Associated Press stories, Page 1681
Essential Quality 2-1 favorite for Kentucky Derby
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — With the rail still open and Kentucky Derby post positions dwindling, Brad Cox grew anxious about the most notable of his two horses drawing the least desired spot. The homegrown trainer soon breathed easier. Essential Quality got something more palatable, though the hardest part awaits with the...
CEO fired over remarks about male student’s prom dress
FRANKLIN, Tenn. — The CEO of a Tennessee telemedicine company has been fired after being captured on video making disparaging remarks to a male high school student in a prom dress. James Dalton Stevens told news outlets he wanted to make a statement with the dress but didn’t expect the...
Stocks end a wobbly day mixed, S&P 500 still near record
Stock indexes closed out a wobbly day of trading on Wall Street with a mixed finish Tuesday, leaving the S&P 500 index just below its all-time high. The benchmark index slipped less than 0.1% after wavering between small gains and losses for much of the day. Losses in technology, health...
Indiana governor sues Legislature over emergency powers
INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana’s governor is asking a court to block a new law passed by state legislators giving themselves more authority to intervene when the state’s chief executive declares an emergency. Lawyers for Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb filed a lawsuit Tuesday in a Marion County court challenging the law that...
Princess Diana’s wedding dress to be featured in new royal exhibition
The famous, flowing dress worn by Princess Diana on her wedding day will be featured in an upcoming royal style exhibition, the Historic Royal Palaces organization announced. Diana’s dress, with its 25-foot train, is part of the “Royal Style in the Making” display that will be opening at Kensington Palace...
CDC says many Americans can now go outside without a mask
NEW YORK — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention eased its guidelines Tuesday on the wearing of masks outdoors, saying fully vaccinated Americans don’t need to cover their faces anymore unless they are in a big crowd of strangers. And those who are unvaccinated can go outside without masks...
Ford to develop, produce its own electric vehicle batteries
DETROIT — Saying that it wants to control the key technology for electric vehicles, Ford plans to open a battery development center near Detroit by the end of next year. The company said the 200,000-square-foot facility will have equipment to design, test and even do small-scale manufacturing of battery cells...
NHL reaches 7-year deal with Turner Sports, ending NBC run
The National Hockey League is coming to TNT. The league and Turner Sports on Tuesday announced a seven-year agreement that begins next season. The deal means NBC’s run of covering the league ends after after this season’s playoffs. NBC has broadcast games since 2005 and is in the final season...
West Virginia’s Derek Culver signs with agent, will enter NBA draft
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — All-Big 12 forward Derek Culver has decided to skip his senior season at West Virginia to enter the NBA draft. Culver announced Monday night on Instagram that he has signed with an agent. Culver was named to the all-Big 12 first team as a junior. The...
UPS stock hits all-time high on soaring demand for delivery
NEW YORK — Small businesses in the U.S. fueled demand for delivery, helping UPS post better-than-expected earnings and revenue for the first quarter of the year. That sent the company’s stock to an all-time high Tuesday morning. UPS is one of the few companies that benefited from the pandemic as...
Iran nuclear talks resume in Vienna amid new complications
BERLIN — World powers resumed high-level talks in Vienna on Tuesday focused on bringing the United States back into the nuclear deal with Iran, in their first session since comments surfaced from the Iranian foreign minister alleging that Russia once tried to scupper the pact. The Russian Foreign Ministry has...
3D printing’s new challenge: Solving the U.S. housing shortageVideo
A new generation of startups wants to disrupt the way houses are built by automating production with industrial 3D printers. 3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, uses machines to deposit thin layers of plastic, metal, concrete and other materials atop one another, eventually producing three-dimensional objects from the bottom...
U.S. consumer confidence jumps to 14-month high
WASHINGTON — Consumer confidence rose sharply for a second straight month, hitting the highest level since the pandemic began, as the rapid rollout of vaccines and another round of U.S. financial support for Americans boosts optimism. The Conference Board reported Tuesday that its consumer confidence index advanced to a better-than-expected...
No big backlash for states passing anti-transgender laws
Five states have passed laws or implemented executive orders this year limiting the ability of transgender youths to play sports or receive certain medical treatment. There’s been a vehement outcry from supporters of transgender rights — but little in the way of tangible repercussions for those states. It’s a striking...
Shades of gray rare among Kentucky Derby favorites, winners
Chris Goodlett has walked around Churchill Downs many times since joining the Kentucky Derby Museum and heard admiring fans say to each other, “Oh, look at that beautiful gray horse.” Not many of those remarks have come while looking at the winner’s circle after the Derby. Essential Quality is expected...
U.S. home prices rose 11.9% in February, fastest since 2014
WASHINGTON — U.S. home prices rose in February at the fastest pace in nearly seven years as strong demand for housing collided with a tight supply of homes on the market. The February &P CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-city home price index, released Tuesday, rose 11.9% from a year earlier, the biggest...
Greece coast guard divers seize cocaine from cargo ship
ATHENS, Greece — Greek authorities say coast guard divers have seized more than 103 pounds of cocaine found hidden behind a water intake grate in the hull of a cargo ship that arrived in Greece from Brazil. The coast guard said Tuesday it had seized the drugs the previous day...
In fight against covid, Biden looks for path back to normal
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden spent his first 100 days in office encouraging Americans to mask up and stay home to slow the spread of the coronavirus. His task for the next 100 days will be to lay out the path back to normal. When he entered office, Biden moved...
What’s behind the growth slump? Takeaways from census data
The first batch of once-every-decade data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows a United States that is growing less quickly but still seeing its population shift to the South and the West. The data released Monday was relatively basic — containing national and state-level population figures and details of how...
German police say grenade-shaped item in forest was sex toy
BERLIN — A German police bomb squad called to investigate a suspected hand grenade in a Bavarian forest determined that the object actually was a rubber sex toy, authorities said Tuesday. A jogger reported finding a bag containing the device Monday in a forest outside the city of Passau, near...
Biden signs $15 minimum wage for federal contract workers
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden signed an executive order Tuesday to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour for federal contractors, providing a pay bump to hundreds of thousands of workers. Biden administration officials said that the higher wages would lead to greater worker productivity, offsetting any additional costs...
This Date in Sports History: April 27
1956 — Rocky Marciano retires as the undefeated heavyweight boxing champion. He finished with a 49-0 record, including six title defenses and 43 knockouts. 1960 — The Minneapolis Lakers announce they will relocate to Los Angeles. 1968 — Jimmy Ellis wins the heavyweight boxing title with a 15-round decision over...
Firm recounting Arizona ballots wants methods kept secret
PHOENIX — A contractor hired by Arizona’s state Senate to oversee the recount of 2.1 million ballots in the county that includes the metro Phoenix area wants a judge to keep secret its methods for ensuring ballot privacy. The request came in advance of a hearing Tuesday where a judge...
SOS messages, panic as coronavirus breaks India’s health systemVideo
NEW DELHI — Dr. Gautam Singh dreads the daily advent of the ventilator beeps, signaling that oxygen levels are critically low, and hearing his desperately ill patients start gasping for air in the New Delhi emergency ward where he works. Like other doctors across India, which on Monday set another...
U.S. marks slowest population growth since the DepressionVideo
WASHINGTON — U.S. population growth has slowed to the lowest rate since the Great Depression, the Census Bureau said Monday, as Americans continued their march to the South and West and one-time engines of growth, New York and California, lost political influence. Altogether, the U.S. population rose to 331,449,281 last...
