A post-pandemic boom in national park tourism has left lawmakers wondering how to preserve nature and the visitor experience amid increased traffic, crowds and waiting times.

“Yosemite is one of the most spectacular places in the world, but I can guarantee the people in that traffic jam weren’t enjoying it,” said Sen. Angus King, I-Maine,...Read more

NEW YORK — A teenage boy jumped to his death at from the Vessel at Manhattan’s Hudson Yards as his horrified family watched, police said.

The 15-year-old leaped off the 150-foot-tall structure near W. 33rd Street and 10th Avenue about 12:53 p.m., cops said.

The youth’s name was not immediately disclosed.

The teen is the fourth suicide ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein succeeded in getting one of the 11 counts in his Southern California sex assault case dismissed by a judge Thursday, but prosecutors vowed to revive it.

Weinstein appeared in a Los Angeles courtroom in a wheelchair and wrinkled brown jail uniform. After a deputy removed his handcuffs for the ...Read more

Almost 690,000 people in England and Wales were told to isolate by the official COVID-19 mobile phone app in the week ending July 21, illustrating the pressure on key industries as staff shortages brought some supply chains close to breaking point. Contact-tracing “pings” from the National Health Service app were up 11% from 620,000 the week...Read more

He has proposed abolishing the IRS, welfare and the minimum wage, opposes gun restrictions and mask mandates and doesn’t believe policing has a systemic race problem. He boasts nearly a million Twitter followers and even has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Suddenly, out of seemingly nowhere, the Democrats who dominate deep blue ...Read more

CHICAGO — On the opening day of Lollapalooza Thursday, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she expects the city to start recording 200 new daily COVID-19 cases but noted that other key metrics give reason for “optimism, in quotes.”

Lightfoot earlier this week told The New York Times she would consider a mask mandate and other restrictions ...Read more

Amid a surge in shootings this year, a majority of California voters say that they believe gun control laws are effective in reducing violent crime, but confidence in them has slipped, according to a new University of California, Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times.

The poll released Thursday ...Read more

Nikola Corp. founder and former chairman Trevor Milton has been charged by prosecutors with making false statements to investors in the electric-vehicle startup. The charges follow a difficult year for the company, which went public last year and almost immediately faced questions about its production and technology.

Milton, 39, who stepped ...Read more

A population equivalent to that of Germany — 83 million people — could be killed by 2100 because of rising temperatures caused by greenhouse-gas emissions, according to a new study that might influence how markets price carbon pollution.

The research from Columbia University’s Earth Institute introduces a new metric to help companies and ...Read more

Applications for U.S. state unemployment fell last week, signaling that the labor market continues to improve even as the delta variant of Covid-19 rages amid sustained vaccine hesitancy.

Initial jobless claims in regular state programs totaled 400,000 in the week ended July 24, down 24,000 from the prior week, Labor Department data showed ...Read more

Former President Donald Trump trashed Senate Republicans Thursday after they agreed to open debate on President Joe Biden’s $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package.

Hours after calling GOP lawmakers “weak, foolish and dumb,” Trump sharpened his attack on archenemy Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who led 17 Republicans in moving the ...Read more

AstraZeneca Plc won’t seek a U.S. license for its COVID-19 vaccine until the autumn at the earliest, according to its chief executive officer, falling further behind rivals whose shots secured emergency authorizations.

The company plans to file an application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in the next two to three months, CEO Pascal...Read more

AURORA, Colo. — Fatumo Osman, a 65-year-old Somali refugee who speaks limited English, was in a bind. She made too much money at a meal prep service job so she no longer qualified for Medicaid. But knee pain kept her from working, so her income had dropped. She could reapply for Medicaid, get her knee fixed and return to work, at which point ...Read more

FALFURRIAS, Texas — A U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent scrutinized video of a dying migrant on her cellphone, trying to match the background to the ranch she was searching for his body last month.

"Can I see the picture real quick, the background?" another agent asked.

Agent Nancy Balogh held out her phone. In the two minutes of ...Read more

ZHENGZHOU, China — The mayor of this flooded city arrived at the tunnel at midnight. Muddy water poured across the road as workers drained the six-lane-wide underpass. Dozens of onlookers gathered, hoping to glimpse what lay beneath the water. Police shooed them away.

Chen Yuanqiu lived nearby. He had witnessed the flood and knew that during ...Read more

SAN DIEGO — The tunnel linking a Tijuana warehouse to another in Otay Mesa was equipped with a hydraulic elevator, electric rail cars, lighting, wooden floors and a storeroom.

The subterranean passage discovered in 2011 was designed to secretly move tons of marijuana north — a feat of engineering that U.S. authorities would later marvel at ...Read more

The Alaska peninsula was rocked late Wednesday night by the strongest earthquake to hit the United States since 1965.

The powerful 8.2-magnitude quake struck just more than 50 miles south of Perryville, Alaska, around 10:15 p.m. local time, according to the US Geological Survey. So far, there have been at least two aftershocks, one with a ...Read more

MIAMI — A month after Champlain Towers South in Surfside collapsed on June 24, survivors who have been living in hotels and temporary apartments are now facing a pressing question: Where will they live after their homes were leveled?

Oren Cytrynbaum, a self-employed real estate agent, was a resident of Champlain Towers South. He’d left his ...Read more

SAN DIEGO — Border Patrol has held newborn U.S. citizens in custody unnecessarily — sometimes for multiple nights — according to a government report released this month.

The Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Homeland Security, which includes Border Patrol, reviewed the agency's treatment of pregnant women and births in...Read more