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An explosion apparently erupted at a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department training facility in Monterey Park Friday morning, July 18, possibly killing at least three people. The incident was reported just before 7:30 a.m. at the department’s Special Enforcement Bureau facility, ABC Los Angeles reported. The station, citing helicopter footage, said it appeared something exploded next to a bomb squad vehicle. The facility is the Biscailuz Center Academy Training Center, at 1060 N Eastern Ave. No other details were immediately confirmed — and the deaths have not yet been confirmed. Attorney General Pam Bondi on X said she she spoke…

By Stephanie Armour, KFF Health News On his way to an Ultimate Fighting Championship event, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stopped by the home of podcaster Gary Brecka. The two spent time in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber and tried some intravenous nutrition drips that Brecka, a self-avowed longevity and wellness maven, sells and promotes on his show, “The Ultimate Human.” Then the podcast taping started, and Kennedy — who was also on the mic — took aim at Big Pharma’s influence on federal health policy. “We have a sick-care system in our country, and the etiology…

Tenants in Southern California are not getting the same level of relief from rent increases as the average American. This insight comes from my trusty spreadsheet’s analysis of rent inflation data from the Consumer Price Index, which tracks 23 U.S. markets, including three in Southern California. The CPI’s rent trends are based on tenant surveys tracking payments for various types of housing. Most industry metrics focus on asking prices for empty units in large apartment complexes. Looking at the first half of 2025, the CPI shows rent inflation nationwide running at a 4% annual rate, down from a 5.6% increase…

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER and JOSH BOAK WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has looked to the marble finishes and hefty price tag of the Federal Reserve headquarters to claim grounds to fire Chair Jerome Powell, with whom he has tussled for years over interest rates. But the extensive use of marble in the building is, at least in part, the result of policies backed by Trump himself. As the Fed moved forward with plans to renovate its Great Depression-era headquarters in Washington during Trump’s first term, it faced concerns in 2020 during a vetting process involving Trump appointees, who called…

By TERESA CEROJANO and MATT OTT, Associated Press Markets on Wall Street quietly hovered at record levels before the bell Friday with most of the attention on the latest corporate earnings reports and dealmaking. Futures for the S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq all ticked up less than 0.1% before the bell. A day earlier, the S&P 500 topped its all-time high set a week ago and the Nasdaq composite added to its own record set the day before. Shares of Norfolk Southern jumped 4% on reports that it is in merger talks with Union Pacific to create…

By Michael Lozano | CalMatters They appeared in plain clothes outside a San Diego hotel, wore camouflage as they raided a Los Angeles factory and arrived with military gear at a Ventura County farm. The presence of thousands of hard-to-identify federal agents is a new fact of life in Southern California this summer as the Trump administration carries out the president’s promised deportations. Many residents may assume these masked agents are officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). But that’s not always the case. Many of them belong to the Border Patrol, the agency that traditionally has policed the nation’s…

SACRAMENTO—One recent public-opinion poll asked Americans their thoughts on different periods of European history. Most Americans probably know little about events that took place in their own country 10 years ago, but they nevertheless expressed to YouGov fairly strong opinions about Classical Antiquity, the Middle Ages and Late Antiquity. I still found it reassuring that majorities hold a “very or somewhat favorable” view toward the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. However, 17% were favorably disposed toward the Dark Ages. Even funnier, 9% held the Black Plague in high esteem, with 32% positively inclined toward the Crusades—small, but not insignificant numbers. Such…

By MICHELLE CHAPMAN, Associated Press Business Writer HOUSTON (AP) — Chevron has scored a critical ruling in Paris that has given it the go-ahead for a $53 billion acquisition of Hess and access to one of the biggest oil finds of the decade. Chevron said Friday that it completed its acquisition of Hess shortly after the ruling from the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris. Exxon had challenged Chevron’s bid for Hess, one of three companies with access to the massive Stabroek Block oil field off the coast of Guyana. Guyana is a country of 791,000 people that is poised…

Q: Hello Honk. My wife was eager to get a Real ID back in May when the push was on to get one. The only Real ID she could get was on an ID card. She will be renewing her driver’s license in October and would like to get the Real ID transferred to her license. You did a column back in 2023, I believe, and from what I recall, the Department of Motor Vehicles can just cancel the one Real ID and move it over, in this case to the driver’s license. – Sandy Wood, Tustin A: Good memory,…

By MELISSA GOLDIN, Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Missouri congressman Billy Long will be ceremonially sworn in as commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service on Friday, taking over a beleaguered agency that he once sought to abolish and that has since been beset with steep staffing cuts and leadership turnover. Long won confirmation in a 53-44 Senate vote last month despite concerns from Democrats about his connection to a tax credit scheme and campaign contributions he received after then President-elect Donald Trump nominated him for the top IRS job in December. Long’s commissionership comes after months of acting leaders and…