USA TODAY US Edition
Cuban artist freed
MIAMI – Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara hugged his son with the gnawing dread that it might be the last time. No one had heard from Otero for days. Not since Cuban agents whisked him to this safe house near Playas del Este in Cuba after completing a...
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‘Sanctuary’ cities face losing federal money to process rape kits
No federal money for bulletproof vests in Santa Cruz, California; no ambulances for paramedics in Beaverton, Oregon; no money to process rape kits in Fresno Fresno City Attorney Andrew Janz was furious to learn that the Trump administration is...
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It’s like a family resort, but some kids come to die
SAN LEANDRO, CA − Daniel Lockwood’s parents say he squealed with enthusiasm the whole last hour of their four-hour drive to George Mark Children’s House on June 1. Upon their arrival, Sarah and Kevin Lockwood help their son, who has several diagnoses...
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We need better heroes, and Spain answers call
EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ − At this level, any coach can find great players. Finding players who are also good people and willing to put the team ahead of themselves – that’s the challenge. In this day and age, when so many people are out only for...
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Wildfire seasons grow in ferocity
Anew heat wave will bring another round of scorching temperatures as fires in the West continue to grow in what already has been a deadly fire season. The Babylon Fire in Utah now covers 100,000 acres, and the Aspen Acres Fire in Colorado is nearing...
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Hawaii rebuilding after fires and floods
HAWAII – To most travelers, Hawaii is paradise. This perennial destination draws visitors eager to experience its stunning beaches, cascading waterfalls, and rich culture, guided by the warmth of aloha. However, it’s been a different reality for many...
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Is it lights out for fireflies?
For many Americans, fireflies (or lightning bugs, depending on where you live) are an iconic sign of summer, lighting up warm evenings with their twinkling glow. ● Fireflies are little beetles in the family Lampyridae. There are more than 175 species...
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Judges step up
Michael Donnelly is used to speaking to the public through his judicial opinions. No more, the former Ohio Supreme Court justice said. So Donnelly, along with a bipartisan group of sitting and retired state and federal judges, did what their...
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GOP on alert over midterms
When Ashton Reed voted for President Donald Trump in 2024, he was drawn by Trump’s vow to recharge the economy and curb the inflation that many around his hometown of Jackson, Missouri, blamed on then President Joe Biden. ● Reed, 22, who has worked at...
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A lifeline by delivery
LOUISVILLE − Carmen Deulofeu tapped a few buttons on her laptop in Kentucky, and 1,000 miles away in Havana, her sister suddenly could feed her family. Basics that are often absent from Cuba’s grocery shelves or unattainable on a Cuban salary were all...
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American Girl dolls reach beyond playtime
The first time I discovered the word journalist was in an American Girl book. I was in elementary school when I fell in love with Kit Kittredge, a doll with my same short blond hair and love of writing. ● I didn’t own the Kit doll, but I devoured her...
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World Cup fever fuels soccer imports surge
America has caught World Cup fever, and it is showing up in an unlikely place: trade data. Ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, hosted by the United States alongside Canada and Mexico, it was not only fans gearing up to see their teams in action –...
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Campaign funds for childcare?
Liuba Grechen Shirley was nursing two children when she decided to run for Congress in 2018. • During the day, she gave speeches and knocked on doors with a baby wrapped to her chest and a toddler at her side. In the afternoons, she relied on her...
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Heir wants a Trump deal
The corded phone near Raúl Castro’s desk buzzed inside his wood-paneled office like it was 1984. This time, someone else answered. Raúl Castro – Cuba’s former president, brother to Fidel – was, instead, waiting at home for news from his lunch date: his...
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Nation celebrates supersize Fourth
Fireworks burst above marbled monuments honoring America’s forefathers for roughly 40 minutes as sun-drenched and rain-soaked Americans watched. The past-midnight display sparkled above the National Mall and on screens across the United States, marking...
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LEARNING LINCOLN’S LESSONS
The 56 steps, cut from pink granite, ascend to a neoclassical temple that seems plucked from ancient Greece and deposited on a Kentucky hilltop. One for each year of President Abraham Lincoln’s life. ● If the first eight steps, rising amid the site’s...
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Young cadets live their ‘Jack Sparrow dreams’
ABOARD THE USCGC EAGLE – Two dozen sailors balanced on ropes hanging high above this ship, their bodies swaying in the wind. The U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels buzzed the masts. Whistling and cheering, crowds gathered on the dock below. The Coast Guard cutter...
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Johnson reflects on turbulence in balancing power
It’s a challenging time to be the nation’s No. 3 leader, even with House Speaker Mike Johnson’s political party in command. Sometimes it’s a challenging time because of that, with President Donald Trump testing and pushing the boundaries of executive...
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Shrinking Lake Powell faces risk of ‘dead pool’
Lake Powell – the massive Colorado River reservoir that produces power for millions of homes across the West – is the emptiest it has ever been entering the hottest part of the summer. And the worst is still to come. • Although the lake’s levels have...
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A glimpse into the West Wing
Perched in a White House waiting room during World War II, Norman Rockwell watched a cross-section of Americans file in to see President Franklin D. Roosevelt – soldiers, lawmakers and beauty pageant winners. They came in uniform, in heels and with...
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Purchasing a home now even harder
Housing is fundamental. We all need a roof over our heads. We all need someplace to raise our families, cook our meals and escape from the world. ● So it’s a cruel state of affairs that we seem to be getting it so wrong. ● That’s the idea at the heart...
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July 4th travelers reach new highs
Despite rising travel costs, Americans are still packing their bags for Fourth of July getaways. This year, AAA projects that a record 72.2 million Americans will travel, including 61.4 million who will hit the road, for the holiday period between...
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Some feeling left out of USA birthday bash
About this series USA 250 is our nationwide initiative to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary – the nation’s history, places and people. PHILADELPHIA – As the city gears up for America’s 250th birthday party, artists at Huddle, a gallery in the...
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Your dream vacation could be a ‘dead zone’
It was at a lodge in the middle of the Amazon rainforest where Johan Konst was completely disconnected from the rest of the world for the first time. h The Dutch traveler was exploring Brazil with friends on a trip in April 2023. The group had visited...
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Futuristic caregiving
At first glance, Codey looks like a nightmarish character from the year 3000. • The machine’s beady, glowing, hazel eyes could be perceived as off-putting. And while his 3-foot frame and friendly facial expressions are designed to make him...
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‘Happy they’re back’ after drug addiction
The proudest moment of Kim Humphrey’s fatherhood wasn’t when his son aced a test, got married, or became a dad himself. It was the day his son turned himself in to the police. That day, Humphrey said, was the day he got his son back after a 10-year...
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Black gay men seek a voice in Congress
This fall, a 27-year-old Black gay man named Elijah Manley is the best-funded challenger to 20-year veteran Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Florida, who is facing the political fight of her life to remain in Congress. ● At 59, Wasserman Schultz, a...
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Support often scarce for grieving workers
In March 2019, Diana Wisdom’s teenage son, Bryce, texted that he had blood in his urine. Rushed to the hospital, he was diagnosed with a rare form of kidney cancer. Doctors removed his right kidney. It was just the start of 16 months of treatment....
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This is no ordinary presidential library
Barack Obama’s presidency was like none that came before. That’s also true of the Obama Presidential Center, being dedicated June 18 on the South Side of Chicago. The edifices that presidents build after they leave office reveal their preferred view...
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Genetic testing ‘a slap in our face’
When the International Olympic Committee announced it was banning transgender women athletes from competing in women’s events beginning with the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games, Veronica Ivy was disheartened, but not necessarily surprised. Ivy, who is...
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‘One rule’ for 179 years: Patriotism, not politics
SOUTH BOSTON, VA – Inside this cavernous warehouse off U.S. Route 58, thin strips of red and white cotton cascade over nearly every surface. The strips are piled high in plastic bins, sprawled over tables and fed underneath bobbing needles. The whir...
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Algorithms amplify pressure on parents
Riddled with postpartum anxiety, with a 3-year-old and a 1-yearold on either hip, Kristin Gallant, of the viral brand Big Little Feelings, remembers looking around her neighborhood and scrolling social media for a clue. A clue, she said, as to what...
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2-year-old born deaf can hear with therapy
TARRYTOWN, NY – For Sierra Smith and her son, Travis, who was born deaf, a new gene therapy has been life-changing. The therapy, a surgically delivered drug developed by Regeneron, called Otarmeni (rhymes with “harmony”), recently received accelerated...
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Young people losing faith
Bathed in the glare of her classroom’s fluorescent lights, Kit Vontz mulled how others her age felt about the nation’s future. h “There’s so much going on right now, and it’s kind of overwhelming,” Vontz, 18, recently told the small group of other...
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Surging costs bite into pet adoptions
Olivia Sablan would do anything for her 3-year-old golden retriever, Lemon, including cutting other parts of her budget. • “She’s my whole world,” says Sablan, 27, a postdoctoral student in Seattle studying atmospheric science. Sablan rescued and...
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Teen summer job outlook is gloomy
School is almost out for teenagers across the country, and those hoping to land a summer job may have a tough time finding one. ● Last summer, teen hiring fell to its lowest level in nearly eight decades of Bureau of Labor Statistics data, and...
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‘Buy before you sell’ is opening new doors
Last year, when Matt Gehr and his wife, Amber, decided to upgrade their condo for a single-family home, they had some advantages. ● Among the biggest: just enough savings to be able to swing a 10% down payment on a new place without having to sell...
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Do drivers hate cyclists?
Bicyclists and drivers have a long, fraught history in the United States, and spring 2026 shows that sharing the road still isn’t going so well. In Florida, court records show a man was charged with attempted murder and other counts in March after...
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Parents, educators fear for kids’ health
On an April evening, nearly 100 bikini-clad saunagoers descend on Othership Flatiron, the sauna-and-ice-bath spa that has become an Instagrammable landmark of New York City’s wellness scene. Inside, a DJ blasts house music as people h rotate between...
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Some taking the long way
More than 50 years after Black players finally were allowed to join major college football teams in the American South, Black players populated about half the roster spots in the Football Bowl Subdivision with a record 9,617 participants in 2024-25,...
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Music to kids’ ears: Playing piano for fun
Darius Partovi started taking lessons in classical piano when he was 7, but he soon grew restless and gave them up. It wasn’t until COVID-19 shut down schools that he returned to his keyboard out of boredom. He heard about a local teacher, Payam...
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In crisis mode, USPS delivers proud history
Newman, Jerry Seinfeld’s nemesis in his eponymous sitcom, famously (and ominously) said that “when you control the mail, you control information.” That was something Benjamin Franklin, the Renaissance man and Founding Father, knew very well. He’d...
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80 years later, Dutch still tend soldiers’ graves
By 1947, some 18,000 American soldiers had been buried at the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten. At the end of World War II, the Dutch shared a simple message: “Leave your boys with us. We will watch over them like our own, forever.” • They...
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A new lease on life after serving 25 years
Harry Ruiz should never have been convicted. That’s the conclusion a New York judge reached on April 27, leading him to toss the botched murder conviction. Ruiz knows he’ll never get back the 25 years he spent in prison for a murder he has always...
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The cradle still rocks
MEMPHIS – At 87 years old, Pastor Juan Shipp listens with narrowed eyes to the soul-gospel strains of one of Memphis’ oldest groups tuning up beyond a recording studio window. Members of the Jubilee Hummingbirds talk and laugh, loose and unhurried,...
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TV journalists race for seats in Congress
Eric Sorensen changed channels in spring 2021 from starring on sunny local TV to running for Congress in a stormy midterm election season. In a campaign ad at the time, Sorensen, a former Quad Cities meteorologist, told Illinois viewers whose votes he...
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Built to keep families together
When Denise Chattams lost her Ohio home of 18 years, her family had to split into pairs to stay where they could: a friend’s house and a daughter’s apartment. The high school teacher, then 55, shared a bedroom with the toddler nephew she’d agreed to...
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Bird-watchers hooked on Jackie and Shadow
BIG BEAR LAKE, CA - Every morning with her first cup of coffee and every night before she goes to bed, Roslyn Ward of Australia checks on a family of bald eagles more than 7,500 miles away in California. Like millions of other people across the United...
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In the U.S., the push to free her is growing
Wearing his only well-fitted suit, Harold Jezler pushed through a crowd of government officials, journalists and executives inside a ballroom blocks from the White House. • The acupuncturist scanned the room as guests in suits and evening gowns shook...
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As treatment center unravels, chaos grows
Robert was at work when the call came. ● It was his wife, and she h was frantic. She said she’d just hung up with their daughter’s therapist at Asheville Academy, the residential treatment center where they’d sent their 14-year-old to live four months...
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Here’s where Earth’s glow is growing
Our night sky is getting brighter and brighter – not because of the moon, but because of artificial lighting. • While outdoor lighting is a necessary part of modern society, its widespread use has reshaped natural darkness, affected human and animal...
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Drones set to deploy to safeguard schools
DELTONA, FL From 2022 until 2024, there were 1,000 school shootings across the country, 10 times more than just a decade earlier. And about 800 people were killed or wounded in those shootings. • With brutal realities like that, schools are...
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Mother’s Day isn’t always a celebration
Kendall Williams, 53, won’t be seeing her youngest son this Mother’s Day. But that’s nothing new. Williams has been estranged from her son, who is 30, since September 2023, when she decided to cut off contact because she felt the relationship had...
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U.S. Catholics relate to Leo as one of them
It’s been nearly 1,000 years since King Henry IV stood barefoot in the Italian snow to beg forgiveness after clashes with Pope Gregory VII and over two centuries since Napoleon imprisoned Pope Pius VII in France. Now, a new battle is underway between a...
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Third-country deportations face scrutiny
Pheap Rom thought he was being transferred to another detention center when he saw “Eswatini” on his paperwork last fall. Instead, the 43-year-old Cambodian refugee was put on a plane to the small African kingdom and held for months in a...
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Cuban Americans are split on path to future
Ninety miles from Florida shores sits Cuba, an island that’s recently become a focus of President Donald Trump, and remains a continual pressure point for Cuban Americans, some of whom told USA TODAY they feel increasingly severed from the country...
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Gambling 101
When Michael Farber was a hospitality major at Kent State University, one class persuaded him to take a gamble and move to Las Vegas. • Farber, a 2015 graduate who works for a beverage distributor in Vegas, said the university’s Casino Management...
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Gen Z keeps editing themselves
“TO BE CRINGE IS TO BE FREE.” It’s a slogan that Generation Z loves in meme form, but in practice, they’d rather play it safe. Gen Z − the cohort born in the years 1997 to 2012 − is obsessed with cringe, or more aptly, with avoiding it. From the...
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Festival weighs USA’s 250th amid divisions
Ronnie Mack leaped onto a small stage in the dimly lit public library. He stared at the two dozen people sitting in the audience. Then he took a deep breath before telling them he’d been wrestling with a question. • On this recent and unseasonably warm...
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Americans waver on love for royalty
A red carpet unfurled on the tarmac. Musicians with brass instruments performed “God Save the King.” Along Pennsylvania Avenue, British flags flapped in the wind. King Charles and Queen Camilla landed in the United States on Monday, April 27, for...
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Inside the world of mom influencers
Women in pink pantsuits and floral, ankle-length skirts dropped their spoons into their empty Chobani yogurt cartons and opened their phone cameras as Becky Kennedy began her keynote speech at the Mom 2.0 Summit on April 17. • Kennedy, a clinical...
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Gunfire turns glitz into chaos
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump had taken his seat on the dais just a few minutes earlier and was talking with other VIPs when a series of loud bangs rippled through the jampacked Washington Hilton ballroom. Chaos erupted at one of Washington’s...
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Do nickels still make common cents to use?
Last year, the United States Mint pressed the last penny. ● Penny preservationists warned that the death of the one-cent coin might seed dire consequences: coin shortages at checkout counters; confusion over how to pay bills not ending in zero or five;...
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Women-only retreats in a fight for survival
Reshma Saujani used to get invitations by the dozens to speak at networking events about her experiences as a woman building two nonprofits, struggling with fertility and running for Congress. • So far this year, the founder of Moms First has received...
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