Voters in the West took a dim view of taxes, while New Yorkers backed a new way to elect some of their leaders and a New Jersey city cracked down on Airbnb. Tucson voters seemed uninterested in becoming a sanctuary city, and those in Washington weighed whether to roll back...
Scrutiny of Vaccine Exemptions Banishes Some From Schools
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Carl and Kerri Schwartz say they have good medical reason for not vaccinating their disabled 11-year-old son, Thorn, and until recently his local public school went along with their family doctor's advice. That changed, the Schwartzes said, when New York state did away with religious exemptions for...
Walters: Can Kamala Harris Break the Jinx?
While California is the nation’s most populous and richest state – and has been for a half-century – it hasn’t wielded the level of national political power one might expect from that status. New York, still the nation’s financial center, and Texas, California’s chief cultural and economic rival, have been...
California Counties Sue Over Public Benefit Immigration Rule
SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco and Santa Clara counties filed the first lawsuit challenging the Trump administration's new rules to deny green cards to migrants who use Medicaid, food stamps, housing vouchers or other forms of public assistance. The lawsuit, filed Tuesday, came after the Department of Homeland Security's announcement Monday of...
A Beaming 50 Cent, Tough Questions Part of TV Critics Event
BEVERLY HILLS — After the TV industry unveils its new-season schedules and series to advertisers in New York each May, it takes the show on the road to a swank Southern California hotel ballroom to coax attention from television-centric news reporters and critics. The annual summer meeting of the Television...
Fans Cheer World Cup Champs as Leaders On and Off the Field
NEW YORK — Adoring fans lined New York City's Canyon of Heroes on Wednesday to praise the World Cup-winning U.S. women's national soccer team as athletic leaders on the field — and as advocates for pay equity off it. Construction workers sounded air horns above crowds chanting "USA! USA!" as...
Billionaire Jeffrey Epstein Charged with Molesting Dozens of Girls
NEW YORK — In a startling reversal of fortune, billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein was charged Monday with sexually abusing dozens of underage girls in a case brought more than a decade after he secretly cut a deal with federal prosecutors to dispose of nearly identical allegations. The 66-year-old hedge fund...
Witness Testifies on Secret Society’s ‘Sex Slave’ Initiation
NEW YORK — A woman testified on Tuesday that shortly after being recruited for a secret "master-slave" society within an upstate New York self-help group she got a disturbing message from her handler: It was her turn to "seduce" the group's leader, Keith Raniere. The witness at Raniere's trial at...
Looming Wave of Sex Abuse Cases Poses Threat to Boy Scouts
NEW YORK — The lawyers' ads on the internet aggressively seeking clients to file sexual abuse lawsuits give a taste of what lies ahead this year for the Boy Scouts of America: potentially the most fateful chapter in its 109-year history. Sexual abuse settlements have already strained the Boy Scouts'...
As Cashless Stores Grow, So Does the Backlash
NEW YORK — Hembert Figueroa just wanted a taco. So he was surprised to learn the dollar bills in his pocket were no good at Dos Toros Taqueria in Manhattan, one of a small but growing number of establishments across the U.S. where customers can only pay by card or...