Month: December 2023

By JACK DURA and HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH Associated Press BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — The 42-year-old son of U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer is scheduled for his initial appearance in state district court on Friday in connection with the pursuit and crash that killed a North Dakota sheriff’s deputy on Wednesday. He was charged Thursday with multiple counts.

By DASHA LITVINOVA Associated Press TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Russian police have put prominent Russian-American journalist Masha Gessen on a wanted list after opening a criminal case against them on charges of spreading false information about the Russian army. It is the latest step in in an unrelenting crackdown against dissent in Russia that has

By HANNAH SCHOENBAUM Associated Press SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced Friday the newest member of the faith’s top governing body to fill a vacancy when a member died last month will be a man raised in England who had been previously serving on a middle tier

NEW YORK (AP) — New York can continue to enforce laws banning firearms in sensitive locations, a federal appeals court ruled Friday in its first broad review of a host of new gun rules passed in the state after a landmark Supreme Court ruling last year. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of appeals also said

By MICHAEL CASEY Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts’ attorney general has filed a lawsuit accusing a white nationalist group of civil rights violations, saying it repeatedly subjected LGBTQ+ events and facilities sheltering migrant families to intimidation and harassment. The complaint filed Thursday against NSC-131 and two of its leaders accuses the group of engaging

By MARGERY A. BECK Associated Press OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — University of Nebraska officials have unveiled a plan for a $450 million renovation of its football stadium in Lincoln. That comes as the four-campus NU system faces a $58 million budget shortfall that threatens to cut academic programs. Critics say that sends the message that

By DAVID A. LIEB and GEOFF MULVIHILL Associated Press JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Some Republican Missouri lawmakers are renewing their call to allow homicide charges against women who have abortions. Measures that would do so have been introduced in both chambers of the state’s legislature for consideration in the session that begins in January.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A Pennsylvania man described by authorities as the lead defendant in a drug distribution and human smuggling case has pleaded guilty to federal crimes in Louisiana. Court records show that 47-year-old Carl Allison of Pittsburgh pleaded guilty Thursday in New Orleans. Sentencing was scheduled for March 28. The U.S. Justice Department

By KATHY McCORMACK Associated Press CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A judge has found the New Hampshire publisher of a weekly community newspaper guilty of five misdemeanor charges that she ran advertisements for local races without properly marking them as political advertising. The judge acquitted Debra Paul, publisher of the Londonderry Times, of a sixth misdemeanor

By DANICA KIRKA Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Scotland’s highest civil court has upheld the British government’s move to block a landmark gender-recognition law passed by the Scottish parliament. The decision underscores the growing divide over local control of legislation in the nations of the United Kingdom. The ruling by the Court of Session in

KISSIMMEE, Fla. (AP) — An extremely rare white leucistic alligator has been born at a Florida reptile park. Gatorland Orlando said Thursday that the 19.2-inch female slithered out of its shell and into the history books as one of only seven known leucistic alligators, three of which are at the park. The park is asking

NEWARK N.J. (AP) — Authorities in New Jersey say two nurses and a medical resident were stabbed inside a pediatric intensive care unit. The hospital workers suffered cuts and are in stable condition. A woman has been arrested and charged in the violence, which unfolded as a domestic dispute involving two visitors to the unit

By LAURA UNGAR AP Science Writer U.S. regulators have approved two gene therapies for sickle cell disease. Doctors hope they can cure the painful inherited blood disorder that afflicts mostly Black people in the U.S. One treatment is the first based on CRISPR, the gene editing tool that won its inventors the Nobel Prize in

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis on Thursday made his first public appearance outdoors since being stricken by bronchitis two weeks ago, which forced him to cancel a planned trip to the COP-28 climate conference in Dubai. The pope has been steadily recovering, and for the Dec. 8 holiday devoted to Mary kept a traditional appointment

ROMEOVILLE, Ill. (AP) — Police say the suspect in the September shooting deaths of a suburban Chicago family was in a relationship with one of the four people slain and his girlfriend allegedly helped plan the killings. Alberto Rolon, Zoraida Bartolomei, and their two sons, ages 7 and 9, were found shot to death on

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A St. Louis man who spent 11 years behind bars for a killing before his conviction was overturned is suing the city and detectives who worked on his case, claiming the conviction for a crime he didn’t commit violated his constitutional rights. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Lamont D. Cambell’s

By THALIA BEATY Associated Press Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott gave $2.1 billion in donations since November 2022, she said in an online post, bringing her total reported giving to more than $16 billion since 2019.  Scott wrote Wednesday on her website in a three-sentence post that she was, “excited to call attention to these 360 outstanding

NEW YORK (AP) — Spotify’s chief financial officer, Paul Vogel, is leaving next year, the music streaming service said — just days after the company announced its third round of layoffs for 2023. Vogel is set to leave Spotify on March 31. Ben Kung, who currently serves as vice president of financial planning and analysis,

By LOU KESTEN Associated Press It’s been a terrific year for video games. Developers hit their stride on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox X/S consoles, particularly with ambitious role-playing games like Baldur’s Gate III and Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty. Nintendo debuted two spectacular titles on its Switch, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

By EDNA TARIGAN and RAHMAT MIRZA Associated Press JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia’s president says his government blames a surge in human trafficking for the increasing number of Rohingya Muslims who have entered the country over the past few weeks. President Joko Widodo said in a televised news conference on Friday that he received “reports

By COLLIN BINKLEY AP Education Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — The president of Harvard University has apologized for her remarks at a congressional hearing on antisemitism, saying she got caught up in a heated exchange and failed to properly denounce threats of violence against Jewish students. In an interview Thursday with The Crimson student newspaper, President

By MARK KENNEDY AP Entertainment Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Fourteen years ago, Tony Shalhoub said goodbye to one of his most beloved creations — the obsessive-compulsive private detective Adrian Monk. Monk’s last TV appearance in 2009 was even called “Mr. Monk and the End.” There was talk over the years of a potential reboot

BOSTON (AP) — An official menu for a state banquet that bears the signature of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong has been auctioned for $275,000. Boston-based RR Auction said the menu auctioned Wednesday was for a banquet held in Beijing on October 19, 1956, and commemorated the first state visit to China by Pakistan’s Prime

Slovakia’s President Zuzana Caputova says she will seek to block the new government’s plan to return the prosecution of major crimes from a national office to regional ones, using either a veto or a constitutional challenge. But the governing coalition could likely override any veto. The government of populist Prime Minister Robert Fico plans to

By JAMEY KEATEN Associated Press ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A bold, innovative project begun nearly a generation ago to erect a “green-city” in the United Arab Emirates has run into realities and largely missed its mark. It offers a cautionary tale about the risk of overblown environmental ambition even for an oil-rich,

By WILL WEISSERT Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden are headed to California for six fundraising events and meetings as they hope to rake in record-breaking campaign contributions. With the strikes by writers and actors now over, Union Joe is pitching his Hollywood story to some of the

By HILLEL ITALIE AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — The publishing world made plenty of news in 2023, but not only because of the books themselves. Bannings continued to soar in the U.S., the Middle East war impacted everything from authors events to the National Book Awards and numerous authors took legal action in

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa helicopter pilot is back in the air, two weeks after a waterfowl smashed through the windshield of his chopper and knocked him for a loop. Pilot Troy McCormick told KCAU-TV that he’s lucky he wasn’t hurt worse on Nov. 23 when what he believed was a duck came

By JOEY CAPPELLETTI Associated Press LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan State University’s Board of Trustees has unanimously approved the next president. Kevin Guskiewicz was voted in Friday morning. He’s been the chancellor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for the past four years. He will take over a university that is now

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — The International Olympic Committee says some Russian athletes will be allowed to compete at the 2024 Paris Olympics. The decision Friday removes the option of a blanket ban over the invasion of Ukraine. It confirms moves the IOC started one year ago to reintegrate Russia and its military ally Belarus into

BEIJING (AP) — China’s state media say top leaders held an annual planning meeting where they agreed to step up spending to help rev up the economy. The official Xinhua News Agency said leader Xi Jinping chaired the meeting that was aimed at boosting growth, defusing risks and ensuring stability. The report gave few details