LOS ANGELES — Karissa Rajpaul moved from South Africa to Southern California with a dream: to become a social media star and make it in the adult entertainment business, authorities said.

But those dreams never came true for the ambitious 26-year-old, who died two years ago during an illegal cosmetic surgery.

After settling in Sherman Oaks, ...Read more

A shooter killed one person and at least a dozen others were injured Thursday inside a grocery store in Tennessee, officials said.

The shooting happened at a Kroger grocery store in Collierville, a city about 25 miles east of Memphis, about 1:30 p.m., police said during a news conference broadcast by Fox 13. The shooter died from a self-...Read more

WASHINGTON — Federal health officials are reshuffling their systems for distributing COVID-19 vaccines as they try to reassert control over the country’s divided response to the pandemic and prevent more unnecessary deaths.

States will no longer be allowed to order as many vaccines as they want, a shift intended to prevent doses from ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris invoked her familial ties to India as she gently pressed Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on human rights during a history-making meeting Thursday between America’s first vice president of Indian descent and the leader of a country that has become an increasingly close ally.

Harris, during public...Read more

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — A report from Missouri lawmakers investigating how to block Planned Parenthood from receiving public funds recommends giving Gov. Mike Parson's administration the power to cancel its contracts based on unethical or illegal behavior in other states.

The Senate Interim Committee on Medicaid Accountability and Taxpayer ...Read more

Standing before of a foil-wrapped, fire-proofed monument in Sequoia National Park amid a haze of wildfire smoke, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday signed a $15 billion climate package for California, the largest such investment in state history.

As ash from the nearby KNP Complex fire rained from an opaque sky, Newsom outlined the details of the ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Reproductive-rights advocates asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take up an expedited appeal centering on Texas’s new ban on most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy.

The appeal targets the law’s novel enforcement mechanism, which has stymied efforts to block what critics say is a blatantly unconstitutional law. The ...Read more

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Alaska’s unprecedented COVID-19 crisis escalated Thursday with the state reporting seven new deaths, a record 1,330 new cases and a near-record 209 hospitalizations.

It’s the third time in two weeks that the daily record has been broken: The previous highs were recorded Wednesday, with 1,251 cases, and Sept. 15, with 1...Read more

NEW YORK — Chicago-born R&B singer R. Kelly was an international sex symbol known for his playboy lifestyle, but his relationships were consensual and the women who lined up to testify that he sexually abused them are lying to get a payday, Kelly’s lawyer told jurors in his closing argument of the singer’s racketeering trial in New York ...Read more

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A North Carolina high school principal apologized after a cheerleading sign with the word “White” in all capital letters was placed on a drinking water fountain in the school.

“We apologize if anyone was offended,” Principal Dylan Stamey of Piedmont High School in Union County said in “an important message” to ...Read more

MIAMI — When the Surfside condo tumbled down in June, rescue workers painstakingly searched through the mountain of debris to recover nearly 100 victims and lots of personal property.

Among the buried personal items at the collapse site of the 12-story Champlain Towers South condo building were cars in the underground garage, as well as ...Read more

AUSTIN, Texas — A half-dozen large school districts, including Austin, have asked a state appeals court to block Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton from pursuing lawsuits to enforce the governor's ban on mask mandates in schools.

Paxton, a Republican, has sued at least 15 school districts across Texas, including Round Rock and Elgin, opening ...Read more

Melina Abdullah, a leader of Black Lives Matter Los Angeles who filed a lawsuit this week alleging the Los Angeles Police Department mishandled a "swatting" incident at her home last summer, was targeted with another false emergency call Thursday, according to LAPD officials.

An unknown caller purporting to be Abdullah's young son called police...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Karissa Rajpaul moved from South Africa to Southern California with a dream: to become a social media star and make it in the adult entertainment business, authorities said.

But those dreams never came true for the ambitious 26-year-old, who died two years ago during an illegal cosmetic surgery.

After settling in Sherman Oaks, ...Read more

A shooter killed one person and at least a dozen others were injured Thursday inside a grocery store in Tennessee, officials said.

The shooting happened at a Kroger grocery store in Collierville, a city about 25 miles east of Memphis, about 1:30 p.m., police said during a news conference broadcast by Fox 13. The shooter died from a self-...Read more

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — An appeals court has denied a request from the Missouri attorney general's office that all judges in Jackson County be disqualified from hearing local prosecutors argue Kevin Strickland is innocent.

The attorney general had appealed Judge Kevin Harrell's decision to not recuse himself and other Jackson County judges. The ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman pushed back Thursday against scathing criticism from Daniel Foote, the administration’s special envoy for Haiti who resigned this week, saying she disagreed with his proposal to send U.S. troops to the country.

Foote resigned after two months on the job and in his resignation letter cited...Read more

Americans ages 65 and older should get booster shots, a panel of experts advising the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a unanimous vote Thursday. People over 50 with weakened immune systems were also recommended for an extra dose of the vaccine, the panelists said.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice ...Read more

MIAMI — Despite the controversies surrounding him and a lashing from Miami commissioners, someone appears to be a very big fan of Miami Police Chief Art Acevedo.

So much so, that a person using the same computer address somewhere in Kansas likely voted for the chief more than 500 times in a police union poll that could help to determine his ...Read more