Thousands of visitors were told to evacuate a remote Minnesota wilderness area accessible only by boat as wildfires send dangerously heavy smoke over the U. S. Midwest and Northeast this week. More than 100 wildfires are burning in Canada and winds are carrying the smoke southeast. Warnings about unhealthy air conditions Wednesday extended from Minnesota through Toronto and into New York. Unusually hot summer temperatures were expected, too. The best advice is to stay indoors to avoid both the...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers said Kathryn Ruemmler, the former top lawyer at Goldman Sachs and White House counsel to President Barack Obama, was not being truthful Wednesday about her relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, rejecting her testimony that Epstein had merely “used” her. Ruemmler in her opening remarks told members of the House Oversight Committee that “it was a mistake to deal with” Epstein, but she insisted she never witnessed criminal activity. She said Epstein “used me a...

The Trump administration's latest nominee to lead the nation' top public health agency drew frustrated reactions from some U. S. senators on Wednesday when they pressed her on whether she would protect the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from political meddling. Dr. Erica Schwartz told the Senate health committee she "will never betray the science” and pledged to use “radical transparency” in a bid to rebuild public trust in the agency. But several senators questioned how she...