CHICAGO — A federal judge has thrown out a Chicago woman’s request to receive an addiction-fighting medication during a jail stint that begins Thursday, but the practical effect of the decision remains unclear.

Christine Finnigan, 53, has been on methadone for two years to treat her opioid use disorder. Prior to her recovery, in 2016, she ...Read more

Plans to “blow up” the U.S. Capitol during President Joe Biden’s yet-to-be scheduled State of the Union address in hopes of killing as many members of Congress “as possible” remains a credible threat, a top security official told lawmakers Thursday.

Acting Capitol Police Chief Yogananda Pittman made the disturbing revelation in ...Read more

Former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm is officially headed back to political office.

Ten years after her second term as governor ended, Granholm on Thursday was confirmed as President Joe Biden's energy secretary, taking over as head of a multibillion-dollar agency that oversees national laboratories, the U.S. nuclear arsenal and plays a ...Read more

More Americans than ever are identifying themselves as members of the LGBTQ community, according to a new Gallup poll.

Gallup’s latest update on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer identification finds 5.6% of U.S. adults identifying as LGBTQ. The current estimate is up from 4.5% in Gallup’s previous update based on 2017 data.

...Read more

Twitter Inc. gave the first outline of a potential subscription product that will let people charge followers for access to special content or experiences, part of a broader effort to diversify the company’s revenue sources and give high-profile users a way to make money on the service.

Twitter mentioned a new feature called “Super Follows�...Read more

DETROIT — Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel on Thursday filed human trafficking, sexual assault and racketeering charges against a Lansing-area gymnastics coach with ties to disgraced sports medicine doctor Larry Nassar.

The 24 charges against John Geddert include 20 counts of human trafficking of a minor, and one count each of first-...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is expected to release an unclassified intelligence report as soon as Thursday establishing that Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, directed the killing of the dissident U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

A classified version of the report was completed shortly after Khashoggi was ...Read more

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – In the winter of 2014, Anwar Bunni, a top human rights lawyer who escaped to Germany from his native Syria, was in a refugee camp near Berlin when he saw a familiar face.

"I couldn't remember him exactly. He saw me, and turned away," Bunni said.

It was only days later that Bunni placed him: It was Anwar Raslan, ...Read more

LOS ANGELES – Lady Gaga's dog walker is in the hospital after he was shot and two of the pop star's French bulldogs were stolen Wednesday night in Hollywood, The Times has confirmed.

According to the Hollywood branch of the LAPD, a suspect armed with a semi-automatic handgun shot a single victim around 9:40 p.m. on the 1500 block of Sierra ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Diego Pablo had trained the young man in the craft of burning human bodies down to ash.

Inside the crematorium, 44-year-old Pablo watched as his protege prepared to push the rose-covered cardboard coffin into the furnace's yawning mouth.

"What's next?" Pablo asked, a gentle reminder to the 23-year-old — who towered over him �...Read more

LOS ANGELES – Organizers with Black Lives Matter-Los Angeles launched a campaign Wednesday targeting two of Southern California's biggest police unions, saying they will push to have them ejected from the powerful Los Angeles County Federation of Labor and ultimately disbanded.

Activists said they intend to stage protests every week outside ...Read more

Pfizer Inc. and partner BioNTech SE have begun a clinical study to see if a third shot of their existing Covid-19 vaccine can stimulate stronger immune responses against new variants.

The clinical trial will examine safety and immune responses of a third dose of the vaccine in as many as 144 people who participated in the companies’ Phase 1 ...Read more

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Thunderstorm frequency could triple in Alaska by the end of the century because of ongoing climate change, according to new research.

Big thunderstorms, the kind that produce lots of rain, are not common in Alaska now. Some 30 occur in the state every year, said Andreas Prein, a research scientist at the National Center ...Read more

DETROIT — Some of the emails are thoughtful. Others are pleading. But many don't waste time on pleasantries.

"Some of them are very threatening; they're cruel," said Beth Pyden, one of four school board members in Chippewa Valley Schools facing a recall attempt over their votes last year to delay the return of in-person learning. "A lot of ...Read more

Nevada state Sen. Pat Spearman, a Democrat and chief majority whip, successfully shepherded legislation in 2020 requiring pharmacists to honor 12-month doctors’ prescriptions for birth control pills, over the objections of some male lawmakers.

“We had men on a committee making statements like, ‘if you give them a whole year’s supply, ...Read more

Beating back COVID-19 right now comes down to balancing supply and demand.

With hopes pinned to vaccines, demand has far outstripped the supply of doses.

But, as an increasing number of vaccine vials are shipped in coming weeks, the concern about shortages may well shift to human capital: the vaccinators themselves.

“We need to mobilize ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Before her son came back from treatment, Madeleine Dean went downstairs and covered every bottle in the house with Saran Wrap.

When he saw it, he had to laugh. Alcohol wasn’t his drug of choice, and he had already raided those bottles many times in high school, replacing the liquor with water.

“Had anyone even opened them ...Read more

While there’s a famous horror-movie spoof about killer tomatoes, no one seems to have made one about caterpillars — the insect pests that eat the juicy red fruits of summer.

Perhaps the time is ripe, with inspiration from a new study at Pennsylvania State University.

Scientists found that a caterpillar called the tomato fruit worm not only...Read more