Month: May 2024

By JENNIFER PELTZ Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Less than three years ago, Mary Ann and David Giordano were taking turns lying on the living room floor with their Afghan hound Frankie, hand-feeding the desperately ill dog anything she would eat. She had developed severe kidney problems after contracting Lyme disease, despite being on

By MIKE CATALINI Associated Press TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Over jeers of “shame” shouted from the gallery, New Jersey lawmakers have passed legislation to overhaul the state’s open public records law. The move came despite objections from civil rights groups and the state’s press association. The Democrat-led Assembly and Senate passed the legislation that heads

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Officials say four men from the Dominican Republic have been indicted in Puerto Rico on charges of smuggling wildlife in a case involving more than 100 dead birds. The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Monday that the men were detained after the U.S. Coast Guard spotted them earlier this month aboard a

By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS Associated Press JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves has signed a new law regulating transgender people’s use of bathrooms, locker rooms and dormitories in public education buildings. Mississippi becomes at least the 12th state to restrict transgender students from using facilities that align with their gender identity. Reeves on

By The Associated Press Roku will carry Major League Baseball games on Sundays beginning this week. Viewers will be able to watch for free and not be required to use a Roku device. Roku secured multi-year rights for MLB Sunday Leadoff games beginning with the Boston Red Sox at St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday. The

By CAROLYN THOMPSON Associated Press BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — A permanent memorial honoring the 10 Black victims of a racist mass shooting at a Buffalo supermarket will feature interconnected stone pillars and arches, and a windowed building where exhibitions and events will be held, community and elected leaders announced Monday. The design, “Seeing Us,” by

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — OpenAI has introduced a new artificial intelligence model. It says it works faster than previous versions and can reason across text, audio and video in real time. GPTo, short for “omni,” will power the company’s popular ChatGPT chatbot and will be available to users, including those who use the free version,

By STEVE LeBLANC Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — U.S. Attorney for the District of Rhode Island Zachary Cunha said Monday that Rhode Island violated the civil rights of hundreds of children with mental health or developmental disabilities by routinely and unnecessarily segregating them at Bradley Hospital, an acute-care psychiatric hospital. Cunha said the federal government’s

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Authorities say the Albuquerque Police Department is now in full compliance with reforms ordered by the U.S. Department of Justice, paving the way for the end of nine years of court oversight. Monday’s assessment came from an independent monitoring team hired by the city in 2015. The DOJ released findings of

By JULIE CARR SMYTH Associated Press COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Recreational marijuana could be available for sale in Ohio by mid-June. That’s after new rules creating a dual licensing system that will allow medical marijuana dispensaries to also sell non-medical cannabis cleared a key legislative hurdle Monday. Adult-use sales have been in limbo in the

By TARA COPP Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — At the apartment door where a Florida deputy shot and killed Senior Airman Roger Fortson, a small shrine is growing with the tributes from an Air Force unit grappling with his loss. There is a long wooden plank, anchored by two sets of aviator wings, and a

By FATIMA HUSSEIN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Monday issued an order blocking a Chinese-backed cryptocurrency mining firm from owning land near a Wyoming nuclear missile base. The order forces the divestment of property operated as a crypto mining facility near the Francis E. Warren Air Force Base. It also forces

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN Associated Press ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico is standing in for California in a new film as Jamie Lee Curtis’ production company tells the story of a bus driver and a school teacher who rescued students during the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California’s history. The 2018 blaze killed

BY ABDULRAHMAN ZEYAD Associated Press BAGHDAD (AP) — One of Europe’s most notorious human smugglers has been arrested in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, security officials said. The regional government’s security agency said it had arrested Barzan Majeed, known as “the Scorpion,” in the area of Sulaymaniyah, upon a request from Interpol and

By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and JOHN RABY Associated Press Three men charged in the 2018 prison killing of notorious Boston gangster James “Whitey” Bulger have reached plea deals with prosecutors. The plea deals were disclosed Monday in court filings nearly six years after the 89-year-old gangster was beaten to death in his cell at a

By MATTHEW DALY Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal energy regulators have approved a rule to expand the amount of renewable energy such as wind and solar power that is transmitted to the electric grid. Transmission of clean energy is a key part of President Joe Biden’s goal to eliminate carbon emissions economy-wide by 2050.

AP-EU–North Macedonia-Greece (AP) — European Union candidate North Macedonia is seeking to calm disputes with EU neighbors Greece and Bulgaria that flared up following the landslide election victory of a conservative-backed coalition and president.  North Macedonia changed its name from Macedonia after a 2018 landmark agreement with Greece that ended a years-long quarrel over the

By RONALD BLUM Associated Press PARIS (AP) — Taylor Swift isn’t the only singer fans are flocking to Paris to hear. Lise Davidsen has become classical music’s biggest draw, attracting crowds to the Paris Opéra for her first performances in the title role of Strauss’ “Salome” during the same week Swift filled La Défense Arena

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN Associated Press A Missouri man who crashed a rental truck into White House barriers and showed a Nazi flag before his arrest last year has pleaded guilty to damaging government property. Court records show that 20-year-old Sai Varshith Kandula faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to

By BRIAN MELLEY Associated Press LONDON (AP) — A Belfast judge says that the United Kingdom’s law to deport asylum-seekers shouldn’t apply in Northern Ireland because parts of it violate human rights protections. A High Court judge on Monday said the Illegal Migration Act is incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights and undermines

DETROIT (AP) — General Motors’ troubled Cruise autonomous vehicle unit says it will start testing robotaxis in Arizona this week with human safety drivers on board. Cruise said Monday that it will validate the vehicles’ performance against safety requirements. Testing will start in Phoenix and gradually expand to suburban areas. The vehicles will operate in

NEW YORK (AP) — “Judge Judy” Sheindlin has sued the parent company of InTouch Weekly and the National Enquirer over what she says are false stories about her speaking out on the Menendez brothers murder case. The television judge said the publications apparently used quotes from a Fox Nation docuseries about the case and falsely

By THALIA BEATY Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Melinda French Gates will step down as co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the nonprofit she and her ex-husband Bill Gates founded and built into one of the world’s largest philanthropic organizations over the past 20 years. “This is not a decision I came

By ISABEL DE BRE Associated Press BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — The International Monetary Fund, Argentina’s biggest creditor, has agreed to release the next tranche of loans due under a bailout program. The move is an endorsement of Argentine President Javier Milei’s severe austerity measures that even surpass the terms of the IMF’s $43 billion

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry says Pakistani and U.S. officials have held their latest talks in Washington on how to expand cooperation in tackling the threat posed to regional security by an affiliate of the Islamic State group and the Pakistani Taliban. The talks occurred amid a surge in militants attacks by the Pakistani

By MICHAEL R. SISAK, JILL COLVIN, LINDSAY WHITEHURST and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — The prosecution’s case in Donald Trump’s hush money trial is entering its final stretch with his former attorney and fixer, Michael Cohen, on the witness stand. Cohen on Monday spoke in glowing terms about his early days

By LUJAIN JO Associated Press DOHA, Qatar (AP) — They stroll Doha’s waterfront promenade and sing softly about children who are now free of pain. For the Palestinian group Sol Band, it seems surreal that weeks ago they were hiding from Israeli shelling. Five of the band’s seven musicians returned to Gaza in August to

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris has used a profanity while offering advice to young Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders about how to break down barriers. The vice president made the comment Monday while participating in a conversation moderated by actor and comedian Jimmy O. Yang. Yang had asked Harris what it

By WAYNE PARRY Associated Press TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — A group of Atlantic City casino workers has asked a judge to ban smoking in the gambling halls, citing the toxic effects of working there. New Jersey officials said that ending smoking could jeopardize a half-billion-dollar pot of money for senior citizens and the disabled. Superior

By GRANT PECK Associated Press BANGKOK (AP) — Reports that soldiers of Myanmar’s military government last week carried out a massacre of more than 30 civilians in a village in central Myanmar have been supported in interviews with a local administrator and a man who says he survived the killings. The bloodshed on Saturday morning

By MAKIYA SEMINERA Associated Press RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Board of Trustees voted to cut diversity program funding for next year’s budget. The board voted during a special meeting on Monday to discuss budget changes. The funding will be diverted to public safety and policing instead. Trustee

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. airlines are trying to kill a new rule requiring them to disclose fees more quickly when consumers shop for flights. The airlines filed a lawsuit in federal appeals court against the Transportation Department, which issued the rule last month. It requires better disclosure of fees on baggage and changing or canceling

By LEA SKENE Associated Press BALTIMORE (AP) — Crews are on track to conduct a controlled demolition of the largest remaining steel span of the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. The demolition was postponed Sunday afternoon because of thunderstorms in the area. It’s now scheduled to happen Monday evening. The steel span landed

By MEG KINNARD Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — As Donald Trump’s hush money trial reaches a pivotal moment the former president’s allies are out in force and serving as his voice to criticize the process and people while Trump himself is under a gag order. Trump was accompanied to court Monday by some of

By The Associated Press Standing in his dress uniform in the back of his Aurus convertible, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu was driven around Red Square to review the troops during last week’s Victory Day parade. It was to be his last inspection in that role. Over the weekend, President Vladimir Putin replaced Shoigu — the

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Dr. Cyril Wecht has died at age 93 after spending much of his life pressing his view that more than one shooter was involved in President John Kennedy’s 1963 assassination. His death Monday was announced by the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts. Wecht in 1964 reviewed the Warren Commission’s report on the

By MARK KENNEDY AP Entertainment Writer NEW YORK (AP) — George Clooney will make his Broadway acting debut next year in a familiar project for the Hollywood star: “Good Night, and Good Luck.” Clooney will play legendary TV journalist Edward R. Murrow in a stage adaptation of the 2005 movie that earned him directing and

PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa. (AP) — Punxsutawney Phil’s offspring have names that just might help the famed weather-forecasting groundhog to predict when spring will begin. Phil’s human handlers chose Mother’s Day to announce that the two kits born this spring to Phil and his partner, Phyllis, are named Sunny and Shadow. Sunny is a female, Shadow a

By CODY JACKSON and FREIDA FRISARO Associated Press JUNO BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A crowd cheered and took photos as two loggerhead sea turtles slowly made their way through the sand and into the Atlantic Ocean. Monday’s turtle release marked the end of their rehabilitation at the Loggerhead Marinelife Center in Juno Beach, Florida. One

By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer CANNES, France (AP) — After being sentenced to eight years in prison, the award-winning Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof says he’s fled to Europe shortly ahead of the Cannes Film Festival premiere of his latest film. Last week, the 51-year-old Rasoulof’s lawyer told The Associated Press that the director had

STOCKTON, Ala. (AP) — Authorities in south Alabama are urging witnesses to come forward with videos that might show who was responsible for a shooting at an outdoor party in south Alabama that left three dead and 18 wounded over the weekend. Officials have released few details about Saturday night’s incident at a May Day