LOS ANGELES — A judge in Santa Barbara County Superior Court has dismissed a felony false imprisonment charge against Ashlee Buzzard, the county district attorney said in a statement.

Buzzard, 40, of Lompoc, remains at the center of a mystery surrounding the whereabouts of her 9-year-old daughter Melodee. Melodee was reported missing Oct. 14,...Read more

European leaders sought to buy time for Ukraine to work out a new ceasefire framework with Russia after the Trump administration set a one-week deadline to agree to terms that Kyiv and its allies rejected as an unacceptable giveaway to Moscow.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and leaders in France, Germany and across the continent were working to ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Less than a year after 6,822 structures burned in the Palisades Fire, the first rebuilding project has reached the finish line in Pacific Palisades: a two-story showcase home located at 915 Kagawa St.

In a news release, Mayor Karen Bass announced that the home received a certificate of occupancy from the L.A. Department of ...Read more

During an extraordinarily cordial meeting at the White House on Friday, President Donald Trump showered New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani with compliments and vowed to be “a big help” to his incoming administration — sparking perhaps the most improbable bromance in American politics.

The sympatico tone was a shocking turnaround for...Read more

Pras Michel, a Grammy-winning rapper turned political influencer, was sentenced to 14 years in prison for conspiring to wage a back-channel lobbying campaign to end U.S. probes of fugitive Malaysian tycoon Jho Low and other crimes.

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly sentenced Michel, 52, on Thursday in Washington federal court, where ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — An unusual series of storms has made this the wettest November on record for swaths of Southern California, dumping as much as 8.9 inches of rain along the coast as of Friday afternoon before a week of dry weather will provide a reprieve through the Thanksgiving holiday.

Scattered light showers are still possible through ...Read more

CHICAGO — Nearly 60 years after earning his law degree, imprisoned former House Speaker Michael Madigan was formally disbarred this week in a one-paragraph notice buried in a monthly list of attorney discipline from around the state.

Madigan, the notice from the Illinois Supreme Court stated, was disbarred by his own consent following his ...Read more

The prosecutor hand-picked by President Donald Trump to pursue a criminal case against James Comey now says the indictment of the former FBI director was properly presented to a grand jury for a vote — a day after telling a judge the final version of the charging papers was never shown to the full jury.

In a “notice correcting the record”...Read more

CHICAGO — U.S. Sen. Ruben Gallego walked down 26th Street in Chicago's Little Village neighborhood on Friday morning while moments from his past came back to life. This is where he came every year to buy shoes for school. Across the street was the shop where he rented a tuxedo for prom.

There weren’t many restaurants around that didn’t ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Friday warmly welcomed one of America’s most powerful self-described democratic socialists to the Oval Office, saying he hopes New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani has a “great” term that builds a safer and more affordable Big Apple — after harshly criticizing him for months.

“The better he does...Read more

BOISE, Idaho — After hours of heated testimony and debate, Sandpoint’s City Council voted to repeal the city’s rules protecting residents and visitors from discrimination.

The city was the first of 13 in Idaho to pass an ordinance barring discrimination, said Nicole Erwin, a spokesperson for Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates. Its ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The House has a lot on its plate after reopening the government — including bad blood.

After a week of censure threats on the floor, many are grumbling about wasted time and an endless cycle of revenge. But that cycle could be hard to break, as members increasingly turn to punishment tools they once used only sparingly.

“It�...Read more

President Donald Trump took off the table the possibility of slashing federal funding for New York and vowed to actually be “a big help” to the city after an extraordinarily cordial meeting with Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani at the White House on Friday.

The sympatico tone marked a shocking turnaround for Trump, who has for months smeared ...Read more

U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, a Pennsylvania Democrat, said Friday she is “profoundly disappointed” in her Republican colleagues for not speaking up after President Donald Trump accused her and five other Democratic lawmakers of sedition.

Houlahan was one of six Democrats in Congress — all military veterans or members of the intelligence ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — In January, when crews fighting the fast-spreading Palisades fire were hampered by low water pressure and dry hydrants, Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered an investigation.

After a 10-month review, California officials concluded in a report that the water supply in Southern California was “robust” at the time of the fire and that the...Read more

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of House lawmakers released text of legislation Friday aimed at avoiding the health care subsidy cliff by extending Affordable Care Act tax credits for two years while installing income caps and anti-fraud measures.

Reps. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., Don Bacon, R-Neb., Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., and Jeff Hurd, R-Colo., ...Read more

NEW YORK — An FBI memo that claims “anarchist violent extremist actors” are targeting law enforcement cites a private text message chat that included immigration court observers, raising questions about whether the department is monitoring political activity, a copy of the document indicates.

The “joint situational information report,�...Read more

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine risks losing its key partner after the U.S. threatened to cut off support unless Kyiv agrees to a peace deal that would force it to cede territory to Russia, cap the size of its military and pledge never to join NATO.

“Now it’s one of the most difficult moments in our history,” Zelenskyy said in ...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — Florida’s DOGE team has asked state universities to turn over data on every undergraduate course offered at the 12 schools, including the syllabus and names of faculty members who are instructing it in the next two academic years.

The DeSantis administration sent its request Monday to the Board of Governors, which oversees ...Read more