SEATTLE — The termination letters that ended the careers of thousands of U.S. Forest Service employees mean fewer people and less resources will be available to help prevent and fight wildfires, raising the specter of even more destructive blazes across the American West, fired workers and officials said. The Forest...
Bullard Teacher Arrested for Inappropriate Behavior With a Minor, Principal Says
Police arrested 37-year-old Bullard High teacher Ray Waller Thursday on suspicion of having sex with a minor and making or selling pornography, according to a news release from the Fresno Police Department. The victim was a juvenile student at the high school. The teacher has been put on administrative leave...
Netanyahu Vows Revenge as Hamas Releases Wrong Body, Threatening Ceasefire
JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed revenge Friday for what he described as a "cruel and malicious violation" of the ceasefire agreement after authorities determined that a body released by Hamas as part of the deal was not an Israeli mother of two small boys, as the militant...
Global Glacier Melt Accelerates, Losing 7 Trillion Tons Since 2000
Climate change is accelerating the melting of the world's mountain glaciers, according to a massive new study that found them shrinking more than twice as fast as in the early 2000s. The world's glaciers lost ice at the rate of about 255 billion tons (231 billion metric tons) annual from...
Trump Expands Immigration Enforcement Across Nearly Every Major Department
WASHINGTON — Drug Enforcement Administration agents touting immigration arrests, IRS agents poring over documents, the military escorting deportation flights. As the Trump administration works on the president's pledge to crack down on illegal immigration and carry out mass deportations, the flurry of activity has stretched across the federal government —...
Experts: IRS Cuts May Benefit Rich Tax Dodgers, Hurt Revenue
WASHINGTON — The layoffs of roughly 7,000 IRS probationary workers beginning this week likely mean the end of the agency's plan to go after high-wealth tax dodgers and could spell disaster for revenue collections, experts say. The majority of employees shown the door at the federal tax collector are newly...
Stock Market Today: Discouraging Economic Reports Knock Wall Street Further From Its Record
NEW YORK — Wall Street is pulling further from its record after reports on Friday showed worries about President Donald Trump's policies may be hitting the U.S. economy. The S&P 500 was down 0.4% in morning trading, a day after a weaker-than-expected profit forecast from Walmart helped knock it off...
Musk and His Millions Enter Wisconsin Supreme Court Race
Elon Musk’s super PAC is back. Musk, the country’s largest donor during the 2024 election, is returning to campaigns by funding a new effort to help elect Brad Schimel, the conservative candidate for the Wisconsin Supreme Court. It is Musk’s first public political spending after Election Day. His super political...
New Allegation of Sexual Misconduct Swirls Around CPAC Chair Matt Schlapp
It’s the political equivalent of homecoming week for conservatives, a chance to revel over President Donald Trump’s return to power and the dismantling of government institutions despised by the MAGA movement. But as the Conservative Political Action Conference got underway outside Washington on Thursday, the group’s influential chair, Matt Schlapp,...
America’s Newest Gun Owners Are Upending Preconceptions About Who Buys a Gun and Why
Ken Green’s tipping point came as he watched an angry mob storm the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. John Alvarado’s came during the COVID-19 pandemic, as he evolved from a self-described “bleeding-heart liberal” to a deeply religious conservative. A spike in anti-Asian violence in that same period is what...