Month: May 2024

By STEVE KARNOWSKI Associated Press ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A Minnesota Senate ethics panel is expected to begin considering what to do with a lawmaker who’s charged with burglary for allegedly breaking into her estranged stepmother’s house. The panel holds its first hearing Tuesday to discuss whether to investigate further. Prosecutors say Democratic Sen.

By MICHAEL R. SISAK, JENNIFER PELTZ, ERIC TUCKER and JAKE OFFENHARTZ Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump returns to his hush money trial Tuesday facing a threat of jail time for additional gag order violations as prosecutors gear up to summon big-name witnesses in the final weeks of the case. Stormy Daniels, the

By ANDREW DALTON AP Entertainment Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Stuntwoman Jeannie Epper has died at age 83. She did stunts for many of the most important women of film and TV action of the 1970s and ’80s. A family spokesperson says Epper died of natural causes Sunday night in Simi Valley, California. Epper was

By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Russia has defended its veto of a U.N. resolution calling on all nations to prevent a nuclear arms race in outer space. Moscow is challenging the U.S., Japan and their Western allies to support Russia’s rival resolution calling for a ban on all weapons in

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — An extra day and the lure of an appearance by the Rolling Stones pushed attendance at the 2024 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival to a half a million people. That was the second highest attendance in the festival’s history — just behind the 600,000 attendees in 2001. Organizers said Monday

By JEFF AMY Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — A Georgia State Supreme Court candidate has filed a federal lawsuit claiming a state agency is unconstitutionally trying to block him from talking about abortion. John Barrow sued Monday ahead of a deadline to reply to a complaint that he is violating state judicial ethics rules. The

By GENE JOHNSON Associated Press SEATTLE (AP) — The Federal Aviation Administration has opened an investigation into Boeing after the beleaguered company reported that workers at a South Carolina plant falsified inspection records on certain 787 planes. Boeing said its engineers have determined that misconduct did not create “an immediate safety of flight issue.” An

By KEVIN McGILL Associated Press NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Federal judges who threw out a congressional election map giving Louisiana a new mostly Black district have told state lawyers to determine whether the Legislature could draw up a new map in time for this year’s elections. The order was spelled out in a federal court

NEW YORK (AP) — A critic who has written passionate columns as a contributor for The Washington Post from his prison cell in Russia has won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary. Vladimir Kara-Murza is a Russian politician, author and historian who has been imprisoned in Russia since April 2022. He was convicted of treason last

By MICHELLE L. PRICE and ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump is accusing Joe Biden of offering a weak response to antisemitism, wielding the clashes on colleges campuses over the war in Gaza as a campaign issue. But Trump’s attacks ignore his own long history of rhetoric that invokes the

By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS Associated Press JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A Republican congressman is partially backtracking on his praise for a campus conflict that included a man making monkey noises and gestures at a Black student who was protesting the Israel-Hamas war. Rep. Mike Collins of Georgia said Monday that the man at the University

By SARA CLINE Associated Press Democratic state Rep. Delisha Boyd is fighting an uphill battle in her attempt to pass a bill that would exempt cases of rape and incest from Louisiana’s near-total abortion ban. In the hopes of improving its chances in the GOP-dominated Legislature, the New Orleans lawmaker has shared the story of

CHICAGO (AP) — A nonprofit Chicago journalism production company has won two Pulitzer Prizes for local and audio reporting. The Invisible Institute is based on the city’s South Side and is dedicated to holding public institutions accountable. The company and its reporter Trina Reynolds-Tyler, along with Sarah Conway of journalism laboratory City Bureau, won a

By HANNAH FINGERHUT Associated Press DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A Tennessee-based sanitation company is agreeing to pay more than half a million dollars after a federal investigation found it illegally hired children to clean dangerous meat processing facilities. The U.S. Labor Department on Monday said Fayette Janitorial Service LLC has agreed to nearly $650,000

By FARNOUSH AMIRI Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans are moving forward with holding Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress. Republicans are preparing to act on the contempt charges next week because the Justice Department refuses to turn over the audio of a special counsel interview with President Joe Biden. That’s according

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — After massive downpours flooded California’s rivers and packed mountains with snow, the state has reported the first increase in groundwater supplies in four years. California’s Department of Water Resources said Monday the state saw 4.1 million acre-feet of managed groundwater recharge in the water year ending in September. Much of the

By ADAM GELLER Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Well before the year began, Associated Press journalists knew that surging migration through the Americas was a major story. They decided to focus on showing that migration is more than numbers – it has to do with people and the stories behind the reasons they left

NEW YORK (AP) — New York is suing an anti-abortion group and almost a dozen pregnancy counseling centers for allegedly promoting an unproven method to reverse medication abortions. Attorney General Letitia James filed the suit in Manhattan on Monday against Heartbeat International and 11 pregnancy centers. The case follows a similar lawsuit in California and

By SCOTT BAUER Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by animal welfare advocates seeking to invalidate Wisconsin’s new wolf management plan. Dane County Circuit Judge Stephen Ehlke threw out the case on Monday. The lawsuit accused Wisconsin wildlife officials of violating the state’s open meetings law and disregarding

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. (AP) — Court records say a Kansas City-area man who’s charged with killing his hospitalized wife told police he couldn’t take care of her or afford her medical bills. Ronnie Wiggs made his first appearance Monday on a second-degree murder charge and was referred to the public defender’s office. A hearing was set

By TERRY SPENCER Associated Press FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — U.S. authorities have arrested a Florida man in connection with the disappearance of his estranged wife in Spain three months ago. David Knezevich appeared in Miami federal court Monday on charges that he is involved in the Feb. 2 kidnapping of his wife Ana from

By DAVE COLLINS Associated Press Home health care provider Elara Caring is being sued by the husband of a Connecticut visiting nurse who was killed during an appointment with a convicted rapist. The lawsuit alleges the Dallas, Texas-based company ignored nurses’ safety concerns about treating some patients with mental illness and violent pasts. Joyce Grayson

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A federal appeals court has upheld a 2021 ruling that NBA star Zion Williamson’s contract with a marketing agent was void because the agent was not licensed in North Carolina when the two entered an agreement in 2019. Gina Ford had sought $100 million from Williamson, claiming the former Duke star

By FATIMA HUSSEIN and TOM MURPHY Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The go-broke dates for benefit programs Medicare and Social Security have been pushed back as an improving economy has contributed to changed projected depletion dates, according to the annual Social Security and Medicare trustees report. Medicare’s go-broke date for its hospital insurance trust fund

By BIANCA VÁZQUEZ TONESS AP Education Writer ATLANTA (AP) — Four months after The Associated Press wrote about an Atlanta family struggling to enroll in school, all of the children — in a complete turnaround — returned to class last month. The project on Monday was named a Pulitzer Prize finalist. The youngest child, an

NEW YORK (AP) — Jayne Anne Phillips’ “Night Watch,” a mother-daughter saga set in a West Virginia asylum after the Civil War, has won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. The drama prize was awarded to Eboni Booth’s “Primary Trust,” about a bookstore worker’s unexpected journey after he loses his job. Two winners were announced Monday

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — Rapper and media personality Snoop Dogg is putting his name on the Arizona Bowl for what will be the first partnership between an alcohol brand and a college bowl game. The “Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl Presented by Gin & Juice By Dre and Snoop” is scheduled for Dec. 28 at Arizona

By LOLITA C. BALDOR Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — An American soldier has been arrested in Russia and accused of stealing. That’s according to two U.S. officials who spoke to The Associated Press. The soldier, who is not being identified, was stationed in South Korea and was in the process of returning home to the

By VANESSA GERA Associated Press WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Polish prosecutors say they have opened an investigation after a Polish judge fled to the autocratic state of Belarus and asked for protection there. According to Belarus state media, the judge told journalists in the Belarusian capital that he was forced to leave Poland due to

By SOPHIA TAREEN Associated Press CHICAGO (AP) — A lawsuit alleges that child sexual abuse at Illinois juvenile detention centers was pervasive and systemic for decades. A complaint filed Monday in the Illinois Court of Claims details disturbing accounts from 95 men and women housed at youth centers as children. The alleged incidents of abuse

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A cookbook author, actor and producer will be the Lifetime Achievement honorees at the Daytime Emmys in June. Lidia Bastianich has created Daytime Emmy Award-winning cooking shows over the last 25 years on PBS. The chef has also published numerous cookbooks. Melody Thomas Scott has played Nikki Newman on the CBS

By JIM SALTER Associated Press ST. LOUIS (AP) — A state examination of the office that handles criminal prosecutions in St. Louis is being delayed because auditors can’t find former Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner. Missouri Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick said Monday in a news release that auditors have tried for several months to contact Gardner, including

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Janet Jackson will make her fourth appearance at the 2024 Essence Festival of Culture this summer in New Orleans. Jackson was originally scheduled to headline the Smoothie King Center on July 23 as part of her Together Again Summer 2024 tour, but her plans have changed. The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate

By MAKIYA SEMINERA Associated Press Friends, family and law enforcement officers gathered in Charlotte to remember the life of Deputy U.S. Marshal Thomas “Tommy” Weeks who was killed in a shootout last week while serving a warrant. He was one of four officers killed in the three-hour standoff that became the deadliest day for law

PARIS (AP) — How do you smooth over trade tensions with the all-powerful leader of economic powerhouse China? Charm him with a bottle of Cognac or two. That seemed to be French President Emmanuel Macron’s strategy with his carefully selected gift list for visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping. China recently opened an anti-dumping investigation into

By BRUCE SCHREINER Associated Press Kentucky’s Republican secretary of state, Michael Adams, has been chosen to receive the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award this year. Adams worked across party lines to expand early voting in the Bluegrass State and has spoken out against election denialism. Adams was at the forefront of a bipartisan

By MARK STEVENSON Associated Press MEXICO CITY (AP) — Two Australians and an American were doing what they loved on the stunning, largely isolated stretch of Baja California’s Pacific coast. Their last images on social media showed them gazing at the waves, contemplating the breaks. What happened to end their lives may have been as

By JAMES POLLARD Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — The Met Gala has inspired pajama-clad New Yorkers to fundraise for medical debt relief at an alternative benefit called the Debt Gala. Some 200 attendees dressed for its “Sleeping Baddies” theme to raise money for medical bill relief on Sunday. Hosted in Brooklyn one night before