Month: August 2024

Associated Press WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — The annual Florida Python Challenge this year begins the competition between hunters to capture the most and longest Burmese pythons. The 10-day hunt is meant to incentivize hunters to capture the invasive snakes in Florida to win prizes among a share of $30,000, but the grand prize

Associated Press JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — The recent rupture of a crucial oil pipeline has sent fresh pain through the economy of South Sudan, where even the security forces haven’t been paid in nine months. Some soldiers and civil servants are turning to side hustles or abandoning their jobs. South Sudan’s economy largely depends

Associated Press FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) — On Aug. 9, 2014, Michael Brown and a friend were walking in the middle of Canfield Drive, a two-lane street in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, Missouri, when a police officer drove by and told them to use the sidewalk. After words were exchanged, the white officer confronted

Associated Press If Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, are elected this fall, not only would a woman of color lead the country for the first time, but a Native woman would govern a state for the first time in U.S. history too. Peggy Flanagan, the lieutenant governor of

Associated Press BERLIN (AP) — A human rights activist since the 1980s, Oleg Orlov thought Russia had turned a corner when the Soviet Union collapsed and a democratically elected president became leader. But then Vladimir Putin rose to power, crushing dissent and launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Finally, the 71-year-old Orlov was himself thrown

Associated Press FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) — Michael Brown once told his father the “world is going to know my name,” words Michael Brown Sr. still takes to heart. Friday marks 10 years since the 18-year-old was killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, turning the St. Louis suburb into the focal point of the

Associated Press DEDHAM, Mass. (AP) — Prosecutors and defense attorneys in the Karen Read case have returned to court focused on jury deliberations that led to a mistrial on charges that she killed her police officer boyfriend. Read is accused of ramming into John O’Keefe with her SUV and leaving him for dead in a

Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — A new report from Microsoft finds that Iran is accelerating online activity that appears intended to influence the U.S. election. Friday’s report finds that Iranian actors have recently created fake news sites, impersonated activists and in one case targeted a U.S. presidential campaign official with an email phishing attack.

Associated Press GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris drew on her prosecutorial background to make her first expansive pitch on immigration to border-state voters as she and her new running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, attracted thousands to a campaign rally in Arizona during their tour of battleground states. Harris, the former attorney

U.S. death rates fell last year for all age groups compared with 2022. That’s according to federal health data released Thursday. COVID-19 fell to the 10th leading cause of death. A couple years ago, it was No. 3. The leading causes were heart disease, cancer and a category of injuries that includes gun deaths and

AP Golf Writer Juan “Chi Chi” Rodriguez, a Hall of Fame golfer whose antics on the greens and inspiring life story made him among the sport’s most popular players during a long professional career, died Thursday. He was 88. Rodriguez’s death was announced by Carmelo Javier Ríos, a senator in Rodriguez’s native Puerto Rico. He

Associated Press PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The small Oregon city at the heart of a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling on outdoor sleeping bans has voted to prohibit camping but establish certain areas where homeless people can go. The Grants Pass City Council voted Wednesday to ban camping on public property, including parks, and create

Associated Press LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) — Dozens of Maui surfers, canoe paddlers and boat riders made their way into the ocean off Lahaina on Thursday to remember the 102 people killed when the nation’s deadliest wildfire in more than a century destroyed the historic town one year ago. The “paddle out” gathering is a ritual

NEW YORK (AP) — Three Columbia University deans who exchanged disparaging texts during a campus discussion about Jewish life and antisemitism have resigned. The resignations were confirmed by the school on Thursday. They come a month after Columbia said it had suspended the administrators from their positions. The school’s president said some of the messages

Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A moderate California Democratic state lawmaker is announcing Thursday that she is switching to the Republican Party. State Sen. Marie Alvarado-Gil said she had long been a Democrat, but she and the Democratic Party have moved in different directions since she was elected in 2022. Alvarado-Gil represents a largely