Former Republican Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan is distancing himself from efforts to rebuild the state’s struggling Republican Party, saying Thursday that he is focused instead on encouraging a new generation of political leaders.

“I’m teaching at school at Washington College, trying to convince the next generation that they should be more ...Read more

The National Hurricane Center on Thursday continued to track a low pressure system in the Atlantic with a chance to develop into a more dangerous storm.

As of the NHC’s 1 p.m. EST tropical outlook, the broad area of nontropical low pressure with gale-force winds was located a few hundred miles south of Bermuda with disorganized storms mostly ...Read more

The measles virus has continued to spread in Minnesota's Todd County because of a lack of widespread vaccination, bringing it to the highest level since at least 1990.

In the past week, 58 confirmed infections in the county helped raise Minnesota’s total this year to 139. The update, provided Thursday by the Minnesota Department of Health, ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — State lawmakers and Gov. Tim Walz joined members of the Hortman family Thursday morning to unveil signs renaming Minnesota Highway 610 in honor of former House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark.

The highway, now designated the Hortman Memorial Highway, runs through Brooklyn Park, where the couple lived, and connects ...Read more

The Trump administration on Thursday extended its sanctions on Cuba to the island’s electronics, manufacturing, marine and technology sectors and punished Guillermo Faustino Rodríguez López-Calleja, a shadowy figure involved in the offshore companies that have helped Cuba get around U.S. sanctions.

An executive order President Donald Trump ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — One of Gov.-elect Amy Klobuchar’s first jobs in St. Paul in January will be to name her replacement to the U.S. Senate.

The appointed senator will serve until a new special election is called, which according to state law would be November 2027. That senator would then complete Klobuchar’s term, which is up in 2031.

...Read more

LOS ANGELES — A Culver City ballot measure that would give 16- and 17-year-olds the right to vote in municipal and school board elections was trailing Thursday.

Ballots still were being counted, but Measure YV was losing, with 55% of voters in Culver City voting against it and 45% voting for it, according to early results posted by the Los ...Read more

Two days after Haitian President Jovenel Moïse was shot to death in his second-floor bedroom in the hills above Port-au-Prince, Tampa businessman Frederick Bergmann called his longtime friend in the Haitian capital and asked what he wanted him to do.

Should he call the news media? The Justice Department? The FBI? Bergmann asked Christian ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Paul Pelosi, husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, has been barred from driving for six months after a hit-and-run crash into a parked car, prosecutors said.

Paul Pelosi, 86, pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of hit-and-run and a traffic infraction of making an unlawful turn in connection with the July crash in...Read more

Harmeet Dhillon, the conservative California lawyer who became the face of the Trump administration’s use of the legal system to advance its aims in the culture wars, resigned Thursday as head of the U.S. Department of Justice’s civil rights division.

Dhillon’s resignation marked the first high-profile departure from the Justice ...Read more

A NASA rocket launch for a lunar mission may have punched a hole in Earth’s atmosphere, potentially disrupting GPS signals, a new study found.

The Artemis II mission launched April 1 from Florida, carrying astronauts around the moon on humanity’s first lunar mission since the Apollo program ended in 1972, NASA said.

Atmospheric ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The head of a South Los Angeles nonprofit gang intervention program has been arrested by LAPD homicide detectives on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder, along with four others accused in the killing.

Skipp Townsend, 62, executive director of 2nd Call, was taken into custody by Los Angeles Police Department Robbery Homicide...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gov. Gavin Newsom told the California Supreme Court on Thursday that he will commute the death sentences of all 548 state prisoners awaiting execution, reducing their punishments to life in prison without parole.

Newsom can commute about 40% of the death sentences with the stroke of a pen, but the rest will require the ...Read more

The lawsuit is the latest legal challenge over California’s social media restrictions.

Technology companies Google, Meta and Tik Tok sued the state of California on Wednesday to block a new law that restricts companies from targeting children younger than 16 with “addictive” social media content that can keep them scrolling for hours.

...Read more

State officials have approved the final key permit needed to build the largest new reservoir in California in 50 years, a project supporters say will supply water to millions of Californians from the East Bay and Silicon Valley to Los Angeles to reduce the impacts of droughts, but which opponents worry will harm the environment.

On Wednesday ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gov. Gavin Newsom is preparing to spare the lives of the more than 550 people serving death sentences in California prisons, according to a letter obtained by The Sacramento Bee.

The New York Times reported last month that Newsom was considering the possibility of commuting the sentences of California’s 548 death row ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gov. Gavin Newsom told the California Supreme Court on Thursday that he will commute the death sentences of all 548 state prisoners awaiting execution, reducing their punishments to life in prison without parole.

Newsom can commute about 40% of the death sentences with the stroke of a pen, but the rest will require the ...Read more

Meghan Markle’s half-brother is a “person of interest” in an investigation into sexual exploitation possibly involving their father.

However, authorities are not calling Thomas Markle Jr. a suspect in Thomas Markle Sr.’s alleged possession of child sexual exploitation material, according to the Telegraph.

“There are indications ...Read more

NEW YORK — Six people were killed when a massive fire tore through a Brooklyn home early Thursday, officials said.

Two lithium-ion batteries were found in the burned out home but it is not yet clear if they sparked the blaze that broke out on the top floor of the two-story house in Sunset Park at 1:39 a.m., officials said.

Four adults were ...Read more