Month: December 2021

By DOUG FEINBERG AP Basketball Writer Candace Parker staved off Father Time to help the Chicago Sky win the franchise’s first WNBA championship and capped off 2021 by being named The Associated Press’ Female Athlete of the Year for a second time. Parker also won the AP award her rookie year with the Los Angeles

In the headline of a Dec. 29 story about a Muslim woman’s lawsuit against a Missouri gun shop, The Associated Press erroneously reported that the store, Frontier Justice, made Rania Barakat remove her hijab. The store wouldn’t let Barakat use its shooting range unless she removed her hijab and she left without doing so.

CARLYLE, Ill. (AP) — Police have arrested a Kentucky man in connection with the fatal shooting of an eastern Illinois deputy early Wednesday and a carjacking in neighboring Missouri a couple of hours later. An Illinois State Police SWAT team arrested 40-year-old Ray Tate of Hopkinsville, Kentucky, on Wednesday afternoon at a home in Carlyle,

GEOFF MULVIHILL Associated Press A judge has kept lawsuits against OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma and members of the Sackler family who own it on hold until Feb. 1 but ordered the parties to negotiate a new settlement. Connecticut and Washington state argued Wednesday that suits against the Sacklers should be allowed to move ahead immediately.

By The Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Hundreds of flights are being cancelled as the omicron variant creates havoc both for travelers and for airlines who are having to cobble together flight crews as infections rise among pilots and flight attendants. According to data from the flight-tracking website FlightAware, 832 flights were cancelled by

Associated Press NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Ethiopian lawmakers have approved a bill to establish a commission for national dialogue, amid international pressure for negotiations to end the 13-month conflict in the Tigray region. The Federal Parliamentary Assembly voted overwhelmingly in favor on Wednesday with 287 votes for, 13 votes against and one abstention. Prime Minister

By AAMER MADHANI Associated Press REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. (AP) — President Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin will speak Thursday as the Russian leader has stepped up his demands for security guarantees in Eastern Europe. In announcing the call, the White House National Security Council spokeswoman said the two leaders will discuss “a range of topics,

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN Associated Press ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico Indigenous leaders are concerned about a proposed multimillion-dollar transmission line that would cross what they consider sacred lands. The transmission line would bring more electricity to one of the nation’s top nuclear weapons laboratories as it looks to power ongoing operations and future

NEW YORK (AP) — The text of Amanda Gorman’s new poem for the end of the year, ‘New Day’s Lyric.’ Gorman told The Associated Press that she wrote the poem to “honor” a year of pain and of hope, and to welcome “the potential” of 2022.

ROME (AP) — An Italian court has ordered the Costa Crociere cruise line to pay 92,700 euros ($105,000) to a passenger who was aboard the Costa Concordia when it crashed and capsized off Tuscany in 2012. The Genoa court recognized that the passenger suffered post-traumatic stress as a result of the disaster, which killed 32

By HILLEL ITALIE AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Amanda Gorman is ending her extraordinary year on a note of hope. The 23-year-old poet, whose reading of her own “The Hill We Climb” at President Joe Biden’s inauguration made her an international sensation, has released a new work and accompanying video to mark the

CAIRO (AP) — Libya’s top prosecutor has ordered the country’s culture minister jailed pending the outcome of an investigation into alleged corruption. General Prosecutor Al-Sediq al-Sour said in a statement Wednesday that Minister Mabrouka Othman would be jailed for four days during a probe of charges of the misuse of public funds and forgery of

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s health minister says the country’s coronavirus infection rate is likely two to three times higher than statistics currently show. He urged his compatriots on Wednesday to be cautious during New Year’s celebrations. Statistics in recent days have continued to show Germany’s infection rate drifting downward from a spike caused by the

By JENNIFER PELTZ Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Days before its start date, an international conference on a landmark Cold War-era nuclear treaty is poised to be postponed because coronavirus cases are surging in the host city of New York. A gathering to review the 1970 Non-Proliferation Treaty was supposed to start at the

By KATHLEEN FOODY Associated Press CHICAGO (AP) — More than a year after the vaccine was rolled out, new cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. have soared to their highest level on record at over 265,000 per day on average. The surge has been driven largely by the highly contagious omicron variant. The previous mark

By TOM HAYS and LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — The British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell has been convicted of helping lure teenage girls to be sexually abused by the late Jeffrey Epstein. The verdict announced Wednesday capped a monthlong trial featuring accounts of the sexual exploitation of girls as young as 14. Jurors

By MICHAEL THEIS of The Chronicle of Philanthropy Chronicle of Philanthropy While NFT technology was created to give artists more control over their work, they have spawned a frenzy as collectors look to cash in. As that speculation intensifies, a growing number of charities have begun to explore fundraising efforts tied to NFTs. Although some

By DON THOMPSON Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Voter-approved rules kicking in Jan. 1 have prompted concerns about possible shortages of bacon and other pork products, amid last-minute calls to delay the new regulations. Even in progressive California, that’s the headline-grabber. It’s among a host of other legislation designed to safeguard employees from warehouse

VICKSBURG, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi police officer has been ordered to take an anger management class after a video showed him pushing a man down during an arrest and forcefully pressing his knee into the man’s back. The video was shot by an onlooker. It shows Vicksburg police Officer Eddie Colbert arresting John Dolley

By SAMY MAGDY Associated Press CAIRO (AP) — Libya has failed to hold its first presidential election as planned this month. The postponement was a major blow to international efforts to end a decade of chaos in the oil-rich country. The vote has faced many challenges, including controversial presidential hopefuls, disputes over laws governing the

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE AP Technology Writer SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — The jury weighing fraud charges against former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes departed court Wednesday without reaching a verdict after six days of deliberations. It won’t resume discussions until after the upcoming New Year’s holiday weekend. The eight men and four women on the jury

By GARY D. ROBERTSON Associated Press RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — In politically divided North Carolina, hostilities between Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and majority-Republican lawmakers have eased somewhat as 2021 nears its end. The governor last month signed a $53 billion state spending measure more than three years after the last comprehensive budget was enacted. The