Month: May 2024

By JACK DURA Associated Press Supporters of an abortion rights initiative in South Dakota have submitted far more signatures than required to make the ballot this fall. The signatures were turned in Wednesday, but the measure’s outcome is unclear. South Dakota is a conservative state, and Republican lawmakers have strongly opposed it. The effort also

By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Russia has circulated a U.N. resolution calling on all countries to take urgent action to prevent putting weapons in outer space “for all time” a week after it vetoed a U.S.-Japan resolution to stop an arms race in space. The Russian draft resolution goes further

By KEVIN McGILL Associated Press NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Voting rights advocates say they will go to the Supreme Court in hopes of preserving a new majority Black congressional district in Louisiana for the fall elections. Wednesday’s declaration was the latest step in a complicated legal fight that could determine the fate of political careers

By JAKE OFFENHARTZ Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Before police officers poured into Columbia University on Tuesday night, arresting more than 100 people as they cleared an occupied school building and tent encampment, New York City Mayor Eric Adams received a piece of intelligence he said shifted his thinking about the campus demonstrations over

By MATTHEW BARAKAT Associated Press ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — The judge presiding over the trial of a military contractor accused of contributing to detainees’ mistreatment at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq two decades ago is speculating that the jury may not be able to reach a verdict. Federal judge Leonie Brinkema spoke to lawyers

By DAVID KOENIG AP Airlines Writer Consumer groups are pushing Congress to uphold automatic refunds for airline passengers whose flights are canceled or delayed for several hours. That would put lawmakers in line with the Biden administration. The Senate on Wednesday began considering a massive bill authorizing Federal Aviation Administration programs for the next five

By LOLITA C. BALDOR Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Massachusetts Air National Guard member Jack Teixeira, who pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges for leaking highly classified military documents about the war in Ukraine and other national security secrets, will face a military justice proceeding later this month. Air Force officials say he faces two charges in

By SUMMER BALLENTINE Associated Press JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri voters have gotten a step closer to getting to decide whether to raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour. The group behind the effort, Missouri Jobs with Justice, said Wednesday that it turned in nearly double the required number of signatures. Republican

By LEAH WILLINGHAM Associated Press CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A three-judge panel has ordered that two county commissioners in West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle be removed from office after they were arrested for purposefully jilting their duties by skipping public meetings. The judges wrote in a written decision Wednesday that Jefferson County Commissioners Jennifer Krouse and

By MARC LEVY Associated Press HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives is advancing legislation long sought by counties seeking help to manage huge influxes of mail-in ballots during elections in the presidential battleground state. The bill passed on party lines Wednesday, 102-99, as Democrats backed it and Republicans opposed it, warning that it

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Kim Noltemy will become president of the Los Angeles Philharmonic in July, helping guide the search for music director Gustavo Dudamel’s successor. Noltemy has been president of the Dallas Symphony since 2018. Dudamel said last year he will leave LA after the 2025-26 season to become music director of the New

By JOSH FUNK AP Business Writer OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Federal regulators say Union Pacific managers undermined their efforts to assess safety at the railroad by coaching employees on how to respond and suggesting they might be disciplined. The Federal Railroad Administration’s Karl Alexy said in a letter to the railroad’s executives that the problems

BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) — A Pennsylvania man who credits an alligator named Wally for helping relieve his depression for nearly a decade says he is searching for the reptile after it went missing during a vacation to the coast of Georgia. Joie Henney has thousands of social media users following his pages devoted to Wally,

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House has a new curator and Donna Hayashi Smith is the first Asian American to hold the post. Hayashi Smith had been serving in an acting capacity since last year. The White House announced Hayashi Smith’s appointment Wednesday at the start of Asian American, Native

By DAVE COLLINS Associated Press HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Federal workplace safety officials say a home health care company failed to protect a visiting nurse who was killed during an appointment with a convicted rapist at a Connecticut halfway house. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration released the results of its investigation into Elara Caring

COLLEEN LONG ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is weighing measures to help Palestinians living in the United States who want to bring family from the war-torn region. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Thursday said the White House is “constantly evaluating policy proposals to further support Palestinians who are family members

SARASOTA SPRINGS, Utah (AP) — A Utah woman has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a friend was shot in what police said was an uncompleted suicide pact the women had reached several weeks earlier. Heavenly Faith Garfield, 21, was arrested Tuesday and remains jailed in Utah County on Wednesday without bail. Saratoga Springs

By BRUCE SHIPKOWSKI Associated Press A decomposed body found in a duffel bag in west Philadelphia have been identified as a 4-year-old boy who authorities say was beaten to death. Damari Carter’s body was found March 18 in the city’s Mantua neighborhood by a worker who was cleaning out an alleyway. Police said Wednesday that

By The Associated Press The wave of incoming rookies such as Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and Kamilla Cardoso and the return of popular players A’ja Wilson and Kelsey Plum of the defending champion Las Vegas Aces have led to unprecedented demand for WNBA games on one of the world’s largest ticket resale platforms. StubHub announced

By ACACIA CORONADO Associated Press AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas officials are investigating at least nine recent deaths involving an unusual spike of opioid overdoses in Austin. Health officials are calling it the city’s worst overdose outbreak in nearly a decade. Emergency responders in the Texas capital typically field two to three calls per day

NEW YORK (AP) — Duane Eddy, a pioneering guitar hero whose reverberating electric sound on instrumentals such as “Rebel Rouser,” “Forty Miles of Bad Road” and “Cannonball” helped put the twang in early rock ‘n’ roll and influenced George Harrison, Bruce Springsteen and countless other musicians, has died at age 86. With his raucous rhythms,

By MICHAEL RUBINKAM Associated Press A staffing company that performed COVID-19 contact tracing for Pennsylvania and exposed the private medical information of about 72,000 residents will pay $2.7 million in a settlement with the U.S. Justice Department and a whistleblower. Federal prosecutors announced the settlement with Insight Global on Wednesday. The Pennsylvania Department of Health

By LINDSEY BAHR AP Film Writer Ethan Hawke directs his daughter Maya Hawke in “Wildcat,” a movie about the Southern Catholic writer Flannery O’Connor. The novelist and short story writer behind “A Good Man is Hard to Find” died early and was celebrated posthumously for her prose and sharp social satire. But in recent years

By PATRICK WHITTLE Associated Press PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — U.S. regulators have decided to allow American fishermen to harvest thousands of pounds of a valuable species of tiny fish in the coming years, even as Canadian authorities have shuttered the industry while they grapple with poaching. Baby eels, also called elvers, are harvested from rivers

By TOM MURPHY AP Health Writer The beginning of the Change Healthcare cyberattack happened when hackers entered a server that lacked multifactor authentication. That’s according to UnitedHealth CEO Andrew Witty. He told U.S. senators in a hearing on Wednesday that his company was still trying to understand why the server did not have the additional

By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Since its debut at the Sundance Film Festive, Jane Schoenbrun’s “I Saw the TV Glow” has been hailed as an acutely intense psychodrama of self discovery. Radiating adolescent angst and shaking with the tremors of body dysphoria, the film has been hailed for its reflection

By FARNOUSH AMIRI Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The House is voting on legislation that would establish a broader definition of antisemitism for the Department of Education to enforce anti-discrimination laws. It is the latest response from lawmakers Wednesday to a nationwide student protest movement over the Israel-Hamas war. The bipartisan bill would codify the

By TIM SULLIVAN Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — It was the music that changed first. Or maybe that’s just when many people at the pale brick Catholic church in the quiet Wisconsin neighborhood finally began to realize what was happening. The choir director, a fixture at St. Maria Goretti for nearly 40 years, was

By JILL COLVIN Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump will speak at the Libertarian National Convention later this month as he tries to woo voters beyond the Republican base. The group announced Trump’s invitation on Wednesday. Trump, in a statement, said, “If Libertarians join me and the Republican Party, where we

By JEFF AMY Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — Jailers in Georgia must now check the immigration status of inmates and apply to help enforce federal immigration law. That’s after Gov. Brian Kemp signed a law that gained traction after police accused a Venezuelan man of beating a nursing student to death on the University of

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombian President Gustavo Petro says his government will break diplomatic relations with Israel effective Thursday in the latest escalation of tensions between both countries over the Israel-Hamas war. Petro made the announcement Wednesday during an International Workers’ Day march in Colombia’s capital. In his speech, he again described Israel’s siege of Gaza

BARBARA ORTUTAY AP Technology Writer (AP) — Do social media users have the right to control what they see — or don’t see — on their feeds? A lawsuit filed against Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. is arguing that a federal law often used to shield internet companies from liability also allows people to use

By JONEL ALECCIA AP Health Writer The first calls that Dr. Barb Petersen received in early March were from dairy owners worried about crows, pigeons and other birds dying on their Texas farms. Then came word that barn cats — half of them on one farm — had died suddenly. Within days, the Amarillo veterinarian

By DAVID KOENIG AP Business Writer Airbnb says it’s going to give customers a chance at overnight stays in a Paris museum, a bedroom filled with Ferrari racing cars, and other exotic settings. It’s a mix of game-show glitter and marketing. CEO Brian Chesky said Wednesday that 4,000 Airbnb users will win a chance to