NEW YORK -- As Mayor Zohran Mamdani launches universal childcare for 2-year-olds, with the ultimate goal of free care for all young children, what do New York City parents want for their toddlers and even infants?

The answer may not always be a formal daycare program, and seems to vary by geography, race and income, according to a new survey ...Read more

San Francisco Bay Area residents, living in the beating heart of the artificial intelligence boom, are just as conflicted about the technology as the rest of the country.

As OpenAI showed off its latest AI assistants in San Francisco last week, protesters outside — some dressed as killer robots —demanded it keep AI away from the military. ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- This year's flu season started months early and in an unexpected part of the country, according to health officials.

The unusually early start to the season has prompted local health officials to urge people to get their flu shots as soon as possible.

In Los Angeles County, flu activity began rising in September, ahead of its ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- It didn’t look like much. Five red and yellow cloth sails, strung up between streetlights in Exposition Park, bridging the road between the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art and the Coliseum. But it was 103 degrees outside, and thousands of people were on the move, headed for Saturday’s USC Homecoming game.

The sails created ...Read more

NEW YORK — Sean “Diddy” Combs’ prison release date has been pushed back by several weeks amid allegations he’d been living a pampered lifestyle behind bars.

The disgraced music mogul is now scheduled to be freed on March 2, 2028, according to Bureau of Prisons records cited by multiple media outlets.

Combs, who is currently behind ...Read more

In 2025, two scholars of religion decided to make a multiday pilgrimage along the Kumano Kodō trail – an ancient route in Japan connecting Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples – guided by an artificial intelligence assistant.

The two – Wayne E. Arnold and John A. Shultz – trained an AI companion on a smartphone to suit their ...Read more

As midterm elections near, Democrats enjoy advantages in national “generic ballot” polling, suggesting they may secure majorities in the House of Representative or Senate, if not both chambers.

But the reality is that partisan control on Capitol Hill will be determined by just a handful of competitive House and Senate contests. ...Read more

After high-level Trump administration officials said they might send armed officers to the polls during the upcoming midterm elections, and after months of administration efforts to wrest control of some aspects of voting from state officials and limit how people vote, there’s a lot of fear that armed federal officials will disrupt voting ...Read more

In June 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear appeals of two lower court rulings that challenged assault weapons restrictions. The high court will decide whether the Second and 14th amendments protect the right to possess semi-automatic rifles like the AR-15. This marks a reversal for the court, which for years has declined to consider ...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — Hurricane Isaias intensified overnight Thursday with a forecast it will threaten Florida as it targets the Gulf Cosat. The storm just before midnight had become the first Atlantic system this year to reach hurricane strength, according to the National Hurricane Center.

As of the NHC’s 8 a.m. advisory, Isaias was still a ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Six years after he was released from a California immigrant detention facility, Wilfredo Gonzalez Mena has to sleep with his back propped up by pillows, nearly in a seated position, to avoid gasping for air.

He blames his lasting medical issues on the 10 months he spent in custody until September 2020 at the Adelanto ICE ...Read more

Federal wildlife managers euthanized 28,000 animals in California in 2025 and dispersed about 1 million more as part of a nationwide program meant to control invasive species and minimize danger to people, pets and livestock, new data shows.

The removals by a division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture — which nationwide involved killing 2...Read more

The Trump administration is injecting more than $100 million into education programs for American researchers in STEM fields, as federal policies stanch the flow of foreign scientists to the U.S. and policymakers focus on an AI arms race with China.

The initiative, which President Donald Trump is set to announce at a White House summit on ...Read more

New York Attorney General Letitia James has added new allegations to a child safety lawsuit against TikTok Inc., accusing the platform of running secret experiments on teen users.

The new claims are attributed to a Bloomberg Businessweek report, based on a confidential TikTok document, about an algorithmic test the company began in 2021 that ...Read more

President Trump told a crowd in Texas on Wednesday night that he would not allow Iran to attack San Diego or Los Angeles, a comment that came two days after he made off-the-cuff remarks suggesting the West Coast cities could be struck.

"You want to see a horror show? You want to see problems? Let them hit San Diego, let them hit Los Angeles," ...Read more

Dolly Parton's estate is alleging that Bryan Seaver, the country icon's nephew and former head of security, used a "no trespassing" sign and barbed wire to avoid being served legal documents.

There is an active restraining order and lawsuit against Seaver by Parton's company, She's Alive LLC, which is run by Parton's former manager, Danny ...Read more

The Turks and Caicos says it has intercepted another overloaded boat from Haiti, this time carrying more than 100 Haitian migrants.

The group included 87 men and 23 women.

Shortly after the 110 migrants were interdicted at sea on Wednesday by the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force and Turks and Caicos Islands Regiment and Border Force...Read more

Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, are not even remotely planning to apologize to Prince William and Catherine, Princess of Wales, contrary to rumors that have swirled since the couple moved back to the U.K. last month, according to a new report.

A London tabloid’s assertion that a public apology from the Sussexes to the Prince and ...Read more

After Florida’s attorney general refused to accept millions from Meta in a multistate settlement he criticized as borderline “absurd,” he now is asking a state court to force the social media giant to make the same — and more — concessions to Florida that it did to the 52 other states and territories it settled with.

In an 85-page ...Read more