes the case that the Ten Commandments is a foundational document of state and national government. ...Read more

Amid sweeping immigration crackdown, Minnesota churches scrambling to respond

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Church leaders are scrambling to respond as the Trump administration makes sweeping changes in immigration policy, ranging from freezing federal funds for refugee resettlement to revoking a policy prohibiting the arrest of undocumented immigrants in Christian houses of worship.

“This is a moment for us to recommit to the stranger among us ...Read more

Amanda McCoy/Fort Worth Star-Telegram/TNS

Outcry as NIH plans $4 billion cut to reimburse scientists

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WASHINGTON — The National Institutes of Health plans to cut billions of dollars in reimbursements to medical researchers, a move scientists warn could jeopardize their work in advancing cures for diseases.

The agency, the world’s largest funder of biomedical research, announced late Friday it was lowering the maximum “indirect cost rate�...Read more