TWAIN HARTE, Calif. —This is the tinderbox of the Sierra Nevada. It’s early June, the temperature is 97 degrees Fahrenheit and the air shimmers over dead trees choked in brush. In the Stanislaus National Forest, logging roads wind through firs and ponderosa pines, past 20-foot-tall burn piles — tons of scrap wood not worth bringing to a sawmill. They’ve been assembled by workers on the front line of the fight against forest fires: a timber crew thinning these woods for the Forest Service and a tech startup that’s trying to automate the enormous machines the crew relies on.

WINNEBAGO COUNTY, Wis. — The walls of the Fish Tales bait shop near the banks of Lake Winnebago in Wisconsin are lined with brightly colored bobs and lures. Big coolers hold leeches, butter worms and cans of Red Bull. On a recent morning, two fussy Dobermans were whining to be let out of a back room.

WASHINGTON — The main reason CNN’s interview with Vice President Kamala Harris turned out to be remarkable was that it was the first one she had done since President Joe Biden bowed out and tapped her as his successor.

The family of a Green Beret who died by suicide after serving eight combat tours and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery expressed concern Wednesday that Donald Trump’s campaign had filmed his grave site without permission as Trump stood in an area where campaign photography isn’t allowed.

Jason Moyer was days away from a family road trip to visit his parents when his 10-year-old son woke up with a fever and cough. COVID-19? The prospect threatened to upend the family’s plans.

WASHINGTON — Democrats say they have a simple plan for discrediting Robert F. Kennedy Jr. now that he has dropped out of the race and endorsed former President Donald Trump: calling him “weird.”

Democrats sued the Georgia State Election Board on Monday, arguing that measures approved by the board this month seeking to alter the election certification process in the state were illegal and could create chaos on Election Day.