Author: Martha Mendoza

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. • A strong late-season Pacific storm that brought damaging winds and more rain and snow to saturated California has been blamed for two deaths and forecasters said additional flooding was possible Wednesday in parts of the state. Tuesday’s storm blasted the San Francisco Bay Area with powerful gusts and downpours, pounded Sacramento…

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. • More than two dozen major fires were scorching California on Thursday and taxing the state’s firefighting capacity, sparked by an unprecedented lightning siege that dropped nearly 11,000 strikes over several days. The fires have destroyed 175 structures, including homes, and are threatening 50,000 more, said Daniel Berlant, an assistant deputy director…

Editor’s note: This story is part of an ongoing joint investigation between The Associated Press and the PBS series “Frontline” on the treatment of migrant children, which includes an upcoming film.  SANTA ANA, California • After local Guatemalan officials burned down an environmental activist’s home, he decided to leave his village behind and flee to the…

TORNILLO, Texas • The Trump administration announced in June it would open a temporary shelter for up to 360 migrant children in this isolated corner of the Texas desert. Less than six months later, the facility has expanded into a detention camp holding thousands of teenagers — and it shows every sign of becoming more…

The U.S. Army has stopped discharging immigrant recruits who enlisted seeking a path to citizenship — at least temporarily. A memo shared with The Associated Press on Wednesday and dated July 20 spells out orders to high-ranking Army officials to stop processing discharges of men and women who enlisted in the special immigrant program, effective…

LOWER MATECUMBE KEY, Fla. — With 25 percent of the homes in the Florida Keys feared destroyed, emergency workers Tuesday rushed to find Hurricane Irma’s victims — dead or alive — and deliver food and water to the stricken island chain. As crews labored to repair the lone highway connecting the Keys, residents of some…

BANGKOK – Cat cafes where customers sip lattes while petting resident kitties are just opening their doors around the U.S. and Europe. But in Asia, where the first one opened more than a decade ago, the concept has moved well beyond felines. At Tokyo’s Snake Center, visitors pay about $11 for a cup of coffee…