Month: February 2023

By JAMES POLLARD Associated Press/Report for America COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A bill that would make South Carolina the 49th state with a hate crime law is making its way through the House. A subcommittee Thursday unanimously advanced Rep. Wendell Gilliard’s proposal. The pursuit of enhanced state penalties for hate crimes got renewed attention after

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — The man who admitted to helping carry out a murder-for-hire plot engineered by a former New Jersey political consultant has been sentenced to 20 years in prison. Bomani Africa appeared in federal district court for sentencing in the 2014 death of Michael Galdieri, the son of a former state senator after

By STEFANIE DAZIO Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — The California attorney general has opened a civil rights investigation into the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office, one of the largest law enforcement agencies in Southern California, after deaths in county jails hit a two-decade high last year and other allegations of excessive use of force surfaced.

By RONALD BLUM Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Eleri Ward had Stephen Sondheim’s “Every Day a Little Death” stuck in her head. She recorded a video on her iPhone and posted it to Instagram nearly four years ago, kicking off a career that wound through TikTok, a recording contract, touring with Josh Groban and

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A section of a parking garage at a suburban Milwaukee shopping mall has collapsed. Three floors of the garage at Bayshore Mall in Glendale collapsed early Thursday afternoon. Authorities said they don’t believe anyone was injured. Television outlets tweeted and broadcast footage showing a collapsed section of the three-story garage that

By KAREN MATTHEWS Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Authorities say the alligator that was rescued from a chilly lake in New York City over the weekend had swallowed a bathtub stopper. Bronx Zoo officials say the nearly 5-foot-long female alligator was lethargic and suffering from exposure to the cold when it was found in

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — Algerian authorities have dissolved a decades-old pro-democracy group that participated in the peaceful protests which helped force the North African country’s long-time President Abdelaziz Bouteflika from office in 2019. The Youth Action Group, known by its French acronym, RAJ, and the left-leaning Movement for Democracy and Socialism party that was also

By JONATHAN LANDRUM Jr. AP Entertainment Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Serena Williams will be honored for her tennis achievements, business success and efforts to uplift the community at the NAACP Image Awards this weekend. The NAACP announced Thursday that Williams will receive the Jackie Robinson Sports award during the ceremony, which will air Saturday

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis has essentially nationalized all assets and property owned by Vatican departments and affiliated institutions. In a new law published on Thursday, he declares them to be sovereign patrimony owned by the Holy See and not any individual or office. The law represents Francis’ latest initiative to centralize Vatican assets so

By RUSS BYNUM Associated Press SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Prosecutors have dropped charges of assault, obstruction and other counts against a Georgia jail detainee after security camera video showed him being beaten by deputies. The decision to dismiss the charges against Jarrett Hobbs came several months after three Camden County sheriff’s deputies were arrested on

BY MATTHEW LEE AP Diplomatic Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Russia’s president and the deposed leader of Afghanistan were among the top gift givers to President Joe Biden and his family in 2021, according to federal documents. In happier times between all three countries, Vladimir Putin gave Biden a $12,000 lacquer writing box and pen when

ROME (AP) — Italian media say a court has acquitted 25 of the 30 defendants on trial for a deadly avalanche at an Apennine mountain hotel. Tons of snow on Jan. 18, 2017, smashed into Hotel Rigopiano in the town of Farindola. Of guests and staff, 29 perished. Prosecutors alleged that local officials and the

By BOBBY CAINA CALVAN Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — The founder of the troubled digital start-up Ozy Media pleaded not guilty Thursday to federal fraud charges accusing him of scheming to prop up his financially struggling company, which hemorrhaged millions of dollars before it shut down amid revelations of possibly deceptive business practices. Federal

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Prosecutors in Poland say they have charged a Russian man living in Poland with having spied for Moscow between 2015 and 2022. The man, who was not identified, has remained in custody since April. Prosecutors in Gdansk, on the Baltic Sea coast, said Thursday the man was gathering and passing to

COHASSET, Mass. (AP) — A former employee of a Massachusetts town is facing charges of allegedly setting up a secret cryptocurrency mining operation in a remote crawl space at a school. Nadeam Nahas was scheduled to be arraigned Thursday on charges of fraudulent use of electricity and vandalizing a school. Authorities say he did not

By JIM SALTER and DAVID A. LIEB Associated Press ST. LOUIS (AP) — A St. Louis prosecutor decried efforts to oust her from office Thursday and defended herself from blame after a teenage volleyball player from Tennessee lost both her legs in a vehicle crash that police say was caused by a speeding driver facing

By SCOTT BAUER Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Tony Earl, a Democrat who served one term as Wisconsin’s governor in the 1980s and later bemoaned the increasing partisanship in politics, has died. He was 86. Earl, a champion of gay rights and a staunch environmentalist, died on Thursday “peacefully surrounded by family,” his daughter

By JOSH BOAK and HANNAH FINGERHUT Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Just 40% of U.S. adults approve of how President Joe Biden is handling relations with China, a new poll shows, with a majority anxious about Beijing’s influence as the White House finds its agenda increasingly shaped by global rivalries. About 6 in 10 say

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Federal investigators are heading to Arkansas Thursday to determine the cause of a small plane crash that killed five employees of an environmental consulting firm. The National Transportation Safety Board says its investigators plan to start documenting the crash site and examining the plane’s wreckage. The agency says a preliminary

By THALIA BEATY Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Bulletproof vests and drones. Pickup trucks, walkie-talkies and tourniquets. These are just some of the items that individuals and nonprofits have donated to buy and ship to Ukraine, where sometimes they are then used by those fighting Russia’s invasion. “We’ve had these discussions countless times,” said

LONDON (AP) — British police say they have arrested four people after protesters painted a giant Ukrainian flag on the road outside the Russian Embassy in London. The campaign group Led By Donkeys said they painted the 500-square-meter  (5,400-square-foot) blue and yellow flag to mark one year since Russia invaded Ukraine. It said activists wanted

NEW YORK (AP) — Viola Davis, Paul Simon and Molly Shannon are among the nominees for prizes given for the spoken word. The nominations for the annual Audie Awards handed out by the Audio Publishers Association were announced Thursday. Read by the Oscar-winning actor, Davis’ memoir “Finding Me” is a finalist for audiobook of the

By BRENDAN FARRINGTON Associated Press STARKE, Fla. (AP) — Florida has executed a man for murdering a woman in 1990 while he was a fugitive from prison. The governor’s office said Donald Dillbeck died Thursday at 6:13 p.m. after receiving a lethal injection. This was Florida’s first execution in nearly four years, and the third

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Senior U.K. and European Union officials are meeting as part of what Britain calls “intensive negotiations” to resolve a thorny post-Brexit trade dispute that has spawned a political crisis. Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris traveled to Brussels on Thursday for talks with Maroš Šefčovič, the EU’s chief