Month: December 2021

HOUSTON (AP) — Miami Herald President Nancy Meyer has been hired as the new publisher of the Houston Chronicle. New York-based Hearst Corp. announced Wednesday that Meyer will succeed John McKeon, who is retiring after a 40-year career in newspapers. The Chronicle reports that Meyer has been publisher of the Herald, a McClatchy newspaper, and

By HOPE YEN and TOM KRISHER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s pick to run the nation’s highway safety agency is pledging to attack a crisis of fatal car crashes by implementing safety rules to deter impaired driving. He also is promising to scrutinize fast-emerging “self-driving” technologies, such as in Tesla vehicles, that

By The Associated Press It was the year that mental health took a prominent position in the sports world — led by two female athletes, Simone Biles and Naomi Osaka. Biles came back to earn a bronze medal in the Tokyo Olympics after taking herself out of several competitions to deal with a dreaded mental

BOSTON (AP) — The chief executive of a California liquor distribution company who authorities say paid $500,000 to get her son into college as a bogus athletic recruit was sentenced to six weeks’ imprisonment on Thursday. Marci Palatella was sentenced in Boston federal court after pleading guilty to a charge of conspiracy to conspiracy to

LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) — A Louisiana judge will take an unpaid leave of absence after she repeatedly used a racial slur in a video recorded at her home and posted to social media. Gov. John Bel Edwards on Thursday called on Lafayette City Court Judge Michelle Odinet to resign. The video shows a television set

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) — Former Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has been detained by police in Bratislava for organizing an anti-government rally that was banned amid the current lockdown. Fico’s leftist Smer-Social Democracy party and police confirmed the detention that took place before the planned demonstration in the Slovak capital Thursday evening. Police say they

By The Associated Press This year was always expected to be busy on the Mexican border. President Joe Biden, who took office in January, promised to be a more welcoming president than his predecessor, President Donald Trump. That was enough to encourage migrants to try to come to the United States. But arrivals exceeded expectations:

By BEN FOX Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. government has withdrawn from settlement negotiations to end lawsuits filed on behalf of parents and children who were forcibly separated under the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance border policy. Justice Department officials have informed lawyers for the plaintiffs that the government would not offer a global settlement

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — In a story published December 16, 2021, about Oregon’s efforts to combat illegal marijuana production, The Associated Press erroneously reported that the Illegal Marijuana Market Enforcement Grant Program was established in December 2021. The program was created in 2018 and was expanded in December 2021.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The Utah State University police chief has resigned after a recording the institution called reprehensible came to light showing telling football players that some religious women may claim sex was not consensual because they regret it. The Salt Lake Tribune reports that Chief Earl Morris stepped down Thursday, after the

By The Associated Press Olivia Rodrigo, Kanye West, Tyler, the Creator and Billie Eilish are among some of the well-known acts who released albums in 2021, and who have one of the year’s top albums, as determined by a group of entertainment journalists at The Associated Press. But this year’s best albums roster also includes

By KEVIN McGILL Associated Press NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A suspect has been identified and charged in the 2016 shooting death of a St. Louis man visiting New Orleans to plan his wedding. New Orleans District Attorney Jason Williams announced the arrest Thursday of 44-year-old Ernest Weatherspoon in the death of Thomas Rolfes. The 25-year-old

By PATRICIA LUNA and JOSHUA GOODMAN Associated Press SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Most eligible Chilean voters stayed home for the first round of presidential voting. But fear of right-wing candidate José Antonio Kast galvanized many women to action when he finished first, topping a leftist rival. Those women could be the clincher in a tight

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s Prince William has revealed some of his Christmas favorites in response to questions from children receiving cancer treatment at a London hospital. William told young patients at the Royal Marsden that he loves the film “Elf’’ starring Will Ferrell, his favorite Christmas tune is “Feliz Navidad,’’ and that he loves Brussels

MILAN (AP) — A U.S. Navy support site near Naples, Italy, was locked down for some two hours Thursday after reports of gunfire near a base school. No injuries were reported, and one person was detained. Security forces responded to the scene near the installation’s middle and high school at around 6 p.m. (1700 GMT),

By KEN MILLER Associated Press OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Attorneys for the former Oklahoma zookeeper known as “Tiger King” Joe Exotic say he is delaying cancer treatment until after his resentencing on convictions for a murder-for-hire plot and violating federal wildlife laws. Joe Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, said last month he has

By The Associated Press Chronicling COVID for a second straight year, and this year’s vaccine saga, AP photographers found new ways of telling the story. They found striking images — like Amit Sharma’s image of a man running through funeral pyres of COVID-19 victims at a crematorium in India, as if fleeing death itself. Natacha

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Kosovo’s Justice Ministry says it has struck a preliminary agreement to rent 300 prison cells to Denmark to help the Scandinavian country cope with its over-populated prison system. A ministry statement Thursday said the 10-year agreement would earn Kosovo 210 million euros ($236 million). It added that only “non dangerous inmates”

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has signed a bill raising the nation’s borrowing limit by $2.5 trillion, avoiding a potentially catastrophic default and resolving the turbulent issue until after the 2022 midterm elections. The House voted early Wednesday to raise the debt limit, amid urgent warnings from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen that further delay

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — The Palestinian Health Ministry says it has identified its first three cases of the omicron variant of the coronavirus in the occupied West Bank. The ministry says the cases were detected in three Palestinians who had recently returned from abroad. It added that medical teams are tracking down and testing

By JOSEF FEDERMAN Associated Press JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli military says an Israeli man has been killed in a shooting ambush in the northern West Bank. It says at least one Palestinian gunman opened fire at a car carrying Jewish seminary students out of a settlement outpost Thursday night. Israeli leaders have vowed to

PARIS (AP) — The United Nations cultural agency has placed a traditional Haitian soup widely seen as a symbol of the nation’s independence on its prized intangible cultural heritage list. UNESCO’S director-general says joumou soup “tells the story of the heroes and heroines of Haitian independence, their struggle for human rights and their hard-won freedom.”

By MARK KENNEDY and JILL LAWLESS Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Many stages on both Broadway and the West End have been forced to go dark once more as the live theater community grapples with new backstage outbreaks of the coronavirus and its variants. The new shutdowns have temporarily closed everything from London’s revival

By The Associated Press In Germany, a train passes a railroad crossing surrounded by floodwaters. In Greece, a man stands off a beach and watches a wildfire burn across the water. In Colombia, a landscape of cracked mud to the horizon evokes a sci-fi world even as it tells the story of a drying lagoon

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Labor unions led by the Greek Communist Party are demanding a return of wage and pension levels that were axed during three successive international bailouts. Some 2,000 protesters gathered in front of the parliament building in central Athens as lawmakers debated the 2022 budget on Thursday. The budget includes a proposed

By The Associated Press Afghanistan, the country that can’t catch a break, had another difficult year in 2021. It was punctuated by the chaos of a U.S. withdrawal and the quick next chapter. The Taliban, who were unseated as Afghanistan’s rulers by a U.S.-led coalition after the 9/11 attacks 20 years ago, returned. AP photographers

Associated Press ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Even though there have been no cases of clinical infection, the new omicron variant is now the dominant strain of COVID-19 in the Florida county that is home to the nation’s largest theme park resorts. That’s based on wastewater samples. Officials said Wednesday that the omicron variant has quickly

By MARK SHERMAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has returned a lawsuit over Texas’ six-week abortion ban to a federal appeals court that has twice allowed the law to stay in effect, rather than to a district judge who sought to block it. Justice Neil Gorsuch on Thursday signed the court’s order

By LLAZAR SEMINI Associated Press TIRANA, Albania (AP) — A group of Afghan artists evacuated after the Taliban seized power in their homeland have painted a mural in Albania’s capital to thank their host country, and are urging the world not to forget their brethren back home. The mural was painted Thursday by members of