Month: January 2022

By SUDHIN THANAWALA Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — Atlanta’s recently elected mayor has unveiled a new police precinct in the city’s large Buckhead district as he tries to head off an effort to make it a separate city. Mayor Andre Dickens said Thursday the precinct is expected to have at least 12 officers. It should

By MARCIA DUNN AP Aerospace Writer CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Scientists have concluded that a meteorite from Mars contains no evidence of ancient Martian life. The 4-pound rock caused a splash 25 years ago when a NASA-led team announced that its organic compounds may have been left by living creatures, however primitive. Researchers chipped

By MICHELLE L. PRICE Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — New York City Mayor Eric Adams is considering allowing the nation’s largest school district to return to some form of virtual instruction as the city weathers a wave of coronavirus cases. That would be a reversal from his pledge a week ago to keep children

By MARK SHERMAN and JESSICA GRESKO Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has stopped a major push by the Biden administration to boost the nation’s COVID-19 vaccination rate, a requirement that employees at large businesses get a vaccine or test regularly and wear a mask on the job. At the same time, the

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR Associated Press People looking for health insurance in the grip of the omicron surge have through Saturday to sign up for taxpayer-subsidized private coverage under the Obama-era Affordable Care Act. President Joe Biden’s administration is on track is to deliver robust enrollment numbers, but those gains could turn into a mirage if

BERLIN (AP) — A German report says East Germany’s secret police kept extensive records on Chancellor Olaf Scholz during his time as a senior member of the West German Social Democratic Party’s youth wing in the 1970s and 80s. Bild tabloid reported Thursday that files it obtained showed the Stasi closely followed his visits to

By LAURAN NEERGAARD AP Medical Writer A new study offers stronger evidence that one of the world’s most common viruses may set some people on the path to developing multiple sclerosis. The Epstein-Barr virus has long been a suspect. Harvard researchers tracked blood testing of 10 million U.S. military recruits over 20 years and concluded

By JONATHAN MATTISE Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A proposed U.S. House map that carves up fast-growing, Democratic-leaning Nashville into three different congressional districts advanced another step Thursday over strenuous objections from Democrats that it unfairly dilutes Black representation in Tennessee. The Senate redistricting panel’s vote to move along the map came a day

By CAROLYN THOMPSON Associated Press Teachers around the U.S. are confronting classrooms where as many as half of students are absent. That’s because they have been exposed to COVID-19 or their families kept them at home out of concern about the surging coronavirus. The widespread absences have only added to the difficulty of keeping students

By MATTHEW BARAKAT Associated Press FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) — Outgoing Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring has reversed more than 50 legal opinions issued by predecessors during the Jim Crow and Massive Resistance eras that justified segregation, interracial marriage bans and other racist laws. As a practical matter, the old legal opinions had been rendered

By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press ROME (AP) — Clergy abuse victims are asking the European Court of Human Rights to make a definitive ruling on whether the Holy See can continue to avoid being held liable for sexual abuse committed by Catholic priests. Lawyers for the victims asked the court’s 17-member Grand Chamber to hear

By MICHAEL BALSAMO, COLLEEN LONG and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Stewart Rhodes, the founder and leader of the far-right Oath Keepers militia group, has been arrested and charged with seditious conspiracy in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. The Justice Department announced the charges against Rhodes. of Granbury, Texas,

By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer NEW YORK (AP) — ABC News is under fire for how it edited an interview that CDC Director Rochelle Walensky gave to “Good Morning America.” She discussed a study that showed how most of the vaccinated people who died of coronavirus were also sick for other reasons. But the

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN Associated Press Federal authorities say a South Dakota man charged this week with storming the U.S. Capitol last year performed rap songs about the riot in videos posted on his YouTube channel. A relative told the FBI that Billy Knutson was a rapper who sold his music online and had posted on

By WAYNE PARRY Associated Press NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy directed a sewage treatment facility to cancel a vote Thursday on a backup power plant after Newark residents complained that it would violate a law intended to keep minority communities from being overburdened with pollution. The Passaic Valley Sewerage Community was

By JAMES MacPHERSON Associated Press BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — An Illinois appellate court has set aside a decision by state regulators that would allow the Dakota Access oil pipeline to double capacity to 1.1 million barrels daily. The appellate court ordered the Illinois Commerce Commission to review the public need for the project that moves

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA Associated Press BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi security officials say at least four rockets targeted the U.S. Embassy inside Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone. Two officials say three rockets struck within the perimeter of the embassy, while another hit a school in a residential complex. Iraq’s military said one girl and one woman

By ANDREW DeMILLO Associated Press LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Four inmates at a northwest Arkansas jail have filed a lawsuit after they said they were unknowingly prescribed an anti-parasitic drug to treat their COVID-19. The American Civil Liberties Union on Thursday filed the lawsuit against the Washington County jail, Sheriff Tim Helder and jail

By DANICA KIRKA and SYLVIA HUI Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Prince Andrew has been stripped of his honorary military roles as allegations of sexual abuse against him shine unwanted attention on the House of Windsor. Buckingham Palace said late Thursday that Queen Elizabeth II had approved the move, under which the 61-year-old Andrew will

By STEVE LeBLANC Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — Navient, a major student loan servicing company, has settled allegations of abusive lending practices for $1.85 billion. The settlement was announced Thursday and could cancel student loans for tens of thousands of borrowers. The deal includes $1.7 billion in debt cancellation and involves 39 state attorneys general.

By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations is forecasting lower global economic growth for 2022 and 2023. It says this is because the world is facing new waves of coronavirus infections, persistent labor market challenges, lingering supply chain issues and rising inflationary pressures. The U.N.‘s global economic forecast released

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Police are treating a fire at the home of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors chair and a prominent labor leader as suspicious. Supervisor Nathan Fletcher said he escaped unharmed with his family and his house was saved. He and his wife, labor leader and former state lawmaker Lorena Gonzalez,