Month: February 2024

By JIMMY GOLEN AP Sports Writer NBA champion and “Survivor” contestant Scot Pollard is “awake and feeling great” a day after a heart transplant, his wife said Saturday on social media. “Scot has a new heart!” Dawn Pollard posted Friday night on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Surgery went well and I’ve been told the

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A former high-ranking FBI counterintelligence official was sentenced to more than two years in prison for concealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments from a businessman with ties to the Albanian government. Charles McGonigal supervised national security operations for the FBI in New York before his

By MICHAEL HILL Associated Press ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A New York appeals court in Albany has heard arguments over the fate of the state Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government. The arguments Friday stem from a lawsuit filed by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who claims the commission lacked the constitutional authority to prosecute

By MARK SCOLFORO Associated Press HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania’s high court is taking a case to decide whether some automatic life sentences for those convicted of murder violate constitutional protections for defendants. The justices said Friday they will hear the appeal by Derek Lee, convicted of a 2014 killing. Lee argues the state’s life-without-parole

By MICHELLE L. PRICE and CHRISTINE FERNANDO Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — A major anti-abortion group is praising a published report that Donald Trump has privately told people he supports a national ban on abortion after 16 weeks of pregnancy — though his campaign denied the report and said Trump plans to “negotiate a

By DÁNICA COTO Associated Press SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A top court in St. Vincent and the Grenadines has upheld laws that criminalize gay sex. Friday’s ruling was a blow to activists who have long decried the violence that the LGBTQ+ community has faced on the conservative Caribbean archipelago. The ruling stems from

By RALPH D. RUSSO AP College Sports Writer The Atlantic Coast Conference asked a Florida court to pause Florida State’s lawsuit against the conference while its claim against the school in North Carolina moves forward or dismiss the Seminoles’ case altogether. The motion was filed in Leon County Circuit Court. The ACC’s response to Florida

WAUKEGAN, Ill. (AP) — A suburban Chicago man who pleaded guilty but mentally ill for drowning his three young children has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. A Lake County judge sentenced 36-year-old Jason Karels of Round Lake Beach on Friday. Karels had pleaded guilty in December to three counts

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Prosecutors have filed assault and gun charges against a Washington, D.C., man accused of shooting three police officers trying to serve an animal cruelty warrant, touching off a daylong standoff. The Metropolitan Police Department said Friday the officers were treated for leg and arm wounds at hospitals

By DASHA LITVINOVA and EMMA BURROWS Associated Press TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — The attacks range from the exotic — poisoned by drinking polonium-laced tea or touching a deadly nerve agent — to the more mundane of getting shot at close range. Some take a fatal plunge from an open window. Over the years, Kremlin political

By MIKE CORDER Associated Press THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The top UN court has rejected a South African request to impose urgent measures to safeguard Rafah in the Gaza Strip. But it has also stressed that Israel must respect earlier measures imposed late last month at a preliminary stage in a landmark genocide case.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — The deaths of two people who were shot in a dorm room at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs on Friday morning will be investigated as homicides, police said. The victims, who were not immediately identified, were found dead when police responded to a report of a shooting around 6

By AMY BETH HANSON and COLLEEN SLEVIN Associated Press DENVER (AP) — A financially troubled former funeral home owner kept a deceased woman’s body in a hearse for two years at a house where police also found the cremated remains of at least 30 people, authorities said Friday in the latest case to underscore lax

By CIARÁN GILES and TERRY SPENCER Associated Press MADRID (AP) — An American woman is missing in Spain under disturbing circumstances. Ana Maria Knezevic disappeared from her Madrid apartment on Feb. 2, shortly after a man wearing a motorcycle helmet used spray paint to disable the building’s security cameras. She is from Florida and in

By LEA SKENE Associated Press BALTIMORE (AP) — A Baltimore County police officer is accused of using excessive force when he pepper sprayed a handcuffed suspect in the face and closed him inside a hot patrol car. Zachary Small has also been charged with reckless endangerment, misconduct in office and multiple counts of assault. Small

By ZEKE MILLER and MARY CLARE JALONICK Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden says that the apparent death of Russian anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny brings new urgency to the need for Congress to approve tens of billions of dollars for Ukraine to stave off Moscow’s invasion. Speaking at the White House, Biden said

By NICK INGRAM and JOHN HANNA Associated Press KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Jacob Gooch was having what was sure to be the best day of his year, hanging out with his wife and children and friends in the massive, happy, high-fiving crowd of fellow Kansas City Chiefs fans at the parade celebrating their Super

By WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS and MATT O’BRIEN AP Business Writers NEW YORK (AP) — The maker of ChatGPT is now diving into AI-generated video. Meet Sora — OpenAI’s new text-to-video generator. The tool, which the San Francisco-based company unveiled on Thursday, uses generative artificial intelligence to instantly create short videos based on written commands. Sora isn’t

DETROIT (AP) — The United Auto Workers union is threatening to go on strike next week at Ford’s largest and most profitable factory in a dispute over local contract language. The union said Friday that nearly 9,000 workers at the Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville will strike on Feb. 23 if the local contract dispute

By SEUNG MIN KIM Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden said Friday there was no sign Russia has decided to go ahead and deploy an emerging anti-satellite weapon, the disclosure of which has rattled Washington this week. The White House has confirmed that U.S. intelligence officials have information indicating Russia has obtained such

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A traffic stop in a Philadelphia neighborhood ended in gunfire when authorities say the driver backed into the officer’s cruiser and then pinned him against a wall. That spurred the officer to fire several shots into the vehicle. The driver sped off. But was soon found wounded in the vehicle and died