Month: February 2024

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — A law to establish 18 as the minimum marriage age in Washington state is headed to the governor’s desk for his signature. State lawmakers in the House and Senate passed House Bill 1455 this session after the measure stalled in the Senate last year and other bills failed to gain traction

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — A police raid in several Rio de Janeiro’s low-income neighborhoods has left at least nine people dead and six injured, police said in a statement. The raids Tuesday targeted areas controlled by the Red Command drug trafficking group and took place in several communities in the city’s north, including Cidade

By JACK DURA Associated Press South Dakota’s voters will be asked this fall to say whether the state can require certain people who receive Medicaid to work. The House of Representatives on Tuesday voted to put the question on the November ballot. Two years ago, voters approved a constitutional amendment expanding eligibility for the government

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Cherry Starr, the philanthropist wife of former Green Bay Packers quarterback and coach Bart Starr, has died. She was 89. Rawhide Youth Services, an organization that helps at-risk youth that the couple worked closely with, announced that Cherry Starr died on Tuesday. The Starr Children’s Fund, which the Starrs created to

By SARAH RANKIN Associated Press RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Trade associations representing hundreds of companies that do business in Virginia have come out swinging against a proposal to expand the sales tax to cover digital goods. Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin raised the idea in December, packaged with other tax cuts, and Democrats endorsed it in

DETROIT (AP) — An Indiana man accused of making a violent threat against a Michigan election official in 2020 has pleaded guilty. Andrew Nickels of Carmel appeared in federal court Tuesday, the day of Michigan’s presidential primary. A voicemail was left a week after the 2020 presidential election, threatening to kill a suburban Detroit clerk

By The Associated Press Outgoing New York Philharmonic music director Jaap van Zweden will assume the same role with Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France starting with the 2026-27 season. The French orchestra says van Zweden will work with the orchestra for four weeks during the 2025-26 season, when he  will be music director designate. The

By MEAD GRUVER Associated Press CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Staff at Wyoming’s state youth detention facility locked juveniles in solitary confinement for weeks at a time, repeatedly buckled one in a restraint chair for up to 12 hours a day and poked fun at another while withholding the leg brace he needed for his disability

CANADIAN, Texas (AP) — Rapidly expanding wildfires fueled by surging winds have prompted safety warnings for several towns and at least one evacuation order in the far northern Texas Panhandle. The Texas A&M Forest Service said Tuesday that one fire had already burned more than 100,000 acres with 0% contained. The Smokehouse Creek Fire has

By CURT ANDERSON Associated Press ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Moments before the deadly crash of a charter jet on a Florida highway, three warnings about oil pressure problems in its two engines sounded. The National Transportation Safety Board says in a preliminary report released Tuesday that the Bombardier aircraft with five people aboard was

By DEE-ANN DURBIN AP Business Writer Starbucks and the union organizing its U.S. workers say they have agreed to begin talks with the aim of reaching labor agreements. The announcement was a breakthrough for the two sides, which have been at odds since Workers United first organized baristas at a Starbucks store in Buffalo, New

By JAKE OFFENHARTZ Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — New York City Mayor Eric Adams is calling for expanded cooperation between local police and federal immigration authorities. Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Adams, a Democrat, voiced sharp criticism of the city’s current sanctuary protections, which he said impeded public safety by limiting the city’s communication with

By FATIMA HUSSEIN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. and United Kingdom sanctioned a deputy commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and a Houthi militant member, Tuesday. Additionally, the U.S. sanctioned firms registered in Hong Kong and the Marshall Islands, along with two ships, including one that transported $100 million in Iranian commodities

By DAVID SHARP Associated Press PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — An Army reservist responsible for the deadliest shooting in Maine history received a glowing review from his superiors even as some of his family members were growing increasingly worried about his mental health. The evaluation from April 2023 says Robert Card was “a consummate professional” who

By MATTHEW BARAKAT Associated Press MANASSAS, Va. (AP) — Federal prosecutors have taken over the case against a northern Virginia man arrested last year on suspicion he was about to embark on a mass shooting at a megachurch. Local prosecutors in Prince William County on Tuesday dropped charges against 35-year-old Rui Jiang of Falls Church,

PHOENIX (AP) — A suspect in the killing of a woman at a New York City hotel has been indicted by a grand jury in Arizona’s most populous country in the subsequent stabbing attacks of two women in the Phoenix area. The Maricopa County Attorney’s office announced 26-year-old Raad Almansoori was indicted on attempted first-degree

By HALLIE GOLDEN Associated Press SEATTLE (AP) — A conservative-backed effort to repeal Washington state’s landmark carbon pricing program and tax on the sale of stocks and bonds is putting the budget into limbo. Billions of dollars are at stake with days remaining in this year’s Legislative session. Lawmakers are scrambling before the session ends

By MARGERY A. BECK Associated Press OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — State officials say a mower sparked a wildfire that has burned about 110 square miles of prairieland in central Nebraska. That’s about the size of the state’s largest city of Omaha. The fire was first reported Monday morning less than 10 miles northeast of North

SASKATOON, Saskatchewan (AP) — A pathologist told Saskatchewan coroner’s inquest that a man who killed 11 people and injured 17 others died from a cocaine overdose after he was taken into police custody. Myles Sanderson had been on the run for several days when police caught up to him on Sept. 7, 2022. He went

By JENNIFER PELTZ and CEDAR ATTANASIO Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Two men were convicted of murder Tuesday in the death of Run-DMC star Jam Master Jay, a brazen 2002 shooting in the rap legend’s studio. An anonymous Brooklyn federal jury delivered the verdict in the trial of Karl Jordan Jr. and Ronald Washington.

DETROIT (AP) — The United Auto Workers says a majority of workers at a Mercedes plant near Tuscaloosa, Alabama, have signed cards in support of joining the union. The UAW says the plant in Vance, Alabama, is the second one to reach more than 50% of workers signing up. Earlier in February, the union announced

By STEVE LeBLANC Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — A Massachusetts man who spent nearly three decades in prison on a murder conviction that was thrown out by the courts is suing the state for $1 million, the maximum allowed by state law. James Lucien was serving a life sentence in connection with the 1994 fatal

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City furniture store that had been illegally converted into sleeping quarters for more than 40 migrants has been shut down by city officials. The city Department of Buildings said Tuesday that it ordered Sarr’s Wholesale Furniture in Queens vacated due to “severe overcrowding and hazardous fire trap conditions.”

By JOSH FUNK Associated Press OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska prosecutors have decided not to seek the death penalty in the December killing of a Catholic priest inside his home, but are pursuing execution in the brutal killing of a retiree during a break-in that happened in the same tiny town four months earlier. Kierre

By DAVE COLLINS Associated Press A Connecticut jury has begun deliberating after hearing closing arguments in the murder conspiracy case against a woman charged in connection with the 2019 disappearance and presumed killing of mother-of-five Jennifer Dulos. Prosecutors told the jury Tuesday that Michelle Troconis helped her boyfriend, Dulos’ estranged husband Fotis Dulos, plan and

By KEVIN McGill Associated Press NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A 99-year-old New Orleans businessman best known in the city as a proprietor of his family’s landmark hat store on St. Charles Avenue has been honored by the French government for his military service during World War II. Samuel Meyer, who still puts in a few

By DIANE JEANTET Associated Press RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is under investigation for allegedly harassing a humpback whale while riding a personal watercraft off Sao Paulo’s coast last year. Bolsonaro appeared at the federal police in Sao Paulo on Tuesday to meet with officers. The investigation is just one

By GARANCE BURKE Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — With presidential primaries underway across the U.S., popular chatbots are generating false and misleading information that threatens to disenfranchise voters, according to a report published Tuesday based on the findings of artificial intelligence experts and a bipartisan group of election officials. Fifteen states and one territory

By MATTHEW DALY Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency says 25 toxic waste sites in 15 states will be cleaned up as part of a $1 billion infusion to the federal Superfund program. The money is the third and last installment in $3.5 billion allocated under the 2021 infrastructure law signed by

By JEFF AMY, ELLIOT SPAGAT and WILL WEISSERT Associated Press ATHENS, Ga. (AP) — Laken Riley was a 22-year-old nursing student out on her morning run at the University of Georgia when authorities say a stranger dragged her into a secluded area and killed her, sending shockwaves through campus as police searched for a suspect.

By MAE ANDERSON AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — While it seems increasingly unlikely the U.S. economy is headed for recession, small businesses still face headwinds like higher costs and difficulty retaining qualified workers. But owners say they’re optimistic as 2024 gets underway, according to a new survey from American Express. Eighty-five percent of

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida bill to allow people to file wrongful death lawsuits over the death of a fetus is being shelved because of the political fallout from an Alabama Supreme Court decision that frozen embryos are legally protected children. Republican Sen. Erin Grall decided not to proceed with her bill on Monday

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Norwegian royal officials say that King Harald V of Norway has been hospitalized with an infection while on vacation in Malaysia. The news came in a statement Tuesday from the Norwegian royal house. The 87-year-old monarch has had several illnesses in recent months that have raised concerns about the head of state’s

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — The WWE says Ole Anderson, a professional wrestler whose tough, no-nonsense style led him to become a founding member of the famed collective known as The Four Horsemen, has died at age 81. Anderson’s death was disclosed Monday on the wrestling organization’s website, which described Anderson’s approach in the ring as

By MATTHEW BROWN Associated Press A Washington state man accused of helping kill more than 3,000 birds — including eagles on a Montana Indian reservation — then illegally selling their feathers intends to plead guilty to illegal wildlife trafficking and other criminal charges, court documents show. Prosecutors have alleged Travis John Branson and others killed

CHICAGO (AP) — Wild fluctuations in temperatures are being recorded across much of the United States this week. Some cities are experiencing a whiplash in which they are going from record highs to severe storms to snow and freezing temperatures in a matter of days. The wacky weather is one big numbers game. More than

PERU, Ind. (AP) — A northern Indiana man convicted in the fatal 2021 shootings of a woman, her young daughter and her fiancé has been sentenced to 195 years in prison. A Miami County judge sentenced 27-year-old Mitchell Page of Brookston last week to the maximum 65 years for each of three murder counts he

DETROIT (AP) — Toyota is recalling about 381,000 Tacoma midsize pickup trucks in the U.S. because a part can separate from the rear axle, increasing the risk of a crash. The recall covers certain trucks from the 2022 and 2023 model years. Toyota said in a statement Tuesday that welding debris left on the ends

By JIM SALTER Associated Press ST. LOUIS (AP) — School bus service has been snarled in St. Louis for two days because of a work stoppage that’s a show of support for a Black mechanic who says he found a noose at his workstation. The action began Monday and continued Tuesday for drivers employed by

By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. special envoy for Syria has issued formal invitations to the Syrian government and opposition to meet in Geneva in late April to resume negotiations on revising the country’s constitution, despite opposition from Damascus’ key ally Russia which insists the Swiss city is not