Month: January 2024

By MEGAN JANETSKY Associated Press SAN SALVADOR (AP) — Félix Ulloa, temporarily on leave as El Salvador’s vice president while he runs for reelection alongside Nayib Bukele, has denied accusations that their administration has made undemocratic moves to consolidate power. He defended their controversial policies in an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday, days

By MEAD GRUVER Associated Press Utah’s governor signed a bill into law Tuesday that makes the state the latest to prohibit diversity training, hiring and inclusion programs at universities and in state government. The measure signed by Spencer Cox, a Republican who previously said he supported the idea, had cleared the state House and Senate

By JAKE OFFENHARTZ Associated Press New York (AP) — The man accused of killing Run-DMC’s Jam Master Jay can’t have his rap lyrics used against him at trial. A Brooklyn judge wrote a lengthy decision Tuesday that was dense with hip-hop history. Federal prosecutors had tried to introduce lyrics penned by Karl Jordan Jr. as

By AMY BETH HANSON Associated Press Utah became the latest state to regulate bathroom access for transgender people after Republican Gov. Spencer Cox signed a law Tuesday that requires people to use bathrooms and locker rooms in public schools and government-owned buildings that match their sex assigned at birth. Under the legislation, transgender people can

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A U.S. Air Force pilot safely ejected from an F-16 fighter jet before it crashed into waters off South Korea’s southwestern coast. The crash Wednesday was the second of the aircraft in less than two months. The U.S. military said the pilot was conscious and was transported to a medical

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Samsung Electronics has reported an annual 34% decline in operating profit for the last quarter as sluggish demands for its TVs and other consumer electronics products offset hard-won gains from a slowly recovering computer chip market. The South Korean technology giant said it expects its business to improve throughout 2024,

SUNNYVALE, Calif. (AP) — Hal Buell, who led The Associated Press’ photo operations from the darkroom era into the age of digital photography over a four-decade career that included 12 Pulitzer Prizes, has died. He was 92. Buell died Monday in Sunnyvale, California, where his daughter lived, after battling pneumonia. Colleagues described Buell as a

By NOAH TRISTER AP Baseball Writer Carlyle Group Inc. co-founder David Rubenstein has reached an agreement to buy the Baltimore Orioles for $1.725 billion, according to a person with knowledge of the deal. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Tuesday night because the agreement had not been announced. Rubenstein, a

BOSTON (AP) — A Florida man convicted of stealing sports camp tuition in 2019 from hundreds of families and spending the money on plastic surgery, vacations and gambling has been sentenced to two and a half years in prison. He was also sentenced Tuesday to two years of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution

By JIM VERTUNO Associated Press AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Texas Supreme Court has agreed to temporarily halt state Attorney General Ken Paxton’s scheduled testimony in a whistleblower lawsuit at the heart of impeachment charges brought against him in 2023. Tuesday’s move delays what could have been the Republican’s first sworn statements on corruption allegations.

By ANDREW DeMILLO Associated Press LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A federal appeals court says it won’t revisit a ruling that private groups can’t sue under a key section of the Voting Rights Act. The decision Tuesday by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sets the stage for a fight before the U.S. Supreme

By RIO YAMAT Associated Press LAS VEGAS (AP) — The Tropicana Las Vegas hotel-casino is set to shut its doors April 2 to make room for a $1.5 billion Major League Baseball stadium. Tropicana’s owner Bally’s Corp. says the closure marks the beginning of preparations for demolition of the landmark hotel-casino on the Las Vegas

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (AP) — Prosecutors have filed murder charges against five suspects in the fatal shootings of six men at a remote dirt crossroads in the Southern California desert. Investigators say the killings were the result of a dispute over marijuana. The district attorney’s office said Tuesday that the suspects also face robbery charges.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Preliminary figures show Mexico’s economy barely eked out a 0.1% increase in the fourth quarter, bringing estimated growth for 2023 to 3.1%. The National Statistics Institute says services advanced 0.1% in the fourth quarter while agricultural output declined by the same amount. Manufacturing remained unchanged. Inflation declined to 4.66% by the

NEW YORK (AP) — Russian billionaire art collector Dmitry Rybolovlev lost a legal fight with Sotheby’s when a U.S. jury sided with the auction house. The decision was made Tuesday against the businessman’s claims that the auction house ripped him off. Rybolovlev alleged Sotheby’s helped a Swiss art dealer cheat him out of over $160

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Former U.S. Sen. Jean Carnahan, who became the first female senator to represent Missouri after she was appointed to replace her husband following his death, has died at age 90. Carnahan was appointed to the Senate in 2001 after the posthumous election of her husband, Gov. Mel Carnahan, and she

By DAVID SHARP Associated Press AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Maine’s governor is calling for strengthening the state’s yellow flag law, boosting background checks for private gun sales and bolstering mental health crisis care following the deadliest mass shooting in state history. An army reservist killed 18 people and wounded 13 others in Lewiston in October.

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Hunter Biden has again asked a judge to dismiss the federal gun case against him, arguing it is politically motivated and key evidence was tested after charges were filed. Hunter Biden’s defense attorney says in court documents that cocaine residue found on the pouch the president’s son

By ADRIAN SAINZ and ANDREW DeMILLO Associated Press HELENA-WEST HELENA, Ark. (AP) — Residents of an east Arkansas town have been without running water for the past two weeks after the state was hit by below-freezing temperatures. The outage in Helena-West Helena, located along the Mississippi River, has forced residents to line up for bottled

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN Associated Press ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Drought-stricken New Mexico is teaming up with Google to hunt for leaky water pipes using satellites. State officials made the announcement as they rolled out a 50-year plan for addressing dwindling drinking water supplies. They said New Mexico is the first state to ink such

By MORGAN LEE Associated Press SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A Democratic-backed bill to ban firearms at polling places and near ballot drop boxes won the endorsement of New Mexico’s state Senate in response to concerns about intimidation and fears among poll workers in the runup to the 2024 election. The bill moves to the

By LOLITA C. BALDOR and TARA COPP Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has made it clear the U.S. will strike back after a deadly drone attack killed three service members and wounded more than 40 at a small base in Jordan over the weekend. What isn’t yet clear is who will be

By RANDALL CHASE AP Business Writer DOVER, Del. (AP) — Elon Musk is not entitled to landmark compensation package awarded by Tesla’s board of directors that is potentially worth more than $55 billion, a Delaware judge ruled Tuesday. The ruling by Chancellor Kathaleen St. Jude McCormick comes more than five years after a shareholder lawsuit

By WAYNE PARRY Associated Press ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — Advertisements for sports betting may seem to be everywhere, but the NFL says viewers will only see three of them during next month’s Super Bowl. During an online news conference Tuesday to discuss the upcoming championship game, league officials said they generally limit sports betting

By STEPHEN WHYNO AP Hockey Writer NHL players Carter Hart of the Philadelphia Flyers, Michael McLeod of the New Jersey Devils and Dillon Dube of the Calgary Flames have been charged with sexual assault in connection with an investigation into an alleged sexual assault by several members of Canada’s 2018 world junior team. Lawyers representing

By KIM TONG-HYUNG Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea says it has conducted a test-firing of long-range cruise missiles with an aim to sharpen its counterattack and strategic strike capabilities. It is the country’s latest display of weapons threatening South Korea and Japan. The report by North Korean state media on Wednesday

By TRISHA AHMED Associated Press/Report for America RICHFIELD, Minn. (AP) — Travelers in northwestern Minnesota can shake off their trepidation about hitting the winter roads knowing Taylor Drift is clearing a path ahead of them. The snowplow named for Taylor Swift was the runaway winner of Minnesota’s fourth-annual Name a Snowplow contest. Eight new names

RUSHVILLE, Ind. (AP) — A man accused of strangling and killing a 17-year-old central Indiana girl who worked for him has agreed to plead guilty to murder. Court documents state 59-year-old Patrick Scott of Arlington entered the plea in Rush County Circuit Court last week. The body of Valerie Tindall was discovered in November in

ATLANTA (AP) — Officials say court and other systems in Georgia’s most populous county were hacked over the weekend, interrupting routine operations. A Fulton County official says phone, court and tax systems are experiencing a “widespread system outage” from a “cybersecurity incident.” The online court filing system remained inaccessible Tuesday. Attempts to reach it were

By SOPHIE AUSTIN Associated Press/Report for America SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Business and agricultural groups are suing California over new climate disclosure laws. The groups argue the policies overstep on the federal government’s authority to regulate emissions nationwide. They also say that the laws violate free speech rights by requiring companies to comment on climate

By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Tuesday to extend the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Cyprus for a year and urged all parties including rival Green Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots to take steps “to de-escalate tensions in and around the buffer zone” dividing the Mediterranean island.

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — A Greek court has acquitted a group of 16 aid workers and volunteers of charges linked with their efforts to rescue migrants making the dangerous sea crossing in small boats from neighboring Turkey. The trial on the eastern island of Lesbos on espionage and other charges had attracted international scrutiny, with

By MIKE STOBBE AP Medical Writer NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. syphilis epidemic isn’t abating, with the rate of infectious cases rising 9% in 2022, according to a new federal government report on sexually transmitted diseases in adults. But there’s some unexpected good news: The rate of new gonorrhea cases fell for the first

By MAYSOON KHAN Associated Press/Report for America ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York will expand its legal definition of rape to include various forms of nonconsensual sexual contact, under a bill signed into law by Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul. Hochul signed the bill on Tuesday. The law will apply to sexual assaults committed on or

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Indiana State Police arrested two-time NBA champion Rajon Rondo on Sunday in southern Indiana on misdemeanor gun and drug charges, police said. The 37-year-old former guard was initially stopped for a traffic violation in Jackson County, police said in a news release. An investigation began Sunday afternoon after a caller said

By HALLIE GOLDEN Associated Press SEATTLE (AP) — Washington state’s governor has called for the state to develop best practices on how agencies use generative artificial intelligence as it continues to incorporate the technology into government operations. The executive order was signed by the Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee on Tuesday and highlights the huge potential

By SCOTT BAUER Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin judge has ordered the Wisconsin Elections Commission to implement his ruling allowing election clerks to accept absentee ballots that have partial witness addresses, a decision that is expected to expand the number of ballots that will be counted in battleground Wisconsin. Each of the

By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Researchers say the number of western monarch butterflies overwintering in California dropped by 30% last year, likely due to how wet it was. The Xerces Society, a nonprofit conservation group, says volunteers who visited sites in California and Arizona around Thanksgiving tallied more than 230,000

Associated Press BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — An Argentine court has overturned labor rules proposed by President Javier Milei that would make it easier to fire workers, in a new blow to the leader’s efforts to shake up regulations that he says have hampered the country’s struggling economy. The appeals court already temporarily suspended the

By LINDSEY BAHR AP Film Writer Molly Manning Walker makes her directorial debut with “How to Have Sex,” a cheekily titled film about three British teens on a booze-fueled holiday trip in Greece. Tara (Mia McKenna-Bruce) and her two friends, Em (Enva Lewis) and Skye (Lara Peake) are looking to drink and dance and meet

By DAVE SKRETTA AP Sports Writer LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Kansas will play its entire schedule on the road next season, though some of those games will be played just down the road in venues that should create a home atmosphere. The school is building a new stadium and had hoped to play in the

DULUTH, Minn. (AP) — U.S. Navy veteran and political newcomer Joe Fraser has launched a longshot Republican campaign to oust three-term Democratic U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar. The 50-year-old from the western edge of the Twin Cities area kicked off his campaign with a media tour that includes stops in Duluth, Moorhead, Rochester and Mankato. Fraser

By DAVE SKRETTA AP Sports Writer KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The U.S. figure skating team from the Beijing Olympics will receive a gold medal now that Russian skater Kamila Valieva has been disqualified for doping. That followed a two-year investigation and a case brought to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. It will still

By MARK KENNEDY AP Entertainment Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Chita Rivera, the dynamic dancer, singer and actress who garnered 10 Tony nominations, winning twice, in a long Broadway career that forged a path for Latina artists and shrugged off a near-fatal car accident, died Tuesday. She was 91. Rivera’s death was announced by her

By ED WHITE Associated Press A Michigan school official told jurors that he had no grounds to search the backpack of a teenager before the boy killed four fellow students in 2021. Nick Ejak testified Tuesday that he was pulled into a meeting earlier that day at Oxford High School to discuss a violent drawing

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin’s wife and a colleague of hers have both been hospitalized following a car crash in Alabama. Gayle Manchin, 76, and Guy Land were injured Monday in the accident which happened in Birmingham as they traveled from the Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport to an area hotel, Manchin, a West

NEWTON, Mass. (AP) — A teachers strike in a Boston suburb entered its eighth day Tuesday with both sides still unable to agree on salaries and other issues. The Newton School Committee said it made another revised offer to the Newton Teachers Association, which it described as a fair and competitive offer. The union has