States that were leaders in childhood vaccination before the pandemic are among those losing ground as exemptions and unfounded skepticism take hold, encouraged by the Trump administration’s stance under U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Expanded exemptions for parents are likely to drop both Mississippi and West ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Jazmine Locke has filled out the paperwork and checked all the boxes. As a middle-income worker, she qualifies for California-subsidized day care for her 7-month-old daughter. Yet she holds little hope she will ever make it off the waitlist. Her older son, now 12, never did.

"In my mind, I plan to pay for child care until she ...Read more

The momentum behind cellphone bans in schools has reached more than half the states, as teachers, superintendents and education experts praise these policies as a way to boost student achievement and mental health, and to rebuild a sense of community that many believe has been diminished by students’ addiction to screens.

Now, the question ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Less than three weeks before a deadly explosion in Esparto, the company that operated the fireworks compound in the small town about 40 minutes from Sacramento tried to claw back tons of fireworks seized by law enforcement in Southern California, citing its close relationship with the Yolo County Sheriff’s Department, ...Read more

The head of the Minnesota Sheriffs’ Association and border czar Tom Homan are negotiating a deal for county jails to cooperate with federal immigration officials, a move that could lead to the drawdown of federal agents in the state, the Minnesota Star Tribune has learned.

The Minnesota Sheriffs’ Association, the Minnesota County Attorneys ...Read more

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved sweeping cuts to an array of homeless services, a move some advocates said will push more people onto the streets.

Though county voters in 2024 approved a sales tax increase to combat the homelessness crisis, county officials said they faced a more than $270 million ...Read more

A federal judge has ordered the release of two Venezuelan men accused of assaulting a federal immigration officer last month outside a north Minneapolis duplex, concluding that they do not present a heightened flight risk.

The federal court hearing Tuesday, Feb. 3, also offered the first outside glimpse of photographs that raise questions about...Read more

Police said employees of a man arrested in connection with what authorities say was an illegal biological laboratory became “deathly ill” after entering a garage containing beakers with “reddish liquid” at a property linked to the investigation.

Ori Solomon, 55, appeared in federal court in Las Vegas on Tuesday.

He has been charged ...Read more

New York and New Jersey sued the Trump administration late Tuesday, demanding the full restoration of billions of dollars in federal funding for construction of the Gateway Project’s Hudson River Tunnel.

The $16 billion tunnel project, which would double the number of rail lines between New Jersey and New York Penn Station and generate an ...Read more

A Minneapolis City Council committee delayed action Tuesday on renewing liquor licenses for two Minneapolis hotels that have housed federal immigration officers.

The committee, made up of all the council members, voted 8-5 to delay a decision on the licenses for Canopy by Hilton in the Mill District and Depot Renaissance Hotel until the next ...Read more

During a Tuesday visit to a California High-Speed Rail facility, Gov. Gavin Newsom touted the train’s investment in the Central Valley and said the Trump administration gave the region “the middle finger” when it decided to pull $4 billion of the project’s federal money last year.

The governor described President Donald Trump as “...Read more

South Carolina’s environmental agency has known for years state that oversight of rivers is so weak that industrial-scale farms can suck rivers dry, but the department has done little to protect waterways from overuse because of political pressure, the department’s former water division chief says.

Mike Marcus, who retired as director of ...Read more

A spotted gray wolf has left his California pack and trotted across Silver State lines, wildlife biologists say.

Nevada Department of Wildlife spokeswoman Ashley Zeme said the wolf is in the north end of the Carson Range near Carson City. The wolf crossed into Nevada on Monday after heading east from Truckee, California, on the north end of ...Read more

A standoff between the White House and Iraqi politicians over who should be the Middle Eastern country’s next prime minister is worsening, according to several people, with the rift threatening to destabilize the OPEC member.

In recent days, Washington told Iraqi officials it would reduce the country’s access to oil-export revenues if it ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office has opened an internal investigation after a video captured deputies tackling and arresting protesters outside the Whipple Federal Building last weekend.

Videos obtained by The Minnesota Star Tribune show a group of deputies walking by protesters who were standing on a sidewalk near the ...Read more

School districts across Florida have heard rumblings lately about student plans to walk out of classes to protest federal immigration enforcement actions, such as the shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.

Some walkouts have already taken place, including in Escambia and Leon counties, while others are being discussed for the coming days, ...Read more

ST. PAUL, Minn. — After a pair of anti-ICE snow sculptures were partially or completely destroyed in two separate competitions this month, the sculptors behind both pieces have reprised their original works in a combined sculpture in Minneapolis.

In late January, Team USA’s sculpture for the World Snow Sculpting Championship in downtown ...Read more

President Trump recently called Colombia’s leader, Gustavo Petro, a “sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States.”

Petro, meanwhile, has labeled Trump a murderer and compared him to Adolf Hitler.

But on Tuesday, the two leaders made nice — mostly — at a closed-door meeting at the White House that both ...Read more