As the 2026 midterm elections enter the final stretch, it’s important to know your rights in case your vote is challenged.

The best way to ensure that your vote is counted is to advocate for yourself. I’m a an attorney and lecturer for the University of Southern California’s undergraduate civil rights advocacy initiative, Agents...Read more

Tina Peters, who served prison time for tampering with voting machines on behalf of the MAGA movement, has declined a job offer helping to oversee elections in a conservative Northern California county.

“She declined the offer because she’s running around the country right now trying to secure the elections,” Clint Curtis, the Shasta ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — In a show of defiance to the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants, California lawmakers on Monday voted to ban federal immigration agents from being hired for many local and state government jobs and to outlaw electric-shock gloves similar to those that may be distributed to federal officers.

The two bills ...Read more

NEW YORK — The stunned family of Times Square stabber Pamela Cisneros says she had a decadeslong history of mental illness including postpartum depression, multiple hospitalizations — and a suicide attempt in which she threw herself on the subway tracks.

Cisneros, 49, randomly stabbed two strangers, killing one of them, before NYPD officers...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — Two women physically and sexually abused four children over six years, tormenting them inside a commercial truck that became a “rolling dungeon,” Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier alleged Tuesday.

The women — identified as Tamra Stewart, 37, and Keysha Epps, 51 — face a litany of charges related to the abuse of ...Read more

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A central North Carolina teenager who contracted a brain-eating amoeba has died.

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services confirmed that the teenager passed away on Monday and extended condolences to his family and community.

Naegleria fowleri is a single-celled organism found in fresh water that destroys ...Read more

MIAMI — Florida prosecutors formally asked an Orange County judge Tuesday to reconsider his order to release on bail Mike Caruso, the former Palm Beach County Clerk appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is facing charges of kidnapping and sexually abusing a child.

At a hearing Friday, prosecutors had requested that Caruso be detained until his ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The United States launched a fresh wave of strikes against targets in Iran, extending a back-and-forth of fighting with neither side prepared to cede control over the Strait of Hormuz.

U.S. Central Command said it began strikes on Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targets following Iran’s attacks on commercial shipping and ...Read more

OTTAWA, Canada — Prime Minister Mark Carney said he still believes there’s a “mutually beneficial” trade deal to be done with the U.S., but discussions can’t resume while Trump administration officials are publicly insulting Canada.

Carney, speaking Tuesday morning to reporters in Ottawa, was asked about President Donald Trump’s ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- Could Southern California be at risk of flooding from the remnants of a hurricane this Labor Day weekend?

It’s a possibility, some weather experts say, and scientists Tuesday are closely watching Tropical Storm Marie develop in the eastern Pacific Ocean, south of the Baja California peninsula.

Tropical Storm Marie is forecast ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — In a show of defiance to the Trump administration's crackdown on immigrants, California lawmakers on Monday voted to ban federal immigration agents from being hired for many local and state government jobs and to outlaw electric-shock gloves similar to those that may be distributed to federal officers.

The two bills were...Read more

LOS ANGELES — At 1 a.m. one Friday morning two years ago, Clyde Moore idled in his red Jaguar sedan outside a Panorama City apartment building known as a hotbed of drug dealing.

Moore, 70, sat next to his wife, who testified at a recent hearing that a Latino man approached their car before demanding, "What y'all n— doing out here?"

He was ...Read more

Lawmakers late Monday night sent Gov. Gavin Newsom a pair of bills that would make it easier for community colleges to offer bachelor's degrees — a significant reshaping of higher education opportunities in California — but the legislation shares similarities with other measures Newsom has vetoed.

The latest bills would replace the state's ...Read more

As a mental health nurse practitioner who sees patients both in person and via telehealth, I’m often struck by just how many of my patients would not have received any mental health treatment before the COVID-19 pandemic: the stay-at-home mother without any childcare; the college student on a rural campus, many miles away from home or a ...Read more

When Hurricane Michael tore through the Florida Panhandle in 2018, a beach house called the Sand Palace was left standing, while more than half the buildings around it were destroyed.

Its owners had built it to withstand roughly double the wind speed that Florida’s code required, with reinforced concrete walls on 40-foot (12-meter) ...Read more

Governors across the country are relying on their executive powers to address the increasing public backlash against data center proposals.

In July 2026, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul placed an effective moratorium on data center permitting until the state’s Department of Public Service creates a generic environmental impact statement ...Read more