Month: December 2021

By FARNOUSH AMIRI and MARY CLARE JALONICK Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican congressman Scott Perry of Pennsylvania has rebuffed a request for him to sit down for an interview and turn over documents to the committee investigating the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection. Perry joins other allies of former President Donald Trump in trying

By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer NEW YORK (AP) — With a touch of Barbara Stanwyck, a sumptuous Art Deco office and a deadly shade of crimson lipstick, Cate Blanchett plays a femme fatale in Guillermo del Toro’s “Nightmare Alley” with cunning embrace and subversion of the film noir archetype. If “Nightmare Alley” is del

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has introduced a new member of the family. It’s a purebred German shepherd puppy named Commander. At the same time, the first lady’s office also said the cat that she promised more than a year ago will finally arrive in January. But the news

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — A worker injured in the destruction of a Kentucky candle factory hit by a tornado has died. That brings the total killed in that facility to nine. Governor Andy Beshear says the worker was hospitalized and recently succumbed to their injuries. During a news briefing on Monday, Beshear celebrated a toy

By MIKE STOBBE AP Medical Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Omicron has raced ahead of other variants and is now the dominant version of the coronavirus in the U.S. Federal health officials said Monday that omicron accounted for an estimated 73% of new infections last week. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention numbers show

PETROLIA, Calif. (AP) — A 6.2-magnitude earthquake has struck a rural stretch of Northern California’s coast. The U.S. Geological Survey says the quake brought significant shaking but likely minimal economic damage. The jolt was recorded just after noon on Monday off a tiny town called Petrolia. The National Weather Service says a tsunami is not

KINGSLAND, Ga. (AP) — A federal agency on Monday granted a license for a launchpad that would fly commercial rockets from coastal Georgia. The Federal Aviation Administration’s approval of a launch site operator license for Spaceport Camden marks a milestone for the Georgia space project, though more reviews are needed. A local county leader said

By DON THOMPSON Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California prosecutors say retail giant Walmart illegally dumps more 1 million batteries, aerosol cans of insect killer and other products, toxic cleaning supplies, electronic waste, latex paints and other hazardous waste into California landfills each year. The company called the lawsuit unjustified. The state attorney general,

By LAURAN NEERGAARD and CARLA K. JOHNSON AP Medical Writers The new omicron variant took only a few weeks to live up to dire predictions about how hugely contagious it is. But scientists don’t yet know if it causes more severe disease even as the world faces exploding cases just before Christmas. Vaccines in the

By JIM MUSTIAN and JENNIFER PELTZ Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Just a couple of weeks ago, New York City seemed like a relative bright spot in the U.S. coronavirus struggle. Now it’s a hot spot, confronting a dizzying spike in cases, a scramble for testing, a quandary over a major event and an

By GLENN GAMBOA AP Business Writer At the start of the pandemic, the need for the food Jaron Barganier’s nonprofit, Be a Champion, provides to kids throughout Texas exploded. Barganier, looking at demand that more than tripled to about 100,000 meals a day, turned to The PepsiCo Foundation’s Food for Good for help. The PepsiCo

By MARK PRATT Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — Federal prosecutors say one of five Russian nationals accused of making tens of millions of dollars by trading shares of companies using information stolen during hacks of U.S. computer networks has been extradited to the U.S. The U.S. attorney’s office in Boston said Monday that 41-year-old Vladislav

SANTA CATARINA IXTAHUACAN, Guatemala (AP) — Hundreds of demonstrators laid coffins on a platform to block a highway in Guatemala to protest the weekend killings of a dozen people. The protesters placed eight coffins on an improvised wooden platform, to demand justice in the case. They carried banners reading, “We have The Right to Live

By ROB HARRIS AP Global Soccer Writer LONDON (AP) — Premier League clubs have decided against pausing the season despite 10 fixtures being postponed in the previous week due to widespread coronavirus outbreaks across squads. While more than 90% of players in the Italian and Spanish leagues have been fully vaccinated, the Premier League disclosed that

By AMY FORLITI and STEVE KARNOWSKI Associated Press MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The jurors deliberating at former Minnesota police officer Kim Potter’s trial in the death of Daunte Wright are a mostly white group, with two people who identify as Asian and one as Black. And they include a medical editor, IT workers, a former special

By SAMY MAGDY Associated Press CAIRO (AP) — A Saudi-led coalition fighting the Iran-backed rebels in Yemen says it has launched “precision airstrikes” against rebel targets at the airport in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa. The strikes on Monday came just over an hour after the coalition asked U.N. agencies and civilians to immediately leave

PEMBROKE PINES, Fla. (AP) — Authorities say NFL Hall of Fame linebacker Lawrence Taylor is facing felony charges in South Florida after failing to report an address change as required because of his status as a registered sex offender. Court records show Taylor was booked into the Broward County jail Thursday on two counts of

LONDON (AP) — Queen Elizabeth II has decided not to spend Christmas at the royal Sandringham estate in eastern England amid concerns about the fast-spreading omicron variant. The palace said Monday that the 95-year-old queen will spend the holidays at Windsor Castle, west of London, where she has stayed for most of the pandemic. Other

By LINDSEY BAHR AP Film Writer Leonardo DiCaprio has been an outspoken environmental advocate for as long as he’s been famous but the topic has never overlapped with his acting work. It wasn’t for lack of trying: He just couldn’t find the right fit. And, more importantly, he didn’t want to do the wrong thing

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — U.S. Rep. Stephanie Murphy says she will not seek reelection next year. The Florida Democrat is a leader of the centrist Blue Dog Coalition and member of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection. The 43-year-old congresswoman said on Monday that she’s retiring to spend more time with her

By The Associated Press China was one of the biggest stories of 2021. Top stories included its plans to host the 2022 Winter Olympics in the face of criticism about its human rights records in the Xinjiang region, Tibet and Hong Kong. Then there were the questions about how it would wield its economic power