MINNEAPOLIS – A new study by University of Minnesota researchers found no evidence to support fears that childhood consumption of fluoride and fluoridated water reduces intelligence.

Utah and Florida in 2025 banned the use of fluoride in public water supplies, despite its well-documented benefits for oral health, after a report showed an ...Read more

A Los Angeles woman came forward Tuesday with new sexual assault accusations against Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-California, deepening the onetime rising political star’s legal woes.

As Swalwell prepared to resign from Congress in disgrace, accuser Lonna Drewes said Swalwell attacked her following a Hollywood meeting in 2018. She also believes he ...Read more

CHICAGO — Three years after the historic “ComEd Four” bribery trial, the convictions of former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore and lobbyist Michael McClain appeared to be on thin ice Tuesday as a federal appeals court indicated recent Supreme Court rulings could force a retrial.

During consolidated arguments for McClain and Pramaggiore before ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota lawmakers renamed a solar energy program prized by the late House Democratic-Farmer-Labor leader Melissa Hortman in her honor following her killing.

Gov. Tim Walz announced Tuesday that he had privately signed the legislation but said more public efforts to recognize Hortman were yet to come.

The legislation renames ...Read more

OTTAWA, Kan. — Randy and Gwen McCurdy stood on their porch off Main Street on Monday night in Ottawa, Kansas, scanning the sky for signs of the storm.

Then the sirens sounded.

“There was no rain,” said Randy McCurdy, 70. But then it descended. In sheets. “You couldn’t see the other side of the street.”

Moments later, they ...Read more

MEXICO CITY — The junior Mexican diplomat, part of an official delegation to Washington, was caught in an undiplomatic moment: munching on peanuts piled on a napkin as he sat with political heavyweights including Mexican Cabinet secretaries and then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The 2019 image of the peanut-chomping envoy quickly went viral, ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — A former UCLA gynecologist pleaded guilty Tuesday to sexually abusing five of his patients during examinations, and the once-renowned cancer expert was sentenced to 11 years in state prison.

James Heaps, 70, pleaded guilty to 13 felonies, including multiple counts of sexual penetration of an unconscious person, and must register...Read more

WASHINGTON — Eight years ago, President Donald Trump’s mediocre job approval rating created a difficult national political environment for Republicans, who lost more than 40 seats in the House. But GOP senators bucked the midterm backlash and gained two seats. Could they do it again?

The April 20, 2018, edition of Inside Elections led with ...Read more

The U.S. and Iran are looking to arrange a second round of peace talks in the coming days, with Tehran mulling a pause in shipments through the Strait of Hormuz to help ease the path toward an agreement on time and place.

The objective is to hold more discussions before an April 7 ceasefire expires next week, according to people familiar with ...Read more

A Los Angeles woman came forward Tuesday with new sexual assault accusations against Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., deepening the onetime rising political star’s legal woes.

As Swalwell prepared to resign from Congress in disgrace, accuser Lonna Drewes said Swalwell attacked her following a Hollywood meeting in 2018. She also believes he ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Another woman came forward Tuesday to describe rape allegations against Rep. Eric Swalwell, who said Monday that he would resign from Congress amid a torrent of sexual assault accusations.

Lonna Drewes said at a news conference called by her attorneys that she had contact with Swalwell on three different occasions in 2018 while ...Read more

BOSTON — Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s warm-weather plan for tackling the open-air drug market and related crime at Mass and Cass puts a heavy focus on diverting drug users breaking the law into addiction treatment programs.

The plan was laid out by the mayor’s coordinated response team Monday in a memo filed with the City Council. It calls ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Unified School District strike has been called off after LAUSD reached a tentative agreement early Tuesday morning with Local 99 of Service Employees International Union. Schools will be open as usual on Tuesday.

The tentative agreement was the third and final milestone needed to avert a walkout and school ...Read more

The U.S. and Iran are weighing a second round of peace negotiations, with Tehran considering a pause in shipments through the Strait of Hormuz to help ease the path toward further talks.

The objective is to hold more discussions before a truce announced April 7 expires next week, according to people familiar with the matter. One idea is to ...Read more

Americans’ concerns about being able to afford electricity and home heating fuel are elevated since the beginning of the Iran war. But newly released nationwide data shows that even before the war began, these concerns were widespread, long-standing and getting worse faster than the data can reflect.

The new information is from ...Read more

Prior to 1978, U.S. presidents could do what they pleased with the records from their time in office. They owned them.

But in 1978, the Presidential Records Act established new rules for the official records of a president. Passed in the wake of Watergate, when President Richard Nixon tried to keep incriminating materials from being ...Read more

When the movie “Her” debuted in 2013, its plot felt like science fiction. The protagonist, Theodore, is a jaded man with no vigor for life. He comes alive after talking daily with his artificial intelligence chatbot, Samantha, with whom he eventually falls in love.

But today people actually report being in relationships with AI ...Read more