Month: April 2023

WASHINGTON (AP) — First lady Jill Biden said Monday that she wants the defeated Iowa women’s basketball team to be invited to the White House in addition to the national title winner Louisiana State University. She watched LSU’s 102-85 victory over Iowa from the stands on Sunday night. Biden, speaking at the Colorado state capital

PARADISE, Mont. (AP) — Crews could face a difficult task cleaning up a 25-car train derailment in western Montana that spilled numerous cases of beer as well as powdered clay beside a scenic river. Authorities say the derailment happened Sunday in a hard-to-reach spot beside the Clark Fork River. Some of the cars derailed in

By JOSH FUNK AP Business Writer OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A lawsuit says Union Pacific routinely hires private investigators to check out employees’ medical leave claims and then fires anyone who happens to leave their house while they are off. The lawyer who filed the Texas lawsuit says this practice is another example of how

By MEGAN JANETSKY Associated Press MEXICO CITY (AP) — Belize has reaffirmed its diplomatic ties with Taiwan, the second country to do so in a week as Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen travels across Central America in an effort to shore up a dwindling number of allies. It follows in the footsteps of ally Guatemala, the

By The Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Leonardo DiCaprio testified Monday at the trial of former Fugee rapper Prakazrel “Pras” Michel, who is accused of conspiring to funnel money from a Malaysian state fund to Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign. Here is a look at the main characters in the international scandal, and the

By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH Associated Press The president of a private Minnesota university says she’s retiring next year. She had been criticized for firing a professor who showed a depiction of the Prophet Muhammad in an art history class. Hamline University President Fayneese Miller acknowledged in a news conference  Monday that although the school has been

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN Associated Press The FBI says a man charged with storming the U.S. Capitol was stationed on a Navy aircraft carrier when he joined a mob’s attack on the building. David Elizalde was arrested on Sunday in Arlington, Virginia, on misdemeanor charges stemming from the riot on Jan. 6, 2021. Elizalde told the

By DAVE COLLINS Associated Press HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Veterans’ advocacy groups have sued the U.S. Department of Defense seeking records of toxic conditions at an air base in Uzbekistan blamed for causing cancer and other illnesses among American troops who served there in support of the war in Afghanistan. The lawsuit was filed Monday

By BECKY BOHRER Associated Press JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Opponents of a major oil project on Alaska’s petroleum-rich North Slope lost the first round of their legal battle over the Willow project but said they would not give up. A federal judge on Monday rejected requests by environmental groups and an Alaska Native organization to

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian state media says Israel has staged airstrikes on the southern suburbs of the Syrian capital of Damascus killing two civilians. State TV, quoting an unnamed military official, reported material damage after a military post was struck early Tuesday south of the capital. Israel’s shadow war with Iran in Syria intensified over

By STEFANIE DAZIO Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — California law enforcement seized 54 so-called ghost guns last year from people who can’t legally own firearms, a 38% jump in the number of the hard-to-trace weapons seized since 2021. The ghost guns, which are illegally homemade firearms without a serial number, were part of nearly

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — LSU’s national championship women’s basketball team has returned to campus where thousands of fans gathered to welcome them back. LSU coach and Louisiana native Kim Mulkey says “timing is everything“ and that it was time for her to come home. Mulkey and her players climbed onto a stage inside the

By JAMES POLLARD Associated Press/Report for America COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A lawyer for the family of a teenager found dead nearly eight years ago says a second autopsy of the exhumed body is complete. Attorney Eric Bland, who is representing the family of Stephen Smith, says this weekend was a “bittersweet” and “trying time.”

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas legislators have given final approval to a bill that would make it easier to pursue criminal charges or file lawsuits over childhood sexual abuse years after the abuse occurred. The House approved the measure Monday, and it goes to Gov. Laura Kelly because the Senate approved it last week. No

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has announced $40 million in grants to extend high-speed internet to extremely remote farms, homes and businesses in New Mexico. The former Iowa governor made the announcement Monday as Joe Biden and top administration officials travel the country to buttress the president’s message on investments and

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A court in Dubai has rejected the appeal of a British financier fighting extradition to Denmark, where he is accused of orchestrating a $1.7 billion tax fraud. Hedge fund trader Sanjay Shah is accused of masterminding a scheme that ran from 2012 to 2015 in which foreign businesses pretended

By ASHRAF KHALIL Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Movie star Leonardo DiCaprio testified in federal court Monday morning as part of a trial involving international money laundering, bribery and a prominent rap artist. Prakazrel “Pras” Michel — a founding member of the iconic 1990s hip-hop group, The Fugees — is accused of funneling money from

By The Associated Press CLAYTON, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri woman who was caring for a toddler that died with fentanyl and another drug in her system is facing criminal charges. Mary Curtin is jailed on $1 million cash-only bond. Prosecutors on Thursday charged her with endangering the welfare of a child in the death

By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer NEW YORK (AP) — While Ben Affleck and Matt Damon were writing “The Last Duel,” their first screenplay together since their 1997 breakthrough, “Good Will Hunting,” they noticed that something in their winding and usually separate careers had been missing. “I remember my wife said to me one day:

NEW YORK (AP) — “Moana” will be the latest Walt Disney Co. animation to get the live-action treatment, and at least one star is coming back. Disney chief executive Bob Iger announced a live-action “Moana” remake is in development Monday in a call with investors. The production is in the early stages — no director

By SAM METZ Associated Press SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Utah law that would ban abortion clinics has been challenged in state court by abortion rights advocates who argue it effectively prohibits abortion in the deeply conservative state. While abortions remain legal up to 18 weeks of pregnancy in Utah, the Planned Parenthood Association

NEW YORK (AP) — Two workers were killed in a construction accident at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport on Monday, officials said. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs the airport, said the two workers got trapped under construction rubble around 11 a.m. A spokesperson for the city Fire

By ELENA BECATOROS Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The head of the U.S. House Intelligence Committee says there is “overwhelming” support in the United States to continue supplying aid to Ukraine in its fight against Russia, despite vocal opposition from a hard-right faction of his own Republican Party. Rep. Michael Turner is the Republican

By KRISTIN M. HALL AP Entertainment Writer NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Grammy winners Tanya Tucker and Patty Loveless, along with hit country songwriter Bob McDill, will be the newest members of the Country Music Hall of Fame. The Country Music Association announced the 2023 inductees on Monday in Nashville, Tennessee, with Tucker, the “Delta Dawn”

By TRISHA AHMED Associated Press/Report for America Teachers in North Dakota can still refer to transgender students by the personal pronouns they use, after lawmakers on Monday failed to override the governor’s veto of a controversial bill to place restrictions on educators. House lawmakers fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to block the veto,

By ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE and ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON Associated Press TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — The Florida Senate has approved a bill to ban abortions after six weeks. Senate Republicans passed the bill Monday. The vote prompted demonstrations at the state’s capital that led to the arrest of the leader of the Florida Democratic Party and a

By TRAVIS LOLLER, JONATHAN MATTISE and KIMBERLEE KRUESI Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — As students across Nashville walked out of class on Monday to protest gun violence at the Tennessee Capitol following a school shooting last week, police said the person who killed six people, including three 9-year-old children, had been planning the massacre

By SARAH RANKIN Associated Press RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Irvo Otieno, a 28-year-old Black man whose death last month at a Virginia mental hospital has sparked outrage and led to second-degree murder charges against 10 defendants, died of “positional and mechanical asphyxia with restraints,” a medical examiner’s office said Monday. Arkuie Williams, the administrative deputy

MADAWASKA, Maine (AP) — Volunteers in the state of Maine have reclaimed a world record in a category that few people know exists: The biggest ice carousel. A giant piece of ice estimated at 146,000 tons was cut in Long Lake in Madawaska, and it was set in motion like a slow-moving Lazy Susan to

By TERRY TANG Associated Press PHOENIX (AP) — A giant red spoon that was stolen from an Arizona Dairy Queen and sparked a mystery on social media was found and it’s partly thanks to Pokémon GO. Michael Foster was playing the outdoor mobile game when he spotted the 15-foot spoon around 7 a.m. Monday on