HARTFORD, Conn. — After a marathon 11-hour debate, the state Senate passed a gun safety bill Friday that would make it easier to file civil lawsuits against gun manufacturers and make it harder for some residents to obtain a pistol permit.

On a mostly party-line vote, the Senate granted final legislative approval for a controversial measure ...Read more

The U.K. will create an “always-on” munitions production capacity to allow it to scale-up its defense industry when needed, as it increasingly shifts to a war footing with Russia’s assault on Ukraine showing little sign of ending.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government will invest £1.5 billion ($2 billion) to build six munitions ...Read more

NEW YORK — A pair of Port Authority cops jumped onto a luggage conveyor belt at Newark Airport to rescue a 2-year-old child who took an impromptu ride into the bowels of the terminal, officials said Saturday.

The tot was with their mother trying to rebook a flight at the JetBlue ticket counter at Newark’s Terminal A at about 6:30 p.m. on ...Read more

MERRITT ISLAND, Fla. — Four-time spaceflight veteran Peggy Whitson had a good excuse for not showing up Saturday for her own induction ceremony to the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame.

She’s in quarantine to go to space again.

Whitson is slated to command the private Axiom Space Ax-4 mission flying in a new SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft set to ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — California lawmakers are taking aim at proposed rules to implement a state law aimed at curbing plastic waste, saying the draft regulations proposed by CalRecycle undermine the letter and intent of the legislation.

In a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom and two of his top administrators, the lawmakers said CalRecycle exceeded its ...Read more

NEW YORK — A woman who accused Sean “Diddy” Combs of drugging and sexually assaulting her in 2003 has also filed a lawsuit against disgraced Hollywood movie producer Harvey Weinstein.

Crystal McKinney, a former fashion model and winner of MTV’s “Model Mission,” alleges the Miramax co-founder raped her and a friend in a Manhattan ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — It was bright and early and Axel Hunnicutt was howling.

He was looking for wolves. Sometimes they howl back, providing a sense of their location.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife this week reported there were three new wolf packs in the state’s far north. Hunnicutt, gray wolf coordinator for the agency, was ...Read more

NEW YORK — United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew won his reelection bid Saturday, edging out two rival candidates who challenged the longtime incumbent over his handling of retiree health care and dissatisfaction with the status quo.

Mulgrew’s caucus, known as Unity, secured 54% of the vote this election cycle, compared to...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — Pressure from the Trump administration to escalate immigration arrests has led to huge spike in the number of people detained by ICE in Central Florida and raised fears that the Orange County jail could eventually hit its capacity.

The number of detainees held in the local jail for immigration violations so far this year is ...Read more

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — With only hours remaining before their midnight deadline, Democratic state lawmakers on Saturday still were finalizing various components of a more than $55 billion budget balanced with a combination of cuts and tax increases.

The spending portion of the plan was unveiled late Friday, but a package of tax increases and ...Read more

HARTFORD, Conn. — Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents released Afghan refugee Saifullah Khan on bond Friday evening, nearly a month after they immobilized him with Taser fire and detained him as he and his wife left an immigration hearing in Hartford’s federal building.

In a related development, Connecticut’s U.S. District Court ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is reviewing hundreds of state parole hearings to see if any inmates who were denied parole were rejected because of faulty drug tests.

Nearly 6,000 drug tests in California prisons are believed to have yielded false positives between April and July last year, and ...Read more

DENVER — Concerningly low amounts of water are flowing from Rocky Mountain snowpack this spring, a summer of drought looms across swaths of the West, and the negotiators tasked with devising a sustainable long-term water plan for the 40 million people who rely on the Colorado River are running out of time.

Commissioners from the seven states ...Read more

The White House said on Saturday it would name a new nominee for NASA administrator, just days before billionaire Jared Isaacman, the current pick, was to face his planned Senate confirmation vote.

“It’s essential that the next leader of NASA is in complete alignment with President Trump’s America First agenda and a replacement will be ...Read more

Sen. Lindsey Graham’s vow to act on a bill imposing new sanctions on Russia is set to test whether President Donald Trump is finally ready to punish Vladimir Putin for delaying a ceasefire with Ukraine.

On a visit to Kyiv on Friday, Graham signaled he’s tired of waiting for Trump to come around, saying he believes the Senate will “start ...Read more

Sen. Mitch McConnell thinks the cuts to Medicaid spending in the wide-ranging budget bill backed by President Donald Trump will remain.

He said to a crowd gathered at a Kentucky Chamber of Commerce event Friday that he supports those entitlement cuts, which reduce 10-year spending on Medicaid by about $723 billion and are estimated to cut about...Read more

As promised, federal health officials have dropped longstanding recommendations that healthy children and healthy pregnant women should get the COVID-19 vaccines.

"The COVID-19 vaccine schedule is very clear. The vaccine is not recommended for pregnant women. The vaccine is not recommended for healthy children," the U.S. Department of Health ...Read more

Iran said on Saturday that Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi presented a U.S. proposal to the country during a visit to the Iranian capital.

Albusaidi “paid a short visit to Tehran today to present elements of a U.S. proposal which will be appropriately responded to in line with the principles, national interests, and rights of the ...Read more

SAN FRANCISCO — Patrick Carney's mother, Edith, always embraced his taste for the extravagant.

That includes the tarps he and a dozen friends purchased from Home Depot on a shoestring budget in 1995, painted "Mardi Gras pink" and installed on Twin Peaks on a dark June night. He's stepped up as the annual event organizer ever since, inspired ...Read more