Month: October 2021

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A New Orleans City Council member facing a drunk driving charge for the third time says he’ll finish out his term while undergoing inpatient addiction treatment. However, Jared Brossett also said in a Thursday statement that he’s suspending his campaign for another term on the council. Brossett currently represents a council

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve is imposing a sweeping new set of restrictions on the investments its officials can own, a response to questionable recent trades that forced two top Fed officials to resign. The Fed announced Thursday that policymakers and senior staff would be barred from investing

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is tying his legislative priorities on voting rights, police reform and climate change to Martin Luther King Jr.’s push for racial justice. Biden spoke Thursday while marking the 10th anniversary of the opening of the civil rights leader’s memorial on the National Mall. With

By JACK JEFFERY RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — A prisoners group says a Palestinian held without charge by Israeli authorities is in “extremely dangerous” condition more than three months into a hunger strike. A rights group says twenty-four-year-old Miqdad al-Qawasmi is the least healthy of six incarcerated Palestinian hunger strikers. The prisoners are protesting against

WESTMINSTER, Calif. (AP) — A Southern California woman who refused to wear a mask or leave a grocery store has been convicted of trespassing and obstructing a business or customers. An Orange County jury found Marianne Campbell Smith guilty on Wednesday. She was sentenced to 40 hours of community service, a year of informal probation

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A critically endangered Sumatran orangutan in New Orleans is pregnant with twins. The Audubon Zoo’s announcement Thursday says 12-year-old Menari is expected to give birth in December or January. Senior veterinarian Bob MacLean says the news is especially exciting because twins are rare for the great ape species. If all goes

By SCOTT SONNER Associated Press RENO, Nev. (AP) — A Salvadoran immigrant has agreed to plea guilty to all crimes in the killing of four Nevada residents during a two-week rampage in January 2019. The unexpected deal a Washoe County judge certified Thursday spares Wilber Ernesto Martinez Guzman from two death penalty trials. It puts

By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Who was Jacques-Yves Cousteau, exactly? He was an oceanographer and explorer but held no scientific degree. He was an environmentalist whose voyages were nevertheless sometimes funded by oil companies seeking drilling sites. He was a filmmaker who made otherworldly undersea documentaries but he disliked the

By EVENS SANON, MATÍAS DELACROIX and PIERRE-RICHARD LUXAMA Associated Press PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — The leader of the 400 Mawozo gang that Haitian police say kidnapped 17 members of a missionary group is seen in a new video saying he will kill them if he doesn’t get what he is demanding. The video posted Thursday

By DÁNICA COTO and ALBERTO ARCE Associated Press PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Gangs across Haiti’s capital and beyond are wielding power like never before. They control more land and commit more crimes than ever — all without a care. Their tightening grip on society threatens the country’s social fabric and its fragile, anemic economy. Poverty

By MATT OTT AP Business Writer An international organization that monitors and sets guidelines to protect against money laundering and terrorism financing has added Turkey, Jordan and Mali to its watch list. The Paris-based Financial Action Task Force’s “gray list” calls for increased scrutiny of financial dealings with the three countries. The FATF also announced

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. (AP) — The 2-month-old California wildfire that threatened the Lake Tahoe resort region over the summer has been declared 100% contained. Officials say the fire reached the milestone late Wednesday. Storms this week covered the fire’s western side in snow and rain fell on the blaze’s eastern side. Stronger storms are

By STEFANIE DAZIO Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — Public health departments across California are gearing up to administer coronavirus vaccines to children ages 5 to 11 in the coming weeks and officials say they are planning “family-friendly” events — including at schools — to persuade parents and guardians to get their kids vaccinated. The

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Tiny Cyprus aims to join the global space exploration drive by developing a compact, X-Ray instrument capable of dating Martian soil and rock samples relatively accurately to potentially reveal more about the Red Planet’s geological history and offer a glimpse of Earth’s own future. George Danos, President of the Cyprus Space

By KEN SWEET AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is ordering Apple, Amazon, PayPal and other tech giants to reveal how their proprietary payment networks function. Apple Pay, Google Pay and other payment systems created by big tech companies now dominate large portions of e-commerce and person-to-person payments. Agency

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Police say a 15-year-old who was injured in a shooting this month at a Texas high school has been released from the hospital. The Dallas Morning News reports that police were notified Saturday by Medical City Arlington that Zacchaeus Selby underwent several surgeries but was in good condition when he left

By MOGOMOTSI MAGOME Associated Press JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Southern African nations have sent envoys to the tiny kingdom of Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland, to engage with King Mswati III about the political and civil unrest that has engulfed the country in recent weeks. The 16-nation Southern African Development Community sent top officials from Eswatini’s

AMES, Iowa (AP) — Two Iowa State University crew club members were participating in their first practice on the water when they drowned in March after their boat capsized in strong winds, according to newly released investigative findings. The pandemic had kept the club off the water for 18 months and investigators concluded in information

By KATHLEEN RONAYNE Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California’s oil regulator wants to ban new oil and gas drilling within 3,200 feet of schools, homes and hospitals to protect public health. The draft rule released Thursday would be the nation’s largest buffer zone between drilling and community sites if adopted. Environmental groups and Democratic

WASHINGTON (AP) — Texas is urging the Supreme Court to leave in place its law banning most abortions and telling the justices there’s no reason to rush into the case. The state filed its response Thursday to the Biden administration’s call on the high court to block the law and rule conclusively this term on

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States has ordered a halt to imports of tomatoes from a Mexican farming company and its subsidiaries for what officials say is abusive treatment of workers that amounts to forced labor. Customs and Border Protection says its investigation found evidence of deception, withholding of wages, debt bondage, and other abusive

By ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE Associated Press TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says he will call state lawmakers back to work early to pass legislation to combat coronavirus vaccine mandates enacted by businesses. The Republican governor on Thursday said he will convene a special session of the GOP-controlled statehouse in November to address vaccine