CHICAGO — When a masked man grabbed Ernesto Diaz’s left shoulder and slammed him against a vehicle, he thought he was being robbed.

Diaz, 23, had been walking down Archer Avenue on the Southwest Side in late September, heading toward the CTA Orange Line for a trip downtown. Earbuds in, he was listening to music and said he barely ...Read more

This is what arousal looks like.

About 20 women are lying blindfolded on yoga mats in an airy structure in the Joshua Tree desert. Some are partially dressed in loungewear or lingerie; others are fully nude. Sexy indie folk music blasts from the sound system and outside, through the open double doors, the wind kicks up, rustling the fragrant ...Read more

In July, federal immigration agents took Milagro Solis-Portillo to Glendale Memorial Hospital just outside Los Angeles after she suffered a medical emergency while being detained. They didn’t leave.

For two weeks, Immigration and Customs Enforcement contractors sat guard in the hospital lobby 24 hours a day, working in shifts to monitor her ...Read more

MIAMI — Iguanas are becoming a growing health concern in South Florida, with doctors and residents warning that the invasive reptiles can spread salmonella through their droppings and even their bites. The issues has already sent some children to the hospital and pushed one South Florida father to rethink his career.

“He was just really off...Read more

Three years ago, Chinese Premier Li Qiang took on a role largely stripped of its former glory. Now, in a surprise twist, he’s becoming President Xi Jinping’s top emissary on the world stage.

When China’s No. 2 official steps out in Johannesburg at the first Group of 20 leaders’ meeting ever held in Africa this weekend, it’ll mark his ...Read more

Federal immigration agents arrested a man who documented their activities in Charlotte on Tuesday, his friends told The Charlotte Observer. He was freed from an FBI office six hours later and disputed claims by the federal government about what transpired.

It happened Tuesday afternoon at the parking lot of the Eastway Crossing Shopping Center,...Read more

North Carolina father Wellington Delano Dickens III has allegedly admitted to the death of a fifth child after cops found four of his kids in the trunk of his car last month.

The 38-year-old was arrested on Oct. 27 after he called 911 to report that he’d kill his kids, according to the Johnston County Sheriff’s Office. When deputies arrived...Read more

The U.S. based dealers who are selling high-powered assault rifles that are later illegally trafficked to armed criminal gangs in Haiti are a handful of “bad actors” who can be reined in with tightened U.S. efforts, experts told a human-rights panel on Tuesday.

“These dangerous business practices can be stopped in several ways. One is ...Read more

MEXICO CITY — It may be "OK" with President Trump, but Mexico rejects any U.S. strikes against cartels in its territory.

That was the message reiterated Tuesday by Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who has repeatedly said that her nation would not accept U.S. attacks or troops on Mexican soil.

"It's not going to happen," Sheinbaum told ...Read more

GREENVILLE, S.C. — A near-total abortion ban for South Carolina failed to advance after a majority of a committee’s Republican state senators declined to cast a vote.

Four Republican senators abstained on the final vote after several amendments to remove the bill’s most extreme measures failed during a hearing Tuesday afternoon.

The bill...Read more

LOS ANGELES — On his second day as chief of the Los Angeles Fire Department, Jaime Moore criticized what he called media efforts to “smear” firefighters who responded to the worst wildfire in city history.

Moore’s comments Tuesday appeared to be in reference to a Los Angeles Times report that a battalion chief ordered firefighters to ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said he would formally designate Saudi Arabia as a major non-NATO ally in a further strengthening of ties between the two countries, capping a day of dealmaking between the U.S. leader and the kingdom’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

“I’m pleased to announce that we’re taking our military ...Read more

CHICAGO — The number of detainees held at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing center in Broadview has dropped precipitously since a federal judge ordered the government to comply with requirements to improve conditions at the facility, with only four people held there as of Tuesday morning.

The figure came out during a ...Read more

BOSTON — The City of Boston moved to dismiss the federal government’s lawsuit challenging its sanctuary city policy Monday, arguing the policy is constitutionally protected and the U.S.’s lawsuit failed to show a conflict with federal law.

“The Trust Act requires the Boston Police Department to prioritize criminal law enforcement, while...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration said it will transfer some of the Education Department’s largest grant programs and major portions of several offices to other federal agencies, part of a broader plan to greatly reduce the department’s authority.

The plan would shift tens of billions of dollars in funding out of the Education ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — A Lancaster couple who stabbed and decapitated their son and daughter before showing the remains to their two surviving children were convicted of murder Nov. 12 in the Antelope Valley Courthouse.

A Los Angeles County Superior Court jury found personal trainer Maurice Jewel Taylor, 39, and Natalie Sumiko Brothwell, 48, guilty of...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump called on Congress to pass a federal standard governing oversight of artificial intelligence and warned that varied regulation at the state level risked slowing the development of an emerging technology that’s critical to the U.S. economy.

In a post on his Truth Social network Tuesday, the president urged...Read more

WASHINGTON — A federal court on Tuesday blocked Texas from moving forward with its new congressional map, hastily drawn in hopes of netting up to five additional Republican seats and securing the U.S. House for the GOP in next year's midterm elections.

The ruling is a major political blow to the Trump administration, which set off a ...Read more

MEXICO CITY — President Claudia Sheinbaum again ruled out a U.S. military intervention in Mexico, pushing back on the latest suggestion of unilateral action from President Donald Trump.

“It won’t happen,” Sheinbaum said emphatically on Tuesday, responding to the U.S. leader’s comments a day earlier that he may even deploy ground ...Read more