SAN JOSE, Calif. — When a lightning storm struck the parched Diablo mountain range in August 2020, igniting fires that turned the skies an apocalyptic shade of orange, the Governor’s Office activated current Oakland Fire Department Assistant Chief Christopher Foley to face the fire’s multiple fronts.

As the SCU fires spread through ...Read more

NEW YORK — The Justice Department cannot seek the death penalty against Luigi Mangione, the alleged killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, a federal judge in Manhattan ruled Friday.

​Judge Margaret Garnett granted Mangione’s motion to dismiss two counts of the federal indictment he faces, including the capital offense of murder ...Read more

SpaceX’s path to launching its massive Starship rocket from Florida's Space Coast passed another hurdle Friday after the Federal Aviation Administration released results of its nearly two-year long environmental review for launch plans from Kennedy Space Center.

The FAA’s “Record of Decision” on a final Environmental Impact Statement ...Read more

A New Jersey appellate court on Friday declined to reinstate racketeering charges against Democratic power broker George E. Norcross III, dealing a fresh blow to prosecutors who had accused him of running a criminal enterprise.

The three-judge panel affirmed a lower court order dismissing a 13-count indictment against Norcross, 69, and five ...Read more

NEW YORK — The weekend may be just around the corner, but there’s no warm weather in sight.

Temperatures plunged to single digits overnight, forcing New Yorkers to grapple with a brutal frigidity for the commute Friday morning, with wind chills making it feel as cold as 5 below 0 Fahrenheit at times, according to the National Weather ...Read more

Bill Nye let a packed crowd at the Orange Convention Center know that it’s not a good idea to send a human on a one-way trip to Mars.

“Although there’s a few I wouldn’t mind,” he said earning another chuckle during his hour-long, humor-filled speech at SpaceCom, the big event during Commercial Space Week which draws players from ...Read more

NEW YORK — Brooke Nevils, a former NBC News producer who accused Matt Lauer of raping her in 2014, is revisiting the brutal experience in her upcoming memoir, “Unspeakable Things: Silence, Shame, and the Stories We Choose to Believe.”

Years after reporting the “Today” co-host, which led to Lauer being fired in 2017, Nevils reflects on...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Former CNN anchor Don Lemon has been arrested by federal agents in Los Angeles, according to an attorney statement posted on Lemon’s social media account Friday morning.

Three others, including another journalist, were also arrested on charges that they violated federal law during a protest earlier this month at a church in St...Read more

The Department of Justice announced that it is releasing 3 million pages of files related to sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein Friday – over a month after the deadline for the department to release all documents passed.

In a press conference Friday morning, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said that the files include 180,000 images and 2,000...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Former CNN anchor Don Lemon has been arrested by federal agents in Los Angeles, according to an attorney statement posted on Lemon's social media account Friday morning.

Lemon was taken into custody Thursday night while covering the upcoming Grammy awards on Sunday, the statement said. He was taken into custody for activities ...Read more

DETROIT — Federal prosecutors unsealed a criminal case Friday against a Detroit judge, her father and two other targets of an FBI investigation focused on wrongdoing within Metro Detroit’s probate court system, a probe first uncovered by The Detroit News last year.

The fraud, conspiracy and money laundering indictment represents a rare ...Read more

President Donald Trump said he intends to nominate Kevin Warsh to be the next chair of the Federal Reserve, according to a post on his Truth Social platform.

“I have known Kevin for a long period of time, and have no doubt that he will go down as one of the GREAT Fed Chairmen, maybe the best,” Trump wrote. “On top of everything else, he ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles City Council has again increased what it will pay Gibson Dunn to represent it in a contentious homelessness case, bringing the law firm's contract to nearly $7.5 million.

In mid-May, the council approved a three-year contract capped at $900,000. The law firm then billed the city $1.8 million for two weeks of ...Read more

MIAMI — Religious leaders and interfaith advocates from across the state are sounding the alarm on a bill aimed at protecting religious freedom and expression in Florida public schools, arguing that it could lead to special protections for the dominant religious groups — such as Christianity — and weaken the lines between church and state....Read more

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — DeSantis administration officials knew about aviation safety issues and budget overruns by the Florida State Guard almost a year before those accusations became public this month, but fired the informant who warned them, records obtained by the Orlando Sentinel show.

James Ethridge, a retired Navy commander, was hired in ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Senate Banking Committee leaders are split on President Donald Trump’s choice of Kevin Warsh to be the next chairman of the Federal Reserve, while a key Republican on the panel is standing firm on his plans to oppose any nomination until a legal action against the Fed is resolved.

Trump announced his decision to tap Warsh, a ...Read more

Bill Nye let a packed crowd at the Orange Convention Center know that it’s not a good idea to send a human on a one-way trip to Mars.

“Although there’s a few I wouldn’t mind,” he said earning another chuckle during his hour-long, humor-filled speech at SpaceCom, the big event during Commercial Space Week which draws players from ...Read more

Iran said it was prepared for talks with the U.S. if President Donald Trump ends his threats against the Islamic Republic and warned military strikes could trigger a wide conflagration in the Middle East.

Addressing reporters after meeting his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan, in Istanbul on Friday, Araghchi accused Israel of encouraging Trump...Read more

The Kremlin confirmed that Donald Trump asked Vladimir Putin to halt Russian strikes on Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, though it said the agreement is set to expire on Sunday.

“Indeed, President Trump made a personal request to President Putin to refrain from striking Kyiv for a week, until Feb. 1, in order to create favorable conditions for ...Read more