WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans on Friday narrowly passed legislation to press a midterm campaign promise to give parents greater say in what’s taught in public schools even as critics complained the “parents’ rights” bill would fuel a far-right movement that’s resulted in book bans, restrictions aimed at transgender students and raucous school board meetings across the country. Speaker Kevin…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Democratic legislative leaders and Gov. Tim Walz agreed Tuesday on broad budget targets that add up to nearly $17.9 billion in new spending, including $3 billion for tax cuts, but the details of where the money will go remain to be negotiated. Agreeing on the targets was a necessary step so that legislators can begin work in earnest on setting a…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers and his fellow Democrats worked Tuesday to keep the spotlight on abortion ahead of next month’s state Supreme Court election, resurrecting a bill that would repeal the state’s 1849 ban on the practice. Democrats introduced the bill in June days before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973…
NEW YORK (AP) — Facing the possibility of criminal charges, Donald Trump waited it out in Florida on Tuesday as New York braced for disruptions that could follow an indictment. Republican contenders in the 2024 race sized up the impact a prosecution could have on a campaign in which the former president is a leading contender. Trump over the weekend claimed without evidence that…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Minnesota is moving to fortify its status as a refuge for patients from restrictive states who travel to the state to seek abortions — and to protect providers who serve them. The state House on Monday passed a bill by a 68-62 vote to prohibit enforcement in Minnesota of laws, subpoenas, judgements or extradition requests from other states…
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden issued the first veto of his presidency Monday in an early sign of shifting White House relations with the new Congress since Republicans took control in January. He’s seeking to kill a Republican measure that bans the government from considering environmental impacts or potential lawsuits when making investment decisions for Americans’ retirement plans. It’s just the…
NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon plans to eliminate 9,000 more jobs in the next few weeks, CEO Andy Jassy said in a memo to staff on Monday. The job cuts would mark the second largest round of layoffs in the company’s history, adding to the 18,000 employees the company said it would lay off in January. In the memo, Jassy said the…
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump’s calls for protests ahead of his anticipated indictment in New York have generated mostly muted reactions from supporters, with even some of his most ardent loyalists dismissing the idea as a waste of time or a law enforcement trap. The ambivalence raises questions about whether Trump, though a leading Republican contender in the 2024 presidential race who…
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Pentagon study has found high rates of cancer among military pilots and for the first time has shown that ground crews who fuel, maintain and launch those aircraft are also getting sick. The data had long been sought by retired military aviators who have raised alarms for years about the number of air and ground crew members they…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The former Minneapolis police officer serving time for the 2020 murder of George Floyd pleaded guilty Friday to two counts of tax evasion. Derek Chauvin pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting, failing to file tax returns to the state of Minnesota for the years 2016 and 2017. in a Minnesota court before Washington County Judge Sheridan Hawley. Chauvin appeared via…
ST.. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Minnesota regulators said Thursday they’re monitoring the cleanup of a leak of 400,000 gallons of radioactive water from Xcel Energy’s Monticello nuclear power plant, and the company said there’s no danger to the public. “Xcel Energy took swift action to contain the leak to the plant site, which poses no health and safety risk to the local…
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s president said Thursday that his country plans to give Ukraine around a dozen MiG-29 fighter jets, which would make it the first NATO member to fulfill the Ukrainian government’s increasingly urgent requests for warplanes. President Andrzej Duda said Poland would hand over four of the Soviet-made warplanes “within the next few days” and that the rest needed…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Minnesota courts will allow greater audiovisual coverage of criminal proceedings starting next year under an order filed Wednesday by the Minnesota Supreme Court, but the rules will nonetheless remain more restrictive than those in many other states. Worldwide broadcasts and livestreams of the 2021 trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin and his conviction for murdering…
LAS VEGAS (AP) — President Joe Biden on Wednesday said his administration was focused “intensely” on lowering health care costs and took aim at “MAGA” Republicans who he said are intent on dialing back Medicare coverage for millions of Americans. Biden used a speech in Las Vegas where he was wrapping a three-day Western swing to make the case there…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Republicans who control the Wisconsin Legislature unveiled a bill Wednesday that would create rape and incest exceptions to the state’s 1849 abortion ban and clarify when abortions that protect the health of the mother would be allowed, but would not return the same rights that were in place under Roe v. Wade. The move comes as…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Legislation to legalize recreational marijuana for adults in Minnesota underwent a major rewrite Tuesday with the addition of new language to regulate and protect the state’s burgeoning industry in low-potency edibles and drinkables. Low-potency products containing THC derived from industrial hemp instead of full-strength cannabis have been legal in Minnesota since last year. But the law that…
Associated Press ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Ryan Redington, a two-time Beargrease Champion, has won the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, which his grandfather helped co-found. Redington’s dog team pulled him down Nome’s main street shortly after noon on Tuesday, sliding him under the iconic burled arch finish line. The 40-year-old Redington will pocket about $50,000 for the win. Redington’s grandfather,…
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House voted unanimously on Friday to declassify U.S. intelligence information about the origins of COVID-19, a sweeping show of bipartisan support near the third anniversary of the start of the deadly pandemic. The 419-0 vote was final approval of the bill, sending it to President Joe Biden’s desk to be signed into law. Debate was brief and to…
BERLIN (AP) — Shots were fired inside a building used by Jehovah’s Witnesses in the northern German city of Hamburg on Thursday evening, and an unspecified number of people were killed or wounded, police said. The shooting took place in the Gross Borstel district, a few kilometers (miles) north of the downtown area of Germany’s second-biggest city. “We only know…
CIUDAD VICTORIA, Mexico (AP) — A letter claiming to be from the Mexican drug cartel blamed for abducting four Americans and killing two of them condemned the violence and said the gang turned over to authorities its own members who were responsible. In a letter obtained by The Associated Press through a Tamaulipas state law enforcement source, the Scorpions faction of the…
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s upcoming budget proposal aims to cut deficits by nearly $3 trillion over the next decade, the White House said Wednesday. That deficit reduction goal is significantly higher than the $2 trillion that Biden had promised in his State of the Union address last month. It also is a sharp contrast with House Republicans, who have called for a…
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Tuesday proposed new taxes on the rich to help fund Medicare, saying the plan would help to extend the insurance program’s solvency by 25 years and provide a degree of middle-class stability to millions of older adults. In his plan, Biden is overtly declaring that the wealthy ought to shoulder a heavier tax burden. His budget would…
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers posted 10.8 million job openings in January, indicating the American job market continues to run too hot for the inflation fighters at the Federal Reserve. Job openings fell from 11.2 million in December but remained high by historical standards, the Labor Department reported Wednesday, but layoffs rose in January. The American job market has been…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin Republicans are preparing to again block a new policy from Democratic Gov. Tony Evers that requires students to get vaccinated twice against meningitis and tightening student chickenpox vaccination mandates. The Legislature’s GOP-controlled rules committee held a public hearing on the policy Tuesday. A committee vote to block the policy could soon follow, perhaps within days….
CIUDAD VICTORIA, Mexico (AP) — Two Americans whose abduction in Mexico was captured in a video that showed them caught in a cartel shootout have been found dead, officials said Tuesday. Two others who were kidnapped with them were found alive, with one wounded. Tamaulipas Gov. Américo Villarreal did not provide details on the extent of the wounded person’s injuries….
(AP) — Greenhouse gas emissions from the way humans produce and consume food could add nearly 1 degree of warming to the Earth’s climate by 2100, according to a new study. Continuing the dietary patterns of today will push the planet past the 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) limit of warming sought under the Paris climate agreement to avoid the…
(AP) — Shoppers could soon find it easier to tell if those grocery store steaks or pork chops were really “Made in the USA.” Federal agriculture officials on Monday released new requirements that would allow labels on meat, poultry or eggs to use that phrase — or “Product of USA” — only if they come from animals “born, raised, slaughtered and processed…
WASHINGTON (AP) — A skin lesion removed from President Joe Biden’s chest last month was a basal cell carcinoma — a common form of skin cancer — his doctor said Friday, adding that no further treatment was required. Dr. Kevin O’Connor, the White House doctor who has served as Biden’s longtime physician, said “all cancerous tissue was successfully removed” during…
WALTERBORO, S.C. (AP) — A judge sentenced South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh to life without parole Friday, a day after he was convicted of murder in the shooting deaths of his wife and son. The Colleton County jury deliberated for less than three hours Thursday before finding Murdaugh guilty of killing his 22-year-old son, Paul, with a shotgun and his…
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump can be sued by injured Capitol Police officers and Democratic lawmakers over the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, the Justice Department said Thursday in a federal court case testing Trump’s legal vulnerability for his speech before the riot. In court papers, the Justice Department urged a federal appeals court in Washington to…
(AP) — President Joe Biden’s administration is asking Congress to approve more than $1.6 billion to help clean up the mess of fraud against the massive government coronavirus pandemic relief programs. In a strategy announced Thursday, the administration called for money and more time to prosecute cases, to put into place new ways to prevent identity theft and to help…
(AP) — Eli Lilly will cut prices for some older insulins later this year and immediately give more patients access to a cap on the costs they pay to fill prescriptions. The moves announced Wednesday promise critical relief to some people with diabetes who can face thousands of dollars in annual costs for insulin they need in order to live….
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Even for the Thunder Bay area, a perilous swath of northern Lake Huron off the Michigan coast that has devoured many a ship, the Ironton’s fate seems particularly cruel. The 191-foot (58-meter) cargo vessel collided with a grain hauler on a blustery night in September 1894, sinking both. The Ironton’s captain and six sailors clambered…
TEMPE, Greece (AP) — Rescuers delved Wednesday through flattened, burned-out carriages for survivors and bodies after a passenger train and a freight train crashed head-on in central Greece overnight, killing at least 36 people and injuring scores. Transport Minister Kostas Karamanlis resigned Wednesday, saying he felt it was his “duty” to step down “as a basic indication of respect for…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Leaders of the Republican minority at the Minnesota Legislature rolled out a $13 billion “Give It Back” plan Tuesday to tap most of the state’s $17.5 billion budget surplus for one-time and permanent tax cuts, including rebate checks and fully eliminating taxes on Social Security. The GOP plan would use one-time money for rebate checks of $1,250…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Republican head of the state Assembly’s higher education committee wants to limit future University of Wisconsin tuition increases to no more than the rate of inflation, an idea unveiled Tuesday that comes after a decade of frozen tuitions. The proposal from Rep. David Murphy and Sen. Andre Jacque, both Republicans, would prohibit the UW Board…
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has begun hearing arguments in a partisan legal fight over President Joe Biden’s plan to wipe away or reduce student loans held by millions of Americans. The high court, with its 6-3 conservative majority, heard arguments on Tuesday on two challenges to the plan, which has so far been blocked by Republican-appointed judges on lower courts. Arguments were scheduled to last…
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is about to hear arguments over President Joe Biden’s student debt relief plan, which impacts millions of borrowers who could see their loans wiped away or reduced. So far, Republican-appointed judges have kept the Democratic president’s plan from going into effect, and it remains to be seen how the court, dominated 6-3 by conservatives, will respond. The justices…
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon announced a new package of long-term security assistance for Ukraine on Friday, marking the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion with a $2 billion commitment to send more rounds of ammunition and a variety of small, high-tech drones into the fight. The announcement comes just days after President Joe Biden made an unannounced visit to Kyiv and pledged America’s continuing commitment to…
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge rose last month at its fastest pace since June, an alarming sign that price pressures remain entrenched in the U.S. economy and could lead the Fed to keep raising interest rates well into this year. Friday’s report from the Commerce Department showed that consumer prices rose 0.6% from December to January,…
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s leader pledged Friday to push for victory in 2023 as he and other Ukrainians marked the somber anniversary of the Russian invasion that upended their lives and Europe’s security. It was Ukraine’s “longest day,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, but the country’s dogged resistance a year on has proven that “every tomorrow is worth fighting for.” On a day of commemorations, reflection…
(AP) — Disgraced South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh denied killing his wife and son but admitted lying to investigators about when he last saw them alive as he took the stand in his own defense Thursday. Murdaugh, 54, is charged with murder in the fatal shootings of his wife, Maggie, 52, and their 22-year-old son, Paul, who were killed near kennels on…
EAST PALESTINE, Ohio (AP) — The crew operating a freight train that derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, did not receive a critical warning about an overheated axle until just before dozens of cars went off the tracks, federal safety investigators said in a report Thursday as U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg made his first visit to the crash site. An…
WASHINGTON (AP) — Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo on Thursday called on the country to unite around a $52 billion effort to restore the U.S. as the world leader in advanced computer chips, saying it will require training of tens of thousands of workers. “The research, innovation and manufacturing sparked by this law will enable us to be the technological superpower, securing our…
A central Florida television journalist and a little girl were fatally shot Wednesday afternoon near the scene of a fatal shooting from earlier in the day, authorities said. Orange County Sheriff John Mina said during a news conference Wednesday evening that they’ve detained Keith Melvin Moses, 19, who they believe is responsible for both shootings in the Orlando-area neighborhood. Besides…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A liberal Milwaukee judge and a conservative former state Supreme Court justice won Tuesday’s primary to face off in a pivotal Wisconsin Supreme Court race that will determine majority control with major issues looming. Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Janet Protasiewicz and ex-Justice Dan Kelly were the top two vote-getters in a four-candidate field and advance to the…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The Minnesota Senate moved Tuesday to restore voting rights to convicted felons as soon as they get out of prison instead of continuing to require them to complete their parole before they can cast a ballot. The Senate approved the “Restore the Vote” bill less than a week after the Minnesota Supreme Court upheld the state’s…
EAST PALESTINE, Ohio (AP) — Federal environmental regulators on Tuesday took charge of the cleanup from the East Palestine, Ohio train derailment and chemical burn and ordered Norfolk Southern to foot the bill. The Environmental Protection Agency told Norfolk Southern to take all available measures to clean up contaminated air and water, and also said the company would be required…
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — President Joe Biden, returning on Tuesday to the Polish castle where he spoke shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine last year, said the war had hardened Western resolve to defend democracy around the globe. He warned that there were “hard and bitter days ahead,” but pledged that the United States and its allies would “have Ukraine’s…
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A new 6.4 magnitude earthquake on Monday killed three people and injured more than 200 in parts of Turkey laid waste two weeks ago by a massive quake that killed tens of thousands, authorities said. More buildings collapsed, trapping some people, while scores of injuries were recorded in neighboring Syria too. Monday’s earthquake was centered in…
