Month: December 2021

By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH Associated Press The U.S. death toll from COVID-19 has topped 800,000. That is according to the count kept by Johns Hopkins University. The once-unimaginable milestone was hit Tuesday. It’s seen as doubly tragic, given that more than 200,000 of those lives were lost after the vaccine became available practically for the asking

By The Associated Press The year started with a lot of promise. The world had a vaccine. And even as the planet reached 2 million dead by the middle of the month of January, people in hard-hit countries including the United States and Britain, began receiving the life-saving shots. But as the year progressed, a

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem is proposing a bill to ban transgender women and girls from participation in female school sports leagues. The proposal will be considered during the legislative session in January. It revives a debate in the Capitol that split Republicans last year. A similar bill ultimately died in

By The Associated Press The Associated Press spent months contacting hundreds of local election offices in the political battleground states where former President Donald Trump and his allies disputed his loss to Democrat Joe Biden. In all, the review found fewer than 475 instances of potential cases of voter fraud in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada,

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — The Greek foreign minister has voiced worries over potential plans by Spain to boost military cooperation with Greece’s regional rival, and NATO ally, Turkey. Nikos Dendias made the comments following talks Tuesday with visiting Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares in Athens. “I expressed concern over Spain’s possible intention to strengthen

By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer NEW YORK (AP) — The star-filled readings of old episodes of ‘The Facts of Life’ and ‘Diff’rent Strokes’ proved to be ABC’s most popular show program last week. With 4.8 million viewers, it didn’t crack the Nielsen company’s top 20, but the Jimmy Kimmel-hosted special received some solid reviews.

NEW YORK (AP) — A judge says a secret 2008 settlement that a lawyer for Prince Andrew says would protect him against a lawsuit claiming that he sexually abused an American when she was 17 should be made public. The agreement was reached between Virginia Giuffre and financier Jeffrey Epstein, who killed himself in 2019

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — In a story published December 14, 2021, about nuclear fuel and advanced reactors, The Associated Press erroneously reported where the Energy Department plans to spend $2.5 billion. The money will be spent on two advanced reactor demonstration projects, not a new program involving high-assay low enriched uranium needed to fuel them.

By JOSH FUNK AP Business Writer OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The company working to build a mine in southeast Nebraska to extract a rare element used to make steel lighter and stronger said Tuesday it may also be able to produce some of the key ingredients needed to make the powerful magnets used in electric

PLACERVILLE, Calif. (AP) — A father and son charged with sparking a devastating Northern California wildfire are out of jail after a judge vastly reduced their $1 million bail. The Caldor Fire forced tens of thousands of people to flee Lake Tahoe communities earlier this year. A Placerville judge on Monday reduced bail for Travis

By MICHAEL R. BLOOD Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — With his nomination to be ambassador to India on the line, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti again disputed that he ever witnessed a former top adviser sexually harass one of the mayor’s police bodyguards. The Democratic mayor’s statement came during questioning Tuesday from members of

By JIM SALTER Associated Press The St. Louis-based electric utility Ameren Corp. says in a court filing that it will close a Missouri coal plant several years early, a move that follows a court order this summer requiring pollution controls that would potentially cost hundreds of millions of dollars. The decision was announced Tuesday. In

By KEVIN McGILL Associated Press NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal appeals court has dealt another blow to the Biden administration’s attempt to undo former President Donald Trump’s policy requiring people seeking asylum in the United States to remain in Mexico while their asylum claims are processed. In a Monday night ruling, the 5th U.S.

By CLAUDIA TORRENS Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — A son of former Panama President Ricardo Martinelli has pleaded guilty in New York to laundering $28 million in connection with a massive bribery scheme at a global construction conglomerate. Ricardo Martinelli Linares was extradited to the U.S. last week from Guatemala in a case involving

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — A dog that was missing for two weeks in Colorado was rescued from a ledge 50 yards above a creek this month and is back home. The Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region says one of its animal control officers anchored herself to a wooden fence and rappelled to

WASHINGTON (AP) — Arizona has asked the Supreme Court to allow enforcement of a ban on abortions performed solely because of Down syndrome and other genetic abnormalities. The request Tuesday from the state’s Republican attorney general, Mark Brnovich, comes as the high court is weighing rolling back abortion rights nationwide. A federal judge blocked the

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — A grand jury in Texas has returned a capital murder indictment against a man authorities have said confessed to killing five people, including three whose dismembered bodies were found in a burning dumpster earlier this year. The Tarrant County district attorney’s office says Jason Thornburg was indicted Monday on a