Month: January 2023

By LAURAN NEERGAARD AP Medical Writer The U.S. is poised to make COVID-19 vaccinations more like a yearly flu shot, a major shift in strategy despite a long list of questions about how to best protect against a still rapidly mutating virus. The Food and Drug Administration asked its scientific advisers Thursday to help lay

LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) — A Louisiana man has been sentenced to 45 years in prison for the kidnapping and grisly knife attack on a teen in 2020. The attack was part of what federal authorities say was a scheme to kidnap and murder gay men. Chance Seneca pleaded guilty to a federal kidnapping charge in

By DEE-ANN DURBIN AP Business Writer Restaurants are beginning the new year with a recurring problem: labor shortages. Chipotle said Thursday it’s looking to hire 15,000 people in North America to ensure its stores are staffed up ahead of its busy spring season. Other chains are also looking for workers: Taco Bell has more than

By JANIE HAR and AO GAO Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The shooting that left four dead at a California mushroom farm on Monday was at least the second time an employee tried to kill a coworker on the property, records show. Martin Medina, a manager at California Terra Garden, was charged with attempted

By ELÉONORE HUGHES and EDMAR BARROS Associated Press BOA VISTA, Brazil (AP) — Severe malnutrition and disease, particularly malaria, are decimating the Yanomami population in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, and on Jan. 20 the federal government declared a public health emergency. While many in Brazil were left wondering how the calamity could materialize seemingly overnight, it

By MATTHEW BARAKAT Associated Press FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) — A northern Virginia man convicted nearly a decade ago of supporting the Islamic State group as a teenager has now been accused of violating his terms of release by meeting with convicted Taliban supporter John Walker Lindh. According to court documents, the FBI photographed Ali

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN Associated Press ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The U.S. government is offering more money to find a solution for storing or disposing of spent nuclear fuel from the nation’s commercial nuclear power plants. The Biden administration sweetened the pot this month, putting up $26 million in grant funding for communities to study

By AMANDA SEITZ Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal government will allow Medicaid dollars to treat some people in prisons, jails or juvenile detention centers for the first time ever. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced Thursday that it will allow California inmates to access limited services, including substance use treatment and

By JEFFREY COLLINS Associated Press The first officer to arrive after Alex Murdaugh called 911 to report his wife and son were seriously hurt noted at the attorney’s double murder trial Thursday that the suspect was upset but that he had no tears in his eyes. During the first day of testimony, jurors watched Colleton

By BABA AHMED Associated Press BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — The U.N. mission in Mali says a court in the West Afican nation’s capital has sentenced a man to death for the killings of three United Nations peacekeepers almost four years ago. The mission reported on Thursday that the court imposed the sentence for a February

BY DREW COSTLEY AP Science Writer Hundreds of climate and environmental groups from around the world released a letter Thursday that decried the nomination of an oil executive to oversee the United Nations climate negotiations at COP28. Earlier this month, the United Arab Emirates, host of the U.N. climate talks this year, named Sultan al-Jaber

By AAMER MADHANI and COLLEEN LONG Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. special operations forces have killed a senior Islamic State group official and 10 other terrorist operatives in remote northern Somalia, the Biden administration announced Thursday. The operation carried out on Wednesday targeted Bilal al-Sudani, a key financial facilitator for the global terrorist organization,

By WAYNE PARRY Associated Press TOMS RIVER, N.J. (AP) — A proposed settlement between New Jersey and the current owner of a notoriously polluted industrial site is drawing fire from residents of Toms River, where memories of children getting cancer at elevated rates are still a fresh source of pain. The state and Germany-based BASF

By LARRY NEUMEISTER and BOBBY CAINA CALVAN Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — An Islamic extremist who killed eight people with a speeding truck in a 2017 rampage on a popular New York City bike path has been convicted of federal charges and could face the death penalty. Jurors found Sayfullo Saipov guilty on Thursday.

By COLLEEN SLEVIN Associated Press DENVER (AP) — The Colorado baker who won a partial U.S. Supreme Court victory after refusing to make a gay couple’s wedding cake because of his Christian faith has lost an appeal in his latest legal fight. This case involves his rejection of a request for a birthday cake celebrating

By ADAM BEAM Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Weeks of historic rainfall in California won’t be enough to end a severe drought, but it will provide public water agencies serving 27 million people with much more water than the suppliers had been told to expect a month ago, state officials announced Thursday. The Department

By KATHRYN POST Religion News Service (RNS) — When actor Daniel Franzese visited Jerusalem in November, he looked for God in all the usual places. But it wasn’t at the Western Wall or Mount of Olives where he encountered the divine, but in a hole-in-the-wall ’80s-style gay bar that was hosting a “David and Jonathan”

By JAMES POLLARD Associated Press/Report for America COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — An abortion ban is once more beginning to move through the South Carolina General Assembly. A House subcommittee on Thursday approved the first such ban to get a public hearing in the state this year. Sponsored by 43 House Republicans, the bill indicates that

By COLLEEN LONG, JILL COLVIN and ZEKE MILLER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The National Archives has asked former U.S. presidents and vice presidents to recheck their personal records for any classified documents following the news that President Joe Biden and former Vice President Mike Pence had such documents in their possession. The Archives sent

By TOM KRISHER AP Auto Writer DETROIT (AP) — A federal grand jury in Los Angeles is gathering evidence in a criminal investigation of Goodyear recreational vehicle tires that the government blames for crashes that killed eight people and injured dozens of others. The grand jury has subpoenaed Arizona lawyer David Kurtz seeking all documents

By SCOTT BAUER Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A liberal judge running in a pivotal race to determine majority control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court is touting her support for abortion rights in the first two television ads of the closely watched race. The winner of the April 4 election will determine whether the

By MIKE CORDER Associated Press THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — International Criminal Court judges have cleared the way for the court’s prosecution office to resume its investigation into the so-called war on drugs in the Philippines. Prosecutor Karim Khan asked judges for permission last year to reactivate his investigation into alleged crimes against humanity between

By STEVE KARNOWSKI Associated Press ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The Biden administration has moved to protect the pristine Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in northeastern Minnesota from future mining. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland signed an order Thursday closing over 350 square miles of the Superior National Forest to mineral leasing for 20 years. Haaland

By MICHAEL TARM AP Legal Affairs Writer CHICAGO (AP) — Illinois prosecutors have told a judge they are presenting evidence to a grand jury for a possible indictment against the father of the man charged with fatally shooting seven people at a Fourth of July parade in suburban Chicago. They spoke at a Lake County

By MIKE SCHNEIDER Associated Press A Middle Eastern and North African category would be added to U.S. federal surveys and censuses, and changes would be made to how Hispanics are able to self-identify. That’s according to preliminary recommendations released Thursday by the Biden administration in what would be the first update to race and ethnicity

MIAMI (AP) — Two former South Florida police officers turned themselves in to face felony charges over the beating of a homeless man who had been drinking outside a shopping center last month. Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said Thursday that 27-year-old Lorenzo Orfila and 22-year-old Rafael Otano face kidnapping and battery charges. Orfila