LOS ANGELES — The Sandy fire is burning near a toxic waste area in the Simi Valley where a partial nuclear meltdown once took place, sparking concerns about the potential for contaminants to be released should the area catch fire.

The Ventura County Fire Department announced Wednesday evening that air quality monitoring is being conducted ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — More than 1,000 Los Angeles school workers are expected to lose their jobs after the Board of Education on Thursday approved layoffs and, separately, after district management quietly terminated the employment of workers without tenure or other union job protections.

The termination of the workers who lack due process job ...Read more

Thousands of people came together to offer traditional Islamic funeral prayers for three men killed by teenage gunmen at the Islamic Center of San Diego on Monday, while a smaller group gathered later in the day to bury them in a National City cemetery.

Such a large crowd of mourners showed up for the Janazah prayer service at a park next to ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The Sandy fire is burning near a toxic waste area in the Simi Valley where a partial nuclear meltdown once took place, sparking concerns about the potential for contaminants to be released should the area catch fire.

The Ventura County Fire Department announced Wednesday evening that air quality monitoring is being conducted ...Read more

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said she’ll call a referendum on whether the energy-rich province should stay in Canada or start a legal process that could eventually lead to its independence.

The vote will be held Oct. 19 and is a response to a bid by separatist activists to break away from Canada.

A group called Stay Free Alberta tried to...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles City Council signed off on a $15 billion budget for 2026-27 on Thursday, preserving Mayor Karen Bass’ police hiring plan while socking away more money for potential emergencies.

The council voted 12 to 1 to approve Bass’s spending plan, which called for the hiring of 510 Los Angeles Police Department officers...Read more

In hopes of passing new congressional districts in the state before South Carolinians start going to the polls, senators are planning a key procedural vote to accelerate debate.

But that vote to invoke cloture early on a White House-backed congressional map requires a two-thirds majority, as questions remain on whether enough senators in the ...Read more

NEW YORK — Mayor Zohran Mamdani is moving forward with an expansion of New York City’s curriculum reforms started under ex-Mayor Eric Adams, including changes to how math is taught in elementary schools and reading in high schools, he said Thursday.

Mamdani and his schools chancellor, Kamar Samuels, announced the next phase of the two ...Read more

Iran said the latest proposal from the United States partly bridged the gap between the warring sides but comments from the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader about keeping Tehran’s uranium stockpile and a dispute over tolls in the Strait of Hormuz clouded the outlook for a breakthrough.

Tehran is in the process of responding to a text ...Read more

DETROIT — A University of Michigan student claimed in a lawsuit that school officials, police and private security contractors retaliated against and surveilled him after he took part in "pro-Palestinian speech and advocacy" on campus.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in the U.S. Eastern District of Michigan, detailed how Josiah Walker, a Black ...Read more

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — A Newport News judge on Thursday granted a motion to strike the criminal case against a former Richneck Elementary School assistant principal — tossing all eight felony charges against her before the jury got the case.

Circuit Court Judge Rebecca M. Robinson ruled that prosecutors failed to prove that Ebony J. Parker’s...Read more

One of the teenagers accused of carrying out a deadly shooting at a California mosque was flagged by the FBI as a potential threat last year, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Caleb Vazquez was the subject of a 2025 FBI eGuardian alert. Authorities say Vazquez, 18, and Cain Clark, 17, on Monday killed three men, including a ...Read more

BOISE, Idaho — Three years ago, opponents filed a lawsuit challenging an Idaho law that bars transgender students from using school bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity.

Now, that challenge is on the verge of dismissal.

On Wednesday, the parties involved filed a stipulation for voluntary dismissal in the case. They noted that...Read more

MIAMI — While on the hunt for young women and underage girls, Jeffrey Epstein repeatedly turned to Brazil. He lured girls as young as 13 with promises of lucrative modeling work and other enticements to entrap them into sexual servitude, according to a Miami Herald investigation based on the millions of pages of records released earlier this ...Read more

MIAMI — The Trump administration has detained in Miami the sister of the top Cuban official who heads the multibillion-dollar military conglomerate that runs most of Cuba’s economy, the federal government announced on Thursday.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced in a news release that Adys Lastres Morera was in custody, after the...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Gregory Morgan Jr. stood in front of a phalanx of cameras Thursday before turning himself in to local law enforcement on charges that he assaulted two Minnesotans during Operation Metro Surge.

He nodded along as his attorney, Ryan Pacyga, said that Morgan — an eight-year veteran of law enforcement who had not worked in ...Read more

DENVER — Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said Thursday that he remained “proud to be a Democrat” even after the state party’s central committee voted overwhelmingly to censure him for commuting Tina Peters’ prison sentence for election-related crimes.

But first, he ate a carrot.

Polis, speaking at the signing of an executive order to ...Read more

JUNEAU, Alaska — The regular legislative session of the Alaska Legislature ended Wednesday night, with lawmakers already looking ahead to a special session focused on advancing a long-sought natural gas pipeline.

The Senate adjourned sine die at 8 p.m. The House followed suit at 9:45 p.m. after a long and tearful series of goodbyes from ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and his Republican allies have amassed a $939 million war chest ahead of November midterms, more than tripling the Democrats’ haul and setting them up to mount a formidable fight in their uphill effort to retain control of Congress.

The latest filings with the Federal Election Commission show Democrats ...Read more