LOS ANGELES — As the government shutdown stretched on last week, Travis Puglisi saw something unusual at Joshua Tree National Park: two rangers doing graffiti checks.

“Do you know how often I run into rangers in the park and actually have conversations with them out in the field?” he said. “Never.”

Puglisi would know what’s normal....Read more

John Cleveland is ready to pay a lot more for his health insurance next year.

He hasn’t forgotten the pile of hospital bills that awaited him after he had a seizure while tending to customers in his Austin, Texas, barbershop four years ago. Once doctors hurriedly removed the dangerous tumor growing on his brain, a weeklong hospital stay, ...Read more

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — The El Pueblo Motor Inn, or what’s left of it anyway, sits vacant behind a chain-link fence along Route 66, its stucco walls clad in weathered sheets of construction tarp.

At first glance, the nearly 90-year-old motel appears to be another crumbling relic from the famed highway’s early years as a bustling thoroughfare ...Read more

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — California’s gubernatorial election is a year away, and the field of primary candidates is still taking shape. But one persistent issue has already emerged as a leading concern: the cost of health care.

At a forum Nov. 7 in the Inland Empire, four Democratic candidates vying to succeed Gov. Gavin Newsom vowed to push ...Read more

In their competition for rural health care dollars from a new federal fund, states are seeking money to bolster emergency services, address chronic diseases, and recruit and train more doctors and nurses.

All 50 states submitted their applications to the federal government last week to get shares of the $50 billion Rural Health Transformation ...Read more

A cancer patient might live in a town with four oncology groups, but only one accepts his insurance — the one owned by his insurer. A young couple could see huge bills after their child is born, because their insurer agreed to the health system’s rates in exchange for a contract with obstetricians across the country. A woman might have to ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Halfway through the 2026 midterm cycle, the fight for the House is remarkably stable, and that’s good news for Democrats’ chances of winning the majority.

Republican efforts to pad their majority through mid-decade redistricting haven’t been as successful as projected thus far, and President Donald Trump’s first year of ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Using apartments in the San Fernando Valley and Glendale area, a shadowy group of identity thieves has been quietly exploiting a new kind of victim — foreign scholars who left the U.S. years ago but whose Social Security numbers still linger in American databases, according to a cybercrime expert.

Criminals are resurrecting ...Read more

Jacqueline Chapman was one of thousands of Pennsylvanians who received their federally funded food assistance late last week before the commonwealth paused payments as the Trump administration's efforts to cease funding for food stamps during the government shutdown played out in court.

When Chapman, 65, received her $298 monthly benefits — ...Read more

Pakistan’s parliament is poised to grant lifelong immunity to Field Marshal Asim Munir, in a move that would further entrench the military’s grip on power in the nuclear-armed nation.

The lower house of parliament approved a constitutional amendment bill expanding Munir’s control over the military branches. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif ...Read more

Sacramento was stunned Wednesday at the news, first reported by The Sacramento Bee, that FBI agents had arrested Dana Williamson, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s former top aide, in a public corruption probe that charges her and two others with conspiring to commit bank and wire fraud.

Williamson, 53, was a powerful player for years in Sacramento ...Read more

DENVER — People in Cortez and Mancos may have been exposed to the measles from a confirmed case in a school-aged child in Montezuma County, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

The child developed measles symptoms after traveling to another part of Colorado with an ongoing measles outbreak, state officials ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Federal officials arrested Dana Williamson, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s former chief of staff, Wednesday in a public corruption probe that includes multiple charges of bank and wire fraud, according to a federal indictment obtained by The Sacramento Bee.

Williamson, who left the Governor’s Office at the end of 2024, is named ...Read more

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s former chief of staff was arrested Wednesday on federal charges that allege she siphoned $225,000 out of 2026 gubernatorial hopeful Xavier Becerra’s dormant state campaign account and wrote off $1 million in luxury handbags and high-flying travel as business expenses on her tax returns.

According to the 23-...Read more

Nevada lawmakers will return to Carson City for a special legislative session beginning Thursday, Gov. Joe Lombardo announced in a proclamation issued Wednesday afternoon.

The Republican governor called on the Democratic-majority Legislature to consider 16 bills, according to the announcement.

The proclamation makes Lombardo’s plans official...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — In the two years since it made the substantial pledge to invest $100 billion in climate solutions by 2030, California’s largest pension fund revealed last week that it is 60% of the way towards reaching that goal.

In 2023, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System announced it had already had $47 billion in ...Read more

WASHINGTON — After a delay of nearly two months as Speaker Mike Johnson kept the House out of Washington, a revolt over the Epstein files reached critical mass on Wednesday.

Rep. Adelita Grijalva, D-Ariz., wasted no time after being sworn into office, immediately backing an effort to shake loose documents related to deceased sex offender ...Read more