A fast-moving wildfire in Orange County burned homes and forced evacuations Friday as powerful Santa Ana winds fueled a growing outbreak of blazes across Southern California.

The Norte Fire emerged Friday morning, prompting evacuation orders in San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano and burning 465 acres (188 hectares) as of 6:30 p.m. local time...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump waived massive tariffs linked to Russian energy exports mandated in a law that he signed last month, as the measures complicated his push to lower diesel prices ahead of the U.S. midterm elections.

Trump invoked a waiver clause under the law, which was championed by the late Sen. Lindsey Graham as a way to ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Fierce Santa Ana winds caused a chaotic afternoon as a fast-moving fire burned through multiple hillside homes in south Orange County while a nearby blaze in San Onofre shut down the 5 Freeway for hours.

Hot, smoky conditions forced residents in San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano to flee and created traffic gridlock from ...Read more

Sean "Diddy" Combs has been relocated to a new prison, following reports of lavish prison perks and a head injury that saw him hospitalized.

The 56-year-old was transferred on Friday from FCI Fort Dix in New Jersey to FCI Allenwood, a low-security prison in Pennsylvania, a Bureau of Prisons spokesperson confirmed with the Los Angeles Times.

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AURORA, Ill. — Weeks before his gun jammed outside a Hindu temple in Aurora, Alexandros Paporakis, 19, of Palatine, etched his name at the bottom of a guardianship petition filed by a close family friend. At the same time, prosecutors say, the self-identified white supremacist’s rhetoric toward Indian people was growing more frequent and ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Hackers have stolen the data — including names, addresses and disability records — of millions of current and former California public school students who took the state’s mandated standardized tests that annually assess their academic proficiency, education officials announced Friday.

The compromised information affects ...Read more

CALGARY, Canada — More than 1 million people have already cast their ballots in Alberta’s referendum on separation from Canada, signaling strong voter turnout that pollsters say may favor the “remain” side.

A spokesperson for the province’s election agency said more than 525,000 people voted in the first three days of in-person ...Read more

A judge threatened to sanction President Donald Trump for failing to sit for a mandatory deposition in the $10 billion defamation suit he filed against the British Broadcasting Corp.

“The court has admonished plaintiff for his lack of participation to no avail,” U.S. Magistrate Judge Enjolique A. Lett said in a brief order in Miami. “...Read more

DETROIT — Michigan State University broke the law by taking 17 months to notify the state Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs that one of its medical resident physicians was removed from patient care following allegations of sexual assault.

MSU was alerted to allegations of sexual assault when a patient called the university police...Read more

LOS ANGELES — A Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputy working as a guard at Twin Towers Correctional Facility used force against inmate Jeffrey Fairchild, allegedly smashing him face-first into a metal window frame and causing him to fall to the concrete floor, according to federal monitors overseeing conduct by deputies in L.A. County jails.

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People have debated the health benefits of wine for years.

Older studies suggested that a glass of red wine could reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, but more recent studies question that conclusion.

One man is trying to add to the debate: He wants consumers to eat wine grapes.

Andrew Cates, co-founder of the Wine RayZyn Co., is ...Read more

NEW YORK — New York City’s teachers union on Friday urged a judge to dismiss Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s legal challenge to $10,000 payments for public school paraprofessionals, citing the tragic death of a 16-year-old autistic student as evidence of a dire need to fix the staffing shortage, according to new court filings.

The City Council ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — A fast-moving fire in south Orange County has burned multiple homes in the San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano areas, as fierce Santa Ana winds fueled fire danger from Malibu to Camp Pendleton.

At noon a new blaze ignited in the bushy foothills south of San Juan Capistrano. Dubbed the Norte fire, the conflagration quickly ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Amid reports of a surge in federal immigration raids, Los Angeles leaders and immigration advocates said Friday that the efforts appear aimed at discouraging turnout in the midterm elections, and urged voters not to be intimidated.

"The timing of these actions, just weeks before the midterm elections, is no accident," said ...Read more

A New Mexico judge on Friday ruled in favor of Emmy winner Timothy Busfield, tossing out multiple child sex abuse charges against the actor.

During a hearing, Judge Joseph A. Montano granted Busfield’s motion to dismiss his indictment, citing prosecutorial misconduct and errors that undermined the grand jury process. According to the order, �...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump bypassed his White House chief of staff last week in selecting Katie Zacharia as his press secretary and chief messenger, triggering days of scathing headlines about her credentials and abilities before her ignominious resignation on Friday.

Susie Wiles, that senior-most aide ostensibly in charge of the ...Read more

The FBI has arrested a Connecticut man on charges he threatened to kill members of the Republican Party and a high-ranking public official on social media.

According to a release from David X. Sullivan, U.S. attorney for the District of Connecticut, and P.J. O’Brien, special agent in charge of the New Haven Division of the Federal Bureau of ...Read more

DENVER — An El Paso County District Court judge on Friday denied bail to Deborah Nicholls, finding there is a “fair likelihood” the woman could be re-convicted of murder after a judge this summer threw out her convictions in the deaths of her three children in a house fire more than 20 years ago.

Judge Catherine Mitchell Helton ordered ...Read more

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Katie Zacharia, who was fired after serving only five days as White House press secretary, grew up on California’s Central Coast and remembers the town of Cambria as “a liberal cesspool” — boring, not nearly conservative enough for her and suffering from a “huge drug population.”

That was the ...Read more