CHICAGO — Mayor Brandon Johnson’s chief financial officer resigned Friday after just three months on the job, saying she is unable to fulfill her obligation to provide “complete and accurate” statements about the city’s finances.

Ashlee Gabrysch exits her post as Johnson’s election-year budget is stalled thanks to an ongoing ...Read more

CHICAGO — Embattled Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch’s office has retained a Chicago-based employment law firm to conduct an evaluation of the workplace culture of the chamber’s Democratic majority “and provide actionable recommendations for improvement,” according to an email sent to Democratic House lawmakers and ...Read more

During the 2026 election cycle, Republicans enacted a series of gerrymanders – a form of partisan redistricting – in a handful of states to give them a disproportionate edge over Democrats in their congressional delegations. Democrats responded with a successful redistricting effort in California and an unsuccessful one in Virginia.

...Read more

Candidates tied to the Make America Healthy Again, or MAHA, movement suffered a series of electoral defeats in the 2026 midterm elections, raising questions about MAHA’s political future.

Despite its name, MAHA has become a controversial force in American health politics. While the movement calls for healthier food, increased ...Read more

CHICAGO — For scientists working to keep plastic litter out of the environment, the idea might seem counterintuitive.

Looking to follow the movement of water bottles and other floating throwaways, they tossed dozens of plastic smoothie shakers into rivers across the United States and Canada, including stretches of the Chicago River.

The ...Read more

MEXICO CITY — While delivering his first speech as pope last year from the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica, Leo XIV paused, and then briefly switched from Italian to Spanish.

"A greeting to all," he said, smiling. "And in particular to my dear Diocese of Chiclayo, in Peru."

Before he was elevated to the highest earthly authority in the ...Read more

Iran extended its shutout of United Nations nuclear inspectors, highlighting the lack of international knowledge of the country’s uranium stockpile as the prospect of new U.S. talks looks ever more remote.

International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors still can’t verify the location or status of Iran’s stockpile of near-bomb grade ...Read more

BOISE, Idaho — Idaho and the Trump administration are locking horns over who controls the flow of water to the Idaho National Laboratory in a case that pits America’s nuclear ambition against the bedrock rules of Western water policy — and the state sovereignty that governs it.

The Department of Justice in September sued Idaho to override...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles is going to get more expensive next year thanks to a half-cent sales tax hike approved by voters last week, but city officials say the benefit will be a stronger fire department and faster response times.

Measure FD will generate about $345 million annually for the city Fire Department by raising the city's retail ...Read more

AGUADILLA, Puerto Rico — To the enlisted members and officers of the Coast Guard Cutter Joseph Doyle, their mission on Sept. 28 is known as the “miracle on the Mona.”

They saved almost 50 people that day from the Mona Passage, a treacherous waterway between Hispaniola and Puerto Rico known for big waves, strong currents and smuggling ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Sen. Chris Van Hollen announced Thursday night that he would run for Senate majority leader, launching a challenge to Sen. Charles E. Schumer of New York, the current Democratic leader.

Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat first elected to the Senate in 2016, served in leadership in the House and has been chairman of the Democratic ...Read more

Christian Emmanuel Sanon took the witness stand Thursday in his own defense, spending much of his testimony addressing questions about his professional background, which prosecutors have sought to cast doubt on, and trying to explain how his involvement in Haiti led to accusations that he conspired to violently overthrow President Jovenel Moïse...Read more

SEATTLE — Nick Shirley, the conservative social media influencer who has been feted at the White House, has retracted viral videos he posted last month in which he accused Lam’s Seafood Asian Market, a small Seattle grocery store, of committing food stamp fraud.

Shirley’s videos have been viewed millions of times on social media and ...Read more

At the end, Jensen Huang looked broken and shattered, his legendary energy depleted. After weeks spent denying the allegations of infidelity and fighting to remain in his job as Nvidia Corp.’s chief executive officer, his surrender late Wednesday night was unconditional. Huang’s usual take-charge demeanor had evaporated, according to a ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Credit agency Fitch Ratings has dealt another blow to the troubled Skylink people mover train at Los Angeles International Airport, downgrading the project's debt deeper into junk bond territory over the continued inability of the contractor and city's airport department to complete the project.

The downgrade — to B-, from BB ...Read more

Two competing camps of victims’ rights advocates have emerged to pressure Gov. Gavin Newsom as the California Supreme Court weighs his request to grant blanket commutation to the 548 people on death row before he leaves office in two months.

On Thursday, former Sacramento prosecutor Anne Marie Schubert — supported by law enforcement groups ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is investigating Alice Huang, the woman U.S. officials suspect as a possible spy targeting the ousted head of Nvidia Corp., over whether entities linked to her were involved in efforts to smuggle products made by Super Micro Computer Inc. to China, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The ...Read more

Russia is stepping up attacks on Ukraine’s crop-processing facilities, further straining an industry vital to the war-battered economy and global food supplies.

The country’s food giant Kernel Holding SA halted operations at all of its oilseed crushing plants after massive Russian drone attacks damaged its equipment and storage tanks, the ...Read more