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…
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — President Joe Biden paid an unannounced visit to Ukraine on Monday to meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a defiant display of Western solidarity with a country still fighting what he called “a brutal and unjust war” days before the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion. “One year later, Kyiv stands,” Biden declared after meeting Zelenskyy at…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A conservative tilt on the Wisconsin Supreme Court has given Republicans victories on voting restrictions, gerrymandered legislative districts and other high-stakes cases in recent years. Voters now have a chance to tip that balance toward the left, with implications for abortion rights and perhaps the outcome of the 2024 presidential election in one of the nation’s most closely divided political battlegrounds. Tuesday’s primary…
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden built his 2020 White House run around promises to beat Donald Trump “like a drum.” As Biden gears up for an expected reelection campaign, he insists he can do it again. But what if Trump isn’t next year’s Republican nominee? Though the GOP primary race is only just beginning, a general election pitting Biden against any other Republican could look very…
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Five former Memphis police officers pleaded not guilty Friday to second-degree murder and other charges in the violent arrest and death of Tyre Nichols, with his mother saying afterward that none of them would look her in the eye in court. Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills Jr., Emmitt Martin III and Justin Smith made their first court…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Nearly all Minnesota workers would be entitled to paid sick leave under a plan moving through the Legislature that’s aimed at the roughly one-third whose employers don’t already give them time off when they’re ill. Employees would be guaranteed one hour of paid “earned sick and safe time” for every 30 hours worked, up to…
MIDDLETON, Wis. (AP) — Gov. Tony Evers’ budget leaves the University of Wisconsin System about $130 million short of what regents say they need to run their campuses over the next two years, raising questions about whether they may raise tuition to make up the shortfall. Republican lawmakers froze in-state undergraduate tuition systemwide in 2013 but lifted the freeze in 2021,…
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden said Thursday that the U.S. is developing “sharper rules” to track, monitor and potentially shoot down unknown aerial objects, following three weeks of high-stakes drama sparked by the discovery of a suspected Chinese spy balloon transiting much of the country. The president has directed national security adviser Jake Sullivan to lead an “interagency team” to review…
EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The man who shot eight students at Michigan State University, killing three, had two handguns that were purchased legally but not registered, police said Thursday. The 9 mm guns and ammunition were found with Anthony McRae when he killed himself Monday night after being confronted by police, said deputy campus police chief Chris Rozman. The shootings took…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – PolyMet Mining and Teck Resources finalized a joint venture Wednesday to complete the copper-nickel mine that PolyMet has been developing in northeastern Minnesota, and the partnership hopes to eventually build a separate mine next door in an even larger ore body that Teck controls. The long-planned PolyMet mine near Babbitt will now be known as NewRange Copper…
WASHINGTON (AP) — The three still-unidentified aerial objects shot down by the U.S. in the past week likely had merely a “benign purpose,” the White House acknowledged Tuesday, drawing a distinction between them and the massive Chinese balloon that earlier traversed the U.S. with a suspected goal of surveillance. “The intelligence community is considering as a leading explanation that these could just…
JINDERIS, Syria (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced Tuesday that 35,418 people have died in Turkey as a result of last week’s earthquake, making it the deadliest such disaster since the country’s founding 100 years ago. Confirmed deaths passed those recorded from the massive Erzincan earthquake in 1939 that killed around 33,000 people. Erdogan said 105,505 people were…
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador, announced her candidacy for president on Tuesday, becoming the first major challenger to former President Donald Trump for the 2024 Republican nomination. The announcement, delivered in a tweeted video, marks an about-face for the ex-Trump Cabinet official, who said two years ago that she wouldn’t challenge her former boss for the…
EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Police identified the 43-year-old man who killed three students and wounded five at Michigan State University, saying Tuesday that a tip from the public led to a confrontation with officers miles from campus where the gunman fatally shot himself. Investigators still were sorting out why Anthony McRae fired inside Berkey Hall and the MSU Union — a…
EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Police say at least 5 people have been wounded in Michigan State University shooting, some are considered life-threatening. As of 10 p.m. Monday, the suspect was still at large. On Twitter, university police said there appeared to be only one suspect, described as a “short male with a mask” and still at large. “We are…
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House on Monday defended the shootdowns of three unidentified objects in as many days even as it acknowledged that officials had no indication the objects were intended for surveillance in the same manner as the high-altitude Chinese balloon that traversed American airspace earlier this month. The three objects, including one shot down Sunday over Lake Huron, were traveling at…
WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S. fighter jet shot down an “unidentified object” over Lake Huron on Sunday on orders from President Joe Biden. It was the fourth such downing in eight days and the latest military strike in an extraordinary chain of events over U.S. airspace that Pentagon officials believe has no peacetime precedent. Part of the reason for the…
Credit: AP GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Harrison Butker kicked a 27-yard field goal with 8 seconds left after Patrick Mahomes broke off a 26-yard run on a gimpy ankle, lifting the Kansas City Chiefs to a 38-35 win over the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl. Mahomes limped off the field after aggravating a right ankle injury just before…
WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S. military fighter jet shot down an unknown object flying off the northern coast of Alaska on Friday on orders from President Joe Biden, White House officials said. White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the object was downed because it was flying at about 40,000 feet (13,000 meters) and posed a “reasonable threat”…
DeFOREST, Wis. (AP) — Fresh from his State of the Union address, President Joe Biden rallied supporters in Wisconsin on Wednesday, preparing for an expected reelection announcement this spring and trying to shore up the backing of working-class voters who have edged away from Democrats in recent years. “Fighting for the sake of fighting gets us nowhere,” Biden said at a…
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden exhorted Congress Tuesday night to work with him to “finish the job” of rebuilding the economy and uniting the nation as he delivered a State of the Union address aimed at reassuring a country beset by pessimism and fraught political divisions. In his 73-minute speech, Biden sought to portray a nation dramatically improved from the one…
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is ready to offer a reassuring assessment of the nation’s condition rather than roll out flashy policy proposals as he delivers his second State of the Union address on Tuesday night, seeking to overcome pessimism in the country and concerns about his own leadership. His speech before a politically divided Congress comes as the nation struggles to make sense…
ADANA, Turkey (AP) — A powerful 7.8 magnitude earthquake rocked wide swaths of Turkey and neighboring Syria on Monday, killing more than 2,800 people and injuring thousands more as it toppled thousands of buildings and trapped residents under mounds of rubble. Authorities feared the death toll would keep climbing as rescuers searched through tangles of metal and concrete for survivors in a…
U.S. agriculture officials on Friday proposed new nutrition standards for school meals, including the first limits on added sugars, with a focus on sweetened foods such as cereals, yogurt, flavored milk and breakfast pastries. The plan announced by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack also seeks to significantly decrease sodium in the meals served to the nation’s schoolkids by 2029, while making the…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The parents of Amir Locke, who was shot to death by a Minneapolis police officer when a SWAT team executed a no-knock search warrant one year ago, sued the city and the officer Friday, alleging he was “gunned down in cold blood” in violation of his constitutional rights. Locke, 22, who was Black and had hoped to build…
WASHINGTON (AP) — A huge, high-altitude Chinese balloon sailed across the U.S. on Friday, drawing severe Pentagon accusations of spying and sending excited or alarmed Americans outside with binoculars. Secretary of State Antony Blinken abruptly canceled a high-stakes Beijing trip aimed at easing U..S.-China tensions. The cancelation came despite China’s claim that the balloon was a weather research “airship” that…
(AP) — U.S. agriculture officials on Friday proposed new nutrition standards for school meals, including the first limits on added sugars, with a focus on sweetened foods such as cereals, yogurt, flavored milk and breakfast pastries. The plan announced by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack also seeks to significantly decrease sodium in the meals served to the nation’s schoolkids by 2029,…
WASHINGTON (AP) — For nearly a year, the Federal Reserve has been on a mission to cool down the job market to help curb the nation’s worst inflation bout in four decades. The job market hasn’t been cooperating. Consider what happened in January: The government said Friday that employers added a sizzling 517,000 jobs last month and that the unemployment rate dipped…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Minnesota utilities would be obligated to transition to 100% carbon-free electricity by 2040 to step up the fight against climate change under a bill speeding through the Legislature. The bill was slated for a final vote on the Senate floor Thursday night after passing the House 70-60 last week. It’s a top priority for Democrats, who control both chambers, and for…
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican-led House voted after raucous debate Thursday to oust Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar from the chamber’s Foreign Affairs Committee, citing her anti-Israel comments, in a dramatic response after Democrats last session booted far-right GOP lawmakers over incendiary remarks. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was able to solidify Republican support against the Somali-born Muslim woman in the new Congress although some…
WASHINGTON (AP) — The most expansive federal report in over two decades on guns and crime shows a shrinking turnaround between the time a gun was purchased and when it was recovered from a crime scene, indicating firearms bought legally are more quickly being used in crimes around the country. It also documents a spike in the use of conversion…
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Tyre Nichols ’ family and friends gathered Wednesday for a funeral intended to celebrate his life three weeks after he died following a brutal beating by Memphis police that has sparked a new round of calls for police reform. As the service began, a group of singers and drummers beating African instruments proceeded to the front of the church where…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The attorney for a former Minneapolis police officer who held back bystanders while his colleagues restrained a dying George Floyd said in court filings Tuesday that his client is innocent of criminal wrongdoing and should be acquitted on state charges of aiding and abetting murder and manslaughter. But prosecutors argued in their filings that Tou Thao “acted…
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Tom Brady, who won a record seven Super Bowls for New England and Tampa, has announced his retirement. Brady — the most successful quarterback in NFL history, and one of the greatest athletes in team sports — posted the announcement on social media Wednesday morning, a brief video lasting just under one minute. “Good morning guys….
WASHINGTON (AP) — Not so long ago, Joe Biden and Republican leader Kevin McCarthy used to talk things over at breakfast in Biden’s vice presidential home at the Naval Observatory. Biden was intent in those days on “keeping up relations with the opposition party,” as he writes in his memoir, and the new House majority leader often arrived with fellow GOP lawmakers in tow….
(AP) — Former U.S. Senator David Durenberger, a Minnesota Republican who espoused a progressive brand of politics and criticized the GOP after his political career, died Tuesday at age 88. Durenberger’s health had declined in recent months, his longtime spokesperson Tom Horner said. Horner told The Associated Press that Durenberger died Tuesday morning of natural causes. He was at his…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Dozens of people were injured in a massive traffic pileup amid snowy conditions in southern Wisconsin on Friday, which blocked Interstate 39/90 for hours, authorities said. Beloit Memorial Hospital said at least 27 people were treated for injuries sustained in the crash, WIFR-TV reported. The extent of their injuries was not immediately clear, the station said. State…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The Minnesota Senate began debate Friday on a bill to write broad protections for abortion rights into state statutes, which would make it difficult for future courts to roll back. Democratic legislative leaders have fast-tracked the bill as one of their top priorities for the 2023 session — in reaction to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last summer to reverse Roe…
(AP) — Video released publicly Friday shows the husband of former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi fighting with his assailant for control of a hammer moments before he was struck in the head during a brutal attack in the couple’s San Francisco home last year. The body-camera footage shows suspect David DePape wrest the tool from Paul Pelosi, 82, and…
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Five fired Memphis police officers were charged Thursday with murder and other crimes in the killing of Tyre Nichols, a Black motorist who died three days after a confrontation with the officers during a traffic stop. Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy told a news conference that although the officers each played different roles in the…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A liberal judge running in a pivotal race to determine majority control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court touts her support for abortion rights in the first two television ads of the closely watched race launched Thursday. The winner of the April 4 election will determine whether the court remains under control of conservative justices or flips to a…
RED WING, Minn. (AP) — A Minnesota woman admitted in a guilty plea Wednesday that she left her newborn baby boy to die on the banks of the Mississippi River in 2003. Jennifer Matter, 50, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the baby’s death. She will be sentenced April 28. Matter was arrested May 10, 2022, at her home in…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Gov. Tim Walz signed his second bill of the young 2023 legislative session Wednesday, extending unemployment benefits for six months for more than 400 laid-off workers at Northshore Mining. Northshore Mining shut down May 1, and about 450 workers out of around 580 workers there and at an associated contractor have been laid off. Unemployment…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Faculty leaders at a Minnesota college that dismissed an art history instructor who showed depictions of the Prophet Muhammad in a course have overwhelmingly called for the university president to resign. Faculty leaders at Hamline University said 71 of 92 members who attended a meeting Tuesday voted to call on President Fayneese Miller to resign immediately. They…
NEW YORK (AP) — For many people filing U.S. tax returns — especially those doing it for their first time — it can be a daunting task that’s often left to the last minute. But if you want to avoid the stress of the looming deadline, start getting organized as soon as possible. Whether you do your taxes yourself, go…
