National News

GALVESTON, Texas (AP) — Hurricane Laura is rapidly intensifying and forecasters now expect it to become a Category 4 hurricane. It's already a Category 3 storm as it approaches Texas and Louisiana, with landfall expected overnight. Stacy Stewart at the National Hurricane Center says some people are going to wake up Thursday and not believe…

Washington D.C. (AP) — First lady Melania Trump cast her husband as the best hope for America’s future in a Rose Garden address Tuesday night. President Donald Trump turned to family, farmers and the trappings of the presidency on the second night of the scaled-down Republican National Convention. Trump himself pardoned a reformed felon, used…

NEW YORK (AP) — The number of Americans newly diagnosed with the coronavirus is falling — a development experts credit at least partly to increased wearing of masks — even as the outbreak continues to claim nearly 1,000 lives in the U.S. each day. About 43,000 new cases have been reported daily over the past…

Washington D.C. (AP) — Republicans opened Monday night’s prime-time convention with dark warnings about America’s future if President Donald Trump doesn’t win a second term. But then two of the Republican Party’s rising stars, both people of color, offered an optimistic view of Trump’s leadership. They cast him as a protector of religious freedom, the…

SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif. (AP) — Three giant Northern California wildfires are still burning around the San Francisco Bay Area but weather has given firefighters a break. Fire commanders are reporting more humid conditions and less wind Monday rather than another feared round of gusts and lightning. But authorities stress that fire conditions remain dangerous. Six…