Month: June 2022

By MIKE SCHNEIDER Associated Press A U.S. House committee has passed a bill outlawing the distribution of fake or misleading materials that resemble census forms or prevent people from participating in the nation’s head count. The Democratic-controlled House Committee on Oversight and Reform sent a measure to the House floor that would levy civil penalties

By KIMBERLEE KRUESI and CHEYANNE MUMPHREY Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Recognition of Juneteenth, the effective end of slavery in the U.S., gained traction after the police killing of George Floyd in 2020. But after an initial burst of action, the movement to have it recognized as an official holiday in the states has

By WILL WEISSERT Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden issued an executive order Wednesday to stymie what what his administration calls discriminatory legislative attacks on the LGBTQ community by Republican-controlled states, declaring before a signing ceremony packed with activists, “pride is back at the White House.” The order seeks to discourage “conversion therapy”

By MARK STEVENSON Associated Press MEXICO CITY (AP) — An unusual alliance of international activist groups, Mexican prosecutors and a dog trained to sniff out memory devices joined forces this month to catch a high-profile suspected pedophile in Mexico City. A Netherlands-based group that fights human trafficking tipped off activists at the U.S.-based Operation Underground

By ANDREW DeMILLO Associated Press A federal appeals court panel is considering whether to continue blocking Arkansas’ ban on gender confirming medical care for transgender youths. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel heard arguments Wednesday in the state’s appeal of the preliminary injunction issued last year against the ban. The majority-Republican Legislature enacted

By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press ROME (AP) — Pope Francis has taken another step to reign in and regulate new religious groups in the Catholic Church. Francis is taking action after the proliferation of these groups in recent decades led to abuses in governance that allowed spiritual and sexual misconduct to go unchecked. Francis issued

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN Associated Press ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico’s Democratic governor wants the Biden administration to delay planned or expanded efforts to transport migrants to her state if pandemic-related restrictions on asylum seekers are lifted. The federal government has predicted a threefold increase in border crossings if that happens. First-term Gov. Michelle

By ELLEN KNICKMEYER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A government report says the Pentagon and the State Department failed to investigate whether a Saudi-led coalition used arms bought from U.S. suppliers in attacks alleged to have killed civilians in Yemen. The General Accounting Office released the report Wednesday. The findings may undermine the reliability of

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Recovery crews are searching for two men who were swept away by fast-moving water in a rain-swollen drainage ditch in Milwaukee after jumping in to try to save a 10-year-old boy. Officials say a volunteer helping to search the shoreline found the boy’s body Tuesday in the conjoining Kinnickinnic River, more than

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny confirms he’s been moved to another maximum security prison. Navalny wrote on the Telegram messaging app on Wednesday that he’s now at the IK-6 prison in the Vladimir region of Russia. The most determined political foe of Russian President Vladimir Putin previously was held at a penal

By JILL BLEED and TERRY WALLACE Associated Press Residents of the West Texas city of Odessa improvised emergency water supplies after a water system outage left them high and dry for days amid scorching heat, even as utility crews scrambled Wednesday to restore normal service. The city said taps in 165,000 homes and businesses lost

By MARY CLARE JALONICK Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection released video on Wednesday of a tour led by a Republican lawmaker the day before the attack, showing participants taking photos of stairwells and tunnels in the Capitol complex. The panel released the video as it renewed

By SCOTT BAUER Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin judge has ordered the investigator hired by Republicans to look into the 2020 election in Wisconsin be fined $2,000 a day until he complies with court orders related to open records requests. In a scathing ruling against investigator Michael Gableman, Dane County Circuit Judge

BALTIMORE (AP) — Baltimore officials say a fire tore through four row homes, sending three people to a hospital. Baltimore City Fire Department spokesperson Blair Adams says the blaze broke out around 4:30 a.m. Wednesday a few blocks from Johns Hopkins University. She says four homes were on fire and three people were taken to

By JEFF AMY Associated Press MCDONOUGH, Ga. (AP) — A U.S. House runoff in Georgia next week pits a former Democratic elected official who’s been endorsed by Donald Trump against the son of a onetime Republican congressman. The winner will advance to the November general election against the Democrat nominee, also to be decided Tuesday.

By JESSICA GRESKO Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court says it was wrong to wade into a dispute involving a Trump-era immigration rule that the Biden administration has abandoned, so the justices have decided to dismiss the case. The court had said it would answer the question of whether Republican-led states, headed by

By KATHLEEN FOODY Associated Press CHICAGO (AP) — People flocked to pools, beaches and cooling centers in a swath of the Midwest and South spanning from northern Florida to the Great Lakes on Wednesday as a heat wave pushed temperatures into the 90s and beyond and may have caused the deaths of at least two

By CURT ANDERSON Associated Press The federal investigation into the deadly collapse of a Florida beachfront condominium building is entering a new phase that involves cutting and drilling into concrete and steel to determine what role they played. The National Institute of Standards and Technology said Wednesday that what’s known as invasive testing will begin

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Danish toy company Lego said Wednesday it plans to invest more than $1 billion over 10 years to build a new factory in the U.S. state of Virginia and to enlarge an existing factory in Mexico. The moves in North America follow Lego’s announcement last year of a similar investment in

By JUSTIN KABUMBA Associated Press GOMA, Congo (AP) — A spokesman for a top military official in eastern Congo said Wednesday that if Rwanda “wants war, it will have war.” The comments by Gen. Sylvain Ekenge came as thousands of protesters took to the streets of the eastern Congo city of Goma to accuse Rwanda

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A federal indictment accuses a Missouri man and others of breaking into a prehistoric Native American archeological site and using shovels, rakes and other tools to dig up artifacts, causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage. Seventy-year-old Johnny Lee Brown of Clinton was charged in an 11-count indictment filed

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s state-run news agency says the country’s caretaker energy minister has extended the licensing deadline for oil and gas companies to explore in the country’s territorial waters until mid-December, to give more firms the chance to bid. The agency said Wednesday’s decision to extended the deadline of the second round of licensing

By CAROLYN THOMPSON and MICHAEL R. SISAK Associated Press BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — The white gunman who killed 10 Black people in a racist attack at a Buffalo supermarket was charged Wednesday with federal hate crimes that could potentially carry a death penalty. The criminal complaint filed Wednesday against Payton Gendron coincided with a visit

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Dozens of heavily armed men swarmed through the Mexican colonial-era city of San Cristobal de las Casas, and President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Wednesday that one person was killed in confrontations between two gangs. López Obrador said the confrontation involved “two groups that are fighting for control of a market”

By FRANCES D’EMILIO Associated Press ROME (AP) — Italy has been so successful in recovering illegally exported ancient artworks and artifacts that it has created a museum just for them. The Museum of Rescued Art was inaugurated on Wednesday in the cavernous Octagonal Hall of the complex of the ancient Baths of Diocletian in Rome.

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) — A third arrest has been made in a mass shooting in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where three people died and 14 were injured. News outlets cited an affidavit filed with the U.S. District Court for Eastern Tennessee in reporting that 31-year-old Rodney Harris was charged Tuesday in federal court with possession of a

By JESSICA GRESKO Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court says the federal government improperly lowered drug reimbursement payments to hospitals and clinics that serve low-income communities. The reduction ended up costing those facilities more than a billion dollars annually. The high court ruled unanimously in a case involving payments for drugs, largely for

CHESTERFIELD, Va. (AP) — Global toy manufacturer the LEGO Group plans to invest more than $1 billion to construct a new precision manufacturing facility in suburban Richmond, Virginia. Gov. Glenn Youngkin made the announcement Wednesday. The factory is expected to open in 2025. It will feature a carbon-neutral design including an on-site solar park and

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping has reasserted his country’s support for Russia on issues of sovereignty and security in a phone call with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. State media say Xi told Putin that China is “willing to work with Russia on issues concerning core interests and major concerns.” He added that “all