WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday, underscoring the persistence of the highly contagious virus as new variants challenge the nation’s efforts to resume normalcy after two and a half years of pandemic disruptions. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that Biden was experiencing “mild symptoms” and has begun taking Paxlovid, an antiviral drug…
SOMERSET, Mass. (AP) — President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced modest new steps to combat climate change and promised more robust action to come, saying, “This is an emergency and I will look at it that way.” The president stopped short, though, of declaring a formal climate emergency, which Democrats and environmental groups have been seeking after an influential Democratic senator quashed hopes for…
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced a renewed push to protect same-sex marriage in federal law on Wednesday after a surprising number of House Republicans helped pass landmark legislation in that chamber. Some GOP senators are already signaling support. The legislation started as an election-season political effort to confront the new Supreme Court majority after the court overturned abortion access…
MINNESOTA (AP) — Minnesota state government employees who are unvaccinated for COVID-19 are no longer required to take weekly tests for the virus in order to stay in the workplace. The requirement that went into effect in September 2021 meant thousands of employees took tests each week. Those that didn’t comply were subjected to suspensions or other discipline. A state…
(AP) — Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes slowed for the fifth consecutive month in June as higher mortgage rates and rising prices kept many home hunters on the sidelines. Existing home sales fell 5.4% last month from May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.12 million, the National Association of Realtors said Wednesday. That’s lower than what economists…
BOULDER CITY, Nev. (AP) — A transformer exploded Tuesday at Hoover Dam, producing a cloud of thick, black smoke and flames that were quickly extinguished. No one was hurt and electricity continued to flow from one of the nation’s largest hydroelectric facilities, authorities said. “There is no risk to the power grid,” according to Jacklynn L. Gould, the federal Bureau…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Filmmaker Steven Spielberg, the most commercially successful director of all time, donated $20,000 to Democratic Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers’ reelection campaign, a tally released Tuesday showed. Spielberg and his wife, actress Kate Capshaw, were among 31 people who gave Evers the maximum $20,000 donation allowed under law, according information from the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. Those 31…
WASHINGTON (AP) — Rep. Bennie Thompson, chairman of the House Jan. 6 committee, has tested positive for COVID-19, but the panel will still hold its prime-time hearing on Thursday, according to a spokesman for the panel. Thompson, D-Miss., announced Tuesday that he tested positive for the virus on Monday and is experiencing mild symptoms. Thompson, 74, said he will be isolating for…
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. House overwhelmingly approved legislation Tuesday to protect same-sex and interracial marriages amid concerns that the Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade abortion access could jeopardize other rights criticized by many conservative Americans. The vote was 267-157, with dozens of Republican joining Democrats for passage. With a robust but lopsided debate, Democrats argued intensely in favor of…
WASHINGTON (AP) — Two former White House aides are expected to testify at the House Jan. 6 committee’s prime-time hearing Thursday as the panel examines what Donald Trump was doing as his supporters broke into the Capitol, according to a person familiar with the plans. Matthew Pottinger, former deputy national security adviser, and Sarah Matthews, a former press aide, are expected to…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A former Minneapolis police officer who is one of four ex-officers convicted of violating George Floyd’s civil rights is scheduled to be sentenced this week. Prosecutors have asked a federal judge to sentence Thomas Lane to between 5 1/4 to 6 1/2 years in prison on Thursday for his role in the restraint that killed Floyd…
WASHINGTON (AP) — Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, said Monday he plans to retire by the end of President Joe Biden’s term in January 2025. Fauci, 81, was appointed director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in 1984, and has led research in HIV/AIDS, respiratory infections, Ebola, Zika and the coronavirus. He has advised seven…
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — The white gunman charged with killing 10 Black people in a racist mass shooting at a Buffalo supermarket pleaded not guilty Monday to federal hate crime charges that could be punishable by the death penalty. Payton Gendron was indicted last week on hate crimes and weapons counts. The plea was entered in court by Gendron’s attorney,…
GREENWOOD, Ind. (AP) — Authorities say the person who shot five people at a suburban Indianapolis shopping mall, killing three of them, before a shopper shot and killed him was a 20-year-old local man. Greenwood Police Chief James Ison said at a news conference Monday that Jonathan Sapirman, of Greenwood, began firing after leaving a bathroom at the Greenwood Park…
UVALDE, Texas (AP) — A damning report and hours of body camera footage further laid bare the chaotic response to a mass shooting at a Uvalde elementary school, where hundreds of law enforcement officers massed but then waited to confront the gunman even after a child trapped with the shooter called 911. The findings of an investigative committee released Sunday were…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The number of people who died of drug overdoses in Minnesota climbed by more than 20% last year. State Department of Health records show at least 1,286 people in Minnesota died of overdoses in 2021. And, most of the deaths were caused by synthetic opioids like fentanyl, which saw a 32% increase in fatal overdoses…
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden seemed to bow Friday to Sen. Joe Manchin’s demand for a slimmed-down economic package, telling Democrats to quickly push the measure through Congress so families could “sleep easier” and enjoy the health care savings it proposes. Biden’s statement came hours after Manchin, the West Virginian who is one of Congress’ more conservative Democrats, said…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Several dozen people gathered for a vigil outside a Minneapolis apartment building where police fatally shot a man during an hourslong standoff that began with gunfire before officers arrived. Family members and friends on Thursday night mourned the death of Andrew Tekle Sundberg, a 20-year-old who police said fired gunshots from his apartment in a standoff that began Wednesday…
JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — President Joe Biden said he raised the murder of Jamal Khashoggi at the beginning of his meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Friday. “I said, very straightforwardly, for an American president to be silent on an issue of human rights is inconsistent with who we are and who I am,” Biden said….
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House has voted to restore abortion rights nationwide in Democrats’ first legislative response to the Supreme Court’s landmark decision overturning Roe v. Wade. The bill has little chance of becoming law, with the necessary support lacking in the 50-50 Senate. Yet voting marks the beginning of a new era in the debate as lawmakers, governors and legislatures grapple with…
NEW YORK (AP) — Ivana Trump, who formed half of a publicity power couple in the 1980s as the first wife of former President Donald Trump and mother of his oldest children, has died in New York City, her family announced Thursday. She was 73. “I am very saddened to inform all of those that loved her, of which there…
JERUSALEM (AP) — U.S. President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid stood side-by-side Thursday and declared they would not allow Iran to become a nuclear power. They parted ways, though, on how to get there. Biden, in a joint news conference after a one-on-one meeting with the Israeli leader, said he still wants to give diplomacy a chance. Moments earlier, Lapid insisted that words…
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — The Buffalo supermarket where 10 Black people were killed by a white gunman is set to reopen its doors to the public Friday, two months after the racist attack. A moment of silence and prayer will be held Thursday at Tops Friendly Market to honor the victims, employees and community impacted by the May 14 mass shooting, with a…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A court ruling that struck down most of Minnesota’s restrictions on abortion as unconstitutional will speed the process for clinics and patients, though providers are still studying all the implications of how the landscape will change as a result. Two key points of Monday’s ruling are expected to have the most immediate impacts. Judge Thomas Gilligan overturned Minnesota’s mandatory 24-hour waiting…
JERUSALEM (AP) — President Joe Biden on Wednesday opened his first visit to the Mideast since taking office by offering anxious Israeli leaders strong reassurances of his determination to stop Iran’s growing nuclear program, saying he’d be willing to use force “as a last resort.” The president’s comments came in an interview with Israel’s Channel 12 taped before he left Washington and…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin doctor has purchased two clinical buildings in northern Illinois where he plans to offer abortion pills as early as this week at one location and surgical abortions within six months at the other site. The move comes after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned federal abortion rights last month. That led abortion providers in Wisconsin…
WASHINGTON (AP) — Surging prices for gas, food and rent catapulted U.S. inflation to a new four-decade peak in June, further pressuring households and likely sealing the case for another large interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve, with higher borrowing costs to follow. Consumer prices soared 9.1% compared with a year earlier, the government said Wednesday, the biggest yearly increase…
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon said Tuesday that it killed a leader of the Islamic State group in Syria in a drone strike. U.S. Central Command said in a news release that Maher al-Agal was killed Tuesday and an unidentified senior official in the Islamic State group was seriously injured. The Pentagon said there were no civilian casualties, though it wasn’t possible…
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration on Monday told hospitals that they “must” provide abortion services if the life of the mother is at risk, saying federal law on emergency treatment guidelines preempts state laws in jurisdictions that now ban the procedure without any exceptions following the Supreme Court’s decision to end a constitutional right to abortion. The Department of Health…
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Monday declined to delay the upcoming trial of Steve Bannon, a one-time adviser to former President Donald Trump who faces contempt of Congress charges after refusing for months to cooperate with the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection. Bannon is still scheduled to go on trial next week despite telling the House committee…
WASHINGTON (AP) — For the first time, a pharmaceutical company has asked for permission to sell a birth control pill over the counter in the U.S. HRA Pharma’s application on Monday sets up a high-stakes decision for health regulators amid legal and political battles over women’s reproductive health. The company says the timing was unrelated to the Supreme Court’s recent decision overturning…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A judge declared many of Minnesota’s restrictions on abortion unconstitutional on Monday, including the state’s mandatory 24-hour waiting period and a requirement that both parents be notified before a minor can get an abortion. Ramsey County District Judge Thomas Gilligan also struck down Minnesota’s requirements that only physicians can perform abortions and that abortions after…
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is hosting a “celebration” of a new bipartisan law meant to reduce gun violence that, after just 16 days in effect, already has been overshadowed by yet another mass shooting. The bill, passed after recent gun rampages in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, incrementally toughens requirements for young people to buy guns, denies firearms to more domestic…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Now that former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin has been sentenced to federal prison, attention turns to the fates of three fellow ex-cops who are still working their way through a complicated web of state and federal court proceedings arising from the killing of George Floyd. Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane still await sentencing for their convictions…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin’s conservative-controlled Supreme Court ruled Friday that absentee ballot drop boxes may be placed only in election offices and that no one other than the voter can return a ballot in person, dealing a defeat to Democrats who said the decision would make it harder to vote in the battleground state. However, the court didn’t address whether anyone…
DULUTH, Minn. (AP) — A program that allows people to cross into remote areas of Canada without reporting to border officials is expected to resume in the coming days. The Canada Border Services Agency told Minnesota Public Radio News that it has notified stakeholders that the program will restart soon and that the reopening date will be posted on its website once…
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden signed an executive order Friday to protect access to abortion as he faced mounting pressure from fellow Democrats to be more forceful on the subject after the Supreme Court ended a constitutional right to the procedure two weeks ago. The actions he outlined are intended to mitigate some potential penalties women seeking abortion may face after…
NARA, Japan (AP) — Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated Friday on a street in western Japan by a gunman who opened fire on him from behind as he delivered a campaign speech — an attack that stunned the nation with some of the strictest gun control laws anywhere. The 67-year-old Abe, who was Japan’s longest-serving leader when he resigned…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday sentenced Derek Chauvin to 21 years in prison for violating George Floyd’s civil rights, telling the former Minneapolis police officer that what he did was “simply wrong” and “offensive.” U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson sharply criticized Chauvin for his actions on May 25, 2020, when the white officer pinned Floyd to the…
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — A federal judge sentenced a former Trump supporter to three years of probation and a $7,000 fine for sending an email threatening to kill Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and three other congresswomen. David George Hannon, 67, also must undergo mental and substance abuse treatment and have no contact with Omar or Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of…
WASHINGTON (AP) — More Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week and while layoffs remain low, it was the fifth consecutive week that claims topped the 230,000 mark and the most in almost six months. Applications for jobless aid for the week ending July 2 rose to 235,000, up 4,000 from the previous week and the most since mid-January, the…
LONDON (AP) — Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced his resignation Thursday amid a mass revolt by top members of his government, marking an end to three tumultuous years in power in which he brazenly bent and sometimes broke the rules of British politics. Months of defiance ended almost with a shrug as Johnson stood outside No. 10 Downing St. and…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is about to swap solitary confinement at Minnesota’s only maximum security prison for an unknown future at a federal prison where, despite his national notoriety for killing George Floyd, he’ll probably be safer. Chauvin will be sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court in St. Paul after pleading guilty in December to federal civil rights charges. He’s already serving…
WASHINGTON (AP) — Pat Cipollone, Donald Trump’s former White House counsel, is scheduled to testify Friday before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to a person briefed on the matter. Cipollone, whose reported resistance to Trump’s schemes to overturn his 2020 election defeat has made him a long-sought and potentially revelatory witness, was subpoenaed by…
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is looking to help foreign makers of baby formula stay on the U.S. market for the long term, in an effort to diversify the industry after the closure of the largest domestic plant sparked a nationwide shortage. The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday was set to announce plans to help overseas producers that have sent…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A woman accused of killing a man can argue at trial that she was justified because he was sexually trafficking her, Wisconsin’s Supreme Court ruled Wednesday in a decision that could help define the limits of legal immunity for trafficking victims nationwide. The justices ruled 4-3 that a 2008 state law that absolves trafficking victims of…
HIGHLAND PARK, Ill. (AP) — The man charged with killing seven people at an Independence Day parade confessed to police that he unleashed a hail of bullets from a rooftop in suburban Chicago and then fled to the Madison, Wisconsin, area, where he contemplated shooting up an event there, authorities said Wednesday. The gunman turned back to Illinois, where he…
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday threw out a host of actions by the Trump administration to roll back protections for endangered or threatened species, a year after the Biden administration said it was moving to strengthen species protections weakened under former President Donald Trump. U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar in Northern California eliminated the Trump-era rules even…
ATLANTA (AP) — The Georgia prosecutor investigating the conduct of former President Donald Trump and his allies after the 2020 election is trying to compel U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and other members of Trump’s campaign legal team to testify before a special grand jury. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis on Tuesday filed petitions with the judge overseeing…
KRAMATORSK, Ukraine (AP) — A day after Russian President Vladimir Putin declared victory in seizing an eastern Ukraine province essential to his wartime aims, his troops escalated their offensive in the neighboring province Tuesday, prompting the governor to urge a mass evacuation of residents. Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said that getting the 350,000 people remaining in Donetsk province out is necessary to save…
