Month: August 2021

By DAVID McFADDEN Associated Press BALTIMORE (AP) — Baltimore’s first new Catholic school in nearly 60 years has opened its door to students. Baltimore is a city once steeped in Catholicism like few others in the U.S. Monday’s opening of Mother Mary Lange Catholic School is an anomaly in the national education landscape where the

By MARK SHERMAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Abortion providers in Texas are asking the Supreme Court to prevent enforcement of a state law that would allow private citizens to sue anyone for helping a woman get an abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy. The request to the court comes after a panel of

By RYAN J. FOLEY Associated Press IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A man has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in the stabbing death of University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts three years ago. Judge Joel Yates sentenced Cristhian Bahena Rivera on Monday to the mandatory sentence for first-degree murder

By ELLIOT SPAGAT Associated Press CALIPATRIA, Calif. (AP) — Demand for electric vehicles has shifted investments into high gear to extract lithium from geothermal wastewater around California’s dying Salton Sea. The ultralight metal is critical to rechargeable batteries. Despite widespread availability in the United States, Nevada has the country’s only lithium plant, and U.S. production

By ELLIOT SPAGAT Associated Press CALIPATRIA, Calif. (AP) — Demand for electric vehicles has shifted investments into high gear to extract lithium from geothermal wastewater around California’s dying Salton Sea. The ultralight metal is critical to rechargeable batteries. Despite widespread availability in the United States, Nevada has the country’s only lithium plant, and U.S. production

CASPER, Wyo. (AP) — Donations are pouring in for the widow and unborn child of a U.S. Marine from Wyoming killed in a bombing in Afghanistan. Twenty-year-old Rylee McCollum was among 13 service members killed by a suicide bomb attack Thursday at the Kabul airport. They were providing security as the airport was overwhelmed with

By STEPHEN HAWKINS AP Sports Writer ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — The New Orleans Saints are at the home of another NFL team after being displaced by Hurricane Ida. Saints players and staff, along with about 120 family members, relocated to North Texas in advance of the storm that made landfall south of New Orleans on

By TOM HAYS Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — After several days of testimony from women claiming they were sexually abused by R&B star R. Kelly, a man has testified that Kelly exploited him in the same way. The witness took the stand at Kelly’s sex-trafficking trial in New York City on Monday. He claimed

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Cyprus says an oil slick believed to have originated from a power plant inside one of Syria’s oil refineries could reach the northeastern tip of the Mediterranean island nation in the next 24 hours. The Cyprus Fisheries and Marine Research Department said late Monday that computer models indicate the slick could

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland got married to longtime partner Skip Sayre Saturday night in New Mexico. Interior Department spokeswoman Melissa Schwartz says Haaland wore a dress designed and sewn by her sister. The ceremony incorporated elements honoring her Native American ancestry. The former New Mexico congresswoman is a member of

By MARÍA VERZA Associated Press MEXICO CITY (AP) — With bottles of gel, temperature checks and wide-open windows a new school year has begun for millions of children in Mexico. Officially, school is starting “in person, responsibly and orderly,” according to the Education Ministry. In practice, it will be a system that is voluntary, diverse

By STEVE KARNOWSKI Associated Press MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota Court of Appeals has affirmed a decision by state pollution regulators to issue a water quality certification for Enbridge Energy’s Line 3 crude oil pipeline. It’s the latest setback for opponents as the project nears completion. The court ruled that the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Jamaican singer and record producer “Lee Scratch” Perry, considered one of reggae’s founding fathers, has died. He was 85. Perry, whose real name is Rainford Hugh Perry, died Sunday at a hospital in Montego Bay, Jamaica, according to a statement issued by Prime Minister Andrew Holness. He noted that

By COLLIN BINKLEY AP Education Writer The Education Department says it’s investigating five Republican-led states that have banned or limited mask requirements in schools, saying the policies could amount to discrimination against students with disabilities or health conditions. The department’s office for civil rights sent letters to education chiefs in Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee,

By MICHAEL R. BLOOD AP Political Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Republican hasn’t won a statewide election in heavily Democratic California in 15 years. But the rapid ascent of conservative Larry Elder in the September recall election that could oust Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom is alarming liberals fearful of a historic upset. The Black

By JONATHAN MATTISE Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Emergency workers and volunteers in rural Tennessee are pushing to clean up as much debris as possible from recent deadly flooding before the remnants of Hurricane Ida threatened to interrupt recovery efforts with another dousing. The Humphreys County Emergency Management Agency on Monday noted the possibility

By KAREN MATTHEWS Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — New York Gov. Kathy Hochul says a “sequence of failures” in New York City’s subway system following a brief power outage disrupted half of the system for several hours and stranded hundreds of passengers. Hochul says the breakdown stranded passengers on five trains that were between

BERLIN (AP) — A labor union representing German train drivers said its members will launch a third strike this week in an escalating pay dispute with the country’s biggest rail company. The GDL union said freight train drivers will walk out on Wednesday evening, followed by passenger train drivers early Thursday. The strike is due

By DÁNICA COTO Associated Press SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Puerto Rico’s governor has announced new restrictions to fight a rise in COVID-19 cases, including the closure of certain private businesses and banning alcohol sales after midnight. Social activities such as concerts, weddings, birthdays and anniversaries also will be banned during those hours, and

By MARGARET STAFFORD and HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH Associated Press LIBERTY, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri prosecutor has filed a motion asking a judge to exonerate a man who has been imprisoned for four decades for a triple murder that she and many others do not believe he committed. The motion was filed Saturday and made public

By GILLIAN FLACCUS and BOBBY CAINA CALVAN Associated Press PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A growing number of communities are moving to require teachers to get vaccinated against COVID-19 as part of aggressive campaigns to ward off the delta variant, which has infected hundreds of thousands of children in the United States. While some school districts

By MARCIA DUNN AP Aerospace Writer CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A space station astronaut is celebrating her 50th birthday with the coolest present ever _ a supply ship bearing ice cream and other treats. SpaceX’s latest cargo delivery showed up Monday at the International Space Station after a day in transit. NASA astronaut Megan

By JOHN RABY Associated Press CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A college student from Hurricane, West Virginia, has pleaded guilty to entering the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 with supporters of former President Donald Trump. Gracyn Dawn Courtright entered the plea Monday to the misdemeanor count. Prosecutors agreed to dismiss a count of stealing government property.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Officials in Poland say three Afghan children staying at a refugee center fell ill after eating poisonous mushrooms picked in a forest, with two of them in intensive care. The children and their families recently arrived in Poland after fleeing the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. They were staying in a center

By TODD RICHMOND Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A top-ranking Roman Catholic cardinal says he will soon begin rehabilitation after contracting COVID-19. Cardinal Raymond Burke is one of the church’s most outspoken conservatives and a COVID-19 vaccine skeptic. He tweeted Aug. 10 that he had contracted the virus. He was sedated and placed on