CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Purple flags, representing the nearly 300 Mecklenburg County residents who died of opioid overdose in 2023, fluttered in the humid breeze last August in recognition of International Overdose Awareness Day on the city’s predominantly Black west side.

As recently as five years ago, the event might have attracted an ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- In Pomona, Michael Lerma is a “mythical” figure, his attorney says.

Lerma, 68, hasn’t walked the streets of his hometown on the eastern edge of Los Angeles County since the 1980s, when he was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. But according to federal prosecutors, he controls an “empire” of gang ...Read more

LAS VEGAS — It’s the sound a hiker never wants to hear.

The sizzling warning call of a rattlesnake should be any outdoorsman’s sign to flee. Rattlesnake season, when Nevadans may see one of the state’s six species during the day or at night, begins each March as the Las Vegas Valley gets warmer. The snakes are most active through ...Read more

WATER VALLEY, Texas — On a recent day when the wind gusted close to 40 miles per hour, 82-year-old George Neill was making repairs on his ranch, oblivious to the nearby cluster of wind turbines churning the sky behind him.

“After about a year, you never know the things are here,” said Neill, who leases part of his West Texas property to ...Read more

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — More women have come forward alleging they were sexually assaulted during massages at a spa in south Kansas City.

In late February, The Star published a story online about two women who reported to police that a man sexually assaulted them as he gave them massages at Fusion Spa, 12931 Stateline Road. Four other women also ...Read more

For years, Cubans who arrived in the United States were treated differently from other immigrants.

Many were quickly allowed to stay. They obtained work permits and became residents without a long wait. They even found a path to citizenship more easily than others. Credit the special treatment to a holdover from the Cold War, when U.S. foreign ...Read more

As the stock market swung wildly in response to President Donald Trump's trade war, Republican U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick in Braddock, Pennsylvania, on Monday tried to offer reassurance that the uncertainty people were feeling would be "eliminated" in the "coming days and weeks."

"I don't want to be in the business of predicting stock markets," ...Read more

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu proposed a $4.8 billion city budget that she says may need to be adjusted down the line depending on the outcome of potential federal funding cuts, some of which the city is already challenging in court.

The mayor’s proposed fiscal year 2026 budget, filed Monday with the City Council, represents a roughly 4.4% ...Read more

With a little more than five hours before adjourning, the Maryland General Assembly passed legislation Monday evening to alter the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future. The change maintains funding for community schools but bumps collaborative time implementation.

“This session has seen dramatic progress restoring the vast majority of the ...Read more

Japan looks set to get priority in U.S. tariff talks, moving to the front of a long line of countries seeking to roll back President Donald Trump’s so-called reciprocal duties, which are scheduled to kick in on Wednesday.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who along with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will lead the American side of ...Read more

Nevada lawmakers on Monday heard a bill that would boost requirements to oversee a probate case, and were told a Las Vegas Review-Journal investigation uncovered a “troubling pattern” in the system.

The state Senate Judiciary Committee discussed Senate Bill 404, which would add steps needed to take over a dead person’s estate after the ...Read more

ATLANTA — BioLab has been cited by the U.S. Department of Labor following an investigation that found that improperly stored hazardous chemicals were the cause of a fire at its Conyers, Georgia, facility seven months ago.

According to the department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the company was cited as having four ...Read more

Tick sightings are on the rise in Western Washington, according to research conducted by a University of Washington master’s degree student.

Thanks to that same student, there’s now a system to help track where people are encountering ticks on trails across the state.

According to an April 7 news release from the Washington Trails ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled Monday the Trump administration may use a wartime law to deport alleged members of a foreign crime gang, but only if they are given the right to challenge the government’s claim.

By a 5-4 vote, the court set aside the orders of judges in Washington who said the Trump administration had overstepped its ...Read more

WASHINGTON ― Michigan U.S. Rep. Tom Barrett saw his first piece of legislation pass through the House on Monday, which aims to make the claims correspondence that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs sends to veterans around the country more "user friendly."

The bill passed the House on Monday night by a vote of 412 to 0.

"Our veterans ...Read more

The United States Department of Agriculture has sent a warning to the Eastern Virginia Medical School at Old Dominion University alleging research done in years prior using animals violated the Animal Welfare Act.

Specifically, the warning notes issues in past research using chinchillas and monkeys. The USDA’s warning alleges that researchers...Read more

In the eleventh hour of an annual 90-day session defined by major uncertainty on several fronts, the Maryland General Assembly was set to tie up consequential education, energy and civil rights policy legislation on Monday night.

Lawmakers in Annapolis were working feverishly to meet their midnight deadline before gaveling out “Sine Die,” ...Read more