Month: April 2024

By BRENDAN FARRINGTON Associated Press TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Former Florida Gov. and U.S. Sen. Bob Graham has been remembered by Republicans and Democrats alike as a man whose love for the state and people transcended politics. Graham was a two-term governor and a three-term U.S. senator who died last week at 87. He was

By HILLEL ITALIE AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — PEN America has canceled its annual World Voices Festival, as the literary and free expression organization continues to face widespread unhappiness with its response to the Israel-Hamas War. PEN called off its awards ceremony earlier this week after nearly half of the finalists withdrew from

Associated Press NEW KENT, Va. (AP) — The former medical director of a Virginia hospital that treats vulnerable children and young adults has been acquitted of sexually abusing two teenage patients during physical exams. Dr. Daniel Davidow worked for decades as the medical director of the Cumberland Hospital for Children and Adolescents, a facility that

By JACQUES BILLEAUD Associated Press PHOENIX (AP) — Authorities have revealed the charges that were filed against an ex-aide of former President Donald Trump and four attorneys in Arizona’s fake elector case. But the names of former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows and lawyer Rudy Giuliani remained blacked out. The Arizona attorney general’s office released a

NEW YORK (AP) — Home products retailer Williams-Sonoma will have to pay almost $3.2 million penalty for violating a Federal Trade Commission “Made in USA” order. Williams-Sonoma has been charged with advertising multiple products as being “Made in USA” when they were in fact manufactured in other countries, including China. That violates a 2020 FTC

By ZEKE MILLER AP White House Correspondent WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s administration has formally begun planning for a potential presidential transition, aiming to ensure continuity of government no matter the outcome of November’s general election. Memos were sent Friday to all executive departments and agencies, directing them to name a point person for

By ADAM BEAM Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A bill to ban the use of confidentiality agreements when negotiating potential laws in California has failed to pass. The bill by Republican Assemblymember Vince Fong failed to pass a legislative committee on Thursday. The bill was inspired by negotiations last summer around a law that

By MEAD GRUVER Associated Press CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — As Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming opens for the busy summer season, wildlife advocates are leading a call for a boycott of the conservative ranching state over laws that give people wide leeway to kill gray wolves with little oversight. The social media accounts of Wyoming’s

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — A shark attack on a British tourist in the southeastern Caribbean prompted the government of Trinidad and Tobago to close seven beaches and a marine park. Authorities said the man attacked on Friday was hospitalized in an intensive care unit. Beaches along the northwest coast of Tobago were closed, including Turtle

By AAMER MADHANI and SEUNG MIN KIM Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — President Joe Biden says he is willing to debate Donald Trump later this fall. Biden’s comment Friday is the most definitive he’s been on whether he would debate his presumptive Republican opponent. The comments came during an interview with the radio host

By MATTHEW PERRONE and ZEKE MILLER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — For the second time in recent months, President Joe Biden’s administration has delayed a sweeping plan to ban menthol cigarettes, a decision that is certain to infuriate anti-smoking advocates but could avoid angering Black voters ahead of November elections. In a statement Friday, Biden’s

NEW YORK (AP) — Transit officials say the start date for the $15 toll most drivers will be charged to enter Manhattan’s central business district will be June 30. Under the so-called congestion pricing plan, the $15 fee will apply to most drivers who enter Manhattan south of 60th Street during daytime hours. Tolls will

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — An aspiring challenger to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has renewed his calls for change. He led a protest Friday of several thousand people demanding a more robust child protection system and the resignation of Orbán’s government. The demonstrators gathered outside Hungary’s Interior Ministry in Budapest and called for its head

By CARLOS RODRÍGUEZ Associated Press MEXICO CITY (AP) — When the Houston Astros take on the Colorado Rockies this weekend, it will be the seventh regular-season series played in Mexico. Major League Baseball’s presence in the country, however, goes far beyond that. Mexico became one of only six countries in the world with an MLB

By WAYNE PARRY Associated Press NORTH WILDWOOD, N.J. (AP) — Help is finally on the way for the most critically eroded part of the Jersey Shore. North Wildwood and the state have been fighting in court for years over measures the town has taken on its own to try to hold off the encroaching seas

By YURAS KARMANAU Associated Press TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — A Belarusian hacker activist group claims to have infiltrated the network of the country’s main security agency and obtained access to personal files of over 8,600 staffers of the KGB, the security service that still goes under its Soviet name. The authorities have not commented on

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) — Officials say Google plans to invest $2 billion to build a data center in northeastern Indiana to help power its artificial intelligence technology and cloud business. The Journal Gazette reports that the planned data center in Fort Wayne was announced in January, but Google and Gov. Eric Holcomb’s office disclosed

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal appeals court has ruled that New York can move ahead with a law requiring internet service providers to offer heavily discounted rates to low-income residents. The decision from the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan on Friday reverses a lower court ruling from 2021 that blocked the

SEWARD, Neb. (AP) — A former Nebraska deputy has been jailed after a grand jury indicted him on suspicion of manslaughter in connection with the shooting death of a man in October. Lancaster County Attorney Pat Condon on Friday announced the indictment of former Seward County Deputy Anthony Gann. Gann is jailed on $100,000 bond

By MATTHEW BARAKAT Associated Press ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A judge ordered jurors Friday to keep deliberating after they said they were deadlocked in a lawsuit alleging a Virginia-based military contractor is liable for abuses suffered by inmates at the Abu Ghraib prion in Iraq two decades ago. The eight-person civil jury has deliberated the

BALTIMORE (AP) — A Baltimore publishing company has filed a class action claim arguing the owner and manager of the massive container ship that took down the Francis Scott Key Bridge last month should have to pay damages to businesses impacted by the collapse. The claim was filed Thursday on behalf of American Publishing LLC.

By JOHN HANNA Associated Press TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A proposed ban in Kansas on gender-affirming care for minors also would bar state employees from promoting it or even children’s social transitioning. Teachers and social workers who support LGBTQ+ rights worry that they will be disciplined or fired for helping kids who are exploring their

MADRID (AP) — Thousands of Spanish journalists have come out in support of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and his wife following Sánchez’s announceement that he was considering his future as premier after a court opened preliminary proceedings against his wife on corruption allegations. Sánchez, who is to announce his future Monday, blamed the probe

By ERIC OLSON AP College Football Writer Attorneys for more than two dozen Iowa and Iowa State athletes who were ensnared in a state gambling sting have filed a civil lawsuit seeking unspecified monetary damages from the state and its public safety and criminal investigation agencies for violating the athletes’ constitutional rights and damaging their

By ROBERT BADENDIECK Associated Press ISTANBUL (AP) — The Netherlands’ outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte is in Turkey, seeking support from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in his bid for the seat of NATO secretary general. The incumbent NATO chief, Jens Stoltenberg, is nearing the end of his term. Rutte on Friday spoke at a joint

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis is taking his call for artificial intelligence to be developed and used according to ethical lines to the Group of 7 industrialized nations.Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni announced Friday that Francis had accepted her invitation to attend the G7 Summit in Puglia in June. The Vatican confirmed the news.Francis has

By PAN PYLAS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — The British Army says the military horses that bolted and ran loose when spooked by construction noise in central London earlier this week “continue to be cared for and closely observed.” In an update to their condition on X, formerly Twitter,, the Army gave no fresh update

LONDON (AP) — King Charles III will resume his public duties next week following treatment for cancer, Buckingham Palace announced Friday. Charles took a break from public appearances almost three months ago to focus on his treatment for an undisclosed type of cancer. The palace said Charles would make a public visit to a cancer

By FATIMA HUSSEIN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The IRS says more than 140,000 taxpayers filed their taxes through its new direct file pilot program. It says the program’s users claimed more than $90 million in refunds and saved roughly $5.6 million in fees they would have spent with commercial tax preparation companies. But despite

By KATHLEEN FOODY Associated Press CHICAGO (AP) — The singer R. Kelly was correctly sentenced to 20 years in prison on child sex convictions in Chicago, a federal appeals court ruled Friday. Jurors in 2022 convicted the Grammy Award-winning R&B singer, born Robert Sylvester Kelly, on three charges of producing child porn and three charges

By MARIA SHERMAN AP Music Writer NEW YORK (AP) — For many music fans, John Oates is most recognizable as one-half of the Grammy-nominated Hall & Oates, the multiplatinum soul-pop duo behind hits like “Rich Girl” and “Maneater” now riven by litigation. But he’s also had a full career as a soloist. His sixth solo

By DÁNICA COTO Associated Press PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — It’s been only a day since the transitional presidential council was installed in Haiti, and the list of demands on its members is rapidly growing. Now that the Caribbean nation has new leaders, they’re under pressure to produce quick results despite a deep-seated crisis that has been

By KEN SWEET AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon says stagflation could be one of a number of possible outcomes for the U.S. economy as the Federal Reserve attempts to tame stubbornly high consumer prices. In an interview with The Associated Press at a Chase branch opening in The Bronx,

By MIKE STOBBE AP Medical Writer NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. flu season appears to be over. It was long, but federal health officials and doctors say it was a moderate one. Last week, for the third straight week, medical visits for flu-like illnesses dipped below the threshold for what’s counted as an active

By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Nearly three decades after Jerry Seinfeld was, in one episode of “Seinfeld,” cajoled into bootlegging tthe movie “Death Blow,” he has finally made his first film. Seinfeld directed, co-wrote and stars in “Unfrosted,” a star-studded comedy about the invention of the Pop-Tart premiering May 3

The Associated Press Philadelphia 76ers All-Star center Joel Embiid has been diagnosed with Bell’s palsy, a condition that can strike out of the blue and cause muscles on one side of a person’s face to become weak or paralyzed, distorting expression. Here’s what to know about the mostly temporary condition: WHAT IS IT? Bell’s palsy

By ELLEN KNICKMEYER, FARNOUSH AMIRI and MATTHEW LEE Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the U.S. has determined that an Israeli military unit committed gross human-rights abuses against Palestinians in the West Bank before the war in Gaza began six months ago. But he says the U.S. will hold off

By LINDSEY BAHR AP Film Writer Growing up in the Midwest, filmmaker Lee Isaac Chung developed both a healthy fear of tornadoes and a reverence for Jan de Bont’s 1996 disaster film “Twister.” When he was hired to direct the sequel, “Twisters,” storming theaters on July 19, he knew one thing was non-negotiable: They needed

CLINTON TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — The owner of a suburban Detroit business that caught fire and exploded, killing a man, was arrested at a New York airport as he was preparing to depart for Hong Kong on a one-way ticket. Authorities say Friday that 31-year-old Noor Noel Kestou was arrested Saturday. He was brought back

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Authorities in the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre say a fire at a small hotel has killed at least 10 people and injured 11. The fire brigade of the Rio Grande do Sul state says the fire broke out in the early hours in the three-story building, which provided affordable