MINNEAPOLIS — The Minneapolis Fire Department has added saunas into its stations as a tool to protect its firefighters’ health and well-being, and maybe reduce the chance that they develop cancer.

Fire Chief Bryan Tyner, who was recently diagnosed with cancer and has served in the department for 31 years, hopes the saunas can help his ...Read more

People thinking about starting a business or retiring early — before they’re old enough for Medicare — may want to wait until November, when they can see just how much their Affordable Care Act health insurance will cost next year. Sharp increases are expected.

Premiums for ACA health plans, also known as Obamacare, which many early ...Read more

MIAMI — As thunder boomed on an ominous Sunday evening just outside of Alligator Alcatraz, over 200 people — most of them reverends, rabbis, pastors and people of assorted faiths — chanted in unison, “Shut it down” and “This is a preserve, not a prison” as cars and trucks zoomed behind them on Tamiami Trail.

Clergy alternated in ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- As California turns to satellite imagery, remote cameras watched by AI and heat detection sensors placed throughout wildlands to detect fires earlier, one Orange County group is keeping it old-school.

Whenever the National Weather Service issues a red flag warning, a sign that dangerous fire weather is imminent, Renalynn ...Read more

BOSTON — During this year’s budget cycle, Oklahoma state Sen. John Haste said lawmakers had two major things on their minds.

“Number one was tax cuts. Number two, what the hell is going on in Washington?” he told a national gathering of state lawmakers this month in Boston.

While Oklahoma lawmakers secured another round of income tax ...Read more

Florida is plagued by invasive creatures, but it’s the native rainbow snake that state officials are asking people to report on sight.

The reason: The snakes are increasingly tough to find, giving rise to fears the species is dying out, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission says.

“We need help from Floridians and visitors ...Read more

The Environmental Protection Agency announced the first national drinking water standard for six so-called forever chemicals Wednesday, a change that could cost Washington public water utilities an estimated $1.6 billion, according to state officials.

The EPA’s legally enforceable limits for two of the most persistent of these chemicals, PFOA...Read more

A bill that would make California the first in the nation to phase out “particularly harmful” ultra-processed foods from the 1 billion school meals served in the state each year faces a key Senate committee hearing next week as critics question how far it might go in striking popular and seemingly healthy items like yogurt and granola bars ...Read more

Farmers across Washington already spread thousands of tons of fertilizer from human waste on their crops each year, but there’s a major blind spot when it comes to potential contaminants.

Fertilizers made from human waste are fairly common across the country. Depending on who you ask, they’re called “biosolids” or “sludge,” and they...Read more

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Catherine Hanaway, a longtime figure in Missouri Republican politics, will return to public office next month to become the state’s next attorney general.

Hanaway, 61, will take over one of the most coveted offices in state politics on Sept. 8, after her predecessor, Andrew Bailey, resigns to join the Federal Bureau of ...Read more

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomed improved ties with China as U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent escalated criticism of the South Asian nation over its purchases of Russian oil.

Modi said he’s looking forward to visiting China later this month — his first trip to the country in seven years — and meeting President Xi Jinping....Read more

No one seems to be safe amid President Trump’s crime crackdown in Washington, D.C. — not even Fox News host Bret Baier, who was caught on video being pulled over by police in the nation’s capital.

The “Special Report” host was stopped by a D.C. cop for distracted driving while behind the wheel of a white Mercedes-Benz G-Wagon.

The ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — As summer heats up and tourists flock to the California coast, beachgoers should be on the lookout for sea lions sickened by a recent outbreak of leptospirosis — a kidney disease that can result in severe symptoms in both humans and animals.

The Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito has reported a significant outbreak of ...Read more

Swimming will be prohibited at all New York City beaches Wednesday and Thursday as Hurricane Erin is threatening to bring dangerous rip currents and waves as high as 13 feet to shores all along the East Coast.

Mayor Adams and Iris Rodriguez-Rosa, the city’s Parks Department commissioner, announced the planned closures Tuesday afternoon. In a ...Read more

FORT WORTH, Texas — Tarrant County faith leaders along with city and county officials rallied in downtown Fort Worth on Tuesday in support of State Rep. Nicole Collier.

The gathering comes a day after Collier, a Fort Worth Democrat, was confined to the Texas State Capitol for not agreeing in writing to supervision by officers from Texas ...Read more

The departure of Texas Democrats who spent two weeks in suburban Chicago evading a vote in their state on a Republican-backed redrawing of congressional district boundaries has not ended the conversation on partisan gerrymandering in Illinois.

A bipartisan pair of former high-level officials from President Barack Obama’s administration on ...Read more

The American Academy of Pediatrics updated its recommendations for immunizations Tuesday, including calling for COVID shots for healthy kids, diverging from controversial advice from the federal government.

The group said it recommends the COVID shot for children ages 6 months to 23 months. Earlier this year, Health and Human Services Secretary...Read more

The Minnesota-based Vaccine Integrity Project followed through Tuesday on a promise to provide scientific data on vaccine safety and effectiveness ― even though it contradicts President Donald Trump’s federal health advisers.

The project collected results from 590 existing studies and pooled them to see what they collectively show about the...Read more