WASHINGTON — When you land a job in most parts of the federal government or the private sector, you can expect a fairly standard step — a criminal background check.

Want to work for your member of Congress? No background check necessary. Rep. Kat Cammack, R-Fla., hopes to change that.

A resolution introduced by Cammack would amend House ...Read more

MAPLEWOOD, Mo. — After Missouri voters added abortion protections to the state constitution in 2024, Kelly McCoomb decided to keep her yard sign supporting the measure in the basement of her suburban St. Louis home.

Abortion access is important to McCoomb. She wants her daughter to grow up in a state where the option is available if needed, ...Read more

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Nearly nine years since a gunman opened fire in a Parkland high school, killing 17, the mass shooting’s shadow still hangs over Florida politics.

A law that state legislators passed in the aftermath of the shooting, the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act, stands today. But it is facing mounting ...Read more

For more than 35 years, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has surveyed American high school students every two years about their health and behavior.

The Youth Risk Behavior Survey, established in 1991, draws a nationally representative sample of students in grades 9 through 12 at public and private schools. Over the years, it...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday signed legislation to strengthen California’s protections against offshore drilling amid escalating efforts by the Trump administration to open up the coast to new oil and gas operations.

The new state law, Assembly Bill 1448 from Assembly member Gregg Hart (D-Santa Barbara), will make it illegal ...Read more

A Minneapolis educator filed a complaint against the federal government on Tuesday, alleging that then-Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino and other agents assaulted and wrongfully arrested him outside the school he works at during this winter’s ICE surge.

Quentin Williams, whose students call him “Mr. Q,” was one of the people arrested ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court for now let the Trump administration resume deporting undocumented people to countries other than their own with little if any notice. The court will hear arguments on the issue in December.

Granting an administration request Tuesday over the dissents of the three liberal justices, the high court put on ...Read more

The California Federation of Teachers, a statewide labor union representing over 120,000 educational employees, announced Tuesday it had joined a lawsuit filed by the California Teacher’s Association earlier this month to recover the $1.9 billion in education funds withheld by Gov. Gavin Newsom in the 2024-25 school year, as well as $3.9 ...Read more

SEATTLE — A 4.2 magnitude earthquake near the Kitsap-Pierce County line shook the Puget Sound region Tuesday afternoon, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The quake struck a few miles northwest of Gig Harbor around 2:05 p.m.

Residents in Seattle, Tacoma and Everett reported feeling light shaking. Pacific Northwest Seismic Network ...Read more

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — More than 650,000 ballots, seized as part of a criminal probe that made national headlines, are back into the custody of the Riverside County Registrar of Voters, officials confirmed Tuesday afternoon.

The ballots and related materials, held by the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department pending the outcome of a legal ...Read more

CHICAGO — Romeo Blackman was a third grader in Chicago’s violence-torn Englewood neighborhood when he participated in a “If I Were President for a Day” project describing what he would change if he had the power.

“I would stop the violence. I would make the police collect all the guns, so no one gets hurt,” the then-9-year-old ...Read more

MIAMI — Lawyers in the federal trial of Christian Emmanuel Sanon painted two starkly different portraits Tuesday of the Haitian American pastor prosecutors accuse of planning and helping to execute the violent overthrow of Haiti’s government that culminated in the assassination of President Jovenel Moise.

Prosecutors portrayed Sanon, 67, as...Read more

FRESNO, Calif. — The National Park Service now knows what started the Dome fire, entering a third week of burning in the backwoods near the southern entrance of Yosemite in Maripiosa County.

According to the wildfire’s incident information page on inciweb.wildfire.gov, the fire started 7 a.m., Sept. 15. The cause: “Human - Abandoned ...Read more

NEW YORK — A 72-year-old man was arrested for the fatal crash that killed former Nickelodeon child star Kianna Underwood in Brooklyn, cops said Tuesday.

Michael Griffiths, who told the Daily News that he did “nothing wrong” during the fatal crash, was indicted on leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death and other charges for ...Read more

With less than 100 days left in his final term as governor, Gavin Newsom on Tuesday signed a bill that makes it more difficult for President Donald Trump to open California’s coast to new offshore oil drilling.

California already bans all new offshore drilling in state waters out to 3 miles offshore, under a law signed by former Republican ...Read more

California will fund gender-affirming care for youth on Medicaid after the Trump administration cuts off federal funding next month, a victory for patient advocates who had lobbied state lawmakers and Gov. Gavin Newsom to step in.

However, some advocates are concerned that state health officials have moved too slowly to prevent interruptions in...Read more

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth plans to cut the number of senior positions reserved for generals and admirals by 20%, a Pentagon official said.

Hegseth’s directives will allow some posts to be filled with lower-ranking officers, such as Army colonels or Navy captains, instead of generals and admirals.

That includes reducing ...Read more

WASHINGTON — A U.S. appeals court has refused to halt a Florida federal judge’s decision to penalize President Donald Trump and his lawyers for “bad faith” conduct in his $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service while he appeals.

The order on Tuesday leaves in place a July ruling that barred Trump and certain U.S. ...Read more