Month: August 2021

By SOPHIA EPPOLITO Associated Press/Report for America SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Members of the faith widely known as the Mormon church remain deeply divided on vaccines and mask-wearing despite consistent guidance from church leaders. Members who support the stance say they fear that some Latter-day Saints who refuse to get vaccinated are allowing their

By ADAM BEAM Associated Press SITES, Calif. (AP) — It’s been seven years since California voters agreed to borrow billions of dollars to build more water storage projects. Yet none of the more than half-dozen projects scheduled to get the money have been built. A severe drought gripping the western United States has put those

By SARA BURNETT Associated Press CHICAGO (AP) — Illinois Democrats were poised to set new legislative boundaries over objections from Republicans and some community groups that the process was rushed and maps were drawn behind closed doors to keep Democrats in power in the state Legislature. Lawmakers on Tuesday approved a do-over of maps that

WEST MELBOURNE, Fla. (AP) — Authorities say a Florida deputy was wounded, and the man who shot him was killed during a traffic stop. Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey says the confrontation occurred Monday afternoon on a West Melbourne street near Interstate 95. Authorities say a deputy pulled over a vehicle with three occupants and

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Federal prosecutors say they will not seek the death penalty for a 22-year-old former nursing student charged in a deadly shooting at a Southern California synagogue on the last day of Passover in 2019. The decision was disclosed Monday in a one-sentence court filing. It comes less than two months after

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — U.S. climate envoy John Kerry is in Tokyo meeting Japan’s foreign minister to discuss efforts to involve China and developing nations to fight climate change. The push comes ahead of a United Nations conference in November. The Japanese foreign minister said Tuesday he told Kerry that getting

By BECKY BOHRER Associated Press JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Alaska residents don’t know how much money they might get from the state’s oil wealth this year, or even when they might get the unique payout just for living in the oil-dependent state. It’s left many upset. Frustrated residents have told lawmakers that they’re tired of

By ADAM BEAM Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The California Legislature has voted to guarantee people can call out their bosses publicly in most harassment and discrimination cases. California law already bans nondisclosure agreements in cases of sexual harassment, discrimination and assault. The bill lawmakers approved Monday would extend that law to include other

By AUDREY McAVOY Associated Press HONOLULU (AP) — The mayor of Honolulu says the city will soon require patrons of restaurants, bars, museums, theaters and other establishments to show proof of vaccination or a recent negative test for COVID-19. The rule takes effect on Sept. 13 and is aimed at helping the city beat back

By MANUEL RUEDA Associated Press BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — A court in Colombia has refused to allow a trial for a retired general accused of offering incentives that led soldiers to murder 104 civilians and pass them off as guerrilla fighters killed in combat during Colombia’s long civil conflict. Bogota’s Superior Tribunal ruled Monday that

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida state education officials have begun to make good on threats to withhold funding from local school districts that defied Gov. Ron DeSantis’ ban on mask mandates. The move comes despite a circuit judge who last week ruled the ban unconstitutional. Commissioner of Education Richard Corcoran announced Monday that the Florida

By MARY CLARE JALONICK Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol is asking social media and telecommunications companies to preserve phone or computer records for hundreds of people. The committee in a letter Monday cites records of those who were potentially involved with planning to

A federal grand jury has indicted a defrocked American priest on charges of having sex with minors while running a children’s shelter in a remote part of East Timor. Eighty-four-year-old Richard Daschbach faces seven counts of engaging in illicit sexual conduct at the Topu Honis shelter that he founded decades ago in the mountains of

By STEFANIE DAZIO Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — The man who stockpiled illegal fireworks in his South Los Angeles backyard — which were later improperly detonated by police, likely causing a massive blast in late June that rocked a neighborhood and injured 17 people — now faces a decade in federal prison. Five Los

By LOLITA C. BALDOR and MATTHEW LEE Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — As the final five U.S. military transport aircraft lifted off out of Afghanistan Monday, they left behind up to 200 Americans and thousands of desperate Afghans who couldn’t get out and now must rely on the Taliban to allow their departure. Secretary of

By WAYNE PARRY Associated Press BERKELEY TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey authorities say a young lifeguard was killed and seven other people injured when lightning struck a Jersey Shore beach Monday afternoon. Gov. Phil Murphy confirmed that a lifeguard in Berkeley Township was killed in the afternoon. It marked the second death of a

GARLAND, Texas (AP) — Investigators are looking into whether a Texas man was inspired by foreign terrorists when he fatally shot a Lyft driver in a Dallas suburb and opened fire in the police station of another suburb where officers shot him. Police say Imran Ali Rasheed ordered a Lyft in Garland on Sunday, then

SKOPJE, North Macedonia (AP) — A first group of 149 Afghan evacuees has landed in North Macedonia, where they will stay for a few months pending resettlement elsewhere. The passengers were on a private Afghan Kam Air flight that arrived late Monday at Skopje international airport. The group included employees of international organizations in Afghanistan

By JONATHAN MATTISE Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Attorneys general from 20 states have sued President Joe Biden’s administration seeking to halt directives that extend federal sex discrimination protections to LGBTQ people, ranging from transgender girls participating in school sports to the use of school and workplace bathrooms that align with a person’s gender

DALLAS (AP) — Dallas city officials say an ongoing audit of police crime data has found that the data missing from the city’s computer database is almost triple the initial estimate. City spokeswoman Janella Newsome tells The Dallas Morning News that an additional 15 terabytes of police data have been found to be missing. City

By SEAN MURPHY The Associated Press OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — An Oklahoma civil rights group has filed a federal lawsuit claiming a new anti-protest bill approved by lawmakers this year is unconstitutional. The Oklahoma chapter of the NAACP filed the lawsuit Monday in federal court in Oklahoma City, along with the national NAACP and the