SAN DIEGO — Falling in love can happen in a snap. Dave Hatzenbuehler knows this from the way he responded nearly a half-century ago upon noticing a big, brooding presence in San Diego Bay.

He’d caught sight of a Navy cruiser, a famously dynamic type of ship that had been turning heads since the 1880s. This one was the USS Long Beach, a ...Read more

TAMPA, Fla. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed orders to execute more inmates in one year than any other governor in state history.

Edward Zakrzewski, 60, died at Florida State Prison on July 31, marking the state’s ninth execution of the year. A 10th execution is scheduled Tuesday, an 11th on Aug. 28 and a 12th on Sept. 17.

In Florida...Read more

The University of Minnesota is investing millions in a quest to understand aging and why some people feel and look much younger or older than their birth dates suggest.

When it opens next summer, the University’s Institute for Healthy Aging will pursue, test and then provide strategies that help people achieve biological ages that are lower ...Read more

For years, state lawmakers have taken the lead on regulating kratom — the controversial herbal supplement used for pain relief, anxiety and opioid withdrawal symptoms. Some states have banned it entirely. Others have passed laws requiring age limits, labeling and lab testing.

At least half of the states and the District of Columbia have ...Read more

San Bernardino, California, police responded to what they described as "an officer-involved shooting" involving federal immigration officers Saturday morning.

When police officers responded to the area of Acacia Avenue and Baseline Street shortly before 9 a.m., they encountered immigration agents who said they had fired at a suspect who then ...Read more

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Hurricane Erin, after strengthening into a Category 5 storm early Saturday, only a day after becoming a hurricane, saw its classification drop to a Category 4 on Saturday night.

NOAA Hurricane Hunters found maximum sustained winds had increased to nearly 160 mph during a pass through the storm just after 11 a.m. ...Read more

COVID-19 rates in the Southwestern United States reached 12.5% — the highest in the nation — according to new data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released this week. Meanwhile, Los Angeles County recorded the highest COVID-19 levels in its wastewater since February.

Combined, California Nevada and Arizona clocked ...Read more

The Sierra Club, one of the nation’s oldest and most prominent nonprofit environmental groups, was thrown into upheaval this week after its executive director was fired.

In an email to staff Monday, Sierra Club President Patrick Murphy said the board of directors had voted unanimously to terminate Ben Jealous after conducting “an extensive ...Read more

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Hurricane Erin strengthened into a powerful Category 5 storm on Saturday only a day after becoming a hurricane and was forecast to continue intensifying for at least several hours.

NOAA Hurricane Hunters found maximum sustained winds had increased to nearly 160 mph during a pass through the storm just after 11 a.m. ...Read more

As cooler, wetter weather helps southern and central California fire crews contain a handful of blazes burning in the region, the National Weather Service warns it likely won’t last.

Starting Monday, the weather service expects another week of hot and dry weather favorable for abnormally elevated fire behavior and growth in inland areas. “...Read more

ATLANTA — Investigators working to understand the motive of the man who shot 500 bullets at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week have uncovered his history of distrust toward vaccines, blaming the COVID-19 vaccine in particular on his health ailments.

Scientific research repeatedly has shown the vaccine to be safe and ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — For the past several months, volunteers and community members arriving at the Mi SELA youth center in the city of Bell have encountered a putrid smell.

The source? Bags of discarded dog feces.

The center is a partnership between the Los Angeles LGBT Center and the Latino Equity Alliance and provides youth clubs, community-...Read more

FORT WORTH, Texas — Democratic activist Beto O’Rourke and his non-profit Powered by People are no longer allowed to send money out of Texas, a Tarrant County judge ruled on Friday.

Judge Megan Fahey of the 348th District Court issued the freeze as an expansion of an original restraining order filed against O’Rourke on Aug. 8, according to...Read more

Thailand’s lower house of parliament passed a 3.78 trillion baht ($117 billion) annual budget, needed to support a fragile economy that’s at risk from issues ranging from the effect of higher U.S. tariffs to a downturn in tourism.

The budget bill for the year starting Oct. 1 was backed by 257 lawmakers in the 500-member House of ...Read more

WASHINGTON — West Virginia is sending several hundred National Guard troops to Washington to bolster the federal deployment that President Donald Trump has ordered in his effort to reduce crime in the nation’s capital.

Gov. Patrick Morrisey was responding to a request from the Trump administration in sending 300 to 400 of the state’s ...Read more

A strike by thousands of Air Canada flight attendants caused travel chaos and hundreds of flight cancellations across the U.S. on Saturday.

The Canadian government quickly stepped in Saturday morning, shutting down the strike by imposing binding arbitration and forcing the flight attendants back to work.

“It has now become clear that this ...Read more

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Hurricane Erin strengthened into a powerful Category 5 storm on Saturday only a day after becoming a hurricane and was forecast to continue intensifying for at least several hours.

NOAA Hurricane Hunters found maximum sustained winds had increased to nearly 160 mph during a pass through the storm just after 11 a.m. ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The fate of Donald Trump’s push to stop the fighting in Ukraine will be tested again as Volodymyr Zelenskyy prepares to respond to the U.S. president’s shifting demands following mixed signals from the Russia-U.S. summit in Alaska.

Trump will host the Ukrainian president at the White House on Monday in their first Oval ...Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Disgusting. Sickening. Unacceptable. Reprehensible.

Those are descriptions from federal politicians and child-safety advocates of the “sensual” and “romantic” chats Meta allowed its artificial intelligence bots on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp to have with children.

The Bay Area-based social media giant is ...Read more