Month: May 2024

By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH Associated Press TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The lesson on diversity started slowly in a first-grade classroom in Topeka, where schools were at the center of the case that struck down segregated education. “I like broccoli. Do you like broccoli?” Marie Carter, a Black school library worker, asked broccoli-hating librarian Amy Gugelman, who

By REGINA GARCIA CANO Associated Press SABANA DE MENDOZA, Venezuela (AP) — At an intersection packed in four directions, rally-goers scream and light up cellphones in the evening as Venezuelan opposition figure María Corina Machado climbs onto a flatbed truck like a presidential candidate. She has been barred from the July 28 election. Still, she

By BILL BARROW and MATT BROWN Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — President Joe Biden will have his most direct engagement with college students since the start of the Israel-Hamas war when he speaks at Morehouse College’s commencement. Morehouse is a center of Black politics and culture. It’s located in Atlanta, the largest city in a

VENTURA, Calif. (AP) — A judge has decided that a Southern California college professor will stand trial for involuntary manslaughter and battery in the death of a Jewish counter-protester during demonstrations over the Israel-Hamas war last year. Superior Court Judge Ryan Wright judge declared Wednesday that there’s enough evidence to try Loay Abdelfattah Alnaji. He’s

By MARIA SHERMAN AP Music Writer It was Lainey Wilson ’s night, in many ways. She took home female artist of the year and the top prize of entertainer of the year at the 2024 Academy of Country Music Awards. “I’ve been in Nashville for 13 years doing this,” Wilson started her speech. “Everybody in

By MICHAEL R. SISAK, JENNIFER PELTZ, JAKE OFFENHARTZ and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s lawyers accused the star prosecution witness in his hush money trial of lying to jurors, portraying Trump fixer-turned-foe Michael Cohen on Thursday as a serial fabulist who is bent on seeing the presumptive Republican presidential

By The Associated Press Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to China underlines an increasingly close partnership between the two allies. China, led by President Xi Jinping, has offered robust diplomatic support to Moscow after its invasion of Ukraine. It also has emerged as a top export market for Russian oil and gas, helping to fill

By YURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer TOKYO (AP) — Japan has reported that its economy contracted at an annual rate of 2% in the first quarter of the year, as spending and exports declined. The Cabinet Office said Thursday that on a quarter-to-quarter basis, the preliminary seasonally adjusted gross domestic product, or GDP, a measure

By TSVANGIRAYI MUKWAZHI Associated Press KASAMA, Zambia (AP) — Every morning, Bridget Chanda places her prosthetic legs beside her bed, pulls on her stockings and pushes the remains of her limbs into the prosthetics as best she can. After six years they no longer fit, and it’s painful to stand or walk for too long,

By AUDREY McAVOY Associated Press HONOLULU (AP) — A University of Hawaii study examining the health effects of last year’s deadly wildfires on Maui has found that up to 74% of participants may have difficulty breathing and otherwise have poor respiratory health. It found almost half showed signs of compromised lung function. Researchers gathered the

By PAUL NEWBERRY AP Sports Writer It’s not a rock. It’s the Athens Rock Lobsters. Ah-ah-ah-ah! The minor-league hockey team that will begin play next season in the home of the University of Georgia paid homage to the city’s rich musical heritage by choosing a nickname associated with one of its most famous bands. The

By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer CANNES, France (AP) — Francis Ford Coppola on Thursday will premiere at the Cannes Film Festival a film on which he has risked everything, one that’s arriving clouded by rumors of production turmoil. Sound familiar? On Thursday, Coppola’s self-financed opus “Megalopolis” will make its much-awaited premiere. Other films are

By MAKIYA SEMINERA Associated Press RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Republican lawmakers in North Carolina are pushing forward with their plan to repeal a pandemic-era law that allowed the wearing of masks in public for health reasons, a move spurred in part by demonstrations against the war in Gaza that have included masked protesters camped out

By ELÉONORE HUGHES Associated Press RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil’s biggest pop star, Anitta, has released a music video depicting rituals of the Afro-Brazilian faith Candomble, sparking controversy in a country where religious intolerance is all too common. Her track — pointedly named “Accept” — has been viewed over a million times on YouTube

By BEN FINLEY Associated Press The Dali container ship experienced a near perfect storm of calamities before it struck Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge in March. But a report released Tuesday by federal investigators leaves many questions unanswered. The National Transportation Safety Board described four power failures on the ship in roughly 10 hours. Two

By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The Sudanese people “are trapped in an inferno of brutal violence” with famine, disease and fighting “closing in” and no end in sight, the top U.N. humanitarian official in the war-torn country says. Clementine Nkweta-Salami told a U.N. press conference Wednesday that “horrific atrocities are

FRANKLIN, Tennessee (AP) — Local Tennessee officials say three people are dead after a small plane crashed on Wednesday in Williamson County. Williamson County Chief Deputy Mark Elrod told reporters that the plane had left Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and was headed to Louisville, Kentucky, but crashed in Tennessee near Leiper’s Fork around noon local time.

By FREIDA FRISARO Associated Press FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A bus carrying people to work in a watermelon field in central Florida was sideswiped by a suspected drunk driver and overturned in a field, killing eight of them and injuring up to 40 others. The man accused of causing Tuesday morning’s crash appeared before

By HANNAH FINGERHUT and GEOFF MULVIHILL Associated Press A new abortion clinic will open in southeast Kansas this fall, bolstering the state’s role as a regional hub for reproductive health services whose neighbors have severely restricted access since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Comprehensive Health of Planned Parenthood Great Plains announced Tuesday

By RANDALL CHASE Associated Press DOVER, Del. (AP) — A federal judge says Delaware’s vanity license plate program is unconstitutional because it allows for viewpoint discrimination by officials in deciding whether to approve applications. Tuesday’s ruling came in a lawsuit filed by a breast cancer survivor whose license plate was recalled in 2021 because it

By MARK STEVENSON Associated Press MEXICO CITY (AP) — Newly minted Michelin-starred chef Arturo Rivera Martínez stood over an insanely hot grill Wednesday at the first Mexican taco stand ever to get a coveted star from the French dining guide, and did exactly the same thing he’s been doing for 20 years: searing meat. Though

By DAVID A. LIEB Associated Press Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed a measure Wednesday that could have earmarked up to $5 million for gun-detection systems in schools while expressing concern that it could have benefitted only one particular company. Kelly’s line-item veto leaves in place $5 million for school safety grants but deletes specific wording

By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Family members of a Navy veteran who died after a police officer pressed a knee to his neck for nearly five minutes have settled with the Northern California city of Antioch for $7.5 million. Police were called to Angelo Quinto’s home in 2020 because the

CHICAGO (AP) — A consultant the Chicago Blackhawks hired to improve relations with American Indian tribes is accusing the team, its charity foundation and its CEO of fraud, breach of contract and sexual harassment. Nina Sanders filed a civil lawsuit in Cook County late Tuesday. According to the lawsuit, Blackhawks CEO Dan Wirtz hired her

The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Financial disclosure reports for the president and vice president are out and they show Vice President Kamala Harris was gifted tickets to one of the summer’s hottest concerts by the artist herself — Beyoncé. The tickets were valued at nearly $1,700. Harris also attended the HBCU Celebration Bowl, where

By BRUCE SCHREINER and DYLAN LOVAN Associated Press FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — The U.S. Department of Justice says it will investigate conditions in Kentucky’s youth detention centers. The federal probe follows a state auditor’s report that says Kentucky’s juvenile justice system has problems with the use of force and isolation techniques. In January, two teenage

By KEVIN FREKING and BRIAN SLODYSKO Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A new political action committee has begun pouring money into a key Oregon swing district just days before the Democratic primary there, raising questions about whether Republicans are trying to tilt the scales in the contest. The primary features Janelle Bynum and Jamie McLeod-Skinner.