Month: August 2021

By ROB GILLIES Associated Press TORONTO (AP) — A source familiar with the plans says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will announce Sunday he is calling a snap election for September 20.   The official confirmed the election dates on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. Trudeau is

By ANDREW DALTON AP Entertainment Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Britney Spears’ father has agreed to step down from the conservatorship that has controlled her life and money for 13 years, but his departure is not imminent. James Spears filed legal documents saying that while there are no grounds for his removal, he will step

By KEN MILLER Associated Press OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Parents of Oklahoma schoolchildren and the Oklahoma State Medical Association are suing to overturn a state law banning mask requirements in public schools. The lawsuit filed Thursday alleges the law violates a child’s rights to a safe education, due process and equal protection in addition to

WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett has refused to block a plan by Indiana University to require students and employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Barrett’s action Thursday comes in response to an emergency request from eight students, and it marks the first time the high court has weighed in on a

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A jury found a massage therapist guilty of sex crimes against five people, including three female soccer players at the University of Kansas. The Lawrence Journal-World reports jurors returned guilty verdicts Thursday on all eight counts against Lawrence massage therapist Shawn P. O’Brien. Three of the charges accuse O’Brien of indecent

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — MyPillow chief executive Mike Lindell says he was attacked in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, The Sioux Falls Argus Leader reports that Lindell told attendees Thursday morning at an election fraud symposium that he’s hosting in the city that he was attacked on Wednesday night at his hotel. He said he’s

By MATT O’BRIEN AP Technology Writer NEWPORT, R.I. (AP) — Ready to go out on the town before summer ends? In parts of the U.S., you might have to carry around your COVID-19 vaccine card or a digital copy to get into restaurants, bars, nightclubs and music festivals. After resisting the divisive concept of vaccine

By PATTY NIEBERG Associated Press/Report for America DENVER (AP) — A political feud is brewing over Colorado’s Democratic secretary of state’s investigation into how election equipment passwords from a rural Republican-dominated county got posted on a right-wing blog. Secretary of State Jena Griswold says she has ordered Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters to hand over

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s ministry of defense says it will send around 600 troops to Afghanistan on a short-term basis to help U.K. nationals leave the country amid increasing violence and deteriorating security. A ministry statement said the troops will provide protection and logistical support for the relocation of British nationals where required. They will

By ACACIA CORONADO Report for America/Associated Press AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A Texas Democratic senator who spoke for more than 15 hours against GOP voting restrictions knew she was just delaying the inevitable. Still, Carol Alvarado saw the filibuster as one more tactic she could use to spotlight her party’s marathon clash with Republicans over

By DON THOMPSON Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The California’s high court has ruled that prison inmates cannot legally possess marijuana behind bars under the state’s 2016 law allowing recreational pot. The state Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a 2019 appeals court decision that found the Proposition 64 ballot measure applied to all Californians,

By MARÍA VERZA and GINNETTE RIQUELME Associated Press MEXICO CITY (AP) — Elisa Xolalpa has had three daughters and found a job she enjoys since a former boyfriend tried to destroy her life by tossing acid on her when she was 18. Two decades later, she is still seeking justice. Survivors of acid attacks like

By TALI ARBEL AP Technology Writer The Walt Disney Co. swung to a profit in its most recent quarter as reopened parks provided a revenue bounce. Revenue in the parks and products division surged to $4.3 billion from $1.1 billion a year ago, as theme parks closed last year were open for part or all

By YURAS KARMANAU Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Belarusian authorities have detained over 20 people in the latest wave of arrests, continuing their sweeping crackdown on dissent a year after a disputed presidential election. Belarus was rocked by protests, which were fueled by the Aug. 9, 2020 re-election of authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko to

By MIKE SCHNEIDER Associated Press The Census Bureau on Thursday issued its long-awaited portrait of how the U.S. has changed over the past decade, releasing a trove of demographic data that will be used to redraw political maps across an increasingly diverse country. The data will also shape how $1.5 trillion in federal spending is

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A federal jury has acquitted a former Arkansas lawmaker who was accused of conspiring to bribe an ex-judge who admitted to lowering a jury’s award in a negligence lawsuit in exchange for campaign contributions. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported that jurors on Thursday deadlocked on another bribery charge and seven wire

STARKVILLE, Miss. (AP) — The first Black person to have been elected to Oktibbeha County’s governing board has died. George Curry Jr. was 90. Curry served on the county Board of Supervisors in east-central Mississippi for 28 years, starting in the late 1970s. The Commercial Dispatch reports throughout his seven terms, Curry focused on ensure

By JOHN DANISZEWSKI Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Former AP executive and foreign correspondent Larry Heinzerling has died after a short illness. Heinzerling played a key role in winning freedom for hostage Terry Anderson from Hezbollah abductors in Lebanon, and served as AP bureau chief in South Africa and in West Germany before the

By JIM MORRIS Associated Press VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — A Canadian justice department lawyer told an extradition hearing the dishonesty of a senior executive for Chinese communications giant Huawei Technologies put a bank at risk of violating U.S. sanctions against Iran. Canada arrested Meng Wanzhou, the daughter of Huawei’s founder and the company’s chief

By ZEKE MILLER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Even as President Joe Biden becomes more aggressive in pressuring Americans to get vaccinated, he has refrained from using all his powers. He’s held off, for instance, on proposals to require vaccinations for all air travelers or, for that matter, the federal workforce. The result is a

By BRENDAN FARRINGTON Associated Press TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — The conservative activist lawyer that sued China for $20 trillion over the coronavirus pandemic has now filed a defamation lawsuit against Donald Trump ally Roger Stone. The lawsuit Larry Klayman filed in Palm Beach County, Florida, is over comments Stone posted on Gab, a social media

By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer NEW YORK (AP) — The Oakland filmmaker Peter Nicks had already made two well-regarded documentaries capturing the institutions of his city and how they shape local lives in 2012’s “The Waiting Room,” about a public hospital, and 2017’s “The Force,” about the Oakland Police Department. Nicks turned to Oakland