Current News

/

ArcaMax

Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times/TNS

After 'MAGA influencer' trolls gay couple with baby, support grows for dad who threw punches

Current News / News & Features /

LOS ANGELES — For the nine years they've been together, Anthony and David Vulin saw West Hollywood as their safe space.

They had their first date at a Mexican restaurant on Santa Monica Boulevard and eventually moved in together at a nearby apartment in the famously inclusive city. Married in 2022, the couple recently welcomed their first ...Read more

Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times/TNS

At LA County General, salvaging the bicycles that patients left behind

Current News / News & Features /

LOS ANGELES — Every one of the bicycles had a story — a brief one with a beginning and middle but no end.

A small white sticker on its frame gave its owner's name, date of birth and date of admission to Los Angeles General Medical Center. It didn't say what happened after that. All that is certain is that the owner arrived at the hospital ...Read more

Benjamin Fanjoy/Getty Images North America/TNS

Gavin Newsom, early champion of single-payer, moderates in the face of fiscal limits

Current News / News & Features /

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — In his earliest days in the governor’s office, Democrat Gavin Newsom huddled with his advisers to consider how to realize a key campaign promise: transforming a healthcare system replete with insurance company intermediaries into the nation’s first state-run single-payer model providing comprehensive coverage to all ...Read more

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images North America/TNS

How Title IX became a tool of America's conservative movement

Current News / News & Features /

For more than 50 years, the U.S. civil rights law known as Title IX has been a bulwark against sex discrimination in education. Covering students from kindergarten through university, it’s been the basis for landmark cases involving campus rape, gender bias in standardized testing and unequal funding for women’s athletics.

Conservative ...Read more

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images North America/TNS

Editorial: A dose of tough medicine that the nation needs

Current News / News & Features /

In one respect, the soaring national debt is a lot like the weather. Everybody complains about it, but nobody does anything about it.

Nobody, that is, but Sen. Rand Paul, the Kentucky Republican.

Eight years ago, Sen. Paul introduced his “Penny Plan Balanced Budget,” an effort to balance the federal books within five years. Under his ...Read more

Joe Buglewicz/Getty Images North America/TNS

Alex Jones announces shutdown of Infowars conspiracy platform

Current News / News & Features /

Right-wing conspiracist Alex Jones said his infamous Infowars platform has stopped broadcasting and shuttered its Austin, Texas, headquarters.

Jones, in a video posted on X on Friday, blamed a court-appointed receiver who allegedly told him and his crew that they must leave the premises by midnight Thursday. Jones, on a Thursday Infowars ...Read more

Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Thousands rally in LA for May Day to protest immigration sweeps, high cost of living

Current News / News & Features /

LOS ANGELES — Thousands of people took to the streets in Los Angeles on Friday to mark International Workers’ Day amid heightened concerns about affordability, immigration sweeps and the Iran war.

The demonstration, dubbed “May Day Strong,” kicked off in MacArthur Park, where a coalition of community, labor and immigrant rights groups ...Read more

Josh Boland/Chicago Tribune/TNS

Two officers face internal affairs probe over search of suspect before shooting of cops at Chicago hospital

Current News / News & Features /

CHICAGO — The Chicago Police Department’s bureau of internal affairs has opened an investigation into two officers who searched Alphanso Talley last weekend before he was taken to Swedish Hospital, where he allegedly shot and killed Officer John Bartholomew and critically wounded his partner.

Sources with knowledge of the investigation ...Read more

Roberto Schmidt/AFP/GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/TNS

Qatari jet on track for delivery as interim Air Force One

Current News / News & Features /

WASHINGTON — The aircraft Qatar gave to the United States as an interim Air Force One for President Donald Trump is on track to be delivered this summer, with L3Harris Technologies Inc. completing modifications, the U.S. Air Force said Friday.

The luxury Boeing Co. 747-8 jumbo jet “has officially completed modification and flight testing ...Read more

Alex Brandon/Pool/AFP/GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/TNS

US approves nearly $9 billion in weapons sales to Mideast states

Current News / News & Features /

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Marco Rubio has approved expedited arms transfers to Israel, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, bypassing a standard congressional review to rush air defense missiles and laser guidance systems to the Middle East as the Iran war ceasefire seems ever more fragile.

The agreements amount to nearly $9 ...Read more

Department of Justice/ZUMA Press Wire/TNS

Palisades fire suspect was angry about romantic relationship, researched Luigi Mangione, prosecutors say

Current News / News & Features /

LOS ANGELES — Federal prosecutors say the man suspected of starting the blaze that would eventually become the deadly Palisades fire was distraught over his relationship with a former co-worker, angry about not having plans on New Year’s Eve and “pissed off about the world,” according to new court filings.

Jonathan Rinderknecht, 30, was...Read more

VALERIE BAERISWYL/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Ecuadorian lawyer admits to drafting Haiti warrant to arrest Moïse ahead of killing

Current News / News & Features /

MIAMI — An Ecuadorian lawyer told a federal jury in Miami that he drafted a Haitian warrant for the arrest of President Jovenel Moïse before his assassination nearly five years ago, while he also prepared immunity documents for the owners of a Miami-area security firm standing trial on conspiracy charges of hiring former Colombian soldiers to...Read more

Mario Tama/Getty Images North America/TNS

Lawmakers OK law allowing Connecticut citizens to sue ICE agents; they expect a federal challenge

Current News / News & Features /

HARTFORD, Conn. — After a stop-and-start debate over two days, lawmakers granted final legislative approval Friday for a new state civil rights law that would allow Connecticut citizens to sue federal immigration agents.

The measure showed sharp divisions with most Democrats in favor and all Republicans against the bill that will place ...Read more

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images North America/TNS

Bahamas taps MAGA influencer and Roger Stone to represent government ahead of elections

Current News / News & Features /

Weeks before Bahamians are set to decide who will govern the country for the next five years, the government has hired two allies of President Donald Trump to help strengthen relations with the United States.

Coreco “CJ” Pearson, a MAGA youth influencer and commentator, has registered as a foreign agent and will be paid $20,000 a month.

In...Read more

Punit Paranjpe/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Trump rues state of Iran talks, says prefers not to strike

Current News / News & Features /

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump expressed displeasure with the current state of negotiations with Iran but stopped short of threatening fresh military action in the nine-week conflict that’s triggered a global energy crisis.

“They want to make a deal but I’m not satisfied with it,” Trump told reporters at the White House Friday. �...Read more

Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel/TNS

Trump touts 'golden age' for seniors in the friendly territory of The Villages

Current News / News & Features /

THE VILLAGES, Fla. — President Donald Trump came to the friendly territory of Florida’s retirement haven Friday for his first public event since an alleged assassination attempt against him, touting tax cuts for seniors and parading Dr. Phil on stage.

Trump quipped he wasn’t afraid for his safety at The Villages, a GOP stronghold where he...Read more

Claire Heddles/Miami Herald/TNS

Trump signs order to tighten Cuba sanctions, targeting foreign banks, companies

Current News / News & Features /

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday that significantly hardens sanctions on the Cuban government, authorizing sanctions on foreign companies and banks that do business with Cuba.

Cuba is under a comprehensive U.S. trade and financial embargo, but so far the prohibitions have mostly affected U.S. companies and people under...Read more

Bryan R. Smith/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Bard College president to retire after furor over Epstein ties

Current News / News & Features /

Bard College President Leon Botstein is retiring from the institution he led for half a century after revelations about his well-documented relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein came to light.

“After completing 51 years as the president of Bard, I am announcing that I will be retiring from the presidency at the end of this...Read more

News briefs

Current News / News & Features /

DeSantis signs law placing new restrictions on teacher unions

Standing behind a placard declaring Florida “the education state,” Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday signed into law two measures that make it harder for teachers to collectively bargain pay and working conditions.

The first item (SB 1296) changes the rules for how unions can win and ...Read more

Lisa Lake/Getty Images North America/TNS

Steven Tyler is headed to trial, following child sexual assault claims

Current News / News & Features /

LOS ANGELES — A Los Angeles court has determined a child sexual assault case filed against Aerosmith frontman, Steven Tyler, will proceed to trial.

The singer is accused of grooming, sexually assaulting and impregnating a 16-year-old Julia Misley in the 1970s. The suit, first filed in 2022 in Torrance, claims he "used his role, status, and ...Read more