Month: May 2023

By FRANCES D’EMILIO Associated Press ROME (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had private talks with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Saturday, later saying he sought support for Ukraine’s peace plan from the pontiff, who in the past has offered to try to help end the full-scale war launched by Russia a year ago.

By GREG BEACHAM AP Sports Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Six months and a day after the Los Angeles Lakers fell to 2-10 to start the regular season, they emphatically eliminated the defending NBA champions to reach the Western Conference finals. Although the Lakers’ transformation has become increasingly incredible over the past several weeks, the

By MIKE SCHNEIDER Associated Press Some of the largest U.S. cities challenging their 2020 census numbers aren’t getting the results they hoped for from the U.S. Census Bureau — an effort by Memphis to increase its official population resulted in three people being subtracted from its count during an initial appeal. Some successes have come

By HALLIE GOLDEN Associated Press For four hours, Raymond V. Buelna, a cultural leader for the Pascua Yaqui Tribe, sat on a metal bench in a concrete holding space at the U.S.-Mexico border, separated from the two people he was taking to an Easter ceremony on tribal land in Arizona and wondering when they might

By CAROLYN THOMPSON Associated Press BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — It’s hard for Jamari Shaw, 16, to have fun at the park with his younger brothers in their East Buffalo neighborhood. He’s too busy scanning for danger, an aftereffect of a gunman’s attack that killed 10 Black people at a local grocery store. Sometimes, 17-year-old Alanna

By MAE ANDERSON Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — For decades, a giant, inflatable rat with beady eyes, sharp teeth and a pustule-covered belly has loomed over union protests, drawing attention to various labor disputes. As New York City deals with an influx of actual rats, Scabby the Rat has become that rare thing, like

By THOMAS BEAUMONT and MICHELLE L. PRICE Associated Press SIOUX CENTER, Iowa (AP) — Decrying a Republican “culture of losing,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis sought Saturday to weaken former President Donald Trump’s grip on the GOP as tornado warnings interrupted a collision of leading presidential prospects in battleground Iowa. DeSantis, expected to announce his 2024

By HANNAH SCHOENBAUM and GARY D. ROBERTSON Associated Press RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina’s Democratic governor has vetoed legislation that would have banned nearly all abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy. The veto came Saturday, during a public rally. Abortion-rights activists and voters watched on a plaza in Raleigh as Gov. Roy Cooper affixed

By DAVID BRANDT AP Sports Writer PHOENIX (AP) — Brittney Griner strolled down the sideline about 1 1/2 hours before the Phoenix Mercury played Friday night, giving hugs and high-fiving her teammates, coaches and opposing players. Then it was a little stretching, a little shooting and a little agility work to prepare for a basketball

By VALERIE GONZALEZ, ELLIOT SPAGAT and GIOVANNA DELL’ORTO Associated Press EL PASO, Texas (AP) — The U.S.-Mexico border was relatively calm as the U.S. ended its pandemic-era immigration restrictions and migrants adapted to new asylum rules and legal pathways meant to discourage illegal crossings. A full day after the rules known as Title 42 were

By SCOTT SONNER Associated Press RENO, Nev. (AP) — A court battle between the mayor of Reno and a private investigator who secretly tracked her with a GPS device ahead of the November election is moving to Nevada’s Supreme Court. A district judge handling Mayor Hillary Schieve’s lawsuit seeking damages for a violation of privacy

SEATTLE (AP) — The city of Seattle will pay $2.3 million to settle a lawsuit brought by employees who helped reveal that thousands of then-Mayor Jenny Durkan’s text messages had been deleted in 2020. The Seattle Times reports the terms of the settlement with Stacy Irwin and Kimberly Ferreiro were finalized this week. After their

By DAVID HAMILTON AP Business Reporter SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — On Friday, Elon Musk announced that NBC Universal’s Linda Yaccarino will serve as the new CEO of Twitter. Yaccarino is a longtime advertising executive credited with integrating and digitizing ad sales at NBCU. Her challenge now will be to woo back advertisers that have fled

ROYAL OAKS, Calif. (AP) — Authorities say a dilapidated greenhouse at a Northern California nursery was home to dozens of farmworkers and their families who were living in tiny and unsafe dwellings with no ventilation. Nick Pasculli is a spokesperson for Monterey County. He says officials found 62 substandard dwellings inside the greenhouse in the

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve governor Philip Jefferson said Friday that inflation remains too high and there has been “little progress” made toward bringing it down to the central bank’s 2% target, a pessimistic assessment given signs in a report earlier this week that price increases might be slowing.

DALLAS (AP) — A man who didn’t want his girlfriend to get an abortion fatally shot her during a confrontation in a Dallas parking lot, police said. He was jailed on a murder charge as of Friday. Texas banned abortions after roughly six weeks of pregnancy in September 2021. But nearly all abortions have been

By STEPHEN WHYNO AP Sports Writer ASHBURN, Va. (AP) — A group led by Josh Harris has agreed to buy the NFL’s Washington Commanders from longtime owner Dan Snyder and his family. The sides announced the deal in a joint statement Friday, roughly a month after they reached an agreement in principle on the sale

By GIOVANNA DELL’ORTO Associated Press EL PASO, Texas (AP) — As changing policies, rampant misinformation and exasperated, fearful crowds converge in this desert city, faith leaders are striving to provide shelter and uplift. Along with prayers, they are counseling migrants about the daunting challenges that await them on U.S. soil, with enormous backlogs in asylum

By STEVE KARNOWSKI Associated Press ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Democratic Minnesota senators held firm despite only a one-vote majority Friday to pass gun control legislation strongly supported by the governor that would align the battleground state with others nationally that have taken steps to keep guns out of the hands of people in crisis

By TOM KRISHER AP Auto Writer DETROIT (AP) — A Tennessee company could be heading for a legal battle with U.S. auto safety regulators after refusing a request that millions of potentially dangerous air bag inflators be recalled. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is demanding that ARC Automotive Inc. of Knoxville recall 67 million

By JOHN HANNA AP Political Writer TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas’ Democratic governor has vetoed Republican legislation that would have provided a financial boost to pregnancy centers run by abortion opponents and curbed state and local officials’ powers during infectious disease outbreaks. The two measures scotched Friday by Gov. Laura Kelly were part of a

By SONIA PÉREZ D. Associated Press GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — A Guatemalan newspaper known for hard-hitting investigations of government corruption and whose founder is currently on trial, has announced that it will shut down. El Periódico had stopped its print edition in November, but had continued to publish as a digital outlet. José Rubén Zamora

By JACQUES BILLEAUD Associated Press PHOENIX (AP) — The last remaining election misconduct claim by Kari Lake, the 2022 Republican candidate for Arizona governor, is playing out in court as state officials and the Democratic governor asked a judge to throw out the case Friday. Lake was among the most vocal of last year’s Republican

By JOHN ZENOR AP Sports Writer MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The spectators were mostly Black kids, ranging from elementary school to high school. The teams — all from historically Black colleges and universities — had names that won’t resonate with the average baseball fan. Wiley College. Bluefield State. Rust College. The Black College World Series,

By TRAVIS LOLLER Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The nation’s largest public utility has released plans to build a new natural gas plant in East Tennessee, one day after the Biden administration proposed strict new limits on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. The Tennessee Valley Authority’s proposal was released on Friday. It calls

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — A fourth person has pleaded guilty in a scheme to bribe the head of a Michigan marijuana licensing board. A lobbyist, Brian Pierce, says he conspired to give $42,000 and other benefits to Rick Johnson to help clients with marijuana license applications. This occurred before the board was disbanded in

HUDSON, Wis. (AP) — Some 1,500 law enforcement officers from several states were among 3,000 mourners paying final respects Friday to a Wisconsin sheriff’s deputy who was fatally shot by a suspected drunken driver during a traffic stop. The funeral for St. Croix County Sheriff’s Deputy Kaitlin “Kaitie” R. Leising was held in the gymnasium

By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and DENISE LAVOIE Associated Press RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A U.S. judge’s ruling striking down a federal law that bans licensed federal firearms dealers from selling handguns to young adults under 21 is the latest example of how a landmark Supreme Court decision is transforming the legal landscape around firearms. The

BOSTON (AP) — A Boston man has been accused of working with Chinese government officials to keep tabs on Chinese activists and dissidents in the area. Federal prosecutors said Friday that over roughly a four-year period 63-year-old Litang Liang, a U.S. citizen who lives in Boston, kept track of those calling for pro-democracy reforms in

By COLLEEN LONG and AAMER MADHANI Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is commending Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez for Spain’s commitment to collaborate with the United States to expand pathways for migrants fleeing from Latin America. Biden and Sánchez held talks Friday as their countries cooperate with Canada to establish migration hubs

By CLAIRE RUSH Associated Press/Report for America PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — An early May heat wave this weekend could surpass daily records in parts of the Pacific Northwest and worsen wildfires already burning in western Canada, a historically temperate region that has grappled with scorching summer temperatures and unprecedented wildfires fueled by climate change in

By LEAH WILLINGHAM Associated Press CHARLESTON W.Va. (AP) — An off-duty deputy sheriff in West Virginia who struck and killed a 13-year-old girl with his police cruiser last year will not face criminal charges.  Special Prosecutor for Cabell County Mark Sorsaia determined the “tragic loss” of 13-year-old Jacqueline “Laney” Hudson n December 2022 was a