Month: February 2024

By JAKE OFFENHARTZ Associated Press New York (AP) — This New York love story begins with a criminal act of sabotage. Under cover of darkness a year ago Friday, someone breached a waist-high fence and slipped into the Central Park Zoo. Once inside, they cut a hole through a steel mesh cage, freeing a majestic

By DÁNICA COTO Associated Press SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Construction of two private villas inside a national park in Barbuda has sparked the latest environmental legal fight between angry residents and wealthy foreigners seeking to develop the Caribbean island with government support. Fisherman and tour guide George Jeffery and the U.K.-based Global Legal

PUEBLO, Colo. (AP) — A child’s body was found encased in concrete in a Colorado storage unit, and officers in Pueblo announced this week they are searching for two other children as part of the homicide investigation to determine if they are safe. The remains were discovered after someone found a metal container in a

By BROOKE SCHULTZ Associated Press/Report for America It was a passionate student letter in 2020 that caused the Southern York County school board to reconsider its logo: a Native American man, representing the “Warriors.” Though the conversation had come up before in the suburban district located in southern Pennsylvania, 2020 was a turning point of

By MIKE STOBBE AP Medical Writer NEW YORK (AP) — The latest COVID-19 vaccines are 54% effective at preventing symptomatic infection in adults. That’s according to the first U.S. study to assess how well the updated shots work. The shots became available last year and are designed to better protect against more recent coronavirus variants.

By MATTHEW DALY Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate has approved President Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the Environmental Protection Agency’s air pollution office just as the agency is set to finalize rules over climate-changing emissions from power plants and cars and trucks. Joe Goffman is a longtime EPA official who has led the

By GEOFF MULVIHILL Associated Press A company that helped develop marketing campaigns for OxyContin and other opioids has agreed to a $350 million settlement with U.S. states over the toll of the powerful prescription painkillers. New York Attorney General Letitia James said Thursday that Publicis Health engaged in predatory and deceptive marketing strategies to help

By JEFF AMY Associated Press Georgia senators are passing a bill to allow sports gambling. The bill moves on to the House for more debate, but only after senators decided on Thursday that it requires a separate state constitutional amendment. That could throw ultimate passage into doubt, with a constitutional amendment needing support from two-thirds

FLINT, Mich. (AP) — A second contractor says it has reached a $25 million settlement over its role in Flint, Michigan’s lead-contaminated water scandal. Boston-based Veolia North America said Thursday that the class-action litigation agreement includes payments of $1,500 for individual minors. It says the agreement will resolve claims made on behalf of more than

By ANDREW WILKS Associated Press ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkish officials say police rescued seven hostages held at gunpoint for hours at a factory owned by U.S. company Procter & Gamble in northwest Turkey. A gunman had sparked the standoff at the P&G facility in Gebze, Kocaeli province, in protest of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza,

By ALANIS THAMES AP Sports Writer MIAMI (AP) — Some of Roberto Clemente’s most impactful career and life moments are on display at the Miami Marlins’ loanDepot Park. A traveling exhibit titled “3,000” — a nod to the day on September 30, 1972, that the late Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder became the first Latin American-born MLB

By JIM SALTER Associated Press When two Native American boys from Nebraska died after being taken to a notorious boarding school hundreds of miles away, they were buried there without notice. Nearly 130 years later, the Winnebago Tribe wants the boys back home. So far, the Army has refused to return the remains of Samuel

By ALICIA RANCILIO Associated Press The new season of National Geographic’s “Genius” anthology series focuses on two civil rights legends, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. “Genius: MLK/X”  is launching the fourth season of the series. “Genius: MLK/X” stars Kelvin Harrison Jr. as King and Aaron Pierre as Malcolm X. The series

By DAVID A. LIEB Associated Press JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Missouri Supreme Court is considering whether changes should be made to the state’s Senate districts. The high court heard arguments Thursday in a lawsuit contending the current map illegally splits Buchanan County and the St. Louis suburb of Hazelwood into multiple districts. The

By JULIE CARR SMYTH Associated Press COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Stanley J. Aronoff has died at age 91 after a long career that included nearly four decades in the Ohio Statehouse. A partner at the law firm Aronoff founded says he died peacefully Wednesday. The Harvard-educated lawyer from Cincinnati was known as an artful negotiator

By CLAIRE RUSH Associated Press SALEM, Ore. (AP) — The Oregon Supreme Court said Thursday that 10 Republican state senators who staged a record-long walkout last year to stall bills on abortion, transgender health care and gun rights cannot run for reelection. The decision upholds the secretary of state’s decision to disqualify the senators from

By LAURAN NEERGAARD AP Medical Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Women are far more likely than men to get autoimmune diseases, illnesses like lupus or rheumatoid arthritis that occur when the immune system mistakenly attacks their own bodies. That gender disparity has baffled scientists for decades but new research may finally explain why. Females have two

MOSCOW, Idaho (AP) — Attorneys for the man charged with stabbing four University of Idaho students to death in late 2022 are seeking a change of venue, saying he cannot receive a fair trial in the community where the killings occurred. Anne Taylor, Bryan Kohberger’s lead public defender, this week asked Judge John Judge of

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Authorities have captured a man accused of taking a gun from the scene of a shooting inside a Philadelphia store that left a man dead and a police officer wounded. Forty-two-year-old Jose Quinones-Mendez was arrested Wednesday night in Philadelphia. He’s charged with tampering with evidence, obstruction of justice, and a weapon offense.

By STEPHEN WHYNO AP Sports Writer The Washington Commanders have an agreement with Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn to hire him as coach, according to two people with knowledge of the decision. The people spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Thursday because the team had not yet announced the move. Washington

By ILLIA NOVIKOV Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine is claiming it used sea drones to sink a Russian warship in the Black Sea during a nighttime attack. Ukraine’s military intelligence agency published a video it says shows naval drones assaulting the Russian missile-armed corvette Ivanovets on Wednesday night, apparently sinking it. Meanwhile, Russian

By WAYNE PARRY Associated Press NORTH WILDWOOD, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey is refusing to allow a shore town whose sand dunes have washed away in places to build a bulkhead to protect itself, ruling that no one is in imminent danger. The state Department of Environmental Protection has told North Wildwood it cannot build

By LOLITA C. BALDOR and TARA COPP Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Thursday he never told his staff to keep his cancer surgery and hospitalization secret from the White House, but acknowledged he should have handled it differently and he apologized for keeping President Joe Biden and others in the

By SRDJAN NEDELJKOVIC and COSTAS KANTOURIS Associated Press ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Police and student protesters have clashed in the Greek capital after a demonstration against government plans to allow private universities. Demonstrators on Thursday attacked police cordons, set fire to trash dumpsters and threw stones at riot police near parliament and later during clashes

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — Harvard University’s Hasty Pudding Theatricals has named actor Annette Bening as its 2024 Woman of the Year. Bening recently received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress for playing the prickly long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad in the movie “Nyad.” It’s her fifth Oscar nod. The Pudding is the oldest theatrical organization in

By GARY GERARD HAMILTON Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Legendary Southern rapper Juvenile says he had been unaware of NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series when a social media post suggested that he do a performance, setting off a frenzy. Two months later, Juvenile’s performance became one of the most notable of last year. with

By MARIA SHERMAN AP Music Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — At the 2024 Grammys, boygenius — the major label rock band built of Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus — is up for six awards, tying the likes of Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish. Those include two major categories: record of the year (for