French cement company Lafarge pleaded guilty Tuesday to paying millions of dollars to the Islamic State group in exchange for permission to keep open a plant in Syria, a case the Justice Department described as the first of its kind. The company also agreed to penalties totaling roughly $778 million. Prosecutors accused...
Steve Bannon Should Get 6-Month Sentence, Justice Dept. Says
The Justice Department declared Monday that Steve Bannon should serve six months behind bars and pay a $200,000 fine for defying a congressional subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Convicted last summer, the longtime ally of former President Donald Trump should get a hefty sentence...
Newsom Sets Date to End California’s COVID Emergency
California's coronavirus emergency will officially end in February, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Monday, nearly three years after the state's first confirmed death from the disease prompted a raft of restrictions that upended public life. The decision will have little practical impact on most people's lives, as most of the...
The Way You Smell Could Be Attracting Dangerous Mosquitoes, Study Shows
A new study finds that some people really are “mosquito magnets” and it probably has to do with the way they smell. The researchers found that people who are most attractive to mosquitoes produce a lot of certain chemicals on their skin that are tied to smell. And bad...
Notorious Pedophile on Trial for Kidnapping Fresno Girl Dies
A self-proclaimed pedophilia advocate and accused kidnapper who was on trial for allegedly grooming a 12-year-old Fresno girl has died in custody in Arizona, according to public records. Nathan Larson was arrested in 2020 by authorities who said they caught him flying across the country with the girl who...
Californians Get Third Chance to Alter Dialysis Clinic Rules
For the third time in three elections, California voters are being asked to require changes to the operations of dialysis clinics that provide life-saving care to 80,000 people with kidney failure. Proposition 29 on the November ballot would require a doctor, nurse practitioner or physicians’ assistant to be present...
Valley City Rests Easier After Serial Killings Arrest
Residents of Stockton were able to rest easier following the weekend arrest of a man suspected of killing six men and wounding a woman in a series of shootings over a period of three months in Northern California, the city's mayor said Sunday. Mayor Kevin Lincoln said he shed...
Biden Turning to Trump-Era Rule to Expel Venezuelan Migrants
Two years ago, candidate Joe Biden loudly denounced President Donald Trump for immigration policies that inflicted “cruelty and exclusion at every turn,” including toward those fleeing the "brutal" government of socialist Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela. Now, with increasing numbers of Venezuelans arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border as the Nov. 8 election nears, Biden...
4 Killed as Waves of Suicide Drones Strike Ukraine’s Capital
Waves of explosives-laden suicide drones struck Ukraine's capital Monday, setting buildings ablaze and tearing a hole in one of them. People scurried for shelter or tried to shoot down the kamikazes. The concentrated use of the drones was the second barrage in as many weeks — after months in which...
Kanye West to Buy Conservative Social Media Platform Parler
The rapper formerly known as Kanye West is offering to buy right-wing friendly social network Parler shortly after being booted off Twitter and Instagram for antisemitic posts. The acquisition of Parler would give West, legally known as Ye, control of a social media platform and a new outlet for...