Month: December 2022

By TRAVIS LOLLER Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The family of country singer Naomi Judd has filed a notice seeking to voluntarily dismiss a lawsuit to seal the police investigation into her death. The family previously said that release of the records would cause them trauma and irreparable harm. The notice filed on Monday

By LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — A judge has thrown out bribery and fraud charges against former New York Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin, leaving him facing only records falsification charges. Federal Judge J. Paul Oetken ruled Monday. Hours later, prosecutors notified the judge they were appealing to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court

By CAROLYN THOMPSON Associated Press Former U.S. Education Secretary John King Jr. has been named chancellor of the State University of New York, the nation’s largest university system. The appointment announced Monday marks a return to New York for King, who was once the state’s education commissioner. King is scheduled to begin in January at

By STEFANIE DAZIO Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — The man who shot and wounded Lady Gaga’s dog walker while stealing her French bulldogs last year took a plea deal and was sentenced to 21 years in prison on Monday, officials said. The Lady Gaga connection was a coincidence, authorities have said. The motive was

By JOSHUA GOODMAN and TERRY SPENCER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A former Miami congressman who signed a $50 million consulting contract with Venezuela’s socialist government was arrested Monday on charges of money laundering and representing a foreign government without registering. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami says Republican David Rivera was arrested at Atlanta’s

By SETH BORENSTEIN AP Science Writer Much of the Arctic is in a burst of freak December warming. Temperatures in Alaska’s northernmost community hit 40 degrees Monday morning. That’s not only a record by six degrees but it’s the warmest that region has seen on record from late October to late April. Greenland a couple

SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — Bulgaria has rejected accusations that its border guards shot a Syrian refugee in October. Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev said, “There are no cases of violence against migrants.” He spoke after a video released Monday showed a man being fired at on European country’s border with Turkey. The footage of an asylum-seeker

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, JONATHAN DREW and REBECCA SANTANA Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Investigators believe a shooting that damaged power substations in North Carolina was a crime. What they don’t have yet is a suspect or a motive. Whatever the reason, the shooting serves as a reminder of why experts have stressed the need to

By AL-HADJI KUDRA MALIRO Associated Press BENI, Congo (AP) — Congo’s government now says at least 270 people died in a massacre last week in the country’s east it blamed on M23 rebels. But the rebel’s chairman is disputing the figure and accusing the government of using false information given by a local tribal militia

By TRISHA AHMED Associated Press/Report for America MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Mall of America in suburban Minneapolis says it will toughen its trespassing policies as part of a settlement with the family of a boy who was severely injured when a man with a history of causing disturbances at the mall threw him from a

By MATTHEW BARAKAT Associated Press LEESBURG, Va. (AP) — A special grand jury has issued a scathing report against a northern Virginia school system for mishandling a student who sexually assaulted classmates at two different high schools last year. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin requested the investigation of Loudoun County Public Schools on his first day

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas’ top elections official has resigned. Secretary of State John Scott said Monday he would step down after an intense year of trying to reassure election skeptics, navigating the rocky launch of new voting laws and overseeing a limited audit of the 2020 election. The Republican came under immediate scrutiny from

By AMY TAXIN Associated Press SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — Lawyer Michael Avenatti, who rose to fame representing porn star Stormy Daniels against Donald Trump, was sentenced in California on Monday to 14 years in prison for cheating clients out of millions of dollars. Avenatti was also fined $10 million by U.S. District Judge James

By MATTHEW LEE AP Diplomatic Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States and European Union have agreed to intensify talks to resolve EU concerns over major subsidies for American companies contained in a U.S. clean energy law. Although no deal was reached at talks Monday, the two sides pledged to continue work and push for

BERLIN (AP) — German police say a 14-year-old girl died and a 13-year-old girl was seriously injured after they were attacked by a man with a knife on their way to school. Police in the southwestern city of Ulm said the older girl was resuscitated before being rushed to a hospital following the attack in

By WAYNE PARRY Associated Press TOMS RIVER, N.J. (AP) — The German chemical company BASF will restore damaged natural resources at a notorious Superfund site in New Jersey where decades or pollution and illegal dumping caused vast contamination of the environment. The state Department of Environmental Protection says it has a deal with BASF to

By GILLIAN FLACCUS Associated Press PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Tuesday marks the first-ever U.S. auction of leases to develop commercial-scale floating wind farms, in the deep waters off the West Coast. The live, online auction for the five leases — three off California’s central coast and two off its northern coast — has attracted strong

By STEVE KARNOWSKI Associated Press MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Minnesota town has backed away from a proposal to let people sue abortion providers, including organizations that provide abortion drugs by mail, after the state attorney general warned that the plan was unconstitutional. But the legislator behind the proposal, which is based on a Texas law,

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency has ordered the removal of thousands of pounds of chemicals from an oil refinery in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The agency anhydrous ammonia, hydrogen sulfide and liquified petroleum gas must be removed from the refinery in St. Croix, where pipes and valves are severely corroded

By RUSS BYNUM Associated Press SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — The Port of Savannah plans a $410 million overhaul of one of its sprawling terminals to make room for loading and unloading larger ships. The Georgia Ports Authority board approved the project Monday under a plan to expand Savannah’s capacity for cargo containers by more than

BAAR, Switzerland (AP) — Commodities company Glencore has reached an agreement with the Democratic Republic of Congo to pay $180 million over bribery allegations spanning from 2007 to 2018. The announcement Monday comes months after the Anglo-Swiss company said it solidified deals with authorities in the U.S., Britain and Brazil to pay a total of