Month: October 2021

By SARA CLINE Associated Press/Report for America PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Tourism officials from Oregon’s largest city are calling Portland’s reputation “badly damaged” by months of destructive protests, a homeless crisis and a record year for homicides. Travel Portland is the main tourism promotor for the city and presented data to elected city officials this

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Nineteen states are now suing to block President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for federal contractors. One suit filed in Missouri on Friday includes that state as well as Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming. A second suit filed in Georgia also includes Alabama,

By MATTHEW BARAKAT Associated Press ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A Dutch woman charged seven years ago with raising money for the Somali terrorist group al-Shabab has been extradited to the U.S. to face trial. Farhia Hassan made an initial appearance Friday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria after being brought to the U.S. on Thursday

By BEN FOX Associated Press FORT MEADE, Md. (AP) — A military jury has imposed a sentence of 26 years on a former Maryland man held at the Guantanamo Bay detention center who admitted to joining al-Qaida and cooperated with U.S. authorities. But a plea deal could mean his release as early as next year.

By LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — A woman who says financer Jeffrey Epstein sexually abused her has sued another Epstein accuser for defamation, citing a series of tweets. Rina Oh filed the lawsuit in Manhattan federal court late Thursday, citing a series of year-old tweets by another accuser Virginia Giuffre. Oh said

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A federal judge has ordered U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska not to be left alone with any evidence related to charges that he lied to FBI agents about illegal foreign donations to his campaign. U.S. District Judge Stanley Blumenfeld in Los Angeles issued the ruling to try to protect confidential

By DIANE JEANTET and TATIANA POLLASTRI Associated Press JUNDIAI, Brazil (AP) — Brazilian and American scientists have performed artificial insemination using frozen sperm for the first time on a wild-born female jaguar. The 110-pound feline  already made history two years ago, giving birth to the first jaguar cub ever born from artificial insemination. The procedure

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN Associated Press ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Researchers at the University of Cincinnati say they have more evidence that Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico was more than just an ancient gathering spot for Indigenous ceremonies and rituals. The researchers used pollen and botanical analysis with mapping to chart environmental impacts of

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (AP) — A schoolhouse in Virginia where enslaved and free Black children were taught before the Revolutionary War will once again become part of Colonial Williamsburg. The 18th century building will be moved from the campus of William & Mary to the living history museum several blocks away. Both institutions announced Friday that

By SARAH RANKIN, STEVE PEOPLES and STEVEN SLOAN Associated Press RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Democrats’ decision to drop a proposal for paid family leave from their massive social safety net and climate change package was met with disappointment and irritation by female voters in Virginia. They are a critical constituency in the unexpectedly tight and

By MATTHEW PERRONE and LAURAN NEERGAARD Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration has paved the way for children ages 5 to 11 to get Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine. The agency authorized the kid-size doses on Friday. But there’s one more regulatory hurdle. Next week, advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and

By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press ROME (AP) — Traditionalist Catholics have descended on Rome for their annual pilgrimage. They’re hoping to show the vibrancy of their community after Pope Francis issued a crackdown on the spread of the old Latin Mass that many took as an attack on them and the ancient rite. A Friday

By NOMAAN MERCHANT Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. intelligence agencies say they likely won’t ever be able to conclude whether COVID-19 spread by animal-to-human transmission or leaked from a lab. The Director of National Intelligence issued a paper Friday that elaborates on findings released in August of a 90-day review ordered by President Joe

By ADAM BEAM and KATHLEEN RONAYNE Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis will lead California’s delegation to the United Nations Climate Conference after Gov. Gavin Newsom suddenly pulled out of the trip. Newsom’s office said Friday he won’t attend because of unspecified “family obligations.” Newsom has four children ages 5

By BOBBY CAINA CALVAN and MICHAEL HILL Associated Press CLARKSVILLE, N.Y. (AP) — A New York sheriff is defending his decision to file a criminal complaint against former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo without consulting prosecutors or the woman who says Cuomo groped her late last year. But Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple says he

By MATTHEW BROWN Associated Press BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — U.S. government regulators for the first time will analyze greenhouse gas emissions from federal oil and gas lease sales on a national scale as the Biden administration steps up efforts to address climate change. The announcement Friday came as officials released a report saying fossil fuel

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s lawmakers have approved the speedy construction of a $402 million barrier on the European Union member’s border with Belarus to stop the increasing flow of migrants. Lawmakers voted on the measure Friday and now it only needs the approval from the nation’s president, a government ally. Poland is accusing the

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistan’s police say an explosion at a fuel station in the southern port city of Karachi has killed at least four people. Senior police official Nasir Aftab said six people were injured in Friday’s incident, caused by short-circuiting inside a room at the station. He said it was not an act

By BASSEM MROUE Associated Press BEIRUT (AP) — Saudi state media says the kingdom has ordered the Lebanese ambassador to leave the country within 48 hours. Bahrain took a similar decisions hours later. The report said Friday that Saudi Arabia also has stopped all imports from Lebanon. The media said the moves are a response

By The Associated Press This week’s new entertainment releases include the first ABBA album in a whopping 39 years and a stylish and kinetic update to the Western in Jeymes Samuel’s “The Harder They Fall” starring Idris Elba and Regina King. Benedict Cumberbatch stars in “The Electrical Life of Louis Wain,” a biopic of the

By AARON MORRISON Associated Press Kyle Rittenhouse, the aspiring police officer who gunned down three people in Kenosha, Wisconsin, during a protest in the summer of 2020 against racism and police brutality, is white. So were those he shot. But for many, his murder trial next week will be watched closely as the latest referendum

By MICHELLE L. PRICE and MICHAEL R. SISAK Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — New York Attorney General Letitia James has formally announced that she is running for governor. Friday’s move had been widely anticipated. James’ office investigated allegations that former Governor Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed numerous women. Her bombshell report prompted Cuomo’s resignation. The

JEFF AMY Associated Press JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi judge will decide whether a death row inmate is competent to waive all his appeals and request execution. The state Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a circuit judge must conduct the examination in the case of David Cox.  Cox wrote to the state’s chief justice

By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council has extended the U.N. peacekeeping mission in the disputed Western Sahara for a year, expressing concern at the breakdown of the 1991 cease-fire between Morocco and the pro-independence Polisario Front and calling for a revival of U.N.-led negotiations. The vote on

GREELEY, Colo. (AP) — A former longshot Idaho gubernatorial candidate on trial in the 1984 killing of a 12-year-old Colorado girl says he didn’t know her or her family before she vanished and denied any involvement in her disappearance.  Steve Pankey was a neighbor of Jonelle Matthew and her family at the time. Pankey was