Month: January 2024

By The Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Before and after he was exposed as a pedophile, Jeffrey Epstein loved to mingle with the world’s elite. The millionaire invited politicians and academics to his private island and luxury homes. He offered celebrities rides on his private jet. He and his girlfriend, the socialite Ghislaine Maxwell,

By MAURICIO SAVARESE Associated Press RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — A right-wing Brazilian politician’s push to have the city of Sao Paulo investigate a city priest has prompted a strong defense from Roman Catholic leaders and government officials. They’re praising the clergyman’s work with the homeless. The Rev. Júlio Lancellotti ministers to the homeless in

DALLAS (AP) — The family of former U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson says the trailblazing Texas congresswoman died after getting an infection and accused a Dallas rehabilitation facility of neglect. Johnson, the first registered nurse elected to Congress, died on Dec. 31 at the age of 89. Les Weisbrod, her family’s attorney, said at a

By BRUCE SCHREINER Associated Press FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear says access to medical marijuana in the state should expand to include more health conditions. He says the change would make 437,000 more Kentuckians eligible for treatment when the program begins next year. The measure passed by lawmakers in 2023 specified that

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A judge says a Tennessee man accused of raping a woman a year before he was charged with kidnapping and killing a schoolteacher will have his fate decided by a Memphis-area jury when he goes to trial in the sexual assault case. News outlets report that Shelby County Judge Lee Coffee

By SARA MELINI Associated Press GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Former Guatemalan President Otto Pérez Molina was released from prison after posting bond of more than $10.3 million quetzales ($1.3 million), according to his lawyer. The former president was convicted and sentenced to 16 years in prison in December 2022 for a bribery scheme known locally

By JEFF AMY Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — Long-held Republican opposition to broader health care coverage may be softening in Georgia and Mississippi. Legislative leaders in both states say they want to examine plans to expand Medicaid. North Carolina began offering Medicaid to uninsured adults on Dec. 1. But an expert who studies Medicaid says

By SAMANTHA HENDRICKSON and GEOFF MULVIHILL Associated Press/Report for America COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A transgender woman has been disqualified from running for the Ohio House after omitting her former name from circulating petitions to get on the ballot. Vanessa Joy’s disqualification raises concern that other transgender candidates in the state and nationwide may face

By TOM MURPHY AP Health Writer Eli Lilly has launched a unique website to connect U.S. patients seeking obesity treatment to doctors, dieticians and its new weight-loss drug, Zepbound. The drugmaker said Thursday it will use the site, called LillyDirect, to pair visitors with third-party mail-order pharmacies for prescriptions and to care providers through a

CAPITOLA, Calif. (AP) — Police say a founding member of an experimental rock band has been arrested on suspicion of killing his girlfriend. Investigators say Theo Lengyel of Mr. Bungle became a suspect after human remains were found at a park near San Francisco. Alice “Alyx” Kamakaokalani Herrmann went missing in December. Lengyel was arrested

By SUDHIN THANAWALA Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s daughter says the world urgently needs to study and adopt her father’s philosophy of nonviolence to avoid self-destruction. The Rev. Bernice King used an address Thursday to announce events for the upcoming holiday in honor of her father to warn that

By GERALD IMRAY Associated Press CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Sudanese paramilitary leader Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo says he is committed to a cease-fire to end the devastating war that has wrecked his country. But fighting continues and there has been no progress on proposed peace talks between Dagalo and Sudan military chief Gen.

By LISA RATHKE Associated Press MARSHFIELD, Vt. (AP) — A Connecticut woman who pushed for expanded access to Vermont’s law that allows people who are terminally ill to end their lives has died in Vermont. Lynda Bluestein, who had terminal cancer, ended her life by taking prescribed lethal medication on Thursday. Her husband says her

By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ and TERRY CHEA Associated Press BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — Police officers in riot gear have removed activists from Berkeley’s People’s Park and crews began placing double-stacked shipping containers to wall off the historic park overnight Thursday. The move comes as the University of California, Berkeley waits for a court ruling it

By ASHRAF KHALIL Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A top federal transportation safety official is harshly criticizing Washington’s regional transit agency, saying a “poor safety culture” led to an October 2021 derailment that caused hundreds of new Metro railcars to be pulled from service. National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy said Thursday that a

By DAVE SKRETTA AP Basketball Writer The AP Top 25 men’s college basketball poll has been a mainstay for 75 years, but much like the game itself, it has evolved with the times. What was once a top 20, and contracted to a top 10, reached its now-familiar 25-team ranking in 1989. The panel of

By JAKE OFFENHARTZ Associated Press New York (AP) — New York City is suing more than a dozen charter bus companies for their role in Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s operation to send tens of thousands of migrants to urban areas. The lawsuit claims the 17 bus companies “knowingly implemented” Abbott’s busing plan in violation of

By BRIAN MELLEY Associated Press LONDON (AP) — A neo-Nazi podcaster who called for the deaths of Prince Harry and his young son has been sentenced to prison with his co-host for encouraging terrorism. A London judge on Thursday called Christopher Gibbons and Tyrone Patten-Walsh “dedicated and unapologetic white supremacists.” Gibbons had said the Duke

By LAURAN NEERGAARD AP Medical Writer Crib cameras are offering a clue to a rare but devastating tragedy _ when seemingly healthy young children suddenly die in their sleep and autopsies can’t tell why. Similar to SIDS in babies, it’s called sudden unexplained death in childhood, or SUDC, when it happens after age 1. In

By JULIE WATSON Associated Press SAN DIEGO (AP) — Convicted Malaysian defense contractor Leonard Francis who led a daring escape weeks before he was scheduled to be sentenced in 2022 is seeking new defense attorneys now that he is back in U.S. custody after the Venezuelan prisoner swap last month. Nicknamed “Fat Leonard,” Francis appeared

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A member of the Proud Boys extremist group has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. Christopher Worrell, who was sentenced in federal court on Thursday, had previously went on the run after he

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Federal prosecutors say a South Florida man threatened to kill U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell and his children in a series of voicemails left at the California Democrat’s Washington office last month. Court records show that 72-year-old Michael Shapiro was arrested Wednesday morning on a charge of transmitting a threatening

By MARK KENNEDY AP Entertainment Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Glynis Johns, a Tony Award-winning stage and screen star who played the mother opposite Julie Andrews in the classic movie “Mary Poppins” and introduced the world to the bittersweet standard-to-be “Send in the Clowns” by Stephen Sondheim, has died. She was 100. Mitch Clem, her

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — A petition filed by five voters seeks to bar former President Donald Trump from the Illinois Republican primary election ballot in March. The objection claims he is ineligible to hold office because he encouraged and did little to stop the violent Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol in 2021. The

By MAYSOON KHAN Associated Press/Report for America ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Pregnant people in New York would have 40 hours of paid leave to attend prenatal medical appointments under a new proposal by Gov. Kathy Hochul. The Democrat’s plan to expand the state’s paid family leave policy was announced Thursday. It would need to be

NEW YORK (AP) — A U.S. labor agency has accused SpaceX of unlawfully firing employees who penned an open letter critical of CEO Elon Musk and creating an impression that worker activities were under surveillance by the rocket ship company. A Los Angeles-based regional director for the National Labor Relations Board on Wednesday filed a

By MARCIA DUNN AP Aerospace Writer CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Two private companies are aiming to get the U.S. back in the moon-landing business, more than five decades after the Apollo program ended. Since then China and India have successfully landed on the moon, while recent attempts by Russia, Japan and Israel have ended

By COLLEEN LONG and AAMER MADHANI Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House says U.S. intelligence officials have determined that Russia has acquired ballistic missiles from North Korea and is seeking close-range ballistic missiles from Iran as Moscow struggles to replenish arms for its war with Ukraine. White House National Security Council spokesman John

By MEG KINNARD Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Nikki Haley’s rivals for the Republican presidential nomination are ratcheting up their attacks on her as Iowa’s first-in-the-nation voting draws closer. The barbed news releases, attack ads and amped up back-and-forth come as the former South Carolina governor and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis battle for a distant

By LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — The unsealing of dozens of documents describing financier Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of teenage girls provide a reminder of how he leveraged connections to the rich, powerful and famous to cover up his crimes. The more than 40 documents released late Wednesday were sprinkled with names

By MICHAEL GOLDBERG Associated Press JACKSON, Miss (AP) — Government buildings in several states were evacuated following bomb threats, briefly disrupting government affairs for the second day in a row in some places. The Mississippi Capitol and courthouses in Arkansas and Montana were evacuated Thursday. No explosives were immediately found, and the buildings were reopened

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. Tennis Association has retained two lawyers at a Washington-based firm to review its safeguarding policies and procedures to protect players from sexual misconduct and other abuse. The head of the organization that runs the U.S. Open and oversees the sport in the United States revealed the review in an

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — A judge in Oregon has rejected a U.S. Department of Justice request to dismiss a 2015 lawsuit brought by young people that alleges the federal government knew the dangers posed by carbon pollution but that it has continued through policies and subsidies to support the fossil fuel industry. An attorney representing

By GERALD IMRAY Associated Press CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Oscar Pistorius is due to be released from prison Friday to live under strict conditions at a family home having served nearly nine years of a murder sentence for the shooting death of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. The double-amputee Olympic runner from South Africa is

By DASHA LITVINOVA Associated Press TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — President Vladimir Putin on Thursday signed a decree that speeds up a path to Russian citizenship for foreigners who enlist in the country’s military amid the 22-month-old war in Ukraine. The move comes as Moscow is trying to replenish its troops in Ukraine by various methods,

DETROIT (AP) — A second bridge connecting Detroit and Canada over the Detroit River won’t open for travel until fall 2025, months later than anticipated. Officials said Thursday that the timetable has been affected by construction disruptions related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Gordie Howe International Bridge project began in 2018 and was scheduled to

By TIM REYNOLDS AP Basketball Writer The NBA fined the Brooklyn Nets $100,000 on Thursday, marking the first time a team was sanctioned for violating the league’s player participation policy that went into effect this season. The Nets held four rotation players — starters Spencer Dinwiddie, Nic Claxton and Cam Johnson, along with key reserve

By MATTHEW LEE AP Diplomatic Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken heads to the Middle East this weekend for the fourth time since the Israel-Hamas war erupted in October as once-abated fears about a regional conflagration are surging with attacks and assassinations in the Red Sea, Lebanon, Iran and Iraq. The Biden

By RONALD BLUM AP Sports Writer NEW YORK (AP) — MetLife Stadium officials plan to remove 1,740 seats to widen the field for World Cup matches as they hope to host the 2026 final. The stadium will retain a narrower surface for this year’s Copa América. The stadium in suburban East Rutherford, New Jersey, is