LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is once again dealing with blowback for being out of town when a massive fire ignited.

The fire at a cold storage facility in Boyle Heights began burning Wednesday, hours after Bass departed for the dedication of the Barack Obama Presidential Center in Chicago.

Since arriving back in Los Angeles ...Read more

Drones could be a viable way to make transportation of potentially life-saving donated kidneys more efficient, according to a recent study conducted at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.

On June 5, researchers had drones take human kidneys on two 15-minute flights in loops around NASA’s testing range beyond line-of-sight ...Read more

When Sheila Perry learned that she was a record-setter at 87 years old, she was surrounded by family, and all the group could do was laugh. Indeed, they had much to smile about.

The Wheaton local is the oldest known female in Illinois — and among the oldest in the United States — to have a successful kidney transplant.

“I knew it was ...Read more

States and cities are loosening building code requirements in an effort to lower construction costs and boost affordable housing.

Some of these changes include allowing low-rise apartment buildings to have just one stairway, reducing how often building codes are updated and rolling back specific electrical or fire safety standards.

But critics...Read more

Two powerful earthquakes struck Venezuela’s central and coastal regions on Wednesday just 39 seconds apart, triggering scenes of panic in Caracas and other cities as preliminary reports of structural damage and injuries began to emerge.

The United States’ official tsunami warning system reported that a 7.2-magnitude earthquake was actually ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said tolls on ships sailing in the Strait of Hormuz would be a red line issue for the U.S. in negotiations with Iran.

Asked if he would reject a final Iran deal if it included any service or shipping fees in the strait, Trump said that he would.

“It would be unacceptable to me, because we have numerous ...Read more

Sacramento residents received an emergency earthquake alert Wednesday morning but felt little or no shaking after a magnitude 5.6 earthquake struck Mendocino County — an outcome seismologists said shows California’s early warning system worked as intended.

The quake struck at 8:10 a.m. near a small Mendocino County community on the Maacama ...Read more

CHICO, Calif. — Jacob “Cody” Hull gave his life to protect the 8-year-old girl he cared for during the shooting at Chico’s Butte County Library on Monday.

That’s the understanding the girl’s uncle, Philip Brun, shared Wednesday afternoon in an interview with The Sacramento Bee at his restaurant, Nobby’s.

The pair had been ...Read more

BOSTON — After weeks of drama, the Boston City Council accepted Mayor Michelle Wu’s returned $4.9 billion budget, by passing on its authority to override Wu’s decision to reverse a $1.4 million transportation department cut to avoid layoffs.

Wu last week informed the Council of her decision to accept, rather than veto, most of its $11.5 ...Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif. — San Jose State University must reinstate Sang Hea Kil, a professor who was fired for her pro-Palestinian activism in 2025, after an arbitrator decided the school went too far in her firing.

The California Faculty Association announced the ruling Monday in a statement calling for further protections for academic speech.

The...Read more

RALEIGH, N.C. — The U.S. Justice Department has reached a $450 million settlement with Chemours over the company’s release of “forever chemicals” in three states that exposed residents to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, better known as PFAS.

The federal order announced Wednesday covers four Chemours facilities across West Virginia,...Read more

WASHINGTON — Republicans on Capitol Hill had been hoping to spend the summer touting a rare bipartisan legislative feat, but Donald Trump and his growing anger toward Senate Republicans torched that effort Wednesday. And more trouble could lie ahead, if a tense in-person meeting was any indication.

Trump descended on the Capitol for a Senate ...Read more

WASHINGTON — As political battles raged elsewhere around the Capitol, lawmakers temporarily buried their differences Wednesday in order to get ready to bury a time capsule marking America’s semiquincentennial anniversary.

The project is the result of bipartisan legislation signed into law in February 2026 directing the Architect of the ...Read more

A powerful 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck north-central Venezuela on Wednesday, triggering panic in Caracas and other cities as preliminary reports of structural damage and injuries began to emerge.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake happened at 6:04 p.m. local time, with the epicenter off Venezuela’s central coast.

According to...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s executive order requiring major changes to the way Americans vote suffered another courtroom defeat, this time in a suit brought by Democratic state attorneys general who disputed the government’s claims of widespread voter fraud.

Chief U.S. District Judge Denise Casper in Boston on Wednesday issued a...Read more

Gov. JB Pritzker signed a measure into law Wednesday shielding patients from having electronic medical records related to abortion and other reproductive health services received in Illinois disclosed without their consent to out-of-state providers.

Marking the fourth anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s “devastating” Dobbs decision ...Read more

WASHINGTON — NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte played to President Donald Trump’s love of praise and splashy visuals during a visit to Washington that was aimed at easing the U.S. leader’s anger over alliance nations’ reluctance to help with the campaign against Iran.

Meeting Trump in the Oval Office, Rutte displayed posters that ...Read more

What happens to animals involved in active animal cruelty cases? California legislators are considering whether they are finding loving homes quickly enough.

Assembly Bill 2344 — the Rehome Abused Animals Act — aims to fast-track the adoption process for animals removed from abusive situations. This bill would authorize shelters to put ...Read more