A seven-day reduction in violence between Afghan, Taliban and American forces will begin Friday in Afghanistan, a senior state department official confirmed. If that agreement holds, it would lead to the signing of a long-awaited, broader U.S.-Taliban agreement that could see U.S. troops withdraw from the country after 18 years of conflict, NBC News reports.

Prospective pet owners can now choose the furry friend they want without having to leave their home. Five years after it first launched, the adoption app WeRescue has expanded its reach across the U.S. and in Canada, and has hundreds of thousands of pets available for adoption at over 3,000 rescue organizations. “We pull in data from all these different...

When Christy Nielsen was searching for a new dog, she didn’t go to a pet store, or a breeder or even a shelter. Instead, Nielsen found her Pomeranian, Tinker, at the Omaha Correctional Center. Tinker is one of hundreds of dogs that has been fostered by inmates at the prison as a part of their Canine Compassion program. “I see...

The support our local stations received from participating animal shelters and rescues, who gave families the opportunity to adopt an animal in need by offering no-cost or waive fee adoptions, or waiving pet spaying and neutering fees, helped make Clear the Shelters overwhelmingly successful. More than 150,000 pets have found their fur-ever homes since 2015.

From pit bulls to ponies, owners share how they eased their animals into living in harmony — despite some obvious differences.

Despite criticism that millennials spend too much cash on their avocado toast, the group is leading the nation as home buyers. A new survey reveals that dogs may be a prime motivator in their purchases, according to NBC News. One in three millennials decided to buy a home because of their furry friends, according to the new survey by Harris...

The fifth annual Clear the Shelters event, a nationwide pet adoption initiative, will be held Aug. 17, 2019.

When Dese’Rae Stage interviews survivors of suicide attempts for a website she created, she asks herself a question news reporters may not always consider: How much did it hurt? A survivor herself, she wants to be sure that readers of her website “Live Through This” come away with a real picture of suicide — no romance, no facile explanations and...

Thousands of pounds of deadly hydrofluoric acid escaped into the atmosphere following the massive June 21 blast at the now-shuttered gas refinery in South Philadelphia, according to a new federal report.

The remains of a 33-year-old American soldier killed in combat in Afghanistan have been returned to the United States, arriving at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. Sgt. 1st Class Michael J. Goble of Washington Township, New Jersey, was killed Monday in a roadside bombing in northern Kunduz province. The Taliban has claimed they were behind the attack. Goble was…

The Philippines notified the United States on Tuesday it would end a major security pact allowing American forces to train in the country, in the most serious threat under President Rodrigo Duterte to their 69-year treaty alliance.

China has cut tariffs on $75 billion of U.S. imports including soybeans, pork and auto parts in a trade truce with Washington as Beijing struggles with a costly virus outbreak.

The U.S. advised against all travel to China on Friday after the World Health Organization declared the outbreak of a new virus that has spread to more than a dozen countries a global emergency. The number of cases spiked more than tenfold in a week, including the highest death toll in a 24-hour period reported Friday.

Countries on Wednesday began evacuating their citizens from the Chinese city hardest-hit by an outbreak of a new virus that has killed 132 people and infected more than 6,000 on the mainland and abroad.

This should be peak season for a 12-room hotel near the train station in the Chinese industrial hub of Wuhan. The Chinese New Year usually brings in plenty of travelers and delivers profits of around $3,000 a month. But the place is empty. Wuhan, the center of a deadly viral outbreak, is on lockdown. “There is not a single customer,’’…

Beginning Oct. 1, 2020, every person who boards a domestic flight in the United States must have a Real ID, a Real ID-compliant driver’s license or a passport.

Hundreds of Central American migrants were stranded in a sort of no-man’s land on the river border between Guatemala and Mexico after running up against lines of Mexican National Guard troops deployed to keep them from moving en masse into the country and on north toward the U.S.

The U.S. government says it will deport a Honduran mother and her two sick children, both of whom are currently hospitalized, to Guatemala as soon as it can get them medically cleared to travel, according to court documents and the family’s advocates. The family’s advocates accuse the U.S. of disregarding the health of the children, ages 1 and 6,...

The Western allegation that Iran shot down a Ukrainian jetliner and killed 176 people offers a grim echo for the Islamic Republic, which found itself the victim of an accidental shootdown by American forces over 30 years ago. The July 3, 1988 downing of Iran Air flight 655 by the U.S. Navy remains one of the moments the Iranian government...

The New Year’s Eve attack on the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad has exposed a deepening divide between the U.S. and Iraq over Iran’s role there, even as the Pentagon embarks on a more aggressive mission to counter Iranian influence.

The New Year’s Eve attack on the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad has exposed a deepening divide between the U.S. and Iraq over Iran’s role there, even as the Pentagon embarks on a more aggressive mission to counter Iranian influence.

Less than a year from the deadline that requires all U.S. residents to obtain a Real ID if they fly domestically without a passport, the Illinois Secretary of State’s Office announced some Driver Services facilities in the Chicago area will change their hours for Real ID applicants.

Want to make sure your holiday cards and gifts arrive in time for Christmas? Save these dates, and keep in mind there may be extra surcharges for rush delivery during the holiday season.

Google held their annual “Made By Google” event in New York City Tuesday, where they introduced a new phone, computer, home system, earphones and even a game-streaming platform. “Our mission is to bring a better Google for you,” said Rick Osterloh, the company’s senior vice president of hardware. Matt Vokoun, Google’s director of product management, said that the new offerings...

Less than a year from the deadline that requires all U.S. residents to obtain a Real ID if they fly domestically without a passport, the Illinois Secretary of State’s Office announced some Driver Services facilities in the Chicago area will change their hours for Real ID applicants.

Facebook has started testing a tool that lets users move their images more easily to other online services, as it faces pressure from regulators to loosen its grip on data.

A group of U.S.-based scientists is rushing to document indigenous sites along Puerto Rico’s coast dating back a couple of thousand years before rising sea levels linked to climate change destroy a large chunk of the island’s heritage that is still being discovered. Scientists hope to use the 3D images they’ve taken so far to also help identify which historic...

In 1989, a couple from Long Island, New York paid roughly $100 for an unclaimed storage unit. It was a blind auction, meaning neither they nor the seller had any idea what was inside. When the couple opened the unit, they were in for what would likely be the surprise of their lives: Buried under some old blankets sat a...

Mexican security forces on Sunday killed seven more members of a presumed cartel assault force that rolled into a town near the Texas border and staged an hour-long attack, officials said, putting the overall death toll at 20. The Coahuila state government said in a statement that lawmen aided by helicopters were still chasing remnants of the force that arrived...

Pat Sajak is back in action! The 73-year-old “Wheel of Fortune” host made his first public appearance since undergoing emergency surgery in early November to enjoy a night out. Sajak was seen at the Washington Capitals game on Friday alongside his 24-year-old daughter, country singer Maggie Sajak. The game show host was sporting a red Capitals jacket to show his...

This year’s Black Friday was the biggest ever for online sales, as fewer people hit the stores and shoppers rang up $7.4 billion in transactions from their phones, computers and tablets. That’s just behind the $7.9 billion haul of last year’s Cyber Monday, which holds the one-day record for online sales, according to Adobe Analytics. Adobe measures sales at 80...

Hundreds of silver-haired activists joined young Hong Kong protesters for a unity rally Saturday, vowing that their monthslong movement will not fade away until there is greater democracy in the Chinese territory. The rally at a park downtown was among several peaceful gatherings by protesters this week to keep up pressure on the government amid a lull in violence following...

North Korea said Friday the latest test-firing of its “super-large” multiple rocket launcher was a final review of the weapon’s combat application, a suggestion that the country is preparing to deploy the new weapons system soon. South Korea’s military earlier said North Korea fired two projectiles, likely from the same “super-large” rocket launcher, on Thursday. It expressed “strong regret” over...

Skokie’s 47-year-old Congregation Bene Shalom is in trouble and its members urgently ask for a Thanksgiving blessing.

Two Americans were killed and five others were injured in a bus accident as they traveled in Belize on Wednesday as part of a Carnival Cruise Line trip. Jacqueline Abad, 53, and Sara Armijo, 51, were killed as they were traveling on a roadway to Belmopan City in a Grey Dodge passenger van as part of their Carnival Cruise trip,...

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter has been released from Emory University Hospital in Atlanta after recovering from surgery to relieve pressure on his brain caused by bleeding from a fall. Carter Center spokeswoman Deanna Congileo said Wednesday that the Carters “look forward to enjoying Thanksgiving at home in Plains, where he will continue to recover.”

From tropical fruit in Hawaii to fresh seafood in New England, and barbecue in the South to the hearty dishes of the Midwest, the flavors of the United States know no bounds — and that’s especially apparent on Thanksgiving.

A final tally of babies born in the U.S. last year confirms that the birth rate fell again in 2018, reaching the lowest level in more than three decades, NBC News reported. The report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics finds there were 3,791,712 births registered in the U.S. in 2018, down 2...

A U.S. judge in Oregon on Tuesday granted a preliminary injunction blocking a Trump administration proclamation that would require immigrants to show proof of health insurance to get a visa. U.S. District Court Judge Michael Simon said in a written opinion that the proclamation could not take effect while a lawsuit challenging its constitutionality makes its way through the courts....

Looking at 3-year-old James McCarthy now, it’s hard to believe the dire situation he was facing in August 2018.

A diocese in Kentucky apologized Saturday after videos emerged showing students from a Catholic boys’ high school mocking Native Americans outside the Lincoln Memorial after a rally in Washington. Videos circulating online show a youth staring at and standing extremely close to Nathan Phillips, a 64-year-old Native American man singing and playing a drum. Other students, some wearing Covington Catholic...

A federal grand jury has charged 26 people — including airline employees, airport staff and restaurant workers — with running a $4 million drug smuggling and money laundering operation from Puerto Rico’s international airport. The alleged leader of the scheme has not yet been arrested and is believed to be holed up in the Dominican Republic with his pet tiger....

Fresh Express recalled some of its prepackaged salad mix from Wal-mart stores in the Southeastern United States after a dead bat was found inside a container sold in Florida.

U.S. health officials on Friday told people to avoid romaine lettuce grown in Salinas, California, because of another food poisoning outbreak. The warning comes almost exactly one year after a similar outbreak led to a blanket warning about tainted romaine.

A U.S. judge on Friday set an April 2018 trial date for Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman on charges he oversaw a multibillion-dollar international drug trafficking operation responsible for murders and kidnappings. Guzman answered the judge’s questions through an interpreter. He spent half the hearing looking across the courtroom at his wife, who smiled and waved to him...

Immigrant workers at a famed New York bakery who are threatened with being fired if they don’t produce legal work papers defied the government outside President Donald Trump’s Manhattan home on Saturday.

The Advent, to some Christians, is the four Sundays before Christmas. More generally, the variation of the Latin word for “coming” marks the season to prepare for the holiday. Among rituals associated with the Advent is keeping an Advent calendar. Some reusable versions begin on Dec. 1, and many include windows, doors or pockets to reveal a poem, portion of...

One Illinois resident has been hospitalized due to a multi-state E. coli food poisoning outbreak linked to romaine lettuce, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.

The much-hyped unveiling of Tesla’s electric pickup truck went off script Thursday night when supposedly unbreakable window glass shattered twice when hit with a large metal ball.

Tuna maker Bumble Bee Foods said Thursday that it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, with an agreement from Taiwan-based FCF Fishery, its largest creditor, to purchase its assets for roughly $925 million. The bankruptcy proceedings are meant to reduce Bumble Bee’s debt burden caused by “recent and significant legal challenges” and help facilitate the sale. In 2017, the...

Seventeen Chicago-area restaurants have been named among the 100 top independent restaurants in the country.

Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union who took on a central role in events related to President Donald Trump’s request that Ukraine’s new president investigate a political rival, is testifying before House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry on Wednesday. Sondland’s prepared statement said “at all times, I was acting in good faith. As a presidential appointee, I followed the...

An 8-year-old boy and his mother are expected to learn their fates Wednesday as they wait for a judge to decide if they can stay in the U.S. or must return to Honduras.

Former “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett has filed a countersuit against the city of Chicago and wants a jury trial to decide his case.

Two U.S. service members were killed on Wednesday when their helicopter crashed in Afghanistan, the U.S. military said without providing more details. The statement said the cause of the crash is under investigation but that preliminary reports do not indicate it was caused by enemy fire. However, the Taliban promptly claimed to have shot down the helicopter in eastern Logar...

Police in the Dominican Republic have arrested six people in connection with the death of American teacher Patricia Ann Anton, who was found strangled in her apartment last week. Anton, 63, was robbed and killed in Puerto Plata, on the country’s northern coast, Dominican national police said. Police announced her death Nov. 12. National police on Sunday said six men,...

A Nerf dart gun, ice cream-scented Nickelodeon slime and a plastic Power Rangers claw are among the toys topping a consumer safety group’s list of worst toys for the holidays. World Against Toys Causing Harm unveiled its annual list Tuesday at a Boston children’s hospital.

About 100 anti-government protesters remained holed up at a Hong Kong university Tuesday, unsure what to do next as food supplies dwindled and a police siege of the campus entered its third day. City leader Carrie Lam said 600 people had left the Hong Kong Polytechnic campus, including 200 who are under 18 years old. Police have surrounded the university...

The U.S. Supreme Court is considering whether President Donald Trump can go forward with his plans to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program. The Obama-era program has allowed almost 700,000 young adults without legal status but who have been in the United States since they were children to work and study without fear of deportation, NBC...

President Donald Trump has pardoned a former U.S. Army commando set to stand trial next year in the killing of a suspected Afghan bomb-maker and a former Army lieutenant convicted of murder for ordering his men to fire upon three Afghans, killing two, the White House announced late Friday. The commander in chief also ordered a promotion for a decorated...

Prince Andrew said in an interview with the BBC that he let the Royal Family down by staying with the late, disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein after the American’s first conviction, NBC News reports. “That’s the bit that… as it were, I kick myself for on a daily basis because it was not something that was becoming of a member of...

Boeing is settling more of the roughly 150 lawsuits filed by families of passengers killed in two crashes of the 737 Max jet. A Seattle law firm said Friday it settled four cases involving passengers on the Lion Air Max that crashed off the coast of Indonesia in October 2018. On Thursday, a judge approved settlements of nine other cases....

Apple said Friday it will ban vaping-related apps from its App Store and has removed all 181 vaping-related currently available. The move comes amid reports of thousands of vaping-related illnesses and 42 vaping-related deaths. The sale of tobacco and vaping cartridges has never been allowed through the App Store. The newly banned apps are instead a mix of store apps,...

Here are opening statements from the second public impeachment hearing on Nov. 15, which featured the testimony of former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., chairman of the House Intelligence Committee spoke first, followed by ranking member Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif.

The Trump administration is preparing court filings to begin taking over private land to build its long-promised border wall as early as this week — without confirming how much it will pay landowners first, according to two officials familiar with the process. Jared Kushner is hosting a meeting with military and administration officials at the White House this Friday, NBC...

Some “Survivor” viewers were outraged Wednesday night after a female contestant who accused a male player of inappropriate touching was ultimately voted off while the accused remained to compete for the million-dollar prize. CBS aired back-to-back episodes of “Survivor: Island of the Idols” on Wednesday night, titled “We made it to the merge,” in which the two disparate tribes become...

Becoming a U.S. citizen may get a lot more expensive, and groups are urging legal permanent residents to apply as soon as possible, NBC News reported. The Trump administration wants to increase the cost of citizenship applications by 83% for roughly 9 million immigrants eligible to become U.S. citizens. The administration is also seeking to transfer $207.6 million from U.S....

Ford Motor is expanding its iconic Mustang franchise to include the automaker’s first-ever, all-electric SUV: the Mustang Mach-E. The vehicle, which will make its global debut Sunday in Los Angeles, marks the first time the Mustang name and badge have been used on a vehicle other than the two-door pony car since it debuted in 1964. Ford, prior to announcing...

The Trump administration has proposed making it tougher for asylum-seekers to obtain permission to work in the United States while their cases are pending, a move that immigrant advocates say would unfairly punish those who need humanitarian protection the most. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said Wednesday a proposed rule would double the time asylum-seekers must wait for a work...

Drug-resistant “superbug” infections have been called a developing nightmare that could set medicine back a century, making conquered germs once again untreatable. So there’s some surprising news in a report released Wednesday: U.S. superbug deaths appear to be going down. About 36,000 Americans died from drug-resistant infections in 2017, down 18% from an estimated 44,000 in 2013, the Centers for...

Dean Foods, America’s biggest milk processor, has filed for bankruptcy amid a steep, decades-long drop-off in US milk consumption blamed on soda, juices and, more recently, nondairy substitutes.

The world’s largest Starbucks will soon open in Chicago – and the decision to bring the company’s biggest roastery to the Windy City was no accident.

Authorities are investigating the death of a Washington State University student who was found dead at an off-campus house in Pullman, Washington, on Tuesday. Members of the Alpha Tau Omega called police after finding a 19-year-old male fraternity member unconscious and not breathing, according to the Pullman Police Department. Other students performed CPR, but medics who arrived on scene determined...

The Paris screening of a new French-Italian film “An Officer and a Spy” is going ahead despite a new allegation that its director Roman Polanski raped a woman decades ago. Tuesday’s screening will be attended by the film’s crew.

Coffee lovers from near and far will finally be able to visit the world’s largest Starbucks on Friday, Nov. 15.

Climate change is posing an existential threat to the precarious lives of farmers across the country. More intense and frequent weather disasters are wiping out entire harvests, and warmer winters are exposing crops to severe frost damage. For apples, a warm spell in the winter will force trees to flower prematurely and expose the buds to unpredictable winter frosts, hail...

Boeing is detailing steps it needs to complete before its grounded 737 Max can carry passengers again.

We found great deals offering discounts and sweet deals to our military in honor of Veterans Day.

The 1953 painting by Rafael Tufiño Figueroa features his mother with a red scarf on her head, a determined look on her face and heavy expression lines, a depiction of a working-class woman that broke from conventional portraits of the time that focused largely on wealthy men.

A suburban Chicago post office has been named in honor of an original member of the famed all-black Tuskegee Airmen who flew scores of missions in World War II.

A 33-year-old orangutan granted legal personhood by a judge in Argentina is settling into her new surroundings at the Center for Great Apes in central Florida.

An 18-vehicle caravan carrying about 100 members of Mormon families leaving their homes after a violent attack in Mexico arrived in Arizona on Saturday. The families came nearly a week after the attack Monday in which nine women and children were killed by what authorities said were hit men from drug cartels. On Saturday, families went in and out of...

Family and friends said goodbye Saturday to the last victim of a cartel ambush that killed nine American women and children from a Mormon community in northern Mexico where cartels have disrupted an otherwise peaceful, rural existence. In the attack Monday, Christina Langford Johnson jumped out of her vehicle and waved her hands to show she was no threat. Children...

Photographer Robert Freeman, who helped define the image of The Beatles with some of the band’s best-known album covers, has died aged 82. A statement on The Beatles’ official website announced Freeman’s death Friday but didn’t give a cause. Born in 1936, Freeman began his career as a photojournalist for London’s Sunday Times and captured portraits of leading jazz musicians...

Less than a year from the deadline that requires all U.S. residents to obtain a Real ID if they fly domestically without a passport, the Illinois Secretary of State’s Office plans to hire additional employees and expand facility hours to handle the increased demand.

The Tokyo Olympics organizing committee said Friday opera legend Placido Domingo has said he won’t perform at pre-Olympics cultural events in Japan. The committee said in a statement that Domingo has decided not to perform at an event scheduled for April that was meant to bring together opera and traditional Japanese Kabuki theater and officials accepted his decision.

School officials in Pennsylvania have apologized to parents after students received a homework assignment involving President Donald Trump.

Federal agents raided a Long Island tech firm early Thursday and arrested its top executives amid concerns the company was selling Chinese-made equipment to the U.S. military while claiming it had been manufactured in the United States.

A Chicago-area proposal for a casino in the south is getting some pushback from neighbors in the area.

“Pose” and “Batwoman” are among the shows contributing to a surge in LGBTQ and gender inclusiveness on television, according to a new study by the advocacy group GLAAD.

The IRS released the federal tax rates and income brackets for 2020 on Wednesday. The seven tax rates remain unchanged, while the income limits have been adjusted for inflation. Tax rates in the U.S. are marginal, meaning that different levels of the same person’s income are taxed at different rates. If you and your spouse earn $80,000 in 2020 and...

The Saudi government, frustrated by growing criticism of its leaders and policies on social media, recruited two Twitter employees to gather confidential personal information on thousands of accounts that included prominent opponents, prosecutors alleged Wednesday. The complaint unsealed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco detailed a coordinated effort by Saudi government officials to recruit employees at the social media...

Sheryl Crow and Bruce Springsteen hit the stage together to help raise over $5.7 million at this year’s Stand Up for Heroes fundraiser, which benefits injured veterans and their families.

Boeing’s new chairman gave embattled CEO Dennis Muilenburg a vote of confidence Tuesday and said the chief executive is giving up any bonus this year. David Calhoun said the Boeing board believes Muilenburg “has done everything right” and is positioning the Chicago company to return the 737 Max to service after two accidents killed 346 people.

Giordano’s is adding a new topping to its menu – plant-based sausage.

Elected officials, religious leaders, music stars and Detroit sports heroes gathered Monday at a church to remember longtime U.S. Rep. John Conyers. Former President Bill Clinton, civil rights leader the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer were among the speakers at Conyers’ funeral at Greater Grace Temple in Detroit. They were joined by several current and former...

Former President Jimmy Carter taught a Bible lesson on life after death Sunday less than two weeks after breaking his pelvis in a fall. Using a walker, the 95-year-old Democrat slowly entered the crowded sanctuary at Maranatha Baptist Church in the southwest Georgia town of Plains. “Morning, everybody,” he said cheerfully.

Is stealing a presidential portrait a prison-worthy crime? Or a laudable act of civil disobedience? Courts around France are grappling with this question in response to an unusual new environmental movement that’s aiming to push French President Emmanuel Macron to do more to fight climate change. One by one, environmental activists around France have removed Macron’s official portraits from more...

President Donald Trump has signed off on a plan that continues a dramatic drop in the number of refugees taken in by the U.S. to no more than 18,000 in fiscal year 2020. When the State Department first announced the plan in September religious and humanitarian groups sharply criticized the administration.