Month: February 2024

By BRIAN WITTE Associated Press ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — The Maryland State House is locked down for an undisclosed security threat. An aide to Maryland House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones told reporters with offices on the ground floor of the building to lock their doors shortly after 5 p.m. Thursday. Police later escorted reporters out

By MICHAEL GOLDBERG Associated Press/Report for America JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The U.S. Department of Justice says a Mississippi police department in one of the nation’s poorest counties unconstitutionally jailed people for unpaid fines without first assessing whether they could afford to pay them. The announcement comes amid a Justice Department probe into alleged civil

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro says his government is suspending purchases of weapons from Israel after Palestinians say Israeli troops fired at people seeking food in Gaza. Petro’s decision marks an escalation of tensions between both countries over the Israel-Hamas war. Petro announced the move in a tweet Thursday in which he

By BRETT MARTEL AP Sports Writer BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Iowa star Caitlin Clark is close to passing the late Pete Maravich as the all-time scorer in NCAA basketball history. Maravich’s son Jaeson calls Clark a fantastic player who’s been great for basketball. He says he will always consider her scoring mark separate” from

By SCOTT BAUER Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A shirtless candidate for U.S. Senate broke through the ice of a Madison lake hoping to pour cold water on any notion that he’s a soft Californian, not a hardy Wisconsinite. And then in a video posted Thursday on X, Eric Hovde challenged his Democratic challenger,

By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Three dozen leaders at news organizations around the world are expressing solidarity with reporters doing the dangerous work of covering the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. The Committee to Protect Journalists is organizing the effort. It estimates that at least 89 journalists and media workers have

By MATT O’BRIEN AP Technology Writer ChatGPT-maker OpenAI is looking to fuse its artificial intelligence systems into the bodies of humanoid robots as part of a new deal with robotics startup Figure. Sunnyvale, California-based Figure announced the partnership Thursday along with $675 million in venture capital funding from a group that includes Amazon founder Jeff

DALLAS (AP) — A judge has upheld a decision requiring Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones to take a paternity test as part of a legal dispute with a 27-year-old woman who claims the billionaire is her biological father. A Texas judge on Wednesday rejected an appeal from Jones of a 2022 ruling in a paternity

By GEOFF MULVIHILL Associated Press A Texas prosecutor has been disciplined for allowing murder charges to be filed against a woman who self-managed an abortion in a case that sparked national outrage. Starr County District Attorney Gocha Ramirez agreed to pay a $1,250 fine and have his license held in a probated suspension for 12

By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — Jack Teixeira, the Massachusetts Air National Guard member accused of leaking highly classified military documents on a social media platform, is expected to plead guilty in his federal case, according to court papers filed Thursday. Prosecutors asked the judge to schedule a change of plea hearing,

By DAVID KLEPPER and BARBARA ORTUTAY Associated Press Attorneys for X Corp. and a research organization that studies online hate speech have traded arguments in court in a legal battle over the organization’s reports on the increase in hate speech on the site since it was purchased by Elon Musk in 2022. The non-profit Center

By MAYA SWEEDLER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — More than one-third of the total delegates available in both the Republican and Democratic presidential primaries will be awarded on Super Tuesday, when 16 states and one territory hold presidential nominating contests. On the Republican side, 854 of 2,429 will be at stake on Super Tuesday, which

By DEVNA BOSE AP Health Writer A massive U.S. health care technology company says it was attacked by the ransomware group ALPHV, also known as Blackcat. Change Healthcare first acknowledged the attack last week. It is affecting health care providers across the country. Mostly it is threatening the security of patients’ information and paychecks for

By JACK DURA Associated Press PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota’s Republican-controlled Legislature has approved the creation of a video to outline the state’s abortion laws and to clarify when health care providers are legally allowed to intervene. South Dakota outlaws all abortions except to save the life of the mother, under a trigger ban

By FATIMA HUSSEIN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The IRS plans to go after 125,000 high-income earners who did not file tax returns going back to 2017. The agency says hundreds of millions of dollars of unpaid taxes are involved in these cases. Beginning this week, the agency will start sending out noncompliance letters to

By KATE BRUMBACK Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — A man who killed his former girlfriend three decades ago is set to be put to death in March in what would be Georgia’s first execution in more than four years. A judge on Thursday signed the order for the execution of Willie James Pye, who was

By DAN GELSTON AP Sports Writer PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Jessica Gelman has become an influential leader and innovator in the sports industry. She co-founded the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference. She teamed with Philadelphia 76ers President Daryl Morey to not only found the conference, but guide it into the preeminent forum for number-crunchers. The conference

By JULIA FRANKEL Associated Press OFER PRISON, West Bank (AP) — A U.S. citizen who was dragged out of her home and detained by Israeli authorities for over three weeks was released on bail Thursday to wait out the remainder of her trial in the West Bank, the latest in a case attracting international attention

By ASHRAF KHALIL Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s cherry blossom season again, and officials in the nation’s capital are predicting a banner year for the signature pink blooms. The iconic cherry trees are expected to reach peak bloom between March 23 and March 26. Washington has prepared several weeks of herald the arrival of

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — A fire at a six-story shopping mall in the Bangladeshi capital overnight killed at least 43 people and injured dozens of others, with several people escaping to the building’s roof, officials said Friday. The fire started late Thursday at a restaurant on the first floor of the Green Cozy Cottage Shopping

By KIMBERLEE KRUESI Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee Congressman Mark Green reversed course and has announced that he’ll pursue a fourth term after all. The Republican initially announced nearly two weeks ago that wouldn’t seek reelection, but on Thursday, Green said he has received “countless calls” from constituents and colleagues asking him to

NEW YORK (AP) — In a Feb. 29 story about the FBI raiding properties owned by Winnie Greco, an aide to New York City Mayor Eric Adams, The Associated Press erroneously reported the type of leave she was placed on following the search. Greco was on sick leave, not administrative leave, according to Adams.

By MEGAN JANETSKY Associated Press MEXICO CITY (AP) — The flow of thousands of migrants daily through the treacherous migratory highway, the Darien Gap, has been cut off following the capture of a number of boat captains who had been ferrying the migrants to the starting point of their jungle trek. The stoppage began when

By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH Associated Press INDEPENDENCE, Mo. (AP) — Authorities say a court employee and a police officer were fatally shot Thursday after the court process server tried to serve an eviction notice at a home in Missouri. Police say a second officer was critically injured, but is expected to survive. Independence Police Chief Adam

By JONEL ALECCIA AP Health Writer Cases of norovirus, a nasty stomach bug that spreads easily, are climbing in the Northeastern U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday. Nationwide, about 12% of most recent norovirus tests sent to the CDC were positive, but the proportion was about 16% in the Northeast, the

By HALELUYA HADERO AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Consumer Reports says some doorbell cameras sold by Amazon and other online retailers have security flaws that could allow bad actors to view footage from the devices or control them completely. Researchers with the product-review organization say they found major vulnerabilities in cameras manufactured by