Month: May 2023

By JAKE OFFENHARTZ Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City police officer is speaking out against the use of “courtesy cards” by friends and relatives of cops, accusing department leaders of maintaining a sprawling system of impunity that has fueled both reckless driving and racist traffic stops. The laminated cards have long

By SEAN MURPHY Associated Press OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Two separate federal lawsuits have been filed by whistleblowers against Oklahoma’s new Republican state superintendent and his top aide. The two former employees of the Oklahoma State Department of Education claim in their lawsuits that they were wrongfully terminated last week. Former OSDE program manager Matthew

By MARYCLAIRE DALE Associated Press NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (AP) — A church associate of a pastor and town councilwoman who was gunned down in her SUV outside her home in February was arrested Tuesday on murder and gun charges, New Jersey prosecutors said. Rashid Ali Bynum, 28, of Portsmouth, Virginia, was linked to the death

By LOLITA C. BALDOR Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military says a Chinese fighter jet flew aggressively close to a U.S. reconnaissance aircraft over the South China Sea, forcing the American pilot to fly through the turbulent wake. In a statement, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command says the Chinese J-16 fighter pilot “flew directly in

PARIS (AP) — Novak Djokovic has drawn criticism from Kosovo’s tennis federation — but not from French Open organizers — after offering his thoughts on clashes in northern Kosovo between ethnic Serbs and police and NATO peacekeepers. Djokovic is a 36-year-old from Serbia who has won 22 Grand Slam titles and is scheduled to play

MIAMI (AP) — A white man has been sentenced to probation in South Florida for pulling a gun and yelling racial slurs in a traffic confrontation with a group of Black teenagers protesting housing inequality on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 2019. As part of a deal with with prosecutors, 55-year-old Mark Bartlett pleaded

By BEN NUCKOLS Associated Press OXON HILL, Md. (AP) — Navneeth Murali would strongly prefer for the Scripps National Spelling Bee to get rid of the onstage, multiple-choice vocabulary questions that were introduced to the competition two years ago. “It’s sort of hit or miss, the onstage vocab format, and it’s sort of brutal in

By WALTER BERRY Associated Press PHOENIX (AP) — Authorities say a man’s anger over drug abuse drove him to fatally shoot four men and wound a woman in a 12-hour crime spree in metro Phoenix. Mesa police say 20-year-old Iren Byers was taken into custody Sunday on suspicion of four counts of first-degree murder and

By CHRISTOPHER WEBER and AMY TAXIN Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — A California appeals court said Tuesday that Leslie Van Houten, who participated in two killings at the direction of cult leader Charles Manson in 1969, should be released from prison on parole. The appellate court’s ruling reverses an earlier decision by Gov. Gavin

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Clayton Kershaw says he disagrees with the Los Angeles Dodgers’ decision to welcome a satirical LGBTQ+ group called the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence at the team’s annual Pride Night. Kershaw told The Los Angeles Times on Monday that the team’s decision to honor the group after it rescinded its original invitation

By MARGERY A. BECK Associated Press LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The American Civil Liberties Union is suing to block a new Nebraska law combining a 12-week abortion ban with restrictions on gender-affirming care for minors. The plaintiffs are Planned Parenthood and one of its doctors who performs abortions in Nebraska. The ACLU argues that lawmakers

RIDGELAND, Wis. (AP) — Authorities are investigating a van-car collision that injured 14 people, including two fatally, in northwestern Wisconsin. The Barron County Sheriff’s Department says the crash along Highway 25 north of Ridgeland occurred Monday evening when a van carrying 10 people was struck by a car carrying four teenagers. It says a 13-year-old

NEW YORK (AP) — HBO said 2.9 million people watched or streamed the series finale of “Succession” on Sunday night, a series record that is expected to grow as delayed viewing is taken into account. That beat the first-night record of 2.75 million for an episode that aired on April 30, earlier in the fourth

By SAM METZ and NOMAAN MERCHANT Associated Press SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — U.S. Rep. Chris Stewart, R-Utah, is planning to leave Congress due to his wife’s illness by the end of this year, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on Tuesday. The six-term Utah Republican will announce on Wednesday that

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia (AP) — The premier of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia is begging people to stay out of the woods and avoid any activity that could start more fires after wildfires near the Atlantic coast damaged about 200 structures and forced 16,000 people to evacuate. Premier Tim Houston says the damage is

Authorities are asking the public to share any video or information as they investigate a weekend shooting that left eight teens wounded outside a stadium near Philadelphia. Police in Chester said gunfire erupted shortly before 11:30 p.m. Sunday in a parking lot outside Subaru Park, the sports venue where the Philadelphia Union play. Authorities say

PARIS (AP) — Ten noted thinkers, writers and filmmakers, including Ken Loach and Nobel literature laureate Annie Ernaux, have signed an open letter calling on the president of Algeria to free a jailed journalist they said was punished for refusing to bow to the government line. In the letter to President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, published on

By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations says that for the first time in Syria’s 12-year war people in every district are experiencing some degree of “humanitarian stress.” The world body says Tuesday that a staggering 15.3 million — nearly 70% of the population — need humanitarian aid. A

By ED DAVEY A consumer class action lawsuit filed Tuesday claims Delta Air Lines inaccurately billed itself as the world’s “first carbon-neutral airline” and should pay damages. The complaint in federal court in California alleges the airline relied on carbon offsets that were largely bogus. Companies around the world buy carbon credits to cancel out

By BEN NUCKOLS Associated Press OXON HILL, Md. (AP) — The middle school-age spellers who make it to the finals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee spend years studying roots and language patterns and poring over the dictionary in order to give themselves a chance to be crowned bee champion. They use those skills to