Author: The Associated Press

Bills’ Hamlin In Critical Condition After Collapse On Field

CINCINNATI (AP) — Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin was in critical condition after he collapsed on the field Monday night, the NFL said, and Buffalo’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals was suspended. Hamlin was administered CPR on the field, ESPN reported, and he was surrounded by teammates, some of them in tears, after he was hurt while tackling Bengals receiver…

Idaho Slayings Suspect’s Family Voices Sympathy For Victims

STROUDSBURG, Pa. (AP) — Relatives of a man arrested in Pennsylvania in the slayings of four University of Idaho students expressed sympathy for the victims’ families but also vowed to support him and promote “his presumption of innocence.” Bryan Kohberger, 28, is eager to be exonerated and plans to tell a judge Tuesday in Pennsylvania that he will not fight extradition to Idaho, said…

Transgender Woman’s Scheduled Execution Would Be US First

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Unless Missouri Gov. Mike Parson grants clemency, Amber McLaughlin, 49, will become the first openly transgender woman executed in the U.S. She is scheduled to die by injection Tuesday for killing a former girlfriend in 2003. McLaughlin’s attorney, Larry Komp, said there are no court appeals pending. The clemency request focuses on several issues, including McLaughlin’s traumatic…

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s Body Lies In State At Vatican

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI ’s body, his head resting on a pair of crimson pillows, lay in state in St. Peter’s Basilica on Monday as thousands of people filed by to pay tribute to the pontiff who shocked the world by retiring a decade ago. As daylight broke, 10 white-gloved Papal Gentlemen — lay assistants to pontiffs and papal households…

Jan. 6 Takeaways: Final Revelations From Investigation

WASHINGTON (AP) — Destroyed documents. Suggestions of pardoning violent rioters. Quiet talks among cabinet officials about whether then-President Donald Trump should be removed from office. Interview transcripts released by House investigators in recent days — more than 100 so far — give further insight into the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and the weeks leading up to it, as Trump tried to overturn…

Suspect In Deaths Of Idaho Students Arrested In Pennsylvania

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A suspect in the killings of four University of Idaho students was arrested in eastern Pennsylvania, a law enforcement official said Friday. Arrest paperwork filed in Monroe County Court said Bryan Christopher Kohberger, 28, was being held for extradition to Idaho on a warrant for first degree murder. A law enforcement official confirmed the arrest to The Associated…

Trump’s Tax Returns Released After Long Fight With Congress

(AP) — Democrats in Congress released six years of former President Donald Trump’s tax returns on Friday, the culmination of a yearslong effort to learn more about the finances of a onetime business mogul who broke decades of political precedent when he refused to voluntarily release the information as he sought the White House. The returns, which include redactions of some…

Death Toll Climbs As Blizzard-Battered Buffalo Area Digs Out

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Roads reopened Thursday in storm-besieged Buffalo as authorities continued searching for people who may have died or are stuck and suffering after last week’s blizzard. The driving ban in New York’s second-most-populous city was lifted just after midnight Thursday, Mayor Byron Brown announced. At least 40 deaths in western New York, most of them in Buffalo, have been…

Southwest Nosedive Continues: 2,300 More Canceled Flights

DALLAS (AP) — Southwest Airlines continues to slash about two-thirds of its daily schedule, canceling another 2,350 flights Thursday, though most of the planes that flew arrived on time. Southwest is struggling to recover after being overwhelmed by a winter storm that left hundreds of pilots and flight attendants stranded out of position to operate flights. Other airlines are back…

US Will Require COVID-19 Testing For Travelers From China

(AP) — The U.S. announced new COVID-19 testing requirements Wednesday for all travelers from China, joining other nations imposing restrictions because of a surge of infections. The increase in cases across China follows the rollback of the nation’s strict anti-virus controls. China’s “zero COVID” policies had kept the country’s infection rate low but fueled public frustration and crushed economic growth….

Southwest Cancels More Flights, Draws Federal Investigation

DALLAS (AP) – Southwest Airlines scrubbed thousands of flights again Tuesday in the aftermath of the massive winter storm that wrecked Christmas travel plans across the U.S., and the federal government said it would investigate why the company lagged so far behind other carriers. A day after most U.S. airlines had recovered from the storm, Southwest called off about 2,600 more flights on…

Supreme Court Keeps Immigration Limits In Place Indefinitely

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is keeping pandemic-era limits on immigration in place indefinitely, dashing hopes of immigration advocates who had been anticipating their end this week. In a ruling Tuesday, the Supreme Court extended a temporary stay that Chief Justice John Roberts issued last week. Under the court’s order, the case will be argued in February and the stay will…

Co-Leader Of Whitmer Kidnapping Plot Gets 16 Years In Prison

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — The co-leader of a plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was sentenced Tuesday to 16 years in prison for conspiring to abduct the Democrat and blow up a bridge to ease an escape. Adam Fox’s sentence is the longest of anyone convicted in the plot so far, though it’s significantly shorter than the life sentence that…

Making Pig Livers Humanlike In Quest To Ease Organ Shortage

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. (AP) – The ghostly form floating in a large jar had been the robust reddish-brown of a healthy organ just hours before. Now it’s semi-translucent, white tubes like branches on a tree showing through. This is a pig liver that’s gradually being transformed to look and act like a human one, part of scientists’ long quest to ease the…

First Congress Revealed Biden’s Generational Ambition

WASHINGTON (AP) — When he ran for the White House, Joe Biden told voters his presidency would be a bridge to the next generation. His first two years on the job have revealed it to be a much more ambitious venture. As he nears the halfway mark on his first term, Biden is pointing to legacy-defining achievements on climate change, domestic manufacturing…

Democrats To Wield Power When Minnesota Legislature Convenes

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Democrats will control both the House and Senate for the first time in eight years when the Minnesota Legislature convenes Jan. 3, giving them power to decide how to use a $17.6 billion projected budget surplus — and new opportunities to pass liberal initiatives that the outgoing Senate Republican majority had blocked. The main job of Minnesota’s legislative sessions…

Holiday Sales Up 7.6% Despite The Squeeze Of Inflation

NEW YORK (AP) — Holiday sales rose this year as American spending remained resilient during the critical shopping season despite surging prices on everything from food to rent, according to one measure. Holiday sales rose 7.6, a slower pace than the 8.5% increase from a year earlier when shoppers began spending the money they had saved during the early part…

150 Associated Press Images From 2022

Associated Press (ASSOCIATED PRESS) – Taken together, they can convey the feeling of a world convulsing — 150 Associated Press images from across 2022, showing the fragments that make up our lives and freezing in time the moments that somehow, these days, seem to pass faster than ever. As history in 2022 unfolded and the world lurched forward — or,…

Victim Fatally Shot At Mall Of America Was 19; Police Chief: ‘This Is Just Stupid, Stupid, Stupid’

Kerem Yücel/Minnesota Public Radio via AP BLOOMINGTON, Minn. (AP) — A teenager was killed during a shooting at the Mall of America on Friday that sent frightened customers at the nation’s largest shopping center racing into a lockdown just before the holiday weekend, police said. Bloomington Police Chief Booker Hodges said the victim was a 19-year-old man. A bystander’s jacket…

Biden Signs Defense Bill That Repeals Troop Vaccine Mandate

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden signed a nearly $858 billion defense spending bill into law Friday despite his opposition to a Republican-backed provision in the legislation that repeals the COVID-19 vaccination requirement for U.S. troops. Biden had agreed with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s determination that lifting the mandate was not in the best interest of troops or the military,…

Jan. 6 Report: Trump ‘Lit That Fire’ Of Capitol Insurrection

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Jan. 6 committee’s final report asserts that Donald Trump criminally engaged in a “multi-part conspiracy” to overturn the lawful results of the 2020 presidential election and failed to act to stop his supporters from attacking the Capitol, concluding an extraordinary 18-month investigation into the former president and the violent insurrection two years ago. Trump “lit that fire,”…

Senate Passes $1.7 Trillion Bill To Fund Gov’t, Aid Ukraine

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate passed a massive $1.7 trillion spending bill Thursday that finances federal agencies through September and provides another large round of aid to Ukraine one day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s dramatic address to a joint meeting of Congress. The bill, which runs for 4,155 pages, includes about $772.5 billion for domestic programs and $858 billion…

Zelenskyy’s Surprise Visit To DC Was Months In The Making

WASHINGTON (AP) — The idea of a daring wartime trip by Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Washington had percolated for some time before the surprise visit was revealed just hours ahead of the Ukrainian president’s arrival. During an October summit in Zagreb, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi discussed with her counterpart in the Ukrainian parliament the prospect of Zelenskyy addressing the U.S. Congress. Biden administration officials…

Biden Tells Zelenskyy: ‘It’s An Honor To Be By Your Side’

WASHINGTON (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy paid a defiant wartime visit to Washington on Wednesday to thank U.S. leaders and “ordinary Americans” for their support in fighting off Russia’s invasion and to press for continued aid in the brutal months to come. President Joe Biden and Congress responded with billions in new assistance and a pledge to help Ukraine…

As Flu Rages, US Releases Medicine From National Stockpile

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration said Wednesday it will release doses of prescription flu medicine from the Strategic National Stockpile to states as flu-sickened patients continue to flock to hospitals and doctors’ offices around the country. This year’s flu season has hit hard and early. Some people are even noticing bare shelves at pharmacies and grocery stores when they make a…

US Sending Patriots To Ukraine Under $1.85B Aid Package

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration announced Wednesday that it will provide $1.85 billion in military aid to Ukraine, rolling out funding for a Patriot missile battery as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is arriving in Washington for his first known trip out of his country since Russia invaded in February. The White House announcement came just hours before Zelenskyy was expected to arrive. The…

Postal Service Pledges Move To All-Electric Delivery Fleet

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a major boost for President Joe Biden’s pledge to eliminate gas-powered vehicles from the sprawling federal fleet, the Postal Service said Tuesday it will sharply increase the number of electric-powered delivery trucks — and will go all-electric for new purchases starting in 2026. The post office said it is spending nearly $10 billion to electrify its…

GOP’s Usual Embrace Of Trump Muted After Criminal Referral

NEW YORK (AP) — The Republican Party quickly and forcefully rallied behind Donald Trump in the hours after federal agents seized classified documents from his Florida estate this summer. Four months later, that sense of intensity and urgency was missing — at least for now — after the Jan. 6 House committee voted to recommend the Justice Department bring criminal charges against him. Leading…

US Homeless Numbers Stay About The Same As Before Pandemic

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — President Joe Biden’s administration announced Monday that it is ramping up efforts to help house people now sleeping on sidewalks and in tents and cars as a new federal report confirms what’s obvious to people in many cities: Homelessness is persisting despite increased local efforts. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said that in…

Jan. 6 Panel Pushes Trump’s Prosecution In Forceful Finish

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Jan. 6 committee is wrapping up its investigation of the violent 2021 U.S. Capitol insurrection, with lawmakers expected to cap one of the most exhaustive and aggressive congressional probes in memory with an extraordinary recommendation: The Justice Department should consider criminal charges against former President Donald Trump. At a final meeting on Monday, the panel’s seven Democrats and two Republicans…

11 People Seriously Injured Amid Turbulence On Hawaii Flight

HONOLULU (AP) — Nearly a dozen people were seriously injured when a flight to Hawaii was rocked by severe turbulence on Sunday about 30 minutes outside Honolulu, an emergency response agency said. Eleven people on the Hawaiian Airlines flight from Phoenix were taken to multiple emergency rooms in serious condition, and nine others were transported in stable condition, the Honolulu…

ALS Patients Contend With $158K Price Tag On New Drug

WASHINGTON (AP) — For two years, Becky Mourey pushed the Food and Drug Administration to approve an experimental drug for her Lou Gehrig’s disease. She went to members of Congress and health regulators to make the case for Relyvrio, until patient-advocates finally prevailed. In September, Relyvrio became only the third drug approved in the U.S. for ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, an…

Messi Wins World Cup, Argentina Beats France On Penalties

LUSAIL, Qatar (AP) — Lionel Messi, wearing a black Qatari robe over his blue-and-white Argentina shirt, kissed the World Cup, shuffled toward his teammates and hoisted the golden trophy high in the air. It was an iconic sight that finally — definitively — places the soccer superstar in the pantheon of the game’s greatest players. Messi’s once-in-a-generation career is complete: He is…

Fed Set To Extend Inflation Fight With 7th Rate Hike Of 2022

WASHINGTON (AP) — After four straight three-quarter-point interest rate hikes, the Federal Reserve is set to announce a smaller half-point increase in its key rate Wednesday, a first step toward dialing back its efforts to combat inflation. At the same time, the Fed is expected to signal that it plans more hikes next year than it had previously forecast to try to…

Sandy Hook Anniversary: Biden Cites ‘Societal Guilt’ On Guns

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Wednesday said the U.S. “should have societal guilt” for the slow pace of action on restricting access to firearms as he marked the 10th anniversary of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Twenty students and six teachers died in the massacre at the Newtown, Connecticut, school which shocked the nation. Biden was using…

US Storm Brings Tornadoes, Blizzard-Like Conditions; 2 Dead

DALLAS (AP) — A destructive storm marched across the United States, spawning tornadoes that touched down in parts of Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana, where the deaths of a young boy and his mother were reported, and it delivered blizzard-like conditions to the Great Plains and threatened more severe weather Wednesday in the South. In northern Louisiana, the boy was found…

Biden Signs Gay Marriage Bill At White House Ceremony

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden signed gay marriage legislation into law Tuesday before a crowd of thousands, a ceremony that reflected growing acceptance of same-sex unions. “This law and the love it defends strike a blow against hate in all its forms,” Biden said on the South Lawn of the White House. “And that’s why this law matters to every single…

FTX’s Bankman-Fried Charged By US For ‘Scheme’ To Defraud

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. government charged Samuel Bankman-Fried, the founder and former CEO of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, with a host of financial crimes on Tuesday, alleging he intentionally deceived customers and investors to enrich himself and others, while playing a central role in the company’s multibillion-dollar collapse. Federal prosecutors say that beginning in 2019 Bankman-Fried devised “a scheme…

US Poised To Approve Patriot Missile Battery For Ukraine

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. is poised to approve sending a Patriot missile battery to Ukraine, finally agreeing to an urgent request from Ukrainian leaders desperate for more robust weapons to shoot down incoming Russian attacks, U.S. officials said Tuesday. The approval is likely to come later this week and could be announced as early as Thursday, said three officials, who spoke…

Fusion Breakthrough Could Be Climate, Energy Game-Changer

WASHINGTON (AP) — Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm announced a “major scientific breakthrough” Tuesday in the decades-long quest to harness fusion, the energy that powers the sun and stars. Researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California for the first time produced more energy in a fusion reaction than was used to ignite it, something called net energy gain, the Energy Department…

US Inflation Slowed Sharply To 7.1% Over Past 12 Months

WASHINGTON (AP) — Inflation in the United States slowed again last month in the latest sign that price increases are cooling despite the pressures they continue to inflict on American households. Consumer prices rose 7.1% in November from a year ago, the government said Tuesday. That was down sharply from 7.7% in October and a recent peak of 9.1% in June. It…

2nd Oath Keepers Jan. 6 Sedition Trial To Get Underway

WASHINGTON (AP) — After securing seditious conspiracy convictions against two leaders of the Oath Keepers, the Justice Department will begin Monday to try to make its Capitol riot case against four others affiliated with the far-right extremist group. Openings statements are expected in Washington’s federal court less than two weeks after Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the Oath Keepers, and Kelly Meggs,…

Prosecutors: Murdaugh Killed Family To Gain Pity, Distract

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A judge will determine whether evidence of disbarred South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh’s alleged financial crimes are admissible in an upcoming double-murder trial that has drawn worldwide attention for its bizarre twists. Prosecutors recently said that Murdaugh killed his wife and youngest son last year to gain sympathy and distract others from his damning financial crimes….

Bomb Threat Disrupts Patti LaBelle Concert In Wisconsin

MILWAUKEE, Wis. (AP) — Patti LaBelle was abruptly rushed off stage just a couple of songs into her Christmas concert in Milwaukee after a bomb threat forced authorities to evacuate the theater. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that video from the Riverside Theater on Saturday night shows what appears to be two security officers interrupting the 78-year-old LaBelle as she chats with…

US Soccer Journalist Grant Wahl Dies at World Cup

Career work includes reporting on some of the biggest stories in the sport and helping to grow its popularity

LUSAIL, Qatar (AP) – Grant Wahl, an American journalist who helped grow the popularity of soccer in the U.S. and reported on some of the biggest stories in the sport, dies while covering a World Cup match between Argentina and the Netherlands. He was 49. The organizing committee said Wahl received immediate emergency medical treatment on site, which continued as…

Wisconsin Postal Worked Killed

Mail carrier killed while delivering mail in Milwaukee

MILWAUKEE (AP) – Police in Wisconsin are searching for the shooter who killed a U.S. Postal Service employee as he was delivering mail. The shooting happened in Milwaukee just before 6 p.m. Friday on the city’s north side. The Milwaukee Police Department said the 44-year-old mail carrier was pronounced dead at the scene. He had worked for the Postal Service…