Month: February 2023

By MADDIE BURAKOFF and DREW COSTLEY After a catastrophic 38-train car derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, some officials are raising concerns about a type of toxic substance that tends to stay in the environment. Last week, Sherrod Brown and J.D. Vance, the U.S. senators from Ohio, sent a letter to the state’s environmental protection agency

By RONALD BLUM Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — At a cost of more than $1 million, the Metropolitan Opera has built duplicate sets for Francois Girard’s upcoming staging of “Lohengrin” instead of using the Russian set. Girard’s staging of Wagner’s “Lohengrin” opened at Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre on Feb. 24 last year, just 13 hours

FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) — A Florida man has been sentenced to seven years and three months in federal prison for stealing more than $2.6 million in COVID-19 relief funds. Court records show that 35-year-old Daniel Joseph Tisone was sentenced Tuesday in Fort Myers federal court. He pleaded guilty last August to wire fraud, bank

By MARGARET STAFFORD Associated Press KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri and two library associations are suing over a new Missouri law that bans sexually explicit material from schools. In a lawsuit filed Thursday, the ACLU argues that the law violates the due process rights of school librarians and

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN Associated Press A film-industry weapons supervisor made her first formal court appearance Friday on a felony charge in the shooting death of a cinematographer by actor Alec Baldwin on the set of a Western movie. Hannah Gutierrez-Reed’s attorney said his client will plead not guilty, but the judge did not take

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The United Nations says a powerful gang has taken over numerous communities in central Haiti in recent weeks and has killed at least 69 people and forced authorities to abandon several police stations. An additional 83 people have been injured amid a surge in violence reported in the Artibonite

By LEA SKENE Associated Press BALTIMORE (AP) — A judge on Friday ordered the release of a redacted version of an investigative report detailing sex abuse allegations against more than 150 Roman Catholic priests in the Archdiocese of Baltimore. The report, which followed a yearslong investigation by the Maryland Attorney General’s Office, has not yet

By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Russia and Ukraine faced off at the U.N. Security Council on the first anniversary of their war _ with their confrontation even extending to dueling moments of silence for the dead. The showdown began before Friday’s session formally began, with Russia’s ambassador demanding to know

By REBECCA BOONE Associated Press BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Some top officials in Idaho are raising alarms over the Republican attorney general’s decision not to join a 24-state lawsuit against Biden administration waterway protections that opponents say could impact public and private land across the state. Instead, Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador’s office says the

By ZEKE MILLER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is aiming to draw a contrast between his health care priorities and those of congressional Republicans in Virginia next week. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre says Biden will use a Virginia Beach event Tuesday to criticize Republicans for demanding concessions for raising the

By JOEY CAPPELLETTI Associated Press DETROIT (AP) — Republican Rep. John James of Michigan is opting against a campaign for the Senate seat being vacated by Democrat Debbie Stabenow in 2024. James filed paperwork Friday to run for reelection to his Detroit-area House seat. James had been considered one of the GOP’s most promising potential

BROOKSVILLE, Fla. (AP) — A former U.S. Marine is being hailed as a hero Friday for finding a 2-year-old boy who had been missing since wandering out of his north Florida home a day earlier. Roy Link told Hernando County Sheriff Al Nienhuis that he said a prayer about 10 minutes before he found little

By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Yes, “Cocaine Bear” is a real movie. And it might be a hit. Since the trailer first debuted for Elizabeth Banks’ very, very loosely based-on-a-true-story comedy has stoked a rabid zeitgeist. At a time when much in Hollywood can feel pre-packaged, the makers of “Cocaine

By ALICIA RANCILIO Associated Press Thirteen years after “Party Down” was canceled by Starz, the series is back with a six-episode third season about the employees of a Los Angeles catering company. The disenchanted waiters long to be a part of the elite crowd they’re serving. Most of the show’s original cast, including Adam Scott,

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE Associated Press NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — U.S. first lady Jill Biden gave one of the clearest indications yet that President Joe Biden will run for a second term, telling The Associated Press in an exclusive interview on Friday that there’s “pretty much” nothing left to do but figure out the time and

By COLLEEN BARRY AP Fashion Writer MILAN (AP) — Milan designers have tapped female power on the third day of Milan Fashion Week, previewing collections for next fall and winter. At Cormio, it was girl power as exemplified by a youth soccer team who lent their field as the runway venue and halted practice to

By KEVIN McGILL Associated Press NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal appeals court has struck down a federal rule requiring Gulf of Mexico charter boat operators to equip their vessels with tracking devices. The ruling handed down Thursday by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans reversed a lower court decision. It

By DAVID SHARP Associated Press BATH, Maine (AP) — The U.S. Navy appears to have learned its lesson after cramming too much technology onto ships, and rushing them into production. In recent years, several types of ships touted as technological marvels have struggled with some of the basics — in some cases breaking down. The

By ED WHITE Associated Press DETROIT (AP) — A man was released Friday after serving nearly 21 years in a Michigan prison, freed from a life sentence after state authorities acknowledged that an Ohio serial killer could have been the person who killed two deer hunters in 1990. “A state of shock,” Jeff Titus, 71,

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A 76-year-old woman accused of fatally shooting her terminally ill husband in a Florida hospital is asking to be released from jail. Ellen Gilland was initially charged with first-degree murder in January after police said she shot Jerry Gilland, 77, in a suicide pact that she claimed had been in

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER AP Economics Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Can the Federal Reserve keep raising interest rates and defeat the nation’s worst bout of inflation in 40 years without causing a recession? Not according to a new research paper that concludes that such an “immaculate disinflation” has never happened before. The paper was produced

By JOCELYN NOVECK AP National Writer Austin Butler, you may have heard, has taken a bit of flack for sounding too much like Elvis now that he’s no longer, um, Elvis. The 31-year-old breakout star of Baz Luhrmann’s flamboyant biopic even had to be defended by fellow Oscar nominee Angela Bassett, who’s explained that she,

CHICAGO (AP) — State labor officials are investigating an Illinois-based pharmaceutical company’s decision to abruptly close all of its operations, including its out-of-state locations in New Jersey, New York and Switzerland, and to lay off hundreds of workers with almost no warning. The Chicago Tribune reports that Gurnee-based Akorn Operating Co. told its 400 workers

By CURT ANDERSON Associated Press ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — A Florida man accused in 2020 of plotting terror attacks in the U.S. has pleaded guilty to attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State extremist group. Mohammed Al-Azhari also agreed to accept an 18-year prison sentence in the plea before U.S. Magistrate Judge