Month: December 2023

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Deutsche Bank pledged nearly $5 million in funding Thursday to help combat human trafficking in New Mexico, the bank announced in a joint statement with Attorney General Raúl Torrez. The announcement comes seven months after Deutsche Bank settled a U.S. lawsuit for $75 million that claimed the German lender should

By LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge has rejected U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez’s request to delay his bribery trial by two months. The order Thursday by Judge Sidney H. Stein leaves in place a May 5 trial date for the Democrat, who faces trial along with his wife and three

By BRETT MARTEL AP Sports Writer What does Olympic rowing in 1936 have to do with the College Football Playoff at the dawn of 2024? Plenty, if you play for the second-seeded Washington Huskies. Shortly before departing Seattle for a Sugar Bowl semifinal matchup against Texas, Huskies coach Kalen DeBoer took the team to the

TUPELO, Miss. (AP) — Donald Wildmon, the founder of the American Family Association, a conservative Christian advocacy group, has died, the organization announced Thursday. The 85-year-old Mississippi native died on Thursday from complications related to Lewy body dementia, an obituary published by WTVA-TV said. Wildmon died in Tupelo, Mississippi, the city where the American Family

By NICHOLAS RICCARDI and DAVID SHARP Associated Press PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Maine’s Democratic secretary of state on Thursday removed former President Donald Trump from the state’s presidential primary ballot under the Constitution’s insurrection clause, becoming the first election official to take action unilaterally as the U.S. Supreme Court is poised to decide whether Trump

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Students at a suburban St. Louis school district can continue to take elective Black history courses, school leaders announced Thursday in a reversal of a vote last week by the conservative-led school board to end the classes. But the Francis Howell School District board first must approve a new curriculum “that

By ANDREW DALTON AP Entertainment Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Cher has filed a petition to become a temporary conservator overseeing her son’s money, saying the 47-year-old’s struggles with mental health issues and addiction have left him unable to manage his assets and potentially put his life in danger. The Oscar and Grammy winning singer

By MICHAEL PHILLIS Associated Press The Biden administration is granting Louisiana’s request to administer its own permit program for wells that store carbon dioxide. It will be just the third state to take over that job from the Environmental Protection Agency. It’s a win for carbon capture proponents that want projects approved more quickly. The

By MELANIE LIDMAN Associated Press TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — An Israeli kibbutz hard-hit by Hamas’ assault on southern Israel announced on Thursday the death of Judih Weinstein — an American-Canadian-Israeli woman who had previously been thought to be held hostage in Gaza. The news came six days after Weinstein’s husband, Gad Haggai, was also

By ROBERT BUMSTED Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — One person wanted to get past anger issues. Others sought to turn the page on medical bills, work stress, insecurities, taxes, regrets, bad habits, bad hair days, COVID-19, worrying about what other people think, and “all negativity of 2023.” People hoping to shed those and other

By JOHN WAWROW AP Sports Writer Buffalo Bills edge rusher Von Miller on Thursday disputed the allegations that he assaulted his pregnant girlfriend, calling them “100 percent false” and “blown out of proportion.” Addressing the media for the first time since turning himself into police in suburban Dallas on Nov. 30, Miller indicated something happened

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Minnesota woman has sued her dentist after receiving four root canals, eight dental crowns and 20 fillings in a single visit that she says led to her disfigurement. The lawsuit accuses Dr. Kevin Molldrem of Molldrem Family Dentistry in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, of providing negligent treatment that caused significant injuries to

By MANUEL RUEDA Associated Press BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — President Nicolás Maduro ordered Venezuela’s armed forces to conduct defensive exercises in the Eastern Caribbean after the United Kingdom sent a warship toward Guyana’s territorial waters as the South American neighbors dispute a large border region. In a nationally televised address Thursday, Maduro said that 6,000

By The Associated Press A Russian poet was given a 7-year prison sentence Thursday for reciting verses against Russia’s war in Ukraine, a tough punishment that comes during a relentless Kremlin crackdown on dissent. Moscow’s Tverskoi District Court convicted Artyom Kamardin on charges of making calls undermining national security and inciting hatred, which related to

By MIKE SCHNEIDER Associated Press The world population grew by 75 million people over the past year and on New Year’s Day it will stand at more than 8 billion people, according to figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Thursday. The worldwide growth rate in the past year was just under 1%. At

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) — Tampa Bay Rays shortstop Wander Franco failed to show up Thursday for a meeting with a prosecutor who is investigating him for an alleged relationship with a minor. Prosecutor Olga Diná Llaverías said the investigation will continue regardless of Franco’s no-show. She waited for the All-Star player and his

By JOHN ANTCZAK and JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — Powerful surf rolled onto beaches on the West Coast and Hawaii on Thursday as a big swell generated by the stormy Pacific Ocean pushed toward shorelines, causing localized flooding. Forecasters urged people to stay off rocks and jetties, and to not turn

By STEVE LeBLANC Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — Workers in several New England states are looking forward to a bump up in the minimum wage in 2024 while advocates in Massachusetts are pushing a ballot question aimed at phasing out the state’s subminimum wage for tipped workers. In Rhode Island, the state’s current $13 minimum