Political action committees are responsible for nearly two-thirds of all federal election funding, with about US$6.3 billion raised and $4.8 billion spent since January 2025. But their outsized political influence does not just come from their wallets. It’s also generated from their names.

Political strategists are adopting PAC ...Read more

Newly arrived refugees resettling in the United States face ending one long journey and embarking on another as they begin their new life here. But even after years of displacement, people who came to the U.S. as refugees still face significant obstacles to getting the healthcare they need.

As a social work scholar who studies refugee...Read more

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Aug. 10, 2026, calling for the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine to be given as three separate shots at three separate appointments. The combined MMR vaccine is currently given at 12 to 15 months of age and again between ages 4 and 6.

In the order, Trump also urges states ...Read more

As summer temperatures soar across the United States and Europe, cities are being forced to confront the difficult reality that they’re getting dangerously hot.

Record-breaking heat waves strain power grids, send people to cooling shelters and can make the top floors of some apartment buildings unlivable.

One way to help ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — With Los Angeles public schools opening Wednesday, district leaders are downplaying fears that a looming budget crisis could lead to a county takeover, as they navigate a mandate to move forward with plans to cut thousand of jobs, pressure employees to accept unpaid furlough days and close an unspecified number of school ...Read more

CHICAGO — Illinois is requiring polluters to begin reporting spills of industrial plastic pellets known as nurdles, a growing source of contamination in the Great Lakes and Mississippi River watersheds.

Companies that manufacture, use or transport nurdles also must develop plans to limit them in storm runoff, making the state the first in ...Read more

WASHINGTON — There might be some awkwardness for Michigan’s and Ohio’s Senate delegations next year.

If Michigan Republican Mike Rogers and Ohio Democrat Sherrod Brown win in November, they’ll be serving alongside the senators who defeated them in 2024. But, surprisingly, such scenarios aren’t entirely unusual. We’ve had more than a...Read more

MISSOULA, Mont. — Tywon Pugh has seizures that make it hard to find and keep a job.

“They called me a ‘liability to the job site,’” Pugh said, recalling the words of his manager when a seizure cost him his last job at a fast-food restaurant in this western Montana city.

When the 46-year-old lost work in the past, his wife of 10 years...Read more

CHICAGO — Extreme weather usually doesn’t scare Mary Beth Uretz, but she spent Tuesday morning crying in her Homewood basement, clutching her pets as the storm pounded.

“Psychologically, it’s a lot to deal with,” said Uretz. “I’ve never gone to bed at night and worried about my house falling over, until this summer.”

Indeed, ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump deflected criticisms about a decision to secretly fly him out of Turkey on a different aircraft while the White House indicated he was aboard Air Force One, saying the Secret Service and military demanded it in response to unspecified safety threats.

“They wanted me to go on a different flight, a ...Read more

FORT WORTH, Texas — The City of Fort Worth has proposed an $11.25 million settlement with the family of Atatiana Jefferson, who was killed by one of the city’s police officers in 2019, according to a statement.

The settlement will “result in a complete dismissal and release” of all civil claims asserted by all plaintiffs against all ...Read more

Pakistan’s defense minister said the U.S. and Iran are “close to some sort of arrangement” over the Strait of Hormuz, even after both sides appeared to toughen their positions in the long-deadlocked negotiations.

“Things are shaping up in favor of peace,” Khawaja Asif told reporters in Islamabad on Tuesday, without giving details of ...Read more

The University of Michigan's largest academic college is planning a pilot program of "grade covering" for first-semester freshmen in a year, a potential move that is meeting pushback from critics who said it doesn't allow students to prepare for the rest of their time at college or after.

College of Literature, Science and the Arts Dean Rosario...Read more

BIG SUR, Calif. — Two endangered California condors recovering from lead poisoning were stranded Tuesday after the Timber fire engulfed the only road to their remote sanctuary near Big Sur, preventing staff members from replenishing their food and water.

With firefighting aircraft making a helicopter rescue impossible, wildlife workers faced ...Read more

NEW YORK — A Manhattan judge on Tuesday said an overflow room would be provided to members of the press and the public at alleged CEO killer Luigi Mangione’s upcoming murder trial and that jurors would remain anonymous for their own safety.

Taking the bench a few minutes before 10 a.m., Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Gregory Carro said ...Read more

Guides leading a backcountry-skiing group near Lake Tahoe knew avalanche danger was high, had observed warning signs in the snow and expected a brief break in a raging blizzard to “shut quickly” before a slide killed nine people in February, according to a new report commissioned by the guiding company.

The 56-page report by Blackbird ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — As a federal judge weighs whether to block the Trump administration's suspension of the region's lead homelessness agency, two members of the president's Cabinet came to in Los Angeles to plead their case.

At a press conference Tuesday, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner and Health and Human ...Read more

NEW YORK — A group of undisclosed documents related to government investigations of Jeffrey Epstein can be made public under the 2025 law requiring release of the Epstein files, a federal judge ruled.

U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska in New York on Tuesday granted a disclosure request by the Justice Department, rejecting arguments by ...Read more