Month: December 2021

DENVER (AP) — Colorado’s top elections official is asking lawmakers for $200,000 annually for guards and other security-related measures after receiving escalating threats over her advocacy of elections security.  Jena Griswold has consistently debunked claims, both locally and on national media, that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. She’s also sued a Republican county clerk

By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer NEW YORK (AP) — An assembly line of holiday films to make the heart sing is the Hallmark Channel’s blueprint, and it works every year like mistletoe or eggnog. Two new Hallmark movies, “A Very Merry Bridesmaid” and “Sister Swap: Hometown Holidays,” both debuted to nearly 3 million viewers

By HILLEL ITALIE AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Julius S. Scott, a groundbreaking scholar of slavery and Atlantic history who wove together stories of Black rebellion for a doctoral thesis once likened to “an underground mix-tape” and for the acclaimed 2018 book “The Common Wind,” has died. He was 66. Through his teaching,

By TERRY SPENCER Associated Press FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A train belonging to Florida’s higher-speed passenger rail service struck and killed a man walking on the tracks just weeks after the company reopened from the pandemic. The Brightline train struck the pedestrian Tuesday morning in North Miami Beach as he walked on the tracks

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Trying to defuse large protests by environmentalists, Serbia’s populist government has decided to suspend two key laws that would help mining giant Rio Tinto launch a lithium mine in western Serbia. For two consecutive weekends, thousands of protesters in Belgrade and elsewhere have blocked main roads and bridges to decry the

By DOUG FERGUSON AP Golf Writer Tiger Woods is returning to some form of competition. He says he will be playing next weekend in Orlando, Florida, at the PNC Championship with 12-year-old son Charlie. The PNC Championship is a 36-hole event involving family members. It will have been 298 days since Woods’ right leg was

By SOPHIA TAREEN and JENNIFER McDERMOTT Associated Press PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — The U.S. has reached a COVID-19 milestone of roughly 200 million fully vaccinated people, but cases and hospitalizations are still spiking, even in highly immunized pockets of the country like New England. The situation is not as dire as last year’s post-holiday surge

By ADAM BEAM Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — State lawmakers may help pay for people from other states to come to California for abortions if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. A report released Wednesday by dozens of abortion providers and advocacy groups asks state policymakers to pay for things such as

By MARY CLARE JALONICK and ERIC TUCKER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows has sued the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection. The chairman of the panel has pledged to move forward with contempt charges now that Meadows is no longer complying with a subpoena.

By MIKE SCHNEIDER Associated Press The number of people in counties requiring elections officials to provide voting materials in languages other than English jumped by almost a quarter over the past five years, reflecting the increasingly diverse electorate in the U.S. Figures released Wednesday show more than 24.2 million people live in places that require

By MARCIA DUNN AP Aerospace Writer CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — TV celebrity and former football great Michael Strahan is going to have to wait another few days before rocketing into space. Strahan was supposed to blast off Thursday from West Texas with five others for the 10-minute flight.  But on Wednesday, Jeff Bezos’ space

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE Associated Press KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — President Joe Biden is rebranding his bipartisan infrastructure package with the new slogan “Building a Better America.” The White House unveiled the slogan as Biden visited Kansas City, Missouri, on Wednesday to promote the new $1 trillion infrastructure law. The law’s spending will cover upgrades

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A new $56,000-a-year Alzheimer’s medication that’s leading to one of the biggest increases ever in Medicare premiums is highlighting the limitations of President Joe Biden’s strategy for curbing prescription drug costs. The medication known as Aduhelm would be protected from Medicare price negotiations for more than a

By FRANK JORDANS and JOSHUA GOODMAN Associated Press Writers BERLIN (AP) — A recently revealed identification card shows that the German-born father of Chilean presidential candidate José Antonio Kast belonged to  Adolf Hitler’s Nazi party. That’s at odds with the far-right candidate’s statements about his father’s World War II military service. Germany’s Federal Archive couldn’t

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) — Slovakia’s government has eased the current lockdown for vaccinated people and those who have recovered from COVID-19. Health Minister Vladimir Lengvarsky says starting on Friday, all shops will reopen for those two groups people, including services such as hairdressers. Ski resorts and fitness centers will also be open for a limited

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A judge declared a mistrial in the case of a man charged in the fatal 2015 shooting of an Indianapolis pastor’s wife after learning some jurors knew she had been pregnant — a fact defense attorneys had successfully moved to keep from the jury. Marion County Judge Grant Hawkins tells The Indianapolis

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Disassembly work on an enormous pedestal that until recently held a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee has commenced in Virginia’s capital city.  A crew atop scaffolding and a large crane truck worked to dislodge and lift away a hunk of the stone pedestal Wednesday morning in Richmond. It marked

By SONIA PÉREZ D. Associated Press GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — For millions of Guatemalan families hand-made corn tortillas are indispensable with every meal, but many of those tortillas pass through the hands of girls and young women trapped in poverty. They often work 12 to 15 hours a day, seven days a week and are

PARIS (AP) — A junior finance minister has quit the French government after being convicted of failing to declare all his wealth and income. The office of Alain Griset said in a statement Wednesday that he has appealed the court decision. But he submitted his resignation pending the appeal. The unusual conviction is a stain

By MARIAM FAM of The Associated Press and AYSHA KHAN of Religion News Service CAIRO (AP) — From religious courts to spiritual care to Islamic scholarship, Muslim women have been carving out spaces for themselves and paving the way for others to follow in their footsteps. Around the world, women are teaching in Islamic schools

By SETH BORENSTEIN AP Science Writer The National Academy of Sciences says the world needs to look into making oceans suck up more carbon dioxide to fight climate change. The panel isn’t recommending doing this type of geoengineering but researching it better. Wednesday’s report outlines six ways to tinker with the oceans to make them

By CLAIRE GIANGRAVÈ of Religion News Service and DAVID CRARY of The Associated Press ROME (AP) — Women aspiring to leadership in the Catholic church have long come to terms with the glass ceiling that exists in the male-dominated institution. They cannot be priests, bishops or popes. Yet Pope Francis has recently appointed several women

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers posted 11 million open jobs in October, nearly matching a record high reached in July and a sign that companies were confident enough in the economy to expand. A government report Wednesday also showed that the number of people quitting their jobs dropped slightly

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — Bosnia’s security minister has been formally charged with malfeasance and corruption over the irregular sale of weapons and military equipment a decade ago when he held the post of defense minister. The Balkan country’s top court on Wednesday confirmed the indictment against Selmo Cikotic. It is charging him of depriving the

By JAY REEVES Associated Press BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — The Justice Department has closed its investigation of Emmett Till’s slaying, yet agents are still probing as many as 20 other civil rights “cold cases.” Records show the review includes the killings of 13 Black men by police in three Southern states decades ago. The department’s