Month: February 2024

By STEFANIE DAZIO and JULIE WATSON Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — An magnitude 4.6 earthquake has struck the Southern California coast near Malibu. But there have been no reports of damage or injuries. The U.S. Geological Survey says it hit at 1:47 p.m. Friday at a depth of about 8 miles. The area is

By ELÉONORE HUGHES Associated Press RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — To thunderous applause, Rio de Janeiro’s mayor coronated King Momo, marking the beginning of the symbolic Carnival monarch’s five-day reign over the revelry. “I officially declare Carnival 2024 open!” said King Momo, after Mayor Eduardo Paes handed him a gigantic, silver and gold key. Confetti

By ERIC TUCKER and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The release of a harshly critical Justice Department special counsel report on President Joe Biden’s handling of classified information has triggered instant flashbacks to the history-shaping events of 2016. That’s when then-FBI Director James Comey castigated Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton over her email

By PATRICK ORSAGOS Associated Press COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A city in central Ohio has agreed to a settlement with one of its former K9 officers and a truck driver who were involved in an attack last year. Circleville will pay 24-year-old Jadarrius Rose $225,000 after he suffered bites from a dog that formerly was

By JOSH BOAK Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Colin Jost, the co-anchor of Weekend Update on “Saturday Night Live,” will get a chance to roast leading political and media figures as the featured entertainer at the annual dinner of the White House Correspondents’ Association in April. The writer and comedic performer has written for the

By JEFF AMY Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — The Republican leading a specially-appointed Georgia state Senate committee that’s supposed to investigate whether Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis committed misconduct proclaimed repeatedly Friday during the panel’s first meeting that he seeks just the facts, but the lead Democrat begrudgingly serving on the panel said she

By KEVIN FREKING Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate is moving toward a final vote on an emergency spending package that would provide military aid to Ukraine and Israel, replenish U.S. weapons systems and provide food, water and other humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza. About $60 billion would go to supporting Ukraine as

NAPLES, Fla. (AP) — Two people have died after a small plane attempted to make an emergency landing on Interstate 75 in southwest Florida on Friday afternoon, colliding with a vehicle and bringing traffic to a halt as a massive plume of black smoke rose into the air. The crash landing happened near the Pine

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A judge has ruled that a former St. Louis police officer was not guilty of assault for shooting a suspected carjacker in 2018, ruling he acted in self-defense. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Judge John T. Bird wrote that the shooting by Matthew EerNisse was “objectively reasonable,” given the circumstances.

By KEVIN McGILL Associated Press NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Carnival season 2024 entered its final days in New Orleans on Friday as a parade of “fabulous women and the men who support them” walked the narrow streets of the old French Quarter handing out hand-decorated bras. The krewe of “Bosom Buddies & Breast Friends” is

By NAJIB JOBAIN and LEE KEATH Associated Press RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Gaza’s southernmost town, Rafah, is bursting at the seams. Nearly the last place spared an Israeli offensive so far, Rafah’s population has more than quintupled with Palestinians streaming in to escape fighting. They pack by the dozens into apartments. Sidewalks and once-empty

By TERRY TANG Associated Press Historically, Asian Americans have been stereotyped as more brains than brawn or “foreigners” when it comes to sports like football. But they have had some sort of presence on the NFL field for nearly a century. Meanwhile, football has been a mainstay in Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities for

By FATIMA HUSSEIN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A new IRS inspector general report says the agency continued to give 19 contractors access to sensitive systems despite failing background reports as recently as last July. The Treasury Department’s inspector general for tax administration issued a report this week, saying, “These contractors still retained their access

By The Associated Press Russian President Vladimir Putin sat down in the Kremlin for an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson. For two hours, Putin put forth the Kremlin line on various aspects of the war in neighboring Ukraine, including Russia’s justifications for sending its troops into the country. He blamed both Ukraine

By JACQUES BILLEAUD Associated Press PHOENIX (AP) — Former Arizona Corrections Director Charles Ryan was sentenced Friday to probation for his no-contest plea to a disorderly conduct charge stemming from a 2022 armed standoff at his Tempe home during which police say he pointed a gun at officers. Superior Court Judge Geoffrey Fish decided against

By JIM MUSTIAN Associated Press Louisiana prosecutors have quietly dismissed charges against state police troopers who were recorded beating a Black motorist. The violent 2020 arrest of Antonio Harris was among a series of beatings of Black men captured on body-camera video that prompted a sprawling federal investigation into use of force by the Louisiana

By JIM VERTUNO Associated Press AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas A&M University will close its 20-year-old Qatar campus by 2028, with board members noting “heightened instability” in the Middle East as a major reason to reconsider its presence in the country. Thursday’s vote by Texas A&M’s Board of Regents also came after the school had

By CLIFF BRUNT AP Sports Writer Tyrone Willingham retired back in 2008, yet he has seen just a few Black men receive the kind of elite opportunity he got when he was hired as Notre Dame’s first Black head football coach more than two decades ago. He was encouraged when Michigan hired Sherrone Moore to

By BEN FINLEY Associated Press NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — Toby Keith’s songs accomplished, for some, what great art is intended to: They sustained people in challenging times, particularly U.S. service members and their families during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq after 9/11. For others, Keith’s work sowed division and was blindly patriotic — a

ROME (AP) — A Rome court has ordered that the man convicted in the 2007 murder of British student Meredith Kercher and freed three years ago be placed under “special surveillance” for allegedly abusing a former girlfriend. Italian media reported on Friday that the order came after the former girlfriend filed a complaint last summer

By RONALD BLUM AP Baseball Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Former New York Mets general manager Billy Eppler was suspended through the 2024 World Series on Friday by baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred, who concluded he directed team staff to fabricate injuries to create open roster spots. Manfred said in a statement that Eppler directed “the

By SETH BORENSTEIN AP Science Writer An abrupt shutdown of Atlantic Ocean currents that could put large parts of Europe in a deep freeze is looking a bit more likely and closer than before as a new complex computer simulation finds a “cliff-like” tipping point looming in the future. A long-worried nightmare scenario, triggered by