Month: March 2024

By FATIMA HUSSEIN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A new forever postage stamp bearing the portrait of former U.S. First Lady Betty Ford was unveiled at the White House Wednesday. Ford, who died in 2011, was an advocate for women’s health and breast cancer awareness — having undergone breast cancer surgery in 1974. She also

By BRIAN WITTE Associated Press ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Abortion clinics in Maryland could pay for enhanced security and greater access through a grant program being considered by state lawmakers. Supporters want to tap into millions of dollars that have sat unused by insurance carriers as part of the federal Affordable Care Act. They testified

By JEFF AMY Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — Some Georgia senators want to punish cities and counties that they say are illegally harboring immigrants who are in the country without permission by cutting off most state aid to the local government and removing elected officials from office. The Senate Public Safety Committee voted 4-1 on

By SOPHIA TAREEN Associated Press CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago police are undergoing fresh training on handling large-scale protests and First Amendment rights ahead of anticipated demonstrations during the Democratic National Convention this summer. That’s according to police Superintendent Larry Snelling. He says the Chicago Police Department is focusing on “constitutional policing.” Thousands of elected officials

Associated Press A Southern Baptist Convention leader said Wednesday the U.S. Department of Justice has ended its investigation of the denomination’s handling of sexual abuse in its churches and doesn’t anticipate further action. The statement by Jonathan Howe, interim president of the denomination’s Executive Committee, said the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of

By VALERIE GONZALEZ Associated Press MCALLEN, TX (AP) — SpaceX is set to acquire public land from Texas after the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission approved a land-swapping deal that would cede 43 acres to entrepreneur Elon Musk’s company in exchange for 477 acres that are yet to be bought. The business is looking to

By KATE BRUMBACK Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — The lawyer who initiated the effort to remove Fani Willis from the Georgia election interference case against Donald Trump has walked state lawmakers through her investigation into the Fulton County district attorney’s romantic relationship with a special prosecutor and why she believes it creates a conflict of

By JIM VERTUNO Associated Press AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Texas Republican primary saw more than a dozen incumbents defeated or forced into uncomfortable runoffs in races from the state House to a top state court. Tuesday’s election results could reshape the leadership of the Legislature. Already the outcome has emboldened insurgent challengers hoping more

By the Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — MAX, the streaming service owned by Warner Bros. Discovery and formerly known as HBO Max, is ready to join Netflix and Disney with its own crackdown on password sharing later in 2024. The company’s president and CEO of global streaming, Jean-Briac Perrette, said Monday that Warner Bros.

By CARLA K. JOHNSON AP Medical Writer A study raises more questions than it answers about how tiny specks of plastic might affect the heart. We breathe, eat and drink these tiny particles called microplastics and nanoplastics. But there’s scant research on whether they are harmful or not. Italian researchers analyzed the fatty buildup removed

By JEFF AMY Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia House Republicans are backing a bill that would require every eligible police and sheriff’s department to help identify undocumented immigrants and detain them for possible deportation. The House voted 97-74 on Thursday after police accused a Venezuelan man of beating a nursing student to death on

By KATHLEEN FOODY Associated Press CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago voters will get the chance this month to decide on a ballot measure that would levy a one-time tax hike on luxury properties to pay for services for homeless people, according to a panel of Illinois appeals court judges. The decision issued Wednesday overturns a Cook

By LEA SKENE Associated Press BALTIMORE (AP) — A Baltimore man has been convicted of first-degree murder in the 2021 deadly shooting ambush of a city police officer and the fatal shooting of another man hours later. Thirty-four-year-old Elliot Knox was found guilty on eight of nine charges. The jury started deliberating Monday and reached

By STAN CHOE and KEN SWEET AP Business Writers NEW YORK (AP) — Embattled New York Community Bancorp is getting a lifeline of more than $1 billion as a group of investors plug cash into the troubled bank. The deal will bring four new directors to the board, including Steven Mnuchin, the former U.S. Treasury

By ADAM BEAM Associated PRess SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A wealthy campaign donor of California Gov. Gavin Newsom said his Panera Bread restaurants will comply with a new minimum wage law. Greg Flynn’s company owns and operates 24 Panera Bread restaurants in California. A new law Newsom signed last year says fast food restaurants must

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Luck struck twice for a Kentucky couple who thought they lost a winning Powerball ticket. The Kentucky Lottery said in a statement that the Bowling Green couple found out about a week after purchasing the ticket in late October that they had won $50,000, but they couldn’t find the ticket. Mark

By MAYSOON KHAN Associated Press/Report for America ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A federal judge has banned a Florida gun retailer from selling certain gun parts in New York that officials say can be used to assemble untraceable ghost guns and sold without background checks. Wednesday’s court order and approximately $7.8 million judgement come after New

By MARY CLARE JALONICK Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — After only a year in the Senate, Katie Britt of Alabama is wielding her influence and experience as a former congressional staffer and mother to carve out a unique role in the Republican party. As the youngest female Senator, she is the voice of one of

By ERIC TUCKER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department says a former software  engineer at Google has been charged with stealing artificial intelligence technology from the company while secretly working with two companies based in China. Linwei Ding was arrested in Newark, California, on four counts of federal trade secret theft. The case

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s Navy says one of its helicopters crashed into the Pacific shortly after taking off from the deck of a patrol ship, leaving three navy personnel dead and two more missing. The Navy said searches continued for those still missing after Wednesday’s accident. It marks the second military mishap within the

By JONEL ALECCIA AP Health Reporter Ground cinnamon sold in U.S. discount stores is contaminated with high levels of lead and should be discarded. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a safety alert on Wednesday about the products. They include cinnamon sold at the Dollar Tree and Family Dollar stores, among others. The cinnamon

By LINDSEY BAHR AP Film Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — With just a few days to go until the 96th Academy Awards on Sunday, the show’s producers are feeling good about what they’ve put together. The nominees are some of the best the Oscars have seen, including some true blockbusters like “Oppenheimer” and “Barbie.” Ryan

By MIKE CORDER Associated Press THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Citing “widespread starvation” in Gaza, South Africa is urging the United Nations’ top court to order Israel to allow humanitarian aid into the war-torn region. The request is part of an ongoing case alleging that Israel’s military campaign in Gaza breaches the Genocide Convention.  Israel

By SARA CLINE Associated Press BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Amid a crawfish shortage in Louisiana, Gov. Jeff Landry has issued a disaster declaration for the impacted industry. Last year’s drought, extreme heat, saltwater intrusion on the Mississippi River and a hard winter freeze in the Bayou State have devastated this year’s crawfish harvest. Louisiana

By AMY TAXIN and BRITTANY PETERSON Associated Press SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — The seven U.S. states that draw water from the Colorado River basin are suggesting new ways to determine how the increasingly scarce resource is divvied up when the river can’t provide what it historically promised. The Upper Basin and the Lower Basin

By ED WHITE Associated Press PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) — A jury has been seated in the trial of a man whose son killed four students at a Michigan school with a gun acquired shortly before the shooting. The selection process in the high-profile case lasted less than two days. James Crumbley is charged with four

By FARNOUSH AMIRI Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans have invited Hunter Biden and his former business associates to appear at a public hearing on March 20. It’s part of the next step in the GOP’s monthslong impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. The House Oversight and Accountability Committee announced Wednesday that the hearing

By VANESSA GERA Associated Press WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Mourners in Poland have paid tribute to a young Belarusian woman who died after being brutally attacked and raped on the streets of Warsaw last month, a crime that has shocked the country. In recent years, the Polish capital has become a hub for Belarusians fleeing

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Rights activists and members of LGBTQ+ community in Serbia have held a protest following a reported case of police harassment of a young gay men and a bisexual woman. The protest in Serbia’s capital Belgrade was called after police rejected a complaint against the officers accused of abusing and sexually humiliating

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri Gov. Mike Parson has offered his “deepest sympathy” to the family of a 5-year-old girl who was seriously injured in a drunken driving crash, after facing criticism for releasing from prison the driver who caused the crash, former Kansas City Chiefs assistant coach Britt Reid. But in a statement

By MAE ANDERSON AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — To businesses that rely on social media platforms for advertising, client communication or direct sales, Tuesday’s Meta platforms outage was more than a communal inconvenience. Experts say that whenever there’s an outage — be it social media or other softwarewe’ve come to rely on —

By JAKE OFFENHARTZ Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — A Texas man has been arrested on accusations that he schemed to dupe disgraced former congressman George Santos into wiring him money with the false promise he could get the criminal corruption charges dropped against him dropped. Federal prosecutors said Hector Medina of El Paso, Texas,

By MORGAN LEE Associated Press SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A jury will soon weigh whether a movie weapons supervisor should be held to blame in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer on the set of a Western movie as attorneys deliver closing arguments in the trial of Hannah Gutierrez-Reed. In closing arguments Wednesday, prosecutors

By JEFFREY COLLINS Associated Press The Rev. Mark Harris has won the Republican nomination for a U.S. House seat in North Carolina, giving the pastor a second chance to go to Washington after a 2018 absentee ballot scandal. Harris just barely crossed the 30% threshold to avoid a possible runoff in the six-candidate race in

By FARNOUSH AMIRI and LINLEY SANDERS Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — As the U.S. navigates involvement in the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, few Americans want the country to take a more active role in solving the world’s problems, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. While an

By RONALD BLUM Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — A male bastion from its founding in 1842 until 1997, the Vienna Philharmonic has 24 female players among 145 members with three vacancies as it tours the United States this week. Based since 1870 at Vienna’s Musikverein, the self-governing ensemble elects leadership, engages conductors, chooses programs

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Workers had expressed concerns about bending or bowed beams and structural issues before a steel airport hangar under construction in Idaho collapsed in January, killing three people and injuring nine others, a newspaper reported. Some employees told the site’s supervisor of their worries a day before the privately owned and partially

By TOM GOULD and GERALD IMRAY Associated Press CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Aid agencies and local authorities say a surge of new attacks by an Islamic State-affiliated group in northern Mozambique has left more than 70 children missing and caused 100,000 people to flee their homes. There are fears the children may have

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Polish military authorities say that a soldier seriously injured during a training exercise has died. The death raises the death toll to two. A military tracked vehicle ran over two soldiers. One was killed and the other was injured during the drill at a test range in Drawsko Pomorskie in northwestern

By DÁNICA COTO Associated Press Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry is struggling to stay in power as he tries to return home, where gang attacks have shuttered his country’s main international airport and freed more than 4,000 inmates in recent days. Henry remained in Puerto Rico as of midday Wednesday. He landed in the U.S.

PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona’s health department has named a physician to address ways to lessen the effects of extreme heat in the arid Southwestern state as the first statewide heat officer in the nation. Dr. Eugene Livar was appointed to the role under Gov. Katie Hobbs’ extreme heat preparedness plan, the Arizona Department of Health

By BRENDAN FARRINGTON Associated Press TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida will ban thousands of homeless people from setting up camp or sleeping on public property under a bill lawmakers sent to Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who supports the idea. Counties would be able to designate areas for the homeless to camp for up to a

By JEFFREY COLLINS Associated Press COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The South Carolina Supreme Court has heard arguments on whether a law passed last year allowing parents to spend taxpayer money on private schools violates part of the the state constitution banning direct aid to anything other than public schools. Opponents of the law say providing

By TIA GOLDENBERG and WAFAA SHURAFA Associated Press RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Efforts to get desperately needed humanitarian aid to war-wracked northern Gaza gained momentum Wednesday with the European Union increasing pressure for the creation of a sea route from Cyprus to Gaza and British Foreign Minister David Cameron saying that Israel’s allies were

By WILL WEISSERT and STEVE KARNOWSKI Associated Press MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota ended his long-shot 2024 Democratic presidential bid on Wednesday after failing to win a primary contest against President Joe Biden. Phillips told WCCO Radio in Minneapolis that he was endorsing Biden. Phillips, a 55-year-old multimillionaire who is among

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — The Justice Department says a former sheriff’s deputy in central Kentucky has been convicted in federal court of violating the civil rights of people he arrested by using unnecessary force and obstructing justice because he tried to cover up his actions. An agency statement Tuesday says a jury in Lexington handed

By KEVIN FREKING Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The House is expected to vote to keep money flowing to scores of federal agencies before a midnight Friday shutdown deadline. The first package of six bills expected to be voted on Wednesday has a price tag of about $460 billion. Lawmakers are still negotiating a second