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LAS VEGAS Customers are criticizing a large home warranty company for failing to fulfill its commitments to repair or replace damaged appliances. With more than 2.2 million members, American Home Shield (AHS) is one of the top providers of home warranty policies in the US. The publicly traded parent company of the company, Frontdoor, recorded sales of about $1.8 billion in fiscal 2023, up 7% from the previous year. Executives have praised AHS to investors for continuing to hold the category-leading share of warranties connected to house purchases this year. This is due in part to a recent marketing effort featuring Rachel Dratch, a former cast member of Saturday Night Live, which the business claims has helped raise public knowledge of AHS's brand from 39% two years ago to 54% today. Dra...

Early on Wednesday morning, a Tesla Cybertruck crashed in the Bay Area of California, killing three people and badly injuring another, according to authorities. Piedmont Police Chief Jeremy Bowers told a press conference that when first responders got to the scene in Piedmont, a suburb east of Oakland, the car was still on fire. According to him, officers tried to put out the fire, but it was too strong for the extinguishers to work. After after, the Piedmont Fire Department showed up and extinguished the fire. Three persons tragically died as a result of this collision. Bowers added that one person was transported to a nearby hospital after suffering severe injuries. At 3:08 a.m., police received an iPhone notification about the collision, and two minutes later, while officers were alread...

Some people in Seoul, the capital of South Korea, saw sights straight out of a picture postcard as a result of the heavy snowfall. Others died as a result. Some braved the cold to stroll around the grounds of the city's historic Gyeongbokgung Palace, armed with umbrellas and wearing thick clothes. Despite the cold, a number of young ladies posed for selfies at the same location while wearing traditional hanbok outfits. According to Yonhap news agency, which cited data from Seoul, last week's winter snowfall was the third-heaviest since records began in 1907. It stated that over 16 inches had accumulated. Numerous flights were canceled, ferry operations were halted, and the roads were left in a state of ice turmoil, resulting in travel disaster. At least two additional people were killed in...

Hong Kong Following the release of three American citizens who had been held in China for years, the State Department relaxed its travel advice. China is now on the same level as France and Germany with a travel alert that reads, "Exerce increased caution." According to the advise released on Wednesday, the alert had previously been at Level 3, the second-highest level, warning Americans to think twice about visiting China due in part to the possibility of unlawful detentions. The amended advice no longer contains any mention of unjust detentions. The statement follows the Biden administration's earlier announcement that it had successfully negotiated the release of Kai Li, Mark Swidan, and John Leung, three Americans who had been held captive in China for years. Li, Swidan, and Leung we...

Even though the presidential election is finished, Hollywood's campaign season is only getting started. Film industry executives and publicists will be scouting America's movie capital over the next two months, urging the approximately 10,000 members who vote on the Oscars to support the 97th Academy Awards, which are scheduled for March 2. (If you are in the Los Angeles region, be prepared to see advertisements for For Your Consideration everywhere you look.) Unlike the last two Oscar cycles, when Everything Everywhere All at Once and Oppenheimer established distinct and early advantages, there isn't a clear front-runner in the best picture race this year. The field is wide open this year, and as the campaigns heat up in the upcoming weeks and months, there's still time for things to chan...

On Wednesday, a State Department official announced the release of three American nationals who had been imprisoned in China for years. They are John Leung, Kai Li, and Mark Swidan. Long Island, New York native Li, 62, was arrested in 2016 and given a 10-year term in 2018 on espionage allegations that his family claims are unfounded. Swidan, a 40-year-old Texas businessman who had been in custody since 2012, was found guilty of drug-related accusations that a United Nations working group deemed lacked evidence, and in 2019 he was given a death sentence with a reprieve. The State Department believed that Li and Swidan had been illegally detained. Last year, a court in eastern China found John Leung, a 70-year-old American with permanent citizenship in Hong Kong, China, guilty of espionage a...

Washington U.S.-China relations are expected to be one of the biggest foreign policy issues facing the next government when President-elect Donald Trump takes the oath of office next year. The two countries have had a tense relationship in recent years, with politicians from both parties taking a more aggressive stand against Beijing. The amount to which Trump keeps his promise to impose hefty tariffs on China and the degree to which he is swayed by advisors who believe that the United States should challenge China on issues other than trade will determine the future course of that relationship, according to experts. Tariffs 2.0 Trump already shook international markets this week when he said that, in addition to higher tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico, he would impose a 10% du...

Gloria Holland can still clearly recall a picture from her early years: a man standing outside his front door in just his underwear, begging that his home in Palm Springs, California's Section 14 neighborhood not be razed. Before a bulldozer leveled the building and the man scrambled to safety, he ranted for a few minutes. Holland, who is now 70, stated from her home outside of Atlanta, "I was 8 or 9 years old." I had never seen a grown guy cry before. It caused trauma. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the man and Holland were part of 195 Black and Latino families whose homes were burned down and demolished with little to no warning. Native American-owned land had long been sought after by city officials, who wanted Palm Springs' downtown to expand with upscale hotels and retail establi...

China disputed rumors that Defense Minister Dong Jun was being investigated for corruption on Thursday, stating that a senior military officer had been suspended and was being investigated for major discipline violations. According to his official biography, the suspended officer, Admiral Miao Hua, was stationed in the coastal province of Fujian when President Xi Jinping was employed there as a local official. He was a member of the ruling Central Military Commission, which is China's highest-level military authority. Miao, the top political officer in the military, started his career in the army. Wu Qian, a spokesman for the military ministry, gave reporters no additional information during a monthly press briefing in Beijing. Since last year, the Chinese military has been undergoing a ma...

Los Angeles As local officials, advocacy organizations, and the country's second-largest school system begin organizing to fight mass deportations, the pushback that blue state governors pledged following Donald Trump's election is starting to take shape. The cities of Philadelphia, Chicago, and Los Angeles have pledged to protect undocumented residents of the United States from the incoming Trump administration's plans to carry out what it claims will be the most extensive deportation campaign in history. The ACLU of Southern California sued U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement this month, seeking information on how the next administration intends to conduct the roundups, while the Los Angeles Unified School District declared itself a sanctuary for migrants. Although local authoriti...