Month: November 2023

By MATTHEW LEE AP Diplomatic Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Israel and Jordan this week as Israel’s war in Gaza and international criticism of it intensify. The State Department said Blinken will depart on Thursday and be in Israel and Jordan on Friday. Further stops in the Middle East

By THOMAS PEIPERT Associated Press DENVER (AP) — U.S. Rep. Ken Buck, a conservative Republican who represents much of Colorado’s rural eastern plains, announced Wednesday he would not seek a sixth term in Congress, citing many in his party who refuse to accept the results of the 2020 presidential election and to condemn the Jan.

By JONATHAN LANDRUM Jr. AP Entertainment Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — While Usher gears up for his 2024 Super Bowl halftime performance, the singer will lean on his previous experience of hitting the NFL’s biggest stage to help him prepare. The Grammy winner says he’s using his appearance with Black Eyed Peas frontman will.i.am in

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A New Jersey man who was a Princeton University student when he stormed the U.S. Capitol has been sentenced to two months of incarceration for interfering with police officers trying to hold off a mob of Donald Trump supporters. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols also on Wednesday

By SUSAN HAIGH Associated Press A state judge has taken the unusual step of ordering a new Democratic mayoral primary for Connecticut’s largest city to be held after the Nov. 7 general election. Wednesday’s decision comes after surveillance videos showed a woman stuffing what appeared to be absentee ballots into an outdoor ballot box days

By KEVIN FREKING and STEPHEN GROVES Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Rep. George Santos easily survived a vote Wednesday to expel him from the House as most Republicans and 31 Democrats opted to withhold punishment while both his criminal trial and a House Ethics Committee investigation proceed. The effort to kick Santos out of the

By LINDSEY BAHR AP Film Writer Nature provides much of the soundtrack to “All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt,” the debut feature from writer-director Raven Jackson. The film is sparse in narrative and dialogue but loosely follows the life of one woman, Mack, from childhood on in rural Mississippi, jumping back and forth through time.

By JOSEF FEDERMAN and AMY TEIBEL Associated Press JERUSALEM (AP) — When Secretary of State Antony Blinken was asked who would govern the Gaza Strip following Israel’s war against Hamas, he said a return of the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority made “the most sense.” What he failed to mention is that the Palestinian Authority, weak

By NICHOLAS RICCARDI Associated Press DENVER (AP) — The effort to ban former President Donald Trump from the ballot under the Constitution’s “insurrection clause” turned to distant history on Wednesday, when a law professor testified about how the post-Civil War provision was indeed intended to apply to presidential candidates. Gerard Magliocca, of Indiana University, said

By FARNOUSH AMIRI Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The House late Wednesday rejected an effort to censure Democratic Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, scrapping a Republican attempt to condemn the only Palestinian-American in Congress over her recent rhetoric around the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. A measure to move forward with a censure resolution of Tlaib, a punishment

By KIMBERLEE KRUESI Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Attorneys representing Tennessee transgender children, teens and their families have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block a ban on gender-affirming care for children and teenagers that a lower court allowed to go into effect. Should the nation’s highest court agree to take the case, it

By MICHAEL CASEY Associated Press LEWISTON, Maine (AP) — Lewiston, Maine, has taken another step in its recovery from the state’s deadliest mass shooting as a storied high school football rivalry resumed an emotional game. Last Friday’s matchup between Lewiston High School and Edward Little High School was postponed to Wednesday night. Lewiston won 34-18.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands has declared a state of emergency after officials revealed last week that tap water in St. Croix contains lead and copper and warned people not to consume it. The declaration announced Wednesday frees up urgently needed resources, streamlines emergency response and allows

By CLAIRE SAVAGE Associated Press/Report for America CHICAGO (AP) — A jury in Illinois has ordered Chicago-based Conagra Brands to pay $7.1 million to a Pennsylvania woman who was badly injured in 2017 when a can of commercial brand cooking spray ignited in a kitchen at her workplace and set her aflame. The verdict, issued

By THALIA BEATY Associated Press A small nonprofit, Summer Science Program, has puzzled for much of the last year over what do to with a surprise bequest of an estimated $200 million. Its board learned in the late summer of 2022 that Franklin Antonio, a co-founder of the large chipmaker Qualcomm, had granted the organization

By WAYNE PARRY Associated Press ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — Wind energy developer Orsted is writing off $4 billion, due largely to the cancellation of two large offshore wind projects in New Jersey whose financial challenges mirror those facing the nascent industry. The Danish company is scrapping its Ocean Wind I and II projects due

By MARY CLARE JALONICK and LOLITA BALDOR Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican senators have angrily challenged Sen. Tommy Tuberville on his blockade of almost 400 military officers. They took over the Senate floor for hours on Wednesday evening to call for individual confirmation votes after a monthslong stalemate. Tuberville stood and objected over and

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The Mexican government says it will pay half of interest rates on bank loans to rebuild the 377 hotels destroyed or heavily damaged by Hurricane Otis. But President Andrés Manuel López Obrador will not provide government loans to the hotels, the backbone of the local economy. López Obrador announced Wednesday a

By JONATHAN MATTISE Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The state of Tennessee has agreed to pay $150,000 to settle a federal lawsuit by its former vaccine leader over her firing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Agreement details obtained in a public records request shows that it limits what Michelle Fiscus can say and what can