Month: February 2023

By KEN MILLER Associated Press A former owner of two NBA teams, an NFL franchise and longtime Texas businessman, Billy Joe “Red” McCombs has died at his home in San Antonio, according to a statement from his family on Monday. McCombs was 95 and preceded in death by his wife, Charline, in 2019. “The entire

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has signed a law to use zero-interest loans to help local governments repair or replace public infrastructure damaged by wildfires or subsequent flooding. The law follows last year’s historic wildfire that was sparked by a prescribed burn by the U.S. government. It grew to

By LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Lawyers for a man convicted of killing eight people along a Manhattan bike path five years ago say prosecutors are unfairly using emotional testimony from victims’ families to try to win a death penalty ruling from a jury. They’ve asked the judge presiding over the death

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Syrian President Bashar Assad has visited the Gulf nation of Oman on his first official visit since the deadly Feb. 6 quake. Oman is one of few Arab countries that kept normal relations with Damascus after Syria was suspended from the Arab League in 2011 over its crackdown on Arab Spring

MAMARONECK, N.Y. (AP) — Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe said in a speech posted online Monday that he has been removed as the right-wing group’s leader. In remarks that appeared to have been made at a Project Veritas’ office, O’Keefe said the board had stripped him of all decision-making. The move comes after the board

By HILLEL ITALIE AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Huey ‘Piano’ Smith, a top New Orleans session man, has died. Smith backed Little Richard and Lloyd Price among other early rock stars and with his own group made the party favorites “Don’t You Just Know It” and “Rockin’ Pneumonia and Boogie Woogie Flu.” Smith

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s ministry of tourism and antiquities unveiled a renovated wing of its oldest museum Monday, home to a 16-meter (52-foot) -long scroll unearthed last year. The refurbishment marks the first stage of broader renovations for the 120-year-old salmon-colored palatial complex in downtown Cairo, opposite the capital’s famed Tahrir Square. Waziry Papyrus, the

MOSCOW (AP) — Belarus’ authoritarian president says the ex-Soviet nation will form a new territorial defense force amid the fighting in neighboring Ukraine. President Alexander Lukashenko has cultivated close military ties with Russia, which used Belarusian territory to send troops into Ukraine nearly a year ago at the start of what the Kremlin calls its

By GHAITH ALSAYED and BASSEM MROUE Associated Press JINDERIS, Syria (AP) — A baby girl who was born under the rubble of her family’s earthquake-shattered home has left the hospital and gone to her new home, where she was with her paternal aunt’s family Monday. The girl had been at the hospital since hours after

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The prime ministers of Poland and Italy have discussed military support for Ukraine and voiced agreement that the European Union should be made stronger politically while cutting down on bureaucracy. Poland’s Mateusz Morawiecki and Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni — both right-wing politicians — said they were on the same page on

By JOEY CAPPELLETTI Associated Press EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan State University students and faculty returned to the East Lansing campus Monday as the university resumed normal operations, one week after a gunman shot and killed three students and injured five others. The 50,000-student university’s campus remained relatively quiet on the first day back,

By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ and DAMIAN DOVARGANES Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — A man arrested Monday in the weekend killing of a Catholic bishop that shocked Los Angeles religious and immigrant communities is the husband of the victim’s housekeeper and had done work at his home, authorities said. Auxiliary Bishop David O’Connell, 69, was

By DASHA LITVINOVA Associated Press TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Allies and family members of an opposition politician imprisoned in Russia say he’s been transferred to a penal colony in the northwest of the country and placed in restricted housing. Andrei Pivovarov, who was sentenced to four years in prison last year, was transferred from a

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A man has been charged with participating in a Memphis shooting that left one person dead and 10 others injured. According to a police affidavit, 21-year-old Julius Michael Freeman of Memphis admitted to driving the shooter to and from the area where the gunman opened fire early Sunday and to handing

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s government has summoned Iran’s top diplomat in the U.K. after journalists based in the country were targeted for intimidation by Tehran. The Foreign Office said its Middle East director Vijay Rangarajan met with Iranian Chargé d’Affaires Mehdi Hosseini Matin to “make clear the U.K. will not tolerate threats to life and

By CLAIRE SAVAGE Associated Press/Report for America CHICAGO (AP) — Police in Illinois say three people have died and three more were hurt after a shooting on a Chicago interstate highway. Illinois State Police said Monday that the shooting occurred Sunday at around 10:30 p.m. on the I-57 expressway near 111th Street in the South

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Several Anglican bishops from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Pacific say they no longer recognize Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby as their leader. The announcement deepens a rift within the global Anglican Communion over gay marriage. Some bishops who belong to the Global South Fellowship of

MADRID (AP) — A major blunder in designs of new trains for two northern Spanish regions has led to the resignations of two top transport officials, bringing to four the number of people who have lost their jobs because of the controversy this month. A total of 31 narrow-gauge local trains were ordered in 2020

By DASHA LITVINOVA Associated Press TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Russian officials and state media have downplayed President Joe Biden’s surprise visit to Ukraine, painting Kyiv as a U.S. puppet and maintaining Moscow’s forces will prevail despite Washington’s pledges to send more weapons to Ukraine. Biden met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Ukrainian capital Monday

By STEPHEN GROVES Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Members of Congress are grappling with what to do after the downing of a Chinese balloon and three other aerial objects over American airspace. The episode has raised troubling questions about the security of American airspace. Lawmakers are alarmed the episode has exposed a vulnerability that could

By LAURAN NEERGAARD AP Medical Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — A stroke left Heather Rendulic with little use of her left hand and arm, putting certain everyday tasks like tying shoes or cutting foods out of reach. “I live one-handed in a two-handed world and you don’t realize how many things you need two hands for

By EVAN VUCCI, JOHN LEICESTER and ZEKE MILLER Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — President Joe Biden’s motorcade slipped out of the White House around 3:30 a.m. Sunday. There was no big, flashy Air Force One for this trip. Instead, the president vanished into the night on an Air Force C-32, a modified Boeing 757