Month: December 2023

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — The Algerian Football Federation says a bus crash has killed two members of its Ligue 1 side Mouloudia El Bayadh and that it would postpone all games scheduled for this week. The federation said the accident killed 27-year-old El Bayadh reserve goalkeeper Zakaria Bouziani and assistant coach Khalid Muftah. A federation

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A federal judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked a California law that would have banned carrying firearms in most public places, ruling that it violates the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and deprives people of their ability to defend themselves and their loved ones. The law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A state appeals court in Oregon has decided that the rules for a program designed to limit and drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel companies are invalid. The program started in 2022 and is one of the strongest climate programs in the nation. State environmental officials say the ruling

By RIO YAMAT AND GABE STERN Associated Press LAS VEGAS (AP) — Video released Wednesday by Las Vegas police shows officers shouting over blaring alarms and knocking down reports of additional gunfire while responding to a shooting at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Three professors were killed in the Dec. 6 shooting. In one

By KEN MORITSUGU Associated Press BEIJING (AP) — China’s prospects for 2024 look uncertain, as a year that opened free of COVID-19 lockdowns winds down without the dreamed of robust recovery for the world’s No. 2 economy. The wars in Gaza and Ukraine are straining China’s ties with the West. A U.S.-China leaders’ summit helped

By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations says it’s seeking to verify reports that Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers are allowing girls of all ages to study at Islamic religious schools that are traditionally boys-only. Roza Otunbayeva is the U.N.’s top official in the country. She told the Security Council on

MIAMI (AP) — Electric scooter company Bird Global announced Wednesday that it has filed for bankruptcy protection in an attempt to stabilize its wobbly finances. The move marks a sobering comedown for a formerly high-flying startup that was trying to make it easier to get around big cities in an environmentally friendly way with its

By JOE REEDY AP Sports Writer The NHL and Diamond Sports Group, the largest owner of regional sports networks, have reached an agreement that will keep local broadcasts for 11 teams on Bally Sports through the end of this season. The agreement, which was contained in a court filing made Wednesday, is subject to court

NEW YORK (AP) — It’s beginning to look a lot like New Year’s Eve in New York. The numerals “2024” were delivered Wednesday to Times Square for its famous street party to ring in the New Year. Organizers said the lighted display arrived in the famous square following a coast-to-coast road trip covering more than

NEW YORK (AP) — Countertenor David Daniels is no longer a member of the union for singers following his guilty plea to a charge of sexual assault. The 57-year-old and his husband, Scott Walters, pleaded guilty to sexual assault of an adult, a second-degree felony, on Aug. 4. They both were sentenced to eight years’

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A former NBA G League player allegedly admitted to fatally strangling a woman whose remains were found earlier this month near Las Vegas, according to court records obtained Wednesday. Chance Comanche, 27, was taken into custody last week in Sacramento, California, where he described for Las Vegas detectives the alleged murder

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A jury has dismissed a lawsuit accusing top Louisiana State University officials of retaliating against a former athletics administrator for reporting alleged inappropriate sexual behavior by a former head football coach. The Advocate reports that after six days of testimony, the jury on Wednesday rejected the claims by Sharon Lewis,

By JAMES POLLARD Associated Press/Report for America The FBI is investigating a white South Carolina couple for racial discrimination after they set a cross on fire in their yard facing toward their Black neighbors’ home. The retired Black couple recorded video of the burning cross on Thanksgiving weekend and described days of repeated threats from

By JOSÉ ANTONIO RIVERA Associated Press ACAPULCO, Mexico (AP) — Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is ebullient about the recovery of Acapulco after Hurricane Otis smashed into the resort on Oct. 25, killing 52 people. But some residents still don’t have running water, sewage treatment is still deficient, tons of garbage and debris remain

By HYUNG-JIN KIM Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean state media is reporting that leader Kim Jong Un says his country has a policy of not hesitating to launch a nuclear strike on a rival if provoked, as he praised troops involved in its recent intercontinental ballistic missile test. Since adopting an

By MICHAEL GOLDBERG Associated Press/Report for America JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A federal judge will consider arguments over racial discrimination, public safety and local democracy as he decides whether to block appointments to a state-run court set to be created on Jan. 1 in part of Mississippi’s majority-Black capital city. Attorneys for Mississippi and the

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A southwestern Wisconsin man has been sentenced to a year and a day in prison for causing the creation and distribution of a video of a monkey being tortured. U.S. District Judge William Conley in Madison also fined 40-year-old Kenneth Herrera of Soldiers Grove $5,000 and ordered him to serve three

By JOHN HANNA Associated Press TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas City-area man has pleaded not guilty to federal criminal charges accusing him of conspiring with a business partner to illegally export aviation-related technology to Russia. Douglas Edward Robertson’s plea Wednesday to 26 criminal counts came a day after his business partner Cyril Gregory Buyanovsky

By JACK DURA Associated Press BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer’s 42-year-old son is facing additional charges in connection with the pursuit and crash that killed a North Dakota sheriff’s deputy this month. Ian Cramer is now charged with felony counts of theft, criminal mischief and reckless endangerment for allegedly taking a family

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN Associated Press ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — After years of research and DNA testing, historians have identified the remains of an Army private from eastern New Mexico who died during World War II. Homer Mitchell was 20 when he was killed during a battle in Germany. It was just months after he

By VALERIE GONZALEZ Associated Press McALLEN, Texas (AP) — The federal government has closed railroad crossings in two Texas border towns, raising concerns about the potential impact on cross-border trade. Customs and Border Protection announced Sunday that it would temporarily stop railroad operations in Eagle Pass and El Paso starting Monday. It did not say

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas has begun flying migrants from the U.S.-Mexico border to Chicago. Gov. Greg Abbot’s office says the first flight carried 120 people and took place Wednesday. That was a week after Chicago took a tougher stance on the buses that he has been sending north since April 2022. More than 80,000

By RALPH D. RUSSO AP College Football Writer The early signing period in college football opened Wednesday with just a little five-star drama. Georgia likely locked up a recruiting crown by flipping an in-state blue-chipper away from Florida State. The consensus No. 1 recruit in the country had Ohio State coach Ryan Day literally sighing

By PHILIP MARCELO Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — New York City lawmakers have passed a bill meant to ban solitary confinement in the city’s jails. The bill overwhelmingly approved Wednesday still allows jails to isolate inmates for a maximum of four hours in “de-escalation” units. Those placed in longer-term restrictive housing units would need

NEW YORK (AP) — The Transportation Security Administration says security officers found 17 bullets concealed inside a disposable baby diaper at New York’s LaGuardia Airport. Officers pulled the otherwise clean diaper from a passenger’s carry-on bag on Wednesday after it triggered an alarm in an X-ray machine at an airport security checkpoint. According to the

By The Associated Press Toyota Motor Co. said Wednesday it is recalling 1 million vehicles over a defect that could cause airbags not to deploy, increasing the risk of injury. The recall covers a range of Toyota and Lexus vehicles with model years from 2020 to 2022. Included in the recall are Toyota Avalons, Camrys,

By MARK ANDERSON AP Sports Writer LAS VEGAS (AP) — Legalized sports betting continued its expansion this year. Six states either passed legislation to legalize sports wagering or allowed sportsbooks to begin accepting bets. Florida relaunched sports betting after a two-year legal battle ended when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in October in the casinos’

By MATTHEW BROWN and MATTHEW DALY Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Oil companies have offered $382 million for drilling rights in the Gulf of Mexico after courts rejected the Biden administration’s plans to scale back the sale to protect an endangered whale species. Wednesday’s auction was the last of several offshore oil and gas lease

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A leading Mexican business group says the U.S. decision to close two railway border crossings into Texas is costing $100 million per day in delayed shipments. The Mexican Employers’ Association made the estimate Wednesday, two days after rail crossings into Eagle Pass and El Paso, Texas were suspended. U.S. Customs and

By SCOTT BAUER Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin’s bipartisan elections commission, for a second time, has unanimously rejected a complaint against fake presidential electors who attempted to cast the state’s ballots for Donald Trump in 2020. The Wisconsin Elections Commission first rejected the complaint in March 2022. But a judge in May ordered

By JILL COLVIN and HANNAH FINGERHUT Associated Press AMES, Iowa (AP) — With less than a month to go before voting begins, Donald Trump’s Republican rivals are once again rallying to his defense. That’s after Colorado’s Supreme Court ruled to remove him from the state’s presidential primary ballot, declaring him ineligible under the U.S. Constitution’s

By JULIE CARR SMYTH Associated Press COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio prosecutor says it’s not within his power to drop a criminal charge against a woman who miscarried at her home, regardless of the pressure that national attention is bringing to her case. Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins said in a news release late

By BARBARA ORTUTAY AP Technology Writer The Federal Trade Commission is proposing sweeping changes to a decades-old law that regulates how companies can track and advertise to children, including turning off targeted ads to kids under 13 by default. The federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA, requires kid-oriented websites to get parents’ consent

By CLAIRE RUSH Associated Press PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Fentanyl and methamphetamine drove a record number of homeless deaths last year in Oregon’s Multnomah County, home to Portland, according to an annual report released by regional officials Wednesday. At least 315 homeless people died in 2022 in the Portland area, the report found. More than

WHEELING, W.Va. (AP) — A self-proclaimed white supremacist has been sentenced for making online threats toward the jury and witnesses at the trial of a man who killed 11 congregants at a Pittsburgh synagogue. Hardy Carroll Lloyd was sentenced to more than six years in federal prison Wednesday. Prosecutors say the Follansbee, West Virginia, resident

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has filed its first predatory mortgage lending case against a Texas developer accused of luring tens of thousands of Hispanic homebuyers into “bait and switch” sales through platforms like TikTok. The lawsuit filed Wednesday focuses on a large development northeast of Houston. Authorities say

By ERIC TUCKER and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawyers for former President Donald Trump are urging the U.S. Supreme Court to stay out of a dispute over whether he can be prosecuted on charges he plotted to overturn the 2020 election results. Special counsel Jack Smith’s team last week urged the

PHOENIX (AP) — Authorities say an Arizona man has been arrested for allegedly making online threats against federal agents and employees. FBI officials in Phoenix say 37-year-old Michael Lee Tomasi, of Rio Verde, was taken into custody last Friday. Prosecutors say Tomasi allegedly threatened a federal judge, FBI agents and elected officials between May 2021