Month: April 2024

By JEAN FERNAND KOENA and SAMBU ASSANA Associated Press BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) — A spokesperson for an internationally backed court in the Central African Republic says the panel has issued an international arrest warrant for the country’s exiled former President François Bozizé for human rights abuses. The Special Criminal Court was set up

By JANIE HAR Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A Silicon Valley-backed campaign to build a new city in California for up to 400,000 people says it submitted enough signatures to qualify the initiative for the November election. If Solano County elections officials agree, voters in the San Francisco Bay Area county will decide whether

By JONATHAN J. COOPER Associated Press PHOENIX (AP) — President Joe Biden has made a number of election year moves intended to appeal to younger voters. The latest is a proposal by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug, which is under review at the White House Office of

By STEVE LeBLANC Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts will begin limiting how long homeless families can stay in shelters as the state continues to grapple with an influx of homeless migrants. Beginning June 1, the total length of stay will be limited to nine months, at the end of which families will be eligible

By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS Associated Press JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The Mississippi House Democratic leader says a Medicaid expansion plan endorsed by Republican leaders could struggle for bipartisan support. Rep. Robert Johnson says the plan has a work requirement that is unlikely to receive federal approval. He says that could create false hope among people

By WILL WEISSERT and LEAH ASKARINAM Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Democratic National Committee’s rulemaking arm has voted to seat New Hampshire’s full slate of delegates at the party’s convention this summer, ending a bitter feud with the state over its presidential primary no longer being the first in the nation. The move on

By KEVIN McGILL Associated Press NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A new Louisiana congressional map giving the state a second majority-Black House district has been rejected by a panel of federal judges. Tuesday’s 2-1 decision fuels new uncertainty about district boundaries as the state prepares for fall congressional elections. Challengers of the new map said it

By GARY D. ROBERTSON Associated Press RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A federal judge has ruled that some of North Carolina government’s restrictions on dispensing abortion pills are unlawful. A U.S. district judge granted a partial victory Tuesday to a physician who performs abortions and last year sued state and local prosecutors and state health and

By TODD RICHMOND Associated Press The U.S. House voted to end federal protection for gray wolves in 48 states, though the bill’s ultimate prospects are uncertain. The GOP-controlled House passed the bill 209-205 on Tuesday, sending it to the Senate for consideration. In 2011, Congress removed wolves from the list of endangered species in the

By DAVID KOENIG AP Airlines Writer The Biden administration is out with new guidelines for tax credits for producers of sustainable aviation fuel. The announcement Tuesday is getting praised by the ethanol industry, but some environmentalists are disappointed. The tax credits are designed to boost production of cleaner fuel that could reduce emissions from planes.

By DAMIAN DOVARGANES Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — At least 55 people were hurt, two seriously, when a Metro light rail train and a University of Southern California shuttle bus collided Tuesday along a busy thoroughfare in downtown Los Angeles, officials said. The crash happened shortly before noon along Exposition Boulevard, near the USC

LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) — One person died and 14 others were injured Tuesday after a sports utility vehicle crashed through the front glass wall of a thrift store in Las Cruces, authorities said. First responders said 10 of the injured in Tuesday’s crash were taken to hospitals for treatment and a 67-year-old woman was

By JENNIFER PELTZ and LINDSAY WHITEHURST Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is moving toward reclassifying marijuana as a less dangerous drug. The Justice Department proposal would recognize the medical uses of cannabis but wouldn’t legalize it for recreational use. The proposal still faces a potentially lengthy review process, but if

NEW YORK (AP) — After posting strong numbers for the first round, viewership for the NFL draft was down 3% from last year on TV and digital platforms. The draft averaged 5.74 million viewers for the three days this year across ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 and NFL Network after averaging 5.93 million in 2023 according to

By MICHAEL GOLDBERG Associated Press/Report for America JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A state judge says the body of a Mississippi man who was found dead after vanishing under mysterious circumstances will not be released to family members until police finish investigating the case. Hinds County Chancery Judge Dewayne Thomas did not make an official ruling

By LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — An insider trading trial has begun for a financial executive charged with enabling his boss and others to make millions of dollars illegally on news that an acquisition firm was taking former President Donald Trump’s media company public. In an opening statement, Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth

By ANITA SNOW Associated Press PHOENIX (AP) — Mexico’s top official in the Arizona border town of Nogales said Tuesday his country is displeased that prosecutors in the U.S. won’t retry an American rancher accused of fatally shooting a Mexican man on his property. Prosecutors had the option to retry George Alan Kelly, 75, or

By MICHAEL R. SISAK, JAKE OFFENHARTZ, COLLEEN LONG and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — The first week of testimony in Donald Trump’s hush money trial was the scene-setter for jurors. This week, prosecutors are working on filling in the details of how they say he pulled off a scheme to bury

By JIM SALTER Associated Press The Missouri Supreme Court has taken the unusual step of striking down a 2022 voter-approved constitutional amendment that required Kansas City to spend a larger percentage of its money on the police department, and ordered that the issue go back before voters in November. Democratic Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas

By RANDALL CHASE AP Business Writer DOVER, Del. (AP) — A Delaware judge has granted a request by attorneys for Donald Trump and Trump Media & Technology Group, parent company of his Truth Social platform, to slow down a merger-related lawsuit filed by two cofounders of the company. The judge said Tuesday that Andrew Litinsky

By ANDREW DeMILLO Associated Press LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Several transgender, intersex and nonbinary Arkansas residents are suing the state over its decision to no longer allow “X” to be listed instead of male or female on state-issued driver’s licenses and identification cards. The American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas filed the suit on

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) — Police in Georgia’s capital have used tear gas and water cannons to disperse protesters who rallied outside the country’s parliament to protest a bill that would require media and non-commercial organizations to register as being under foreign influence if they get over 20% of their funding from abroad. Thousands of demonstrators

By JOHN HANNA and SARA CLINE Associated Press TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas is requiring abortion providers to share patient information with the state and increasing funds to anti-abortion centers, while bills to loosen a restrictive ban in Louisiana face an uphill battle. Democratic lawmakers in Louisiana are pushing bills to add exceptions in cases

By DEVI SHASTRI AP Health Writer The U.S. Department of Agriculture says it will test ground beef for bird flu. Officials say they’re confident that the nation’s meat supply is safe, but are launching the studies after inactive viral particles were found in pasteurized milk. They will test beef for sale in states where dairy