CHICAGO — In Illinois, the line between legal politics and bribery has always seemed a blurry one.

Through the years, it’s been debated in bars, argued in newspapers, litigated in court, decided by juries and appealed all the way to the Supreme Court.

Over the next two weeks, the heavyweight fight over what constitutes legal political ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — You're going to hear a lot about El Niño this year.

The term refers to warmer-than-average waters along the equatorial Pacific that can influence weather across the globe, raising the odds of searing drought in some regions and torrential rain in others. Indicators increasingly suggest such an event will develop later this ...Read more

The U.S. and Iran prepared for peace talks in Pakistan at the weekend with a fragile ceasefire largely holding, though pivotal issues such as control over the Strait of Hormuz and Israel’s offensive in Lebanon remain unresolved.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance is expected to lead the American delegation in Islamabad on Saturday, with Iranian ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Survivors of the devastating Eaton fire called on state lawmakers on Wednesday to pass a bill requiring audits of spending by Southern California Edison and the state's two other big for-profit electric companies on wildfire prevention.

The survivors pointed to an investigation by The Times that found that Edison had not spent ...Read more

U.S. President Donald Trump vowed to keep troops in the Persian Gulf ahead of talks with Iran that are planned to firm up a fragile truce, while the Strait of Hormuz remained effectively shut as shipowners await clarification on the status of the key waterway.

Both sides accused each other of violating the ceasefire that was announced Tuesday ...Read more

OAKLAND, Calif. — Rosa María Carranza leaned forward to hold a 3-year-old’s back as the girl climbed a rock in the forested hills of northeast Oakland.

Dressed in hiking gear and beaded necklaces, Carranza, 67, maneuvered between trees and children on a sunny morning in December. “Hold on to that branch,” she said in Spanish. “You ...Read more

ST. LOUIS — As data center projects have popped up across the St. Louis region, driven by the growth of industrial-scale computing for artificial intelligence, one of the primary concerns raised by residents is about water — as in, will data centers consume vast amounts of the local water supply?

Data centers — essentially huge warehouses...Read more

MIAMI — Driver’s licenses and ID cards that meet REAL ID requirements in Florida will indicate the legal status of their holders beginning in 2027 under a new state law.

House Bill 991 was signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis as part of the Florida SAVE Act legislative package, which focuses on election “security.”

Under the law, new, ...Read more

DONNER PASS, Calif. — After 5½ hours on backcountry skis, traversing the Sierra Nevada’s rapidly melting snowpack beneath a scorching spring sun, the guide at the front of our group stopped and went silent.

He dropped to his knees, bowed his head and folded his hands in prayer.

Out of breath, with my thighs burning from a long, steep ...Read more

MEXICO CITY — The goal, say Mexican authorities, was to bring clarity to one of the nation’s most explosive questions: What happened to the more than 130,000 people officially listed as “disappeared”?

Their faces are pasted on walls and lampposts across Mexico, and demonstrators regularly hoist banners demanding the return of loved ...Read more

WATERFORD TOWNSHIP, Mich. — When Waterford Township Police Chief Scott Underwood asked the township's Board of Trustees earlier this year to approve technology that would improve his department's license plate reader capabilities, he was greeted by a host of residents voicing privacy concerns.

At the Jan. 26 meeting, Underwood asked for the ...Read more

A federal appeals court declined for now Anthropic PBC’s request to pause a declaration by the Pentagon that the artificial intelligence company poses a risk to the U.S. supply chain, even as plans for a broader government ban on its technology remain blocked by a California judge.

In its decision Wednesday, the three-judge panel in ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump lashed out at NATO after meeting with the military alliance’s secretary-general, Mark Rutte, making clear that his anger over the organization’s stance on the Iran war remained acute.

“NATO WASN’T THERE WHEN WE NEEDED THEM, AND THEY WON’T BE THERE IF WE NEED THEM AGAIN. REMEMBER GREENLAND, THAT ...Read more

NORFOLK, Va. — The U.S. Army Cadet Command released a video Wednesday night of Old Dominion cadets who were in the classroom when a gunman opened fire, killing their instructor and injuring two of their peers.

The cadets said they were there for a regular Thursday morning meeting of their class: Military Science IV. Some arrived at Constant ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Secret warrants obtained by the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department to seize more than 650,000 ballots in a controversial investigation of election fraud allegations were made public Wednesday, raising new questions about whether the probe was based on solid evidence of crimes.

Riverside County Superior Court Judge Gail O’...Read more

NEW YORK — Donald Trump has asked New York’s highest appeals court to vacate a judge’s finding that he was liable for inflating the value of his real estate assets, arguing that his former lawyer Michael Cohen has since cast doubt on his own testimony against the president.

In a filing Wednesday, Trump’s lawyers cited a January ...Read more