No matter who works the grill this July 4 weekend, you or your Uncle Gus, check your grill brushes so no one winds up with metal in their meat.

On Thursday, Conair recalled 1,719,995 brushes sold under the Cuisinart brand because, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission recall notice explained: “Small metal wire bristles can detach from ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — A Hawthorne man on Thursday pleaded guilty to federal charges of sending a fake ransom note to the family of “Today” show co-host Savannah Guthrie, whose mother, Nancy, was abducted in a mystery that captured national attention.

Derrick Callella entered the plea in Arizona to charges of transmitting a demand for ransom in ...Read more

A huge swath of public land in California, including portions of the San Joaquin Valley, may one day be dotted with oil and gas equipment under a plan by the federal government to expand production.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management announced in June its decision to make available more than 1 million acres of public and private land, with ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — While police and fire agencies across Southern California continue to gear up for what likely will be a busy Fourth of July holiday with heightened calls for service, law enforcement has been working for months to find illegal fireworks and take them off the streets before they cause serious injuries or potentially start ...Read more

WASHINGTON — A top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee is requesting that administration officials disclose records of any federal agency coordination on a settlement agreement with the IRS that shields President Donald Trump and family members from federal tax audits.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) seeks copies of “all memoranda ...Read more

FRESNO, Calif. — Even before Yosemite entered into its peak summer season, the national park was seeing a massive increase in visitors; as much as 45% in March, according to data from the National Park Service.

By the time May rolled around the park was in a state of gridlock, with hours-long lines of cars at its entrance and parking lots ...Read more

Gov. JB Pritzker on Thursday said he’s working to ensure Illinois has help from top experts to defend its assault weapons ban, after the U.S. Supreme Court indicated this week it would hear arguments over similar bans in Cook County and in Connecticut.

“I think they will be attacking all of the assault weapons bans with this case that they�...Read more

DENVER — A federal appeals court in Denver has directed the Trump administration to provide bail hearings for many immigrant detainees in a ruling that will have major implications for hundreds of people held indefinitely in Colorado and across the West.

The unanimous opinion from the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals restores a...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sacramento County reported its first human infection of West Nile virus this year, county health officials announced Thursday.

According to Sacramento County Public Health officials, a woman in her 60s tested positive for the disease and is still recovering. The announcement marks the second case of the mosquito-...Read more

More than 100 passengers were sickened in a recent norovirus outbreak on the Ruby Princess cruise ship that departed from California last month and arrived back at port Thursday.

The guests reported mild gastrointestinal illness during a 20-day voyage that departed from San Francisco on June 12, a spokesperson for Princess Cruises wrote in an ...Read more

BOSTON — Mayor Michelle Wu doubled down on her “safest major city” in America claim amid criticism from the city’s largest police union that recent violence has Boston trending more toward becoming crime-ridden Chicago “garbage.”

Wu’s office issued a statement Thursday saying the mayor is “proud” to continually shout out ...Read more

WASHINGTON — All aboard the Trump train.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday emerged from a rail coach painted specially for America’s 250th birthday bash, with both arms spread, as the awaiting crowd in Medora, North Dakota, cheered his arrival.

Moments later, as a pack of Theodore Roosevelt-era “Rough Rider” enactors on horseback ...Read more

CHICAGO — With the announcement of Chicago police Superintendent Larry Snelling’s retirement later this month, the search for the next head of the Chicago Police Department will soon begin in earnest.

The selection of CPD’s leader is always a high-profile affair — the superintendent is the most public-facing city employee aside from the...Read more

A federal judge on Tuesday blocked Virginia’s new law barring law enforcement from wearing face masks, just hours before it was set to take effect.

The law, signed by Gov. Abigail Spanberger in May, would have prevented officers from wearing facial coverings except in limited circumstances and required most agents to display identification ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. led a fractured Supreme Court this year that both expanded a president's power to run the government and dealt major defeats to President Donald Trump.

In Trump's second year back in the White House, Roberts and the court punctured his claim to have power with no limits.

The justices struck down...Read more

A team of South Florida fire departments led by the City of Miami Fire Rescue along with other international groups helped rescue Hernán Alberto Flores Gil on Thursday, a man who had been trapped under tons of rubble for eight days after the back to back earthquakes in Venezuela.

The City of Miami said that the South Florida teams worked ...Read more

When images of North Carolina’s booth at the Great American State Fair first surfaced last week, a Confederate battle flag displayed on multiple monitors became the latest controversy to hit the Washington, D.C., exhibit — raising questions about where the image came from and whether it bears any historical merit.

In fact, North Carolina ...Read more

Check your change: You might have one of the U.S. Mint’s special-edition coins celebrating the nation’s 250th birthday.

For one year only, circulating nickels, dimes, quarters, and half-dollars will feature new historical designs. Part of the U.S. Mint’s Semiquincentennial program, many of the coins entered circulation at the beginning of...Read more

Sen. Mitch McConnell is continuing his recovery in the hospital and working closely with his staff, according to a new statement from a McConnell spokesperson.

“Sen. McConnell appreciates the outpouring of support he’s receiving while he continues his recovery in the hospital,” the spokesperson said in a July 2 statement. “The Senator ...Read more