Millions of Americans in the past few years have run into this experience: filing a health care insurance claim that once might have been paid immediately but instead is just as quickly denied. If the experience and the insurer’s explanation often seem arbitrary and absurd, that might be because companies appear increasingly likely to employ computer algorithms or people with little relevant ...

What's so bad about polarization? I see the divides between factions of Americans as a troubling problem that we should all be striving to address. But lately I keep running into smart people who disagree. Earlier this month, I was on a PEN World Voices Festival panel at the L.A. Central Library with author and TV producer Reza Aslan and Hollywood's Black List founder Franklin Leonard. Each ...

Artificial intelligence is, suddenly, everywhere. We are awash in ideas about how we can use AI productively — from agriculture to climate change to engineering to software construction. And, equally, there are plenty of cautionary notes being struck about using AI to control societies, manipulate economies, defeat commercial opponents, and generally fulfill Arthur C. Clarke’s visions of ...

DUNEDIN, Fla. — The parents of the man who would be president live in a tidy, single-story ranch house in a Gulf Coast suburb of Florida. The three-bedroom, two-bath, concrete block house with a brick facade is the childhood home of Gov. Ron DeSantis, who announced his run for the White House last week. The home’s landscaping is well-maintained, though with a browning lawn likely due to ...

"Monopoly money" is a term for useless paper notes. Inflation was so bad in 1930s Weimar Germany, it took literal wheelbarrows of cash to buy groceries. In Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe, inflation at one point reached 79,600,000,000% per month; the price of your meal would change during dinner. Today, Zimbabwe’s 10 trillion dollar note is available on eBay for $69.99. But there’s one piece of paper ...

CULLOM, Ill. — Hack Street isn’t exactly Michigan Avenue. The main thoroughfare of downstate Cullom — a town of around 600 about halfway between Bourbonnais and Bloomington — showcases cement geese hand-molded by the mayor and a market often staffed by one clerk. But don’t confuse a quiet town with a dead one. Cullom’s business center is crowded, its high school enrollment is stable, and most ...

LAS VEGAS — Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said Wednesday that the biggest threats to the security of the United States are domestic terrorists, China and fentanyl smuggling. The secretary also said that America’s immigration system is “broken” and he defended the Biden administration’s border policy as “a strategy of developing lawful pathways for people to reach the United ...

WASHINGTON — The House passed debt limit legislation forged by President Joe Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy that would impose restraints on government spending through the 2024 election and avert a destabilizing U.S. default. Lawmakers from both parties joined to approve the bill 314-117 Wednesday evening, sending the measure to the Senate for consideration as a default deadline draws near. ...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis sought to court Iowa voters as the best alternative to Donald Trump, continuing the official kickoff to his Republican presidential campaign on Wednesday. After speeches near Sioux City and in Council Bluffs, DeSantis made an effort to pose for selfies, sign autographs and chat with voters, trying to dispel criticism he’s bad at the retail politics crucial to winning ...

HOUSTON — After hearing nearly 11 hours of testimony on Wednesday, a federal bankruptcy judge plans to rule Thursday about whether Bally Sports North's parent company must pay the Twins the full amount of their broadcast-rights deal for this season, a payday believed to be worth more than $40 million. But even if Diamond Sports Group, which owns BSN and 18 other regional sports networks under ...

Latvia’s parliament elected long-time Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics as the Baltic nation’s new president, making him the European Union’s first openly gay head of state. Fifty-two lawmakers in the 100-seat legislature in Riga voted for Rinkevics, who has served as Latvia’s top envoy for almost 12 years, to succeed President Egils Levits. Appointed by Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins’s ...

WASHINGTON — Republican lawmakers who oppose the debt ceiling bill argue it doesn’t do enough to cut spending or reduce the deficit. Yet when defense is concerned, many argue the government ought to be spending more, not less. Under the deal passed by the House on Wednesday evening and sent to the Senate, defense spending would get the 3.3% increase the president proposed for the coming year — ...

LAS VEGAS — Golden Knights goalie Robin Lehner and his wife Donya are facing new allegations of fraud tied to the couple’s ongoing Chapter 7 bankruptcy case. Las Vegas businessman Michael Borden claims that Lehner misled him on his ability to repay $4 million in loans he provided last year to the NHL star, according to a recent court filing. The Lehners, who filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy ...

WASHINGTON — The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a deal to suspend the debt limit late Wednesday, reducing the risk of a potentially disastrous default. The legislation must still clear the Senate and be signed by President Joe Biden before the government runs out of money to pay its bills, which could happen as early as Monday. The House approved the bill, which is a ...

LOS ANGELES — Soap star Tyler Christopher was arrested Friday at Hollywood Burbank Airport on suspicion of public drunkenness — his second such arrest since 2019. Christopher, 50, was asleep on the floor in Terminal A near American Airlines and woke up when officers arrived, according to the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority Police Department. The "General Hospital" and "Days of Our ...

ORLANDO, Fla. — The National Hurricane Center continues to track a system forming in the Gulf of Mexico expected to dump rainfall over a good portion of Florida as it slowly moves toward the state into the weekend. In its 8 p.m. tropical update, the NHC stated the low pressure area has formed over the northeastern gulf with disorganized showers and thunderstorms to its northeast. ...

NEW YORK — JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon strongly denied knowing Jeffrey Epstein or deliberately aiding the prolific abuser’s sex trafficking of teenage girls, according to court documents released Wednesday. In a sit-down videotaped deposition on Friday, Dimon denied responsibility for Epstein’s depravity and said he trusted his senior executives to vet clients. “(My) heart goes out to these ...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Florida governor and 2024 presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis will visit the California capital June 19 for a “roundtable breakfast” priced at $3,300 per ticket. The private fundraising event, which his campaign announced on Wednesday, will be hosted by Pam and Steve Eggert of Sacramento; The ticket price is the limit an individual can contribute per election per candidate, ...

WASHINGTON — Congress appears no closer to passing a bill to protect hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children, ahead of a court hearing Thursday in litigation that threatens a program shielding “Dreamers” from deportation. A comprehensive immigration proposal put forth last week by Florida Republican Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar and Texas Democratic Rep. ...

LOS ANGELES — Actor Danny Masterson was convicted of two counts of rape Wednesday after his second trial on charges that he sexually assaulted several women he met through the Church of Scientology in the early 2000s. Jurors hung on a third count after deliberating for a little more than a week. They contacted Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Charlaine Olmedo around 11 a.m. Wednesday to ...

AUSTIN, Texas – Gov. Greg Abbott named a Fort Worth attorney to fill in as Texas attorney general while Ken Paxton faces an impeachment trial. Abbott installed John Scott to the prominent post on Wednesday but made no comment about the GOP-led House decision to impeach the state’s top lawyer over alleged corruption. “His decades of experience and expertise in litigation will help guide him ...

WASHINGTON — The debt-limit deal struck by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Joe Biden cleared a major hurdle in the House, lining the compromise legislation up for passage Wednesday night as the U.S. quickly approaches a June 5 deadline to avert a default. The House voted, 241-187, to take a procedural step needed to consider the measure. Such votes setting the rules for debate are ...

NEW YORK — Only a small number of the more than 70,000 migrants who have come to New York City since last spring have formally applied for asylum, a top official in Mayor Eric Adams’ administration said Wednesday. Anne Williams-Isom, Adams’ deputy mayor for health and human services, did not provide an exact tally of asylum applicants, but suggested many who haven’t applied are likely ...

LAS VEGAS — Nevada Republicans would rather caucus than participate in an open primary to select their next presidential nominee, and they are suing the state in hopes of making that happen. “Today, the Nevada Republican Party filed a lawsuit against the State of Nevada to ensure that only Republicans will decide the method of choosing our Republican Presidential nominee,” the party wrote in a ...

Warnings about the dangers of smoking will be printed directly on cigarettes themselves in Canada in what is believed to be a world first. Smokers will literally have warnings like “Cigarettes cause cancer” and “Poison in every puff” spelled out beneath their noses every time they take a drag, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). Other warnings printed on cigarettes north ...

Late last week, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that a decades-old Minnesota property tax law was unlawful when it allowed the government to seize wealth from an elderly Black homeowner. The decision in Tyler v. Hennepin County serves as a warning about legal defects in other property tax laws that unfairly harm communities of color, including California’s own Proposition 13. The Minnesota ...

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office will not press charges against embattled actor Armie Hammer, who was accused in 2021 of raping a woman and allegedly coercing others to engage in aggressive sexual activities. In a statement shared with the L.A. Times on Wednesday, Tiffiny Blacknell, director of communications for the district attorney’s office, said Los Angeles ...

Florida's Space Coast lost out on getting the Department of Defense’s U.S. Space Command headquarters last year, but its two military installations have been named the preferred location for a smaller entity, the Space Force’s training headquarters known as STARCOM, according to an announcement from U.S. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall. Patrick Space Force Base and Cape Canaveral Space Force ...

WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Mike Pence is challenging his one-time boss Donald Trump in a campaign that will put the spotlight on the deep personal rift between the once-close political allies and test whether a party dominated by the former president can accept someone who defied him. Pence, 63, plans to formally announce his presidential campaign June 7 in Iowa, according to a person ...

LOS ANGELES — Actor Danny Masterson was convicted of two counts of rape Wednesday after his second trial on charges that he sexually assaulted several women he met through the Church of Scientology in the early 2000s. Jurors hung on a third count after deliberating for a little more than a week. They contacted Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Charlaine Olmedo around 11 a.m. Wednesday to ...

WASHINGTON — The debt ceiling deal hammered out by President Joe Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy ends the pandemic-driven pause in student loan payments that's been in place for more than three years while preserving Biden's loan forgiveness plan — at least for now. But the GOP is pressing ahead with its effort to derail the president’s plan, which would forgive up to $10,000 in student loan ...

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration plans to require all new light-duty vehicles to come with automatic emergency braking, officials announced Wednesday. The announcement comes amid consistently high traffic deaths after a spike in crashes during the pandemic. Leaders at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimated the rule, if finalized, would save more than 360 lives ...

Kosovo’s prime minister said his police will stay in the northern parts of the country where their presence has sparked violent protests, snubbing a demand from the U.S. to defuse the situation. Premier Albin Kurti risks angering an ally that has backstopped his country since its creation after Secretary of State Antony Blinken blamed his government for the worst outbreak of violence in a ...

A COVID-19 outbreak struck a recent CDC epidemiology conference, infecting at least 181 attendees, officials said. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s four-day Epidemic Intelligence Service Conference was held at an Atlanta hotel in late April, hosting 1,800 people in person. Of 1,443 attendees who responded to a post-event survey, 13% said they later tested positive for the ...

WASHINGTON — Rep. David Cicilline couldn’t have known in February that there would be so much turmoil in Congress on his final day in the House of Representatives. The seven-term Democrat from Rhode Island’s 1st District announced a little more than three months ago that he’d be leaving Congress effective June 1 to become president and CEO of the Rhode Island Foundation. At that time, a breach ...

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Gov. Henry McMaster says he is ordering members of the South Carolina National Guard to Texas at the U.S.-Mexico border. McMaster said he made the order at the request of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott after the expiration of the Title 42 program, implemented in the Trump administration, which allowed the U.S. to turn away migrants seeking asylum to stop the spread of the COVID-19 ...

AUSTIN, Texas – Gov. Greg Abbott named a Fort Worth attorney to fill in as Texas attorney general while Ken Paxton faces an impeachment trial. Abbott installed John Scott to the prominent post on Wednesday but made no comment about the GOP-led House decision to impeach the state’s top lawyer over alleged corruption. Scott served as the Texas Secretary of State during the 2022 election. He ...

“Stanley is now back home following the operation and he’s very happy to continue his favorite pastime of sleeping."

“Stanley is now back home following the operation and he’s very happy to continue his favorite pastime of sleeping."

WASHINGTON — Republican and Democratic leaders are expressing confidence that compromise legislation to avert a catastrophic U.S. default will pass the House of Representatives Wednesday night on the backs of moderates. The legislation, a product of intense negotiations between President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, drew more heat from lawmakers on the flanks of both parties as ...

WASHINGTON — A bill to lift the limit on federal borrowing would claw back unspent funding on water, science, tribal, cybersecurity and pollution programs; tweak portions of a long-standing permitting law; and approve a gas pipeline long advocated by West Virginia’s two senators. Democrats including Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, who wants to amend the bill by stripping out approval of the ...

Vacancies at U.S. employers unexpectedly surged in April to the highest in three months, giving the Federal Reserve more reason to consider hiking interest rates again soon. The number of available positions increased to 10.1 million from an upwardly revised 9.75 million in March, the Labor Department’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS, showed Wednesday. The figure beat all ...

When it came time to split up the first batch of $15 billion Congress set aside last year to replace toxic lead pipes, Illinois officials had plenty of reasons to expect they would get the biggest share. Utility groups have long estimated the state leads the nation in the number of lead service lines connecting homes and two-flats to municipal water systems, largely because Chicago’s plumbing ...

The mother of the 3-month-old girl found slain in Bronx trash-strewn woods lied to authorities about her daughter’s death, insisting the infant was still alive and staying with relatives, a law enforcement source told The Daily News Wednesday. Ivana Paolozzi, 20, allegedly misled city Administration for Children’s Services investigators when they questioned her about her daughter’s ...

Atlanta Rapper Gunna was on hand Saturday in South Florida as the Boston Celtics battled the Miami Heat in Game 6 of the NBA's Eastern Conference finals — his first public appearance since negotiating a guilty plea to a racketeering conspiracy charge involving the Young Slime Life gang. The musician and style icon, who was released from jail five months ago, donned pink-and-black floral pants ...

LOS ANGELES — Nine minors were arrested Tuesday after a melee near the San Clemente Pier over Memorial Day weekend in which a group of 30 teens and young adults pummeled three off-duty Marines, according to the city’s mayor. Orange County deputies arrested five of the juveniles — four boys and one girl — on suspicion of felony assault, said San Clemente Mayor Chris Duncan. The Orange County ...

The U.S. and European allies urged caution on whether Ukraine should have the right to strike inside Russia, amid concerns that a potential escalation could drag them into a broader war. Countries supporting Ukraine are taking varying stances on how it should beat back Moscow’s invasion, as Russian territory is increasingly targeted. The U.S. has publicly leaned against the strategy of attacks ...