Month: October 2023

By SUMAN NAISHADHAM Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Arizona governor Katie Hobbs said this week her administration is terminating state land leases that for years have given a Saudi-owned farm nearly unfettered access to pump groundwater in the dry southwestern state. On Monday, Hobbs, a Democrat, said the state had canceled Fondomonte Arizona’s lease in

PHOENIX (AP) — A judge has denied the city of Phoenix’s legal request seeking extra time to clean up the city’s largest homeless encampment. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Scott Blaney ruled in September that Phoenix must permanently clear the encampment on the edge of downtown by Nov. 4. The city asked for a stay

By JILL COLVIN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — GOP presidential candidate Mike Pence, the former vice president, chastised a group of hard-right Republicans who ousted Kevin McCarthy from his role as House speaker Tuesday, saying that “chaos is never America’s friend.” Pence was onstage at a national security and foreign policy forum at Washington’s Georgetown

By FARNOUSH AMIRI Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The House of Representatives has entered uncharted territory after a last-ditch, right-wing effort to remove fellow Republican Kevin McCarthy from the speakership succeeded. A resolution — titled a motion to vacate — was brought forward by Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., and passed with the support of eight

By TOM KRISHER AP Auto Writer DETROIT (AP) — Automakers posted big increases in new vehicle sales during the summer, despite high prices, rising interest rates and even a limited strike against Detroit companies. Industry sales rose 16.3% from July through September as consumer demand stayed strong despite an average new vehicle loan rate of

DETROIT (AP) — A suburban Detroit mayor has been indicted on a federal bribery charge for allegedly demanding $50,000 in bribes to facilitate the sale of a city property to an outside party. The indictment Tuesday alleges Inkster Mayor Patrick Wimberly accepted the bribes from September 2022 through this past April. Prosecutors say the bribes

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The conservation group Sea Shepherd says it has signed an agreement with Mexico to help expand the protection area for the endangered vaquita porpoise. Sea Shepherd helps the Mexican Navy to remove illegal gill nets that drown the vaquita, the world’s most endangered marine mammal. Sea Shepherd said Tuesday that the

SOUTHGATE, Mich. (AP) — Firefighters are trying to control a major fire at an apartment complex for older residents in suburban Detroit. The roof has been severely damaged, and crews are trying to subdue the flames with aerial hoses. TV stations posted video of fire ripping through the roof at a cross-shaped building known as

REBECCA SANTANA Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal government will be testing it’s nationwide emergency alert system. The test happens Wednesday at 2:20 p.m. Eastern time. Mobile customers whose phones are on will hear an alert, their phones will vibrate and then a message will flash across their screens about the test. People watching

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. (AP) — A federal investigator said the small plane crash that killed former NFL tight end Russ Francis and another man at an Adirondack Mountains airport occurred after the engine apparently lost power. Francis was 70 years old. He and 63-year-old Richard McSpadden had just taken off from the Lake Placid Airport

By JACK DURA Associated Press BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A North Dakota lawmaker who died in a plane crash along with his wife and two young sons had recently received his commercial pilot’s license with hopes of one day working for a major airline, a Senate colleague said. State Sen. Doug Larsen, his wife Amy

By SEAN MURPHY Associated Press OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt is again making his pitch to reduce the state’s individual income tax rate. But not all of his Republican colleagues in the Legislature are sold on the idea. Oklahoma’s Republican-controlled Legislature returned to the Capitol for a special session Stitt called to

By ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE Associated Press ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York City Mayor Eric Adams says he’s traveling to Latin America to discourage people from seeking asylum in the city as it struggles to handle a massive influx of migrants. The Democratic mayor detailed the trip in a news conference Tuesday. He says he wants

By MARK THIESSEN Associated Press ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Two U.S. Army soldiers are dead and 12 others injured after the military transport vehicle in which they were riding flipped on a dirt road in Alaska. Army officials say the accident happened Monday as the soldiers headed to the Yukon Training Area just south of

DECATUR, Ala. (AP) — Family members of a Black man fatally shot outside his home by Alabama police are seeking more information and access to body camera footage of the shooting. Police shot and killed Stephen Perkins, 39, Friday morning outside his home in Decatur, Ala. The Decatur Police Department say they were called to

By BRIAN MAHONEY AP Basketball Writer With a new “player participation policy,” the NBA has made it clear that healthy players should be on the court. No argument from the players, who insist they aren’t interested in sitting. Some don’t like load management any more than the fans who wonder why some of the best

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Attorneys for a drug suspect who was repeatedly punched, elbowed and kneed by officers in northeast Florida during a traffic stop say that they are petitioning the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the case. Attorneys for Le’Keian Woods said Tuesday at a news conference outside the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office headquarters

By CURT ANDERSON Associated Press Trustees of the New College of Florida have voted to stick with a Ron Desantis ally as the school’s president amid a conservative makeover launched by the governor. The trustees voted 10-2 on Tuesday for Richard Corcoran, who has served as interim president since January, over two other candidates. The

ROME (AP) — Italian authorities say at least 21 people have been killed when a bus crashed near the city of Venice after falling from an elevated street. The Venice prefect said that there were 15 survivors. The crash happened on Tuesday in Mestre which is a suburb of Venice. Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro wrote

By ADAM BEAM Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California has ended its water year with above average rain and snow, making it one of the wettest years in recorded state history. The state got just over 33 and 1/2 inches of precipitation during the water year that ended Sept. 30. That’s 141% of the

By LAURAN NEERGAARD AP Medical Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. regulators have added another option for fall COVID-19 vaccination, updated shots made by Novavax. Already updated vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna are rolling out. Those are intended for adults and children as young as 6 months. Tuesday’s clearance from the Food and Drug Administration adds

LYNCHBURG, Va. (AP) — New reporting says preliminary findings from a federal investigation found that Liberty University failed to warn its Virginia campus community about safety threats. That’s including from individuals accused of sexual violence. The Washington Post and USA Today wrote Tuesday that they had received the confidential report by the U.S. Department of

By MARY CLARE JALONICK and MICHAEL R. BLOOD Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Former union leader and Democratic insider Laphonza Butler was sworn in as the newest member of the Senate on Tuesday, replacing California Sen. Dianne Feinstein after her death and becoming only the third Black female senator in history. Butler was appointed by

By GARY D. ROBERTSON Associated Press RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A federal lawsuit has been filed by a union-affiliated group that challenges North Carolina laws requiring citizens to reside in the state and within a precinct at least 30 days before an election date to be eligible to vote. The North Carolina Alliance for Retired

By The Associated Press Police in West Virginia say two adoptive parents have been charged with felony neglect after two children were found locked inside a small barn and a third child was located in an unprotected loft inside an adjacent home. The parents were arraigned Tuesday on charges of gross child neglect creating a

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin legislator says she’s running to try to unseat Republican U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden in next year’s election. State Rep. Katrina Shankland, a Stevens Point Democrat, announced Tuesday she’s running for the seat representing western Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District in 2024. Shankland joins a crowded Democratic field that already

By LOLITA C. BALDOR Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Army is launching a sweeping overhaul of its recruiting to focus more on young people who’ve spent time in college or are job hunting early in their careers. The Army’s aim is to reverse years of enlistment shortfalls. A major part of this is the

By DAVID A. LIEB Associated Press JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Republicans in Idaho and Missouri will have to attend caucuses to make their presidential picks next year after the two states’ GOP-led legislatures canceled their presidential primaries and then missed a deadline to reinstate them. Presidential caucuses in both states are planned March 2,

By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH Associated Press A homeless Topeka man has been arrested in the rape and killing of a 5-year-old girl. Police said that officers responded just before 6 p.m. Monday to a medical call at a gas station and found a fire crew attempting to save Zoey Felix. She was rushed to a hospital

By KATHY McCORMACK Associated Press CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A man charged with shooting a New Hampshire couple to death on a hiking trail last year spent months hiding from police — but over a probation violation from Utah, not the killings — and an analysis of shell casings and bullets found in the area

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — A South African cabinet minister and three other lawmakers from the ruling African National Congress party have been cleared of corruption by a parliamentary ethics committee. Employment and Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi and lawmakers Cedric Frolick, Mosebenzi Zwane and Winnie Ngwenya were implicated following a commission of inquiry into

By The Associated Press Azerbaijani authorities have arrested several former separatist leaders of Nagorno-Karabakh after reclaiming control of the Armenian-populated breakaway region in a lightning military operation last month. Azerbaijan’s APA news agency says that Arayik Harutyunyan, who led the region before stepping down at the beginning of September, has been arrested and is being

By FATIMA HUSSEIN and ERIC TUCKER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The US is announcing a series of indictments and sanctions against 14 people and 14 firms across China and Canada related to the import of fentanyl into the United States. It’s one of the biggest actions the Biden administration has taken against the trafficking

By EVENS SANON and DÁNICA COTO Associated Press PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Foreigners with guns are met with hostility in most countries in the world. But the departure of armed soldiers and police from Haiti in 2017 after nearly two decades on the streets helped criminals seize control of much of the country. Gangs have

By BROOKE SCHULTZ Associated Press/Report for America HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A group of five Pennsylvania inmates have sued over the solitary confinement conditions in a state prison, saying the conditions are unconstitutional, worsening and creating mental illness in those held there. The lawsuit was filed in federal court Tuesday. It accuses the Department of

By MARK SHERMAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court seems likely to preserve the work of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau against a conservative-led challenge. Even some conservative justices sounded skeptical Tuesday of arguments that the agency, created after the 2008 financial crisis to regulate mortgages, car loans and other consumer finance, violates

By COLLEEN SLEVIN and JESSE BEDAYN Associated Press DENVER (AP) — Colorado’s highest court says it will hear the case of a Christian baker who refused to make a cake celebrating a gender transition. The decision announced Tuesday comes after a U.S. Supreme Court victory this summer for a graphic artist who didn’t want to

By GIADA ZAMPANO Associated Press ROME (AP) — Hundreds of small tremors have shaken a densely populated volcanic area west of the Italian city of Naples in recent weeks, pushing the government to quickly redraft mass evacuation plans, even though experts don’t see an imminent risk of eruption. In the latest of a long string