LOS ANGELES — A Pico Rivera man who killed his friend and girlfriend in a 124-mile-per-hour crash in Ventura County has been sentenced to more than five years in prison, officials said this week.

Leonardo Rodriguez, 21, was driving a black Honda Accord south on U.S. 101 near Thousand Oaks early on the morning of Oct. 31, 2024, when he tried ...Read more

China lodged a formal protest with Japan after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi sent an offering to Yasukuni shrine and Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi visited it on the anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II.

Beijing “strongly condemns” the moves, according to a statement from its Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Koizumi visited ...Read more

BOSTON — Calls for the excommunication of Gov. Maura Healey are mounting after she signed a bill removing restrictions on abortion access — though the Archdiocese of Boston has not yet stated how it will respond to the demands.

While church leaders have condemned the new law as “gravely immoral,” the Archdiocese has not declared whether...Read more

BALTIMORE — LaFayette Boone Jr. imagined a childhood for his son much like his own in Baltimore, attending Catholic school and playing with other kids in the neighborhood.

The plan hit an early hiccup: Amid declining enrollments, St. Michael — St. Clement School in Overlea closed in June after his 5-year-old son’s first and only year ...Read more

A wildlife center west of Sacramento, California, is expecting a speedy recovery for a river otter brought in Friday morning after the male was hit by a car.

The young river otter suffered no broken bones or fractures in the strike in Vacaville, but had an abrasion on his chin and suffered swelling around his brain, Solano Wildlife Rescue & ...Read more

NEW YORK — Police have filed hate crime charges against a 46-year-old man who attacked two people at a Midtown synagogue as he charged down the aisle, disrupting the sanctity of a peaceful Sabbath service, officials said Saturday.

“Do you know who I am?” Larry Montes ranted as he punched a 63-year-old woman and headbutted a 65-year-old ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Health officials in California are defending the traditional childhood vaccination schedule against efforts by the Trump administration to weaken it.

The long-standing childhood vaccine schedule is safe, California's top health official said, and continues to be recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics — the nation's ...Read more

NEW YORK — President Donald Trump’s attack on New York’s in-state tuition and financial aid for undocumented immigrants has migrant college students worried they will be forced to quit school — along with their dreams of getting a degree.

On Monday, President Trump’s Justice Department sued New York and two other states, Connecticut ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — A hammerhead shark paid a rare visit to the Southern California coast this week in what is likely a predictable outcome of unusually warm ocean temperatures.

Fisherman Ariel Kohanchi was out around noon Thursday on the Malibu Pier for the first time in about a month, according to a video he published on YouTube, when he and ...Read more

SEATTLE — Maya Crowder felt horror and disbelief as she watched federal immigration enforcement agents arrest a man at Seattle Center on July 27, just around the corner from where a mass shooting killed three and injured four others the previous day.

Crowder, 23, had seen videos of immigration arrests on social media and on the news, but ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The January 2025 wildfires that swept through Pacific Palisades wreaked devastation practically beyond belief, destroying more than 5,600 homes and businesses.

On Saturday, the Westside community marked a long overdue milestone for fire-weary residents: the reopening of the Palisades Village shopping center.

The 125,000-square-...Read more

Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella asked U.S. President Donald Trump to temporarily suspend tariffs on Colombian goods as the country grapples with the aftermath of a devastating earthquake that killed nearly 300 people.

De la Espriella wrote in a post on X that he made the request “in order to give some relief to our business ...Read more

NEW YORK — The family of a teen killed in a wild June carriage horse crash in Central Park will be filing a $105 million lawsuit against the city — and names stray voltage in the park as a possible cause of the crash, according to a report.

Attorneys for Romanch Mahajan’s family have filed a notice of claim — a precursor to the coming ...Read more

MIAMI — With Tuesday’s election on the horizon, voters and candidates are making a final push this weekend to bank ballots in primary races that will decide who represents Democrats and Republicans in winner-take-all contests this November for federal and state offices, including Florida governor and U.S Senate.

More than 1.6 million people...Read more

LAKE CITY, Mich. — With sunny skies and temperatures in the low 80s, Saturday seemed like a picture-perfect day in Lake City, a quiet town of about 700 permanent residents situated on Lake Missaukee, nestled in a heavily forested area with numerous campgrounds and public lands.

But figuratively, a dark cloud hung over the small town in ...Read more

More than 160,000 homes and businesses are still without electricity across Indiana after powerful storms brought record flooding, forcing residents to flee their homes, closing roads and snarling rail traffic.

Another round of heavy rain will sweep not only the Hoosier State, where as much as 11 inches (28 centimeters) has fallen, but across ...Read more

CHICAGO — After city and state officials discovered 56 decomposing bodies in a Chicago funeral home, Gov. JB Pritzker defended the state’s response to complaints against the husband and wife in charge of the facility.

Pritzker’s message, delivered during a downstate event, was simple: State government did its job.

The comptroller’s ...Read more

Pacific storm Lala strengthened into a hurricane as it edged closer to Hawaii’s Big Island, where it will make possible landfall on Saturday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

Lala’s top winds reached 75 miles (121 kilometers) per hour, up from 65 mph earlier, as it closed to within 85 miles of South Point, Hawaii, the center said in...Read more

BOISE, Idaho — Taxpayers will pay even more costs for the Wilder raid, according to a local lawyer.

Hundreds of law enforcement officers swept into a Wilder horse track in October, detaining hundreds and zip-tying attendees, including some children, as part of what the FBI said was an investigation into illegal gambling. The raid drew ...Read more

NEW YORK — Hundreds of NYPD cops are expected to be patrolling the streets of Inwood in upper Manhattan this weekend to prevent a “teen takeover” of area streets — a wild event that sparked chaos in the area and ended in one death, city officials said Saturday.

A takeover following last Sunday’s Dominican Day Parade sent thousands of ...Read more