WASHINGTON — In past Olympic Games held on American soil, sitting presidents have served in passive, ceremonial roles. President Donald Trump may have other plans.

An executive order signed by Trump on Tuesday names him chair of a White House task force on the 2028 Games in Los Angeles, viewed by the president as “a premier opportunity to ...Read more

Late 19th-century and early 20th-century historical monuments, representative of California’s early development, once hid under a dense Placer County forest.

The monuments, a 60-foot lime kiln and quarry, could not be accessed by the public for about a century. But both emerged when the River Complex fire burned through thick blackberry ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota purchased a mass notification system several years ago to alert legislators about emergencies, but state leaders didn’t use it on the morning of June 14 when an assassin targeted politicians in the suburbs of Minneapolis.

The system, called Everbridge, is overseen by the State Patrol and can send alerts via phone, ...Read more

Colorado’s Democratic U.S. senators and representatives asked the federal agency regulating Medicaid on Tuesday to reconsider a decision that won’t let Colorado keep toddlers and former prisoners covered.

In November, under the Biden administration, Colorado received approval from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to ...Read more

ATLANTA — The Fulton County Board of Commissioners must appoint election critics nominated by the Fulton County Republican Party to the county election board, a superior court judge has ruled.

In an order handed down Sunday, Fulton Superior Court Judge David Emerson said there is nothing in the law that supports the idea that commissioners ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is escalating its push against what has become a key part of the way states, localities and communities respond to the overdose epidemic: harm reduction.

A public health approach aimed at mitigating the negative health effects associated with drug use, harm reduction aims to prevent overdoses and ...Read more

Poor H Dock.

When 4-foot tsunami waves crashed into the Crescent City Harbor in rural Northern California last week, the dock nearest the harbor’s entrance — which was designed to absorb the brunt of the surge energy — took a beating.

State Sen. President Pro Tem Mike McGuire, who represents the North Coast, called H Dock “a ...Read more

JERUSALEM — Israel is weighing an expansion of its armed presence in Gaza, despite concern by military chiefs and a majority of the country’s public that the move risks jeopardizing the prospect of freeing the remaining hostages held by Hamas.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is considering whether to deploy the Israel Defense Forces into...Read more

BOSTON — Defense attorney Alan Jackson says the “band … is getting back together” as he and colleague Elizabeth Little will be defending Karen Read in a civil suit by the family of John O’Keefe.

Jackson also says he believes new information will be presented during the civil trial as the defense will be facing a new judge rather than ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Authorities in California are bracing themselves for a prolonged heat wave this week that could amplify the risks of a wildfire and intensify fires already burning in the southern and central portions of the state.

The warming trend is forecast to bake almost all of inland California over the next week, dialing up the heat on ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — A Minneapolis street named for a segregationist developer may soon be renamed after the state’s first Black woman attorney.

More than 40 people signed up to speak at a Planning Commission hearing on a proposal to rename Edmund Boulevard to Lena Smith Boulevard.

The commission unanimously approved the proposal, advancing it to...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — For nearly 70 years, a little-known tax code provision has served as a firewall between U.S. politics and its nonprofit sector.

Now, Minnesota nonprofit leaders say that wall is showing cracks — and if it falls, public trust could collapse with it.

At issue is the Johnson Amendment, a 1954 law named for then-Sen. Lyndon B. ...Read more

Chiara and Travis Bolton needed to grow their Minnesota bee farm. They just couldn’t find U.S. workers.

Instead, they sought and won a $200,000 federal grant last year that helped them build worker housing and hire two Guatemalans to tend colonies.

But the federal check never arrived.

The Boltons say they’re trapped between the Trump and ...Read more

A Republican-led congressional committee on Tuesday issued subpoenas for Bill and Hillary Clinton over their alleged ties to notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, along with several other officials including former Attorneys General Merrick Garland and William Barr.

The House Oversight Committee demanded that the former president, first lady and...Read more

As Texas House Democrats hunker down in Illinois and other blue states to try to stop a Republican-led redistricting plan in their state, national Democrats and one of their hosts, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, ratcheted up their rhetoric Tuesday, saying anything goes in the face of such Republican aggression.

“We’re fighting for democracy. ...Read more

Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe on Tuesday expressed interest in President Donald Trump’s push to gerrymander the congressional district that encompasses most of Kansas City and ensure Republicans maintain a majority in the U.S. House.

“We want to keep the House in Republican control,” Kehoe told reporters on Tuesday. “We’ll work with our ...Read more

The city of Los Angeles has tentatively agreed to pay $500,000 to two Knock LA journalists who claim their constitutional rights were violated when police arrested them while covering a protest four years ago in Echo Park.

Without admitting wrongdoing, the city agreed Monday to settle a lawsuit brought by the reporters, averting a federal civil...Read more

The U.S. Department of Justice published a new list Tuesday of "sanctuary" jurisdictions that it claims have policies, laws or regulations that obstruct enforcement of federal immigration laws.

Although the list includes the Trump administration's typical targets — the city of Los Angeles and the state of California — it is much shorter ...Read more