Year: 2024

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Jimmy Carter has another distinction to his name. The 99-year-old is the first of the U.S. presidents to be honored with an official White House Christmas ornament while still living. The ornament was unveiled Wednesday and is the latest in an annual series that the

NEW YORK (AP) — Federal prosecutors say a leader of a Japan-based crime syndicate conspired to traffic uranium and plutonium from Myanmar in the belief that Iran would use it for nuclear weapons. Prosecutors said Wednesday that Takeshi Ebisawa and his confederates showed samples of nuclear materials transported from Myanmar to Thailand to a Drug

By MATTHEW BROWN Associated Press BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A U.S. appeals court on Wednesday struck down a moratorium on coal leasing from federal lands in a move that could open the door to future coal sales from vast, publicly owned reserves of the fuel that’s a major source of climate-changing greenhouse gases. The ruling

By ANITA SNOW Associated Press PHOENIX (AP) — The Republican prosecutor of Arizona’s most populous county took a thinly veiled swipe at a Democratic counterpart in the East on Wednesday, saying she would not agree to extradition of a suspect in the death of a woman who was fatally bludgeoned in a New York City

By MARCIA DUNN AP Aerospace Writer CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — An old Earth-observing satellite has fallen out of orbit and harmlessly burned up. The European Space Agency says its satellite broke apart over the Pacific on Wednesday, halfway between Hawaii and Alaska. No damage or injuries were reported. Launched in 1995, the spacecraft was

By LAURAN NEERGAARD AP Medical Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — A study of older adults in China offers a closer look at the dominolike sequence of brain changes that lead to Alzheimer’s. Scientists don’t know exactly how Alzheimer’s forms but it quietly ravages the brain long before symptoms appear. Compared with people who remained healthy, researchers

By JAMIE STENGLE Associated Press Audrii Cunningham, the 11-year-old Texas girl whose body was found in a river this week, died from homicidal violence that included blunt head trauma, a medical examiner’s office said Thursday. Don Steven McDougal, 42, a family friend who authorities say was supposed to be taking Audrii to the school bus

HONOLULU (AP) — Hawaii state and county officials are requesting about $1 billion from the Legislature to help cover Maui wildfire recovery expenses in the near term. The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reports that the state had budgeted $199 million for such expenses but now expects it may need $561 million under a “worst-case” scenario. The budget

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Former NFL running back Marshawn Lynch has resolved a Las Vegas drunken driving case without a trial or DUI conviction. A city judge accepted an agreement Wednesday requiring the 37-year-old to attend DUI traffic school, pay a $1,140 fine, complete 200 hours of community service and remain out of trouble for

By JESSE BEDAYN Associated Press/Report for America DENVER (AP) — On the heels of two egregious cases of funeral home owners mishandling bodies and cremated remains, Colorado lawmakers aimed Wednesday at trying to shore up the state’s lax regulations that failed to prevent the horrific incidents. A bipartisan House committee unanimously voted in a hearing

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — The transcripts of a 2006 grand jury that investigated Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual assaults of underage girls would be released to the public under a bill heading to Florida’s governor after it was unanimously passed by the Legislature. The bill passed the Senate on Wednesday after earlier passing the House. It would

By LEAH WILLINGHAM Associated Press CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia’s Republican-controlled House of Delegates has voted to allow teachers and other school staff who undergo training to carry guns in K-12 public schools. Republican Del. Dave Foggin of Wood County, a physics teacher, said during Wednesday’s debate on the bill that he can’t think

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Beyoncé made history once again: The superstar singer has become the first Black woman to top Billboard’s country music chart. The Grammy winner achieved the feat after her new single “Texas Hold ‘Em” reached No. 1 on the country airplay chart this week. She dropped the song on Feb. 11 —

By DÁNICA COTO Associated Press SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — An attorney for Haitian President Jovenel Moïse’s widow, who was indicted in his assassination, says he believes the accusations against her are politically motivated. The U.S.-based attorney says he was surprised by media reports this week detailing the indictments against Martine Moïse and dozens

HANOVER Dartmouth College will honor the memory of its winningest football coach by adding his name to its athletic complex next fall. Buddy Teevens, known nationally for his efforts to make football safer, died in September of injuries he had sustained in a bicycle accident six months earlier. The Ivy League school announced Wednesday that

By CLAUDIA LAUER Associated Press PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The Justice Department says a suspect in a plot to kill an Iranian American author and activist has been extradited from the Czech Republic to face charges. Polad Omarov was arrested by Czech officials in January 2023, when charges were announced against him and two other men

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal prosecutors say the explosive allegations at the center of an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden were false and came from an ex-FBI informant who said he was in touch with Russian intelligence. Prosecutors said in court documents Wednesday that informant Alexander Smirnov is “actively peddling

By STEVE LeBLANC Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — Appeals Court Associate Justice Gabrielle R. Wolohojian, a former romantic partner of Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, says she’s ready to serve on the state’s highest court. Wolohojian testified Wednesday before the Governor’s Council on her nomination to the court. Healey has said her past relationship with Wolohojian

By SAM METZ Associated Press RABAT, Morocco (AP) — Spain’s prime minister has visited Morocco as the two nations reckon with a spike in migration to the Canary Islands and a Europe-wide debate and protests about agricultural regulations and imports. The neighboring countries maintain close business and political ties as Moroccans make up the single

By MICHAEL CASEY Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — Harvard University condemned what it called a “flagrantly antisemitic cartoon” that an undergraduate group posted on social media over the weekend. It also appeared on the Instagram account of Harvard Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine. Copied from a newsletter published by students in the U.S.

By KATHY McCORMACK Associated Press CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A jury has begun deliberations in the case of a New Hampshire man charged with second-degree murder in the death of  his 5-year-old daughter. Adam Montgomery said last year that he loves Harmony Montgomery unconditionally and did not cause her death. His attorneys acknowledged his guilt

By BRUCE SCHREINER Associated Press FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Gay rights advocates are pushing back against a measure to broaden Kentucky’s religious freedom law. They say the bill would undermine community-level “fairness ordinances” meant to protect LGBTQ+ people from discrimination. The measure won approval from a House committee Wednesday. But some supporters signaled a willingness

By KIM CHANDLER Associated Press MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama’s largest hospital paused in vitro fertilization treatments Wednesday as providers and patients across the state scrambled to assess the impact of a court ruling that said frozen embryos are the legal equivalent of children. The University of Alabama at Birmingham health system said in a

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Maine would become the 27th state to ban paramilitary training under a bill narrowly passed by the state’s House of Representatives. The House approved the proposal Wednesday by a vote of 66-60. Supporters say it’s designed to block groups hoping to create civil unrest. Democratic Rep. Laurie Osher of Orono sponsored

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — U.K. lawmakers have called for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war. But the move came after dozens of lawmakers walked out of the House of Commons in protest at how the vote was handled on Wednesday. Parliament descended into chaos as legislators from the government and an