Interactive US News Map Visualizer

I'm looking to build an interactive visualizer for a data science project that displays headlines from approximately 250 news sources across the United States. The website is already set up to show headlines from five different local news websites for each state, updated every 15 minutes. Your task is to create an interactive map of America divided into the Northeast, Midwest, South, and West regions.

Key Requirements:
- Develop an interactive map using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
- Implement both hover effects to highlight regions and click-to-zoom functionality.
- When a region is moused over, it should illuminate. Clicking on a region should zoom in and reveal state lines, displaying only news from that region.
- Clicking on an individual state should focus on that state, showing only its news.
- Display headlines in a side panel when a region or state is selected.

Ideal Skills and Experience:
- Proficiency in web development using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
- Experience with interactive map libraries such as D3.js or Leaflet.
- Strong understanding of user interface design to ensure a seamless and engaging user experience.
- Ability to integrate real-time data updates into the map interface.

I'm excited to see how you can bring this interactive map to life and enhance the user's experience with dynamic news visualization.