Month: November 2021

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Authorities say a longtime University of Michigan violin professor pleaded guilty to transporting an underage girl across states lines for sex back in 2002. The U.S. attorney’s office in Detroit said Tuesday that 68-year-old Stephen Shipps faces up to 15 years in prison when he’s sentenced. Shipps was indicted last

By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Adele reached 10.33 million viewers on Sunday for a special that showcased her new songs on CBS. That’s narrowly below the 10.4 million people who watched the Academy Awards this spring, and when delayed viewing is eventually added in, Adele is likely to surpass the

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — A book about a wealthy American family whose actions helped unleash the United States’ opioid epidemic has won Britain’s leading nonfiction book prize. Patrick Radden Keefe’s “Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty” was awarded the 50,000 pound ($67,000) Baillie Gifford Prize during a

By KIM CHANDLER Associated Press MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — A federal judge has blocked the U.S. Treasury from enforcing a provision of the American Rescue Plan  that prohibited states from using the pandemic relief funds to offset new tax cuts.  U.S. District Judge L. Scott Coogler ruled Monday that Congress’s exceeded its power under the

By MIKE STOBBE AP Medical Writer NEW YORK (AP) — An influential U.S. advisory panel will discuss expanding eligibility for COVID-19 vaccine booster shots to all adults Friday, a move that could make the shots available as early as this weekend. The panel advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in setting vaccination recommendations

By KEVIN FREKING and LISA MASCARO Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona is facing censure in the House over a violent video he posted online. The House will vote Wednesday on a resolution that would censure Gosar for tweeting an animated video that depicted him striking Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of

By COLLEEN SLEVIN Associated Press AURORA, Colo. (AP) — A suburban Denver police department whose officers were indicted in the death of Elijah McClain will revamp its use-of-force policies and launch new training programs in an effort to combat bias. It is part of an agreement announced Tuesday following an investigation that found a pattern

By LISA RATHKE Associated Press MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — Democrat Patrick Leahy’s announcement that he will retire after eight terms in the Senate has set off a scramble in Vermont over the rare opening in the state’s tiny congressional delegation. While political observers expect Democratic Rep. Peter Welch to be a leading candidate if he

By BARBARA ORTUTAY AP Technology Writer Twitter users will soon see new warning labels on false and misleading tweets, redesigned to make them more effective and less confusing. The labels, which the company has been testing since July, are an update from those Twitter used for election misinformation before and after the 2020 presidential contest.

By DENISE LAVOIE Associated Press RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Two incumbent Democrats who trail Republican challengers in close races in Virginia’s House of Delegates say they will seek recounts, leaving control of the House in limbo. Republicans have won 50 seats and Democrats have won 48.  Republicans hold razor-thin margins in the two remaining races

By MATTHEW BROWN and JANET McCONNAUGHEY Associated Press NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The U.S. Interior Department on Wednesday will auction vast oil reserves in the Gulf of Mexico estimated to hold up to 1.1 billion barrels of crude. It’s the first such sale under President Joe Biden and underscores the challenges he faces to reach

By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Netflix on Tuesday rolled out a new website that measures its most-watched films and series by the amount of hours users spend watching them. The results? People are watching “Squid Game” and the new action film “Red Notice” maybe even more than you would have

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein has announced he’s suing the founders of an e-cigarette maker over his concerns that their product is being marketed to children through kid-friendly flavors and poor age verification. Stein said at a news conference Monday that he is suing Juul founders James Monsees and Adam

By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS Associated Press SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Washington state’s bipartisan redistricting commission failed to meet its deadline for redrawing political maps, meaning the task will now be taken up by the state Supreme Court. This is the first time the panel has failed to finish its work since the state adopted a

By PETER SMITH Associated Press BALTIMORE (AP) — U.S. Catholic bishops are preparing a teaching document on Communion, which some are linking to debates over whether Catholic politicians like President Joe Biden should receive Communion if they support legal abortion. But first they have heard a caution from Pope Francis’ top representative to the United

JERUSALEM (AP) — An 86-year-old woman who survived mass roundups and massacres of Jews as a child in Romania has been crowned Israel’s “Miss Holocaust Survivor.” Ten women in their 80s and 90s took part in Tuesday’s pageant. The event was sponsored by a local nonprofit group and was meant to bring members of Israel’s

By JIM SALTER Associated Press U.S. Rep. Cori Bush has claimed on social media that white supremacists shot at protesters in Ferguson, Missouri, but the city’s police chief says he was unaware of any such incident. Bush, a first-term Democrat, made her name as an activist leader in Ferguson after the fatal police shooting of

By JAMIE STENGLE Associated Press DALLAS (AP) — The son-in-law of one of the 18 older women a man is charged with killing in the Dallas area over a two-year span told jurors that she was fun and generous, and loved giving out $2 bills. Billy Chemirmir is on trial for capital murder in the

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — Messages presented in a federal court Monday appear to show an organizer of the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville instructing supporters to mislead law enforcement about the potential size of the 2017 protest. The Washington Post reports that Jason Kessler is one of two dozen defendants testifying in a

By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer Will Smith wouldn’t seem an obvious candidate for a mid-life crisis. He’s hugely successful, immensely popular, indefatigably sunny. But Smith, who stars in the upcoming drama “King Richard,” as Richard Williams, father and coach to Venus and Serena Williams, is reemerging after an extensive period of introspection. The 53-year-old,

By KEVIN McGILL Associated Press NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A second set of states has filed a federal lawsuit challenging the Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for health care workers. The suit filed in Louisiana on behalf of 12 states was dated Monday. It comes less than a week after another lawsuit challenging the rule

By DAVID A. LIEB Associated Press JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — States will soon be flooded with federal money they can use to repair, improve or remove thousands of aging dams across the U.S. The funding is included in the $1 trillion infrastructure bill signed by President Joe Biden. Though it pales in comparison to