LOS ANGELES — LAPD officials on Friday released security camera footage showing a group of officers piling on top of a man and beating him before he died in a San Fernando Valley jail cell, one of two recent incidents that prompted Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass to call for an independent review of police killings of people in mental distress.

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LOS ANGELES — The Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach is caring this summer for an additional 500 animals rescued from wildlife traffickers.

It's not clear when the trafficked animals might join the roughly 12,000 turtles, frogs, octopuses, penguins, sharks and other sea creatures on public display.

The animals, including marine fish, ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A multibillion-dollar bond proposal that sought to fund scientific research amid federal funding cuts failed to meet the June deadline to secure its place as a statewide measure on the November ballot. Lawmakers resurrected the language just before the close of the legislative session this week, aiming now to present the ...Read more

CHICAGO — When Illinois Legislative Inspector General Michael McCuskey last month released his report substantiating sexual harassment allegations against former state Rep. Harry Benton, one of the victims listed in the report — a female lobbyist — issued a statement accusing McCuskey of inaccurately characterizing her side of the story.

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LOS ANGELES — Southern California’s swampy summer is setting new records, with humidity levels creating conditions that feel more like Florida than the West Coast.

Forecasters attributed the punishing humidity to the remnants of Tropical Storm Iselle moving over the state, as well as unusually warm ocean temperatures due to a combination of...Read more

WASHINGTON — The United States is set to take majority control over a huge amount of Venezuela’s oil wealth in an unprecedented maneuver that officials said would create the world’s second-largest private oil company by reserves and secure American petroleum supplies for decades to come.

President Donald Trump made the announcement about ...Read more

The former acting assistant U.S. attorney whose body was found last week in a San Diego federal building died by suicide, the San Diego County medical examiner's office said in a statement.

Andrew Haden, 48, was found dead in an office inside the Edward J. Schwartz federal building on Aug. 19 shortly after being reported missing.

The medical ...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — Hurricane center tracks new Gulf system, remnants of Dolly that could threaten Florida

Tropical Storm Dolly may have turned back into just a tropical wave on Friday, but the National Hurricane Center is now giving it as well as a new system in the Gulf a chance to develop.

As of the NHC’s 8 p.m. EDT tropical outlook, the ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The United States and Venezuela have agreed to a deal that would give Washington a major stake in Venezuela’s oil reserves, President Donald Trump said Friday.

“At my direction, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, working closely with Highly Respected Interim President of Venezuela, Delcy ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Justice Department is pushing back on requests for information about how it resolved President Donald Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service, accusing challengers of the deal of improperly using the courts to pry loose details they aren’t entitled to receive.

At a hearing on Friday, a ...Read more

NEW YORK — New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has a message for New York: Let’s dance!

The 68-year-old governor Friday touted the state’s rollback of a regulation that required restaurants or bars to obtain special permission to allow any form of dancing on their premises.

She even got Kevin Bacon of “Footloose” fame to join her in a Twitter...Read more

NEW YORK — President Donald Trump lost another bid to move a challenge to his New York criminal fraud conviction to a federal court as a judge said that payments to an adult film star don’t constitute an official act that would be covered by presidential immunity.

U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein’s ruled against Trump on the issue ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s controversial policy mandating detention for nearly all undocumented immigrants is unlawful, a split Philadelphia-based federal appeals court ruled Friday.

In a 2-1 ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit held that ICE violated the federal immigration law and the Fifth ...Read more

The Trump administration is considering trading a parcel of Yosemite National Park to a private commercial developer, according to administration officials, members of Congress and documents reviewed by the Los Angeles Times.

The proposed deal would allow the developer to build a road connecting adjacent property it already owns in the ...Read more

NEW YORK — A man was arrested after federal agents caught him loading a van with more than $10 million worth of cocaine he stashed at a Queens self-storage facility, officials said Friday.

New Jersey resident Nelson Salcedo, 35, was charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance after what NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch described...Read more

RALEIGH, N.C. — The mother of a central North Carolina teenager infected with a rare brain-eating amoeba is sharing the family’s story on a GoFundMe page to help with their medical and related expenses.

The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services announced Thursday that a teen was infected by Naegleria fowleri, an amoeba found in ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The U.S. government is pursuing a major stake in Venezuelan oil reserves via a potential partnership between the Department of Defense and Alejandro Betancourt, a controversial energy investor who has become a key middleman between the two countries.

The negotiations are focused on as many as 17 oil fields that span Venezuela’...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A Rocklin man implicated by federal investigators in connection with a suspected plot to attack a White House-hosted UFC event in June was indicted Thursday in Sacramento federal court, U.S. Attorney’s Office prosecutors announced Friday.

Christopher M. Perry, 38, is being held in federal custody. He was indicted on ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The U.S. government is pursuing a major stake in Venezuelan oil reserves via a potential partnership between the Department of Defense and Alejandro Betancourt, a controversial energy investor who has become a key middleman between the two countries.

The negotiations are focused on as many as 17 oil fields that span Venezuela’...Read more