Month: October 2021

LAKELAND, Fla. (AP) — Motorcycle gang members got into a shootout on a Florida interstate, leaving a woman riding with the instigator near death. Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd says Ronald Donovan and other members of the Sin City Deciples motorcycle gang were driving on Interstate 4 between Tampa and Orlando shortly after midnight Friday

By MOGOMOTSI MAGOME Associated Press JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South African travel agencies are reporting a surge in reservations for travel to and from Britain ahead of the country being removed from the U.K.’s COVID-19 red list next week. Some companies said they were being overwhelmed by the number of people looking to travel since the

By ANGELA CHARLTON Associated Press PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron says his country will return 26 African artworks to Benin later this month. Discussions have been under way for years on returning the artworks from the 19th century Dahomey Kingdom. Called the “Abomey Treasures,” the royal thrones, ceremonial altars, revered statues and other

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles County sheriff says he will not enforce the county’s vaccine mandate in his agency. Sheriff Alex Villanueva oversees the largest sheriff’s department in the county with roughly 18,000 employees. He said Thursday in a Facebook Live event that he does not plan to carry out the county’s mandate.

By MICHELLE L. PRICE and BOBBY CAINA CALVAN Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — New York City is phasing out its program for gifted and talented students. Critics say the program favors whites and Asian American students, while enrolling disproportionately few Black and Latino children, in the nation’s largest school system. Starting in the next

JERUSALEM (AP) — Lawyers say the second hearing in a bitter custody dispute over a 6-year-old boy who survived a cable car crash in Italy is over. It ended on Friday without any final ruling. Eitan Biran is the lone survivor of a cable car crash in northern Italy in May that killed 14, including

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — A South Dakota woman has been convicted of manslaughter in the death of her newborn son whose body was discovered in a ditch 40 years ago. Sixty-year-old Theresa Bentaas, of Sioux Falls, entered an Alford plea to first-degree manslaughter Friday in an agreement with prosecutors. The Argus Leader reports two

By KEVIN McGILL Associated Press NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Civil rights advocates are asking a federal appeals court to revive their lawsuit against a Mississippi prosecutor accused of routinely rejecting Black jurors in criminal cases simply because of their race. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans heard arguments Friday in the

By SARAH BRUMFIELD Associated Press CAPITOL HEIGHTS, Md. (AP) — Authorities in Maryland say two staff members have been fatally shot inside a senior living facility and one suspect is in custody. It happened Friday morning at the National Church Residences Gateway Village in Capitol Heights. Police said both victims were women, one found in

By REBECCA BOONE Associated Press BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Newly released documents from the investigation of a woman accused of conspiring to kill her children and husband reveal sordid details of a cult-like belief system of “zombies” and “vibrations.” Documents from the Chandler Police Department in Arizona examine the lives of Lori and Chad Daybell

By RYAN J. FOLEY Associated Press IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A federal judge has ruled that Iowa’s head football coach, Kirk Ferentz, and offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz will not have to spend the team’s bye week answering questions from lawyers for Black former players who say they suffered discrimination. U.S. Magistrate Judge Helen Adams

By ROBERT BURNS AP National Security Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Navy says a submarine that collided with an unknown underwater object in the South China Sea and was damaged has arrived in port at Guam. The Navy says the USS Connecticut was conducting routine operations when it struck the object on Oct. 2.

By DON THOMPSON Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Firefighters and numerous studies credit forest thinning projects with helping to save communities like those near Lake Tahoe. But dissent from some environmental advocacy groups is roiling the scientific community. States in the U.S. West and the federal government each year thin thousands of acres of