Month: November 2021

By BRIAN MELLEY Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — Sequoia National Park says lightning-sparked wildfires in the past two years have killed a minimum of nearly 10,000 giant sequoia trees in California. The estimate released Friday accounts for 13% to 19% of native sequoias that are the largest trees on Earth. The trees are reliant

By JAMES MacPHERSON Associated Press BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A federal appeals court has largely upheld a North Dakota law aimed at regulating companies that are hired to hold down prescription costs for insurers and employers. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Wednesday, reversing its earlier decision on the state law that

By ROXANA HEGEMAN Associated Press BELLE PLAINE, Kan. (AP) — A federal judge has ordered Kansas to suspend a new law prohibiting out-of-state groups from mailing advance ballot applications. The ruling sides with two national nonprofit groups who contend it disenfranchises voters. U.S. District Judge Kathryn Vratil granted on Friday the preliminary injunction against the

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A St. Louis couple who waved guns at demonstrators outside their home are seeking to keep their law licenses by arguing they were protecting their property from a violent mob. Mark and Patricia McCloskey made that argument in their response to a complaint seeking to have their law licenses suspended. They

CAIRO (AP) — Britain’s Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, have concluded their first foreign tour since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. The prince of Wales and the duchess of Cornwall have been on a four-day trip to Jordan and Egypt meant to strengthen bilateral ties and discuss ways to combat climate change with

MADRID (AP) — Spain’s left-wing government says it will begin to count in official statistics on gender violence the slayings of women or minors at the hands of men regardless of the relationship that existed between them. The move puts Spain at the forefront of an approach that considers men’s traditionally more powerful standing in

By ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS Associated Press COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio State University has announced an initiative that would allow students to graduate debt-free after four years. The program known as the Scarlet and Gray Advantage will consist of increased scholarships, a paid internship program, more state and federal grants, and instruction in financial literacy. President

By LINDSEY TANNER AP Medical Writer Pregnant women with COVID-19 face increased chances for stillbirths compared with uninfected women. That’s according to a report from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released Friday. It involved 1.2 million deliveries from March 2020 through September 2021. Stillbirths were rare overall, totaling 8,154 among all deliveries.

By JOCELYN NOVECK AP National Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Three months after a damaging scandal forced the departure of its top leader, Time’s Up is announcing a “major reset,” pledging to rebuild from the ground up. The group also made public a report by an independent consultant which detailed structural flaws, muddled messaging, an

By RUSS BYNUM Associated Press BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) — A defense attorney in the murder trial over Ahmaud Arbery’s death is likening a large courthouse rally supporting the slain Black man’s family to a “public lynching” of the white defendants. Attorney Kevin Gough made the comments in again seeking a mistrial Friday, telling the judge

By HOLLY RAMER Associated Press CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — New Hampshire lawmakers have accepted $22.5 million in federal COVID-19 vaccine funding that has sparked intense debate and angry protests for the last two months. The Joint Fiscal Committee in September tabled a request to spend the money to hire new workers to promote the vaccine