U.S. Marines joined Filipino counterparts on May 5, 2024, for a mock battle at a telling location: a small, remote territory just 100 miles off the southern tip of the contested island of Taiwan.

The combat drill is part of the weekslong Exercise Balikatan that has brought together naval, air and ground forces of the Philippines and ...Read more

MIAMI — Barricades surrounded Miami Beach City Hall and dozens of police officers descended on the area Tuesday morning in anticipation of a pro-Palestinian rally calling on U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Miami Gardens, to withdraw her support for Israel’s war in Gaza.

Protesters had advertised the event as taking place at Wilson’s Miami ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Philadelphia is a step closer to establishing city-funded intake centers for people in addiction after Mayor Cherelle L. Parker on Thursday proposed spending $100 million on new “triage and wellness facilities,” part of her pledge to end open-air drug markets.

While the mayor said the centers are a priority for her ...Read more

Over 20 kinds of “white coated confectionery items” sent to Target, Walmart, Dollar General and Hy-Vee distributors in 17 states have been recalled because they might have salmonella.

All the recalled products, which also went to some gas station convenience store chains, were made and recalled by Palmer Candy Company of Sioux Falls, Iowa. ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — A Minneapolis man has received a prison sentence of more than 16 years for the fatal fentanyl overdose of his 7-year-old son at his home after the boy ate pills that looked like children's vitamins.

Nelson Randolph III, 46, was sentenced Monday in Hennepin County District Court after jurors convicted him in March of second-...Read more

LOS ANGELES — In January, fans and conservationists celebrated when the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission recommended landmark status for Marilyn Monroe's home, a crucial step in saving the residence from being demolished.

The new owners of the Brentwood property were less ecstatic. They sued the city of L.A. on Monday for the right ...Read more

CHICAGO — After the University of Chicago Police cleared a pro-Palestine protest encampment in a brief early morning raid, the main quad was calm with almost no trace of the student activists who had occupied it hours before.

Students and faculty walked to class, passing through the South Side campus where discolored grass replaced the tents ...Read more

HARTFORD, Conn. — A president of a University of Connecticut fraternity is facing charges following an investigating into a hazing incident in February.

David Vallejo, 23, of Willington was recently arrested and charged with disorderly conduct, third-degree assault, third-degree strangulation/suffocation and second-degree unlawful restraint ...Read more

ATLANTA — Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed election-year changes into law Tuesday that empower voter eligibility challenges, require more audits and tighten ballot security ahead of this year’s contentious presidential campaign.

The three-bill package reflects Republicans’ latest efforts to revise election rules in the wake of the 2020 ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Speaker Mike Johnson and Republicans have sought to claim the moral high ground when it comes to recent pro-Palestinian campus protests sweeping the country, throwing barbs at President Joe Biden and highlighting sharp divisions within the Democratic Party over Israel and Gaza.

But at Tuesday’s Holocaust remembrance ceremony at...Read more

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The state of Florida has $54,000 with former President Donald Trump’s name on it.

The money, held by the state’s Division of Unclaimed Property, might not seem like a lot amid the $100 million that the former president has reportedly paid in legal bills since leaving office in 2021.

Then again, every bit of money ...Read more

BALTIMORE — Within the next week, crews plan to use precision explosive charges to remove the large section of the Francis Scott Key Bridge draped across the bow of the Dali freighter.

Charges will be placed on the truss, said Coast Guard Petty Officer Ronald Hodges of the Key Bridge Unified Command, and the crew still aboard the Dali will ...Read more

Across the California State University system, thousands of students across the 23-campus system have participated in protests in support of Palestinian people, and in opposition to the Israeli government and the war in Gaza.

Some demonstrations have remained peaceful; at Sacramento State and Sonoma State, campus operations have not been ...Read more

Johnson County, Kansas, Sheriff Calvin Hayden acknowledged on Monday that no judge signed off on seizing old ballots in his long-running elections investigation after he falsely said last month he had a “search warrant in hand.”

The admission came after Hayden, a Republican in a competitive race for reelection, in April accused Johnson ...Read more

NEW YORK — Jailing former President Donald Trump at Rikers Island is a prospect Mayor Eric Adams said Tuesday he’s begun to prepare for with the head of the city’s Correction Department if the ex-president’s gag order violations at his hush money trial land him behind bars.

Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan has been dangling ...Read more

NEW YORK — Stormy Daniels told a riveted jury Tuesday that sex with Donald Trump made her feel dizzy and had the room spinning as she wondered how she ended up half-naked in a Lake Tahoe hotel room with the then-reality TV star at the former president’s hush money trial.

Her testimony sparked a demand by Trump’s lawyers for a mistrial �...Read more

LOS ANGELES — California lawmakers could soon clear a governmental logjam that has held up dozens of studies related to addiction treatment, psychedelics or other federally restricted drugs.

The holdup revolves around the Research Advisory Panel of California, established decades ago to vet studies involving cannabis, hallucinogens and ...Read more

California’s groundwater reservoirs got a major boost during last year’s record wet season, offering a glimmer of hope for the depleted underground aquifer’s that remain in a long-term deficit.

The 2023 water year, which was marked by above average rainfall and a concerted effort to recharge reservoirs, led to the addition of at least 4.1...Read more

A pair of NASA astronauts were ready to go, but a single valve caused a scrub of their ride on Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner on Monday night. The next shot to fly won’t be until Friday but could be delayed further.

“I know everybody was eager to see a launch,” said NASA’s Ken Bowersox, associate administrator of the Space Operations ...Read more