Let’s be clear: The primary reason to be vaccinated against shingles is that two shots provide at least 90% protection against a painful, blistering disease that a third of Americans will suffer in their lifetimes, one that can cause lingering nerve pain and other nasty long-term consequences.

The most important reason for older adults to be ...Read more

It’s feeding time for the animals on this property outside Nashville, Tennessee. An albino raccoon named Cricket reaches through the wires of its cage to grab an animal cracker, an appetizer treat right before the evening meal.

“Cricket is blind,” said Robert Sory, who is trying to open a nonprofit animal sanctuary along with his wife, ...Read more

New federal guidance to reduce the number of vaccines recommended for all children from 17 vaccines down to 11 comes as states already are charting their own courses on vaccine policy.

The new federal guidelines mention a directive issued by President Donald Trump in December calling to align the U.S. vaccination schedule with “peer” ...Read more

When one of Adam Burkhammer’s foster children struggled with hyperactivity, the West Virginia legislator and his wife decided to alter their diet and remove any foods that contained synthetic dyes.

“We saw a turnaround in his behavior, and our other children,” said Burkhammer, who has adopted or fostered 10 kids with his wife. “There ...Read more

LEXINGTON, Ky. — The GOP supermajority in Frankfort and Kentucky’s environmental advocacy groups don’t always see eye to eye, but this legislative session, lawmakers and green activists are focused on the same issue: artificial intelligence and the opportunities and risks data centers pose to the commonwealth.

Energy- and resource-...Read more

When Washington, D.C., agreed to hand over billions in land and tax breaks for a new Commanders football stadium, experts thought it would long remain an outlier in sweetheart deals for sports teams.

But just months later, attention turned to Kansas, where officials in December announced plans to fund 60% of a new stadium for the NFL’s Kansas...Read more

Maryland’s 2026 legislative session kicked off Wednesday, with senior Democrats doubling down on Gov. Wes Moore’s pledge that Marylanders shouldn’t and won’t face increased taxes during this session, despite a projected $1.4 billion budget deficit.

Moore has repeatedly pledged not to hike taxes and fees to wipe out the deficit, a stark ...Read more

Los Angeles law enforcement sources are shedding more light on Kiefer Sutherland’s most recent arrest after the “24” star allegedly threatened to kill his Uber driver this week.

The two-time Emmy winner, 59, was arrested for felony criminal threats just after midnight on Monday. He was released later that day on $50,000 bond and is due ...Read more

A man was shot in the leg Wednesday night during a federal immigration enforcement operation in north Minneapolis, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the situation.

Witnesses say a series of gunshots followed a car chase and foot chase involving federal agents.

In a post on X from the city of Minneapolis, staff said, “We are ...Read more

President Donald Trump faulted Ukraine’s leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy as the main obstacle to an agreement to end the war Russia launched against his country four years ago.

Trump, in an interview with Reuters on Wednesday, described Russian President Vladimir Putin as “ready to make a deal,” Reuters reported. When pressed on what was ...Read more

The U.S. measles outbreak that drove cases to a 34-year high in 2025 shows no signs of slowing, as 168 more people have become infected since the start of the new year.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Wednesday that a total of 171 cases have been confirmed this year in nine states. On Tuesday, South Carolina reported ...Read more

WASHINGTON — A day after the Department of Health and Human Services implemented a late-night rollback of $2 billion in mental health and substance use funding, an administration official confirmed late Wednesday that the grants are now being restored.

The cancellation of Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration funding had ...Read more

Federal judges in the Western District of Washington plan to appoint a new U.S. attorney when the term of acting U.S. Attorney Charles Neil Floyd expires next month, setting in motion a potential clash with the Trump administration and Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Floyd, a controversial and tough-minded immigration judge, was appointed acting U....Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — The attorney for the family of Renee Good said that an ICE agent killed “the best of the best” when he shot the Minneapolis woman a few blocks from her home last week and pledged timely public transparency of the firm’s findings.

Anthony Romanucci arrived in Minneapolis on Jan. 14, hours after he disclosed that his Chicago...Read more

As a federal immigration enforcement surge continues in Minnesota, Gov. Tim Walz on Wednesday called on Minnesotans to peacefully resist the administration of President Donald Trump and to record videos of immigration agents operating in the state.

The governor delivered remarks on the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in an ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump insisted he does not plan to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell despite a Justice Department probe into the central bank’s renovation.

“I don’t have any plan to do that,” Trump said Wednesday in an interview with Reuters.

Still, the president said he had not arrived at a conclusion about ...Read more

The Florida Senate took a step Wednesday toward reforming the funding model for the state’s $4.3 billion school voucher system, unanimously adopting legislation aimed at fixing problems identified in a recent scathing Auditor General’s report.

Among other things, the measure would move voucher funding into a budget line that’s separate ...Read more

Mabelyn Hernandez-Diaz was still breastfeeding her 6-month-old son in September when Hillsborough County sheriff’s deputies approached the vehicle she and her boyfriend, the boy’s father, were sitting in while it was parked in front of a store in Wimauma.

Hernandez-Diaz, a 20-year-old immigrant from Guatemala, held her infant son Aiden ...Read more

Sixty-five percent of Chicagoans think the Trump administration’s recent federal immigration enforcement activities have “gone too far,” according to results from a survey commissioned by the Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation and conducted by NORC as part of the University of Chicago’s ChicagoSpeaks panel.

But Chicagoans were ...Read more

In a major victory for Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Democratic Party, a federal court in Los Angeles ruled Wednesday that California can use its newly configured congressional district boundaries for the 2026 midterm elections, increasing Democrats’ odds of winning five additional U.S. House seats and seizing control of the chamber.

Attorneys ...Read more