Current News

/

ArcaMax

The chickadee in the snowbank: A ‘canary in the coal mine’ for climate change in the Sierra Nevada mountains

Current News / News & Features /

Wet snow pelts my face and pulls against my skis as I climb above 8,000 feet in the Sierra Nevada of eastern California, tugging a sled loaded with batteries, bolts, wire and 40 pounds of sunflower seeds critical to our mountain chickadee research.

As we reach the remote research site, I duck under a tarp and open a laptop. A chorus ...Read more

The Baltimore bridge collapse reminds us immigrants often do unheralded and dangerous work

Current News / News & Features /

Immigrants built America. That's an indisputable fact. But today there are many politicians and pundits who would like us to believe that the great contributions of immigrants stopped somewhere in the late 1800s with the completion of the Brooklyn Bridge.

This week provided a stark reminder of just how integral immigrants are to the nation's ...Read more

Israeli airstrikes on Syria kill dozens, hit weapons depot

Current News / News & Features /

Israeli airstrikes in Syria killed dozens of people including members of the Hezbollah militant group, one of the deadliest attacks on the war-torn country since Oct. 7.

Syria’s state-run news agency said Israel launched rockets overnight southeast of Aleppo, killing and wounding a number of people. At least 42 died, including six Hezbollah...Read more

California is making fentanyl test strips free to organizations. How to get a kit

Current News / News & Features /

In an effort to slow the proliferation of synthetic opioid-related deaths, California will begin offering free fentanyl-testing strips to eligible organizations across the state that ask for them, the state Department of Health Care Services announced Thursday.

The tests will be made available through the state's Naloxone Distribution Project, ...Read more

Metro's top security officer ousted days after filing complaint with inspector general

Current News / News & Features /

LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Metro's top security official was fired two days after she filed a report with the agency's inspector general's office, her attorney said.

Gina Osborn, a former FBI agent who was the agency's first chief safety officer, "was summarily terminated by [Chief Executive] Stephanie Wiggins," said her attorney, Marc R. ...Read more

Netanyahu coalition in crisis over religious draft as war rages

Current News / News & Features /

A dramatic Israeli Supreme Court ruling that freezes funding to ultra-Orthodox seminaries unless their students serve in the military is forcing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to contend with its survival as the war in Gaza deepens the country’s political divisions.

Ultra-Orthodox parties in the ruling coalition, who’d ...Read more

Could a gag order be on deck in Fulton Trump case?

Current News / News & Features /

A New York judge this week imposed a gag order on Donald Trump, limiting what the Republican can say about witnesses, jurors and most prosecutors ahead of his April trial over alleged hush-money payments.

Some 850 miles away, the judge in another one of Trump’s criminal cases suggested he’s open to considering a similar measure — not ...Read more

A new US-run pier off Gaza could help deliver 2 million meals a day – but it comes with security risks

Current News / News & Features /

The U.S. has dispatched eight Army and Navy vessels from Virginia to build a temporary pier off the coast of the Gaza Strip. The aim of this work: to supply food and other necessary items for Palestinians as the war between Israel and Hamas continues and the resulting humanitarian crisis worsens.

Even before Oct. 7, 2023, and the ...Read more

What is Volt Typhoon? A cybersecurity expert explains the Chinese hackers targeting US critical infrastructure

Current News / News & Features /

Volt Typhoon is a Chinese state-sponsored hacker group. The United States government and its primary global intelligence partners, known as the Five Eyes, issued a warning on March 19, 2024, about the group’s activity targeting critical infrastructure.

The warning echoes analyses by the cybersecurity community about Chinese state-...Read more

'The Key Bridge is us': For those who grew up in its shadow, bridge was a lifetime connection

Current News / News & Features /

BALTIMORE — For almost as long as the Francis Scott Key Bridge existed, Roy Plummer could see it from his kitchen window. If it had rained the night before, the bridge would shine in the morning when the sun rose to touch it.

When he was a senior in high school, his friend’s father got him a job helping with the bridge’s construction. On ...Read more

Latino community and beyond rallies to support victims, families of Key Bridge collapse

Current News / News & Features /

BALTIMORE — Like many others in Baltimore, Susana Barrios awoke early Tuesday morning to a flood of messages asking if she was okay. She soon learned that the Francis Scott Key Bridge had collapsed into the Patapsco River. As with all tragedies, Barrios, vice president of the Latino Racial Justice Circle, started to wonder if members of her ...Read more

Pratchaya Leelapatchayanont/Dreamstime/TNS

Is a centuries-old disease endemic in Florida? What to know about the spread of leprosy

Current News / News & Features /

MIAMI — Leprosy, a disease of the skin and nerves, hearkens back centuries, all the way to its reference in the Bible in the Book of Leviticus.

People in Florida are talking about leprosy again — and not just in church or Sunday school.

While leprosy remains rare in the U.S., more cases are popping up across the country, including in ...Read more

Rachel Aston/Las Vegas Review-Journal/TNS

Nevada prosecutors move to dismiss federal case against alleged MS-13 leader

Current News / News & Features /

LAS VEGAS — Prosecutors on Thursday moved to dismiss an indictment against a man accused of being a high-ranking leader in the international MS-13 gang.

The dismissal would allow for his release nearly four years after he was charged in a sweeping indictment against members of the group accused of selling drugs and guns in Las Vegas.

Adali ...Read more

Arvin Temkar/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution/TNS

Georgia Senate approves bill to ban puberty blockers for trans minors

Current News / News & Features /

The Georgia Senate on Thursday voted to ban medical professionals from prescribing puberty blockers to transgender minors.

The Senate voted 32-19 to approve House Bill 1170, with Democrats opposing it.

Just last year, the General Assembly approved legislation that banned minors from receiving any potential permanent changes from hormone ...Read more

Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group/TNS

Dungeness crab season in San Francisco Bay Area, Central Coast will come to an early end

Current News / News & Features /

SAN JOSE, Calif. — The already-shortened 2023-2024 Dungeness crab season in the San Francisco Bay Area and central California will come to an end early, in slightly more than a week.

California Department of Fish and Wildlife officials on Thursday ordered an April 8 close to the commercial season to minimize the risk of humpback whales ...Read more

Jung Yeon-je/Getty Images North America/TNS

Russia blocks UN expert panel on North Korea nuclear program

Current News / News & Features /

Russia vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution to extend a panel of experts that has reported on North Korea’s development of its nuclear arsenal for 15 years, underscoring the increasingly close ties between Moscow and Pyongyang.

Reports by the panel of experts inform decisions on international sanctions established by the ...Read more

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images North America/TNS

Virginia Gov. Youngkin vetoes bills that would legalize retail marijuana sales, increase minimum wage

Current News / News & Features /

NORFOLK, Va. — Gov. Glenn Youngkin on Thursday vetoed seven bills, including those with the potential to reshape life in Virginia.

HB 698 and SB 448 aimed to establish a retail market for marijuana starting in May 2025. HB 1 and SB 1 would have increased the state’s minimum wage from $12 per hour to $13.50 at the start of the new year and $...Read more

Barry Williams/New York Daily News/TNS

Fatal NYPD shooting of Queens teen holding scissors spurs outrage over cops' actions

Current News / News & Features /

NEW YORK — As new details emerge on a teen’s fatal shooting by an NYPD officer on Wednesday, outrage has bubbled up over the tactics used by the officers who responded to a 911 call made by the teen himself.

Win Rozario’s death has also raised broader questions about how the city responds to mental health emergencies, fueling criticism ...Read more

Emily Curiel/Kansas City Star/TNS

Kansas Republicans send strict ban on gender-affirming care for trans minors to Gov. Laura Kelly

Current News / News & Features /

TOPEKA, Kan. — Kansas Republicans sent a strict ban on specific health care for transgender minors to Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly, setting up for another veto-override fight over the lives and rights of LGBTQ Kansans.

The Kansas House and Senate voted Wednesday to approve a bill banning hormone therapy and gender transition surgery, often ...Read more

Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Jurors award $11.5 million to former LAPD K-9 handler who claimed discrimination over Samoan heritage

Current News / News & Features /

LOS ANGELES — A jury this week awarded $11.5 million to a former Los Angeles police K-9 handler who sued the city alleging that his supervisors retaliated and discriminated against him in part because of his Samoan ancestry.

The officer, Mark Sauvao — pronounced "su-VOW" — alleged he was unfairly punished after he reported some of his ...Read more