Associated Press stories, Page 1717
Biden boosts offshore wind energy, wants to power 10M homes
The Biden administration is ramping up efforts to sharply increase offshore wind energy along the East Coast, announcing progress on a huge wind farm planned off the New Jersey coast and setting a goal to generate enough power to provide electricity for more than 10 million homes by 2030. Meeting...
Funeral Mass celebrated Monday for slain Colorado officer
DENVER — A Roman Catholic funeral Mass was being celebrated Monday for a Colorado police officer shot and killed after rushing into a supermarket where a gunman had opened fire. The draped casket of Boulder Police Officer Eric Talley, 51, was flanked by six candles during a traditional Latin Mass...
Body of 2nd Iowa State student recovered in rowing accident
Emergency workers recovered the body of an Iowa State University student on Monday, a day after a school crew club boat capsized during practice on a lake, killing one other student. The students were practicing Sunday morning at Little Wall Lake in Hamilton County when the scull capsized, the university...
Happy Monday? England embarks on major easing of lockdown
LONDON — It’s been dubbed Happy Monday — the day people could put on a bathing suit and swim in an outdoor pool for the first time in months, or rusty golfers strove to hit their drives down the middle of the fairway. Following a near three-month coronavirus lockdown that...
New lawsuit challenges Georgia’s GOP-backed election law
ATLANTA — A group of civil rights and advocacy organizations including the Georgia NAACP have filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging Georgia’s new Republican-backed election law, which includes new restrictions on mail voting and gives the state legislature more control over the administration of elections. The lawsuit, filed Sunday...
Hundreds evacuated after fire at Indonesian oil refineryVideo
JAKARTA, Indonesia — More than 900 people from a nearby village were evacuated after a massive fire broke out early Monday at the Pertamina Balongan Refinery in Indonesia’s West Java province, officials said. About 20 people were injured, including refinery workers and several villagers who suffered burns while passing through...
Reacting to bloody coup, U.S. suspends trade deal with Myanmar
WASHINGTON — The United States on Monday suspended a trade deal with Myanmar until a democratic government is brought back to the Southeast Asian country after a bloody Feb. 1 coup. The military overthrew the elected government, jailed Aung San Suu Kyi and other civilian leaders and killed and imprisoned...
U.S. eases student loan relief for those with disabilities
The U.S. Education Department is canceling student debt for more than 40,000 Americans who were previously granted loan forgiveness because of disabilities but later had their debt reinstated after they failed to submit certain paperwork, the agency announced Monday. The action targets a loan forgiveness program that aims to help...
Pennsylvania pension system investigating calculation error
The board of Pennsylvania’s largest public pension system, the Public School Employees’ Retirement System, said it is investigating a consultant’s calculation about the fund’s investment performance last year that is apparently wrong. The calculation — 6.38% growth over the nine years ending last June 30 — was slightly above a...
News Corp. buys Houghton Mifflin Harcourt books division
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. is buying Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s book-publishing division, with titles by J.R.R. Tolkien and the Curious George children’s series, for $349 million. News Corp. owns HarperCollins, one of the industry’s largest book publishers, and will operate the division, called HMH Books & Media, the New York company...
Republican announces run for Murkowski’s Alaska Senate seat
JUNEAU, Alaska — An early Republican candidate announced plans Monday to seek the Alaska U.S. Senate seat that has been held since 2002 by Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski. Kelly Tshibaka, who has led the sprawling Alaska Department of Administration since early 2019, in a statement said she is running “for...
Obama family matriarch has died in a Kenyan hospital at 99
Sarah Obama, the matriarch of former U.S. President Barack Obama’s Kenyan family has died, relatives and officials confirmed Monday. She was at least 99 years old. Mama Sarah, as the step-grandmother of the former U.S. president was fondly called, promoted education for girls and orphans in her rural Kogelo village....
Paris court convicts, fines pharma firm for deadly diet pill
A French pharmaceutical company on Monday was ordered to pay hundreds of millions of euros in damages and fines for its role in one of the nation’s biggest modern health scandals, with a Paris court finding the firm guilty of manslaughter and other charges for selling a diabetes drug blamed...
A Soviet-era legacy, Lada cars awaken passions for Cubans
Uncomfortable, wasteful, tough, rustic. All are descriptions heard about the old Russian-built Lada cars cruising the roads in Cuba, where it is common to see a driver standing next to the raised hood of one pondering what has gone wrong this time. Yet, despite the flaws, Ladas arouse passions. The...
Richest Czech man among 5 killed in Alaska helicopter crash
A contracted helicopter carrying guides and guests from a lodge on a heli-skiing trip in Alaska’s backcountry crashed, killing the pilot and four others, including the Czech Republic’s richest man. The only other person onboard was in serious condition but stable Sunday at an Anchorage hospital, Alaska State Troopers said....
Late fade pushes S&P 500 slightly below its record high
Stock indexes closed mostly lower Monday, pulling the S&P 500 slightly below the all-time high it set last week, while nudging the Dow Jones Industrial Average to another record high. The S&P 500 slipped 0.1%, recovering most of a 0.8% slide earlier in the day. Banks had some of the...
Pandemic masks ongoing child abuse crisis as cases plummet
LANSFORD, Pa. — Ava Lerario lived in a home marked by love and chaos, even before the walls of the pandemic started closing in on her family. Sandwiched between two brothers, the 9-year-old was her father’s princess. She loved to snuggle up with her mom to read. She sometimes lugged...
‘Captain Underpants’ book pulled for ‘passive racism’
A graphic novel for children from the wildly popular “Captain Underpants” series is being pulled from library and book store shelves after its publisher said it “perpetuates passive racism.” The book under scrutiny is 2010’s “The Adventures of Ook and Gluk” by Dav Pilkey, who has apologized, saying it “contains...
Tribeca plans in-person, outdoor film festival for June
NEW YORK — The Tribeca Film Festival said Monday that it plans to hold its 20th edition in-person this June and with outdoor screenings spread throughout New York’s five boroughs. The springtime festival — canceled last year due to the pandemic — will instead turn to the summer for its...
Jim Litke: NCAA tourney hits halfway point, still the field vs. Gonzaga
The Elite Eight marks the halfway point of the NCAA Tournament, but don’t blink. It has the shelf life of chicken nuggets. By the time your head hits the pillow Tuesday night, we’ll be down to a Final Four and find out whether the selection committee is any better at...
Southwest Airlines orders 100 Boeing 737 Max planes
NEW YORK — Southwest Airlines said Monday it’s expanding its all-Boeing fleet with an order for 100 737 MAX airplanes. The Max was grounded worldwide in March 2019 after two crashes that killed 346 people. Regulators in the U.S., Europe, Canada, Brazil and other countries cleared the plane to resume...
Pope grants ‘time out’ to German archbishop faulted over abuse
BERLIN — Pope Francis has granted a “time out” to a German archbishop who offered his resignation after being faulted for his handling of allegations of sexual abuse in his previous diocese, church authorities said Monday. Hamburg Archbishop Stefan Hesse’s offer on March 18 followed the release of a report...
Jurors shown video at ex-officer’s trial in George Floyd’s deathVideo
MINNEAPOLIS — The video of George Floyd gasping for breath was essentially Exhibit A as the former Minneapolis police officer who pressed his knee on the Black man’s neck went on trial Monday on charges of murder and manslaughter. Prosecutor Jerry Blackwell showed the jurors the footage at the earliest...
Hungary first in European Union for vaccinations, and deaths
BUDAPEST, Hungary — Hungary has vaccinated more of its population than any other country in the European Union, according to figures from an EU agency, but it continues to be one of the world’s worst in the number of covid-19 deaths per capita. The Central European country has given at...
WHO report says animals likely source of covid-19
BEIJING — A joint WHO-China study on the origins of covid-19 says that transmission of the virus from bats to humans through another animal is the most likely scenario and that a lab leak is “extremely unlikely,” according to a draft copy obtained by the Associated Press. The findings offer...
