Month: October 2021

By The Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Bluegrass musician and singer Sonny Osborne, whose fast banjo licks turned “Rocky Top” into a hit with The Osborne Brothers, has died. He was 84. Alison Brown, a Grammy-winning banjo player, told The Tennessean that Osborne died on Sunday. His death was first announced on the website

By MEG KINNARD Associated Press CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — First lady Jill Biden visited South Carolina on Monday, promoting efforts toward finding a cure for cancer and touring a cancer center in the state that played a pivotal role in her husband’s victory in the 2020 Democratic primary. The first lady said she was making

MIAMI (AP) — Florida police say a high school student was ambushed and stabbed to death with a knife and sword by another student who was angry he had previously had sex with the suspect’s ex-girlfriend. Miramar police say the 17-year-old boy planned the murder with his current girlfriend and received help from a 16-year-old

By KAREN MATTHEWS Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — A judicial inquiry has begun into the death of Eric Garner. Garner’s dying cry of “I can’t breathe” as he was restrained by New York City police officers became a slogan of the Black Lives Matter movement. Advocates including Garner’s mother, Gwen Carr, sought the inquiry

BRUSSELS (AP) — Belgium is poised to reinforce pandemic measures in an attempt to stunt the sharp increase of coronavirus cases, with officials looking at  increased mandatory use of face masks and virus passports. The national government and regional authorities brought forward their COVID-19 coordination meeting by three days and will decide Tuesday how to

By ACACIA CORONADO Report for America/Associated Press AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has signed redrawn voting maps that pave a safer path for the GOP’s slipping majority. Abbott signed the maps Monday near the end of a highly charged year in Texas over voting rights. Democrats say the maps disenfranchise Hispanic and

By REBECCA BOONE and KEITH RIDLER Associated Press BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Police in Boise, Idaho, say two people were killed and four injured in a shooting at a shopping mall. They said one person was in custody. At a news conference Monday afternoon, authorities said a police officer was among the four people injured.

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN Associated Press GREENBELT, Md. (AP) — A federal judge has concluded that two neo-Nazi group members intended to engage in terrorist activity before FBI agents arrested them ahead of a pro-gun rally in Virginia. U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang’s decision Monday to apply a “terrorism enhancement” in sentencing the men favors prosecutors’

By JULIE CARR SMYTH Associated Press COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio’s top lawyer has filed suit against the Biden administration seeking to restore a Trump-era ban on abortion referrals by family planning clinics that was reversed earlier this month. The action by Republican Attorney Dave Yost was joined by 11 other states. It says new

By CHINEDU ASADU Associated Press LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Local authorities and police say at least 18 worshippers have been killed by gunmen who attacked a mosque in northern Nigeria during morning prayers. Monday’s attack took place in Mazakuka village in Mashegu local government area of the country’s Niger state. The attackers, believed to be

By MATTHEW LEE AP Diplomatic Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration has suspended $700 million in financial assistance to Sudan following a coup in the African nation that U.S. officials have roundly condemned. The State Department says the full amount of the aid package had been put on “pause” pending a review of the

By KIMBERLEE KRUESI and JONATHAN MATTISE Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee state senator and a Nashville social club owner have been indicted on charges they illegally concealed the movement of $91,000 during the Republican lawmaker’s 2016 failed congressional campaign. A federal grand jury in Nashville handed down the five-count indictment against state

By LOLITA C. BALDOR and ROBERT BURNS Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials say they believe Iran was behind the drone attack last week at the military outpost in southern Syria where American troops are based. Officials say the U.S. believes that Iran resourced and encouraged the attack, but that the drones were not

By KEN SWEET AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — The Treasury Department has hired a former JPMorgan Chase executive to head a new government program aimed at combatting racial inequality issues in banking and other financial-services industries. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Monday that Janis Bowdler will be the department’s first counselor for racial

By RUSS BYNUM Associated Press BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) — The final giant chunk of an overturned cargo ship has been removed from waters along the coast of Georgia. Demolition of the South Korean freighter Golden Ray took almost a full year before the eighth and last segment of the shipwreck floated away Monday on a

By LISA MASCARO, DARLENE SUPERVILLE and ALAN FRAM Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Democrats’ idea for a new billionaires’ tax to help pay for President Joe Biden’s social services and climate change plan is quickly running into criticism. Some Democratic lawmakers view it as too cumbersome and prefer the original plan of simply raising

By REBECCA BOONE Associated Press BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The founder of a far-right anti-government group says a report estimating the organization’s fast growth over the past year undercounted by half. Ammon Bundy took issue with the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights report, saying the group People’s Rights is actually much larger

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST Associated Press Tumbling COVID-19 case counts have some schools around the U.S. considering relaxing their mask rules, but deaths nationally have been ticking up over the past few weeks. Some rural hospitals are also showing signs of strain and cold weather is setting in. The cold sends people indoors, where the virus

By DAVID BILLER Associated Press RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Facebook and Instagram have removed from their platforms a live broadcast that Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro delivered in which he said people in the U.K. who have received two coronavirus vaccine doses are developing AIDS faster than expected. Facebook’s press office confirmed the content was

By BOBBY CAINA CALVAN Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — The National Labor Relations Board says there’s sufficient interest to form a union at an Amazon distribution center in New York City. That’s after union organizers delivered hundreds of signatures to the federal agency. It’s a key step in authorizing a vote that could establish

By CURT ANDERSON Associated Press ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — A family lawyer says the initial autopsy on the remains of Brian Laundrie did not uncover a cause of his death and a more intensive examination will be done. Laundrie’s skeletal remains found in a Florida nature preserve were positively identified last week using dental

By ELLIOT SPAGAT Associated Press Congressional investigators say two Border Patrol agents were fired from among 60 found to have committed misconduct for participating in a private Facebook group that mocked migrants and lawmakers. The House Oversight and Reform Committee staff report released Monday is the most detailed public account yet of an episode that

By TOM KRISHER AP Auto Writer DETROIT (AP) — Hertz has announced that it will buy 100,000 electric vehicles from Tesla. It’s one of the largest purchases of battery-powered cars in history and the latest evidence of increasing commitments to EV technology. The purchase by one of the world’s leading rental car companies reflects its

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s president says he will not extend the state of emergency that had been imposed across the country for more than four years. President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi announced his decision Monday in a Facebook post. He said the move came because “Egypt has become an oasis of security and stability in the

COLUMBUS, OHIO (AP) — Ohio printed out 35,000 new license plates before realizing a banner depicted on the plate was attached to the wrong end of the Wright Brothers’ historic first plane, the Wright Flyer. State officials acknowledged the error immediately after the new plates were unveiled on Thursday and released a photo of the