Associated Press stories, Page 1737
No. 9 Ohio State edges No. 4 Michigan in Big Ten semifinalsVideo
INDIANAPOLIS — Duane Washington Jr. scored 24 points, E.J. Liddell added 18 and No. 9 Ohio State fended off a frantic finish from No. 4 Michigan for a 68-67 victory Saturday and a chance to play for the Big Ten Tournament title. The Buckeyes (21-8) will play their fourth game...
Hartford wins America East, advances to 1st NCAA TournamentVideo
HARTFORD, Conn. — Austin Williams scored 20 points with eight rebounds and three steals, and Hartford earned an automatic bid to its first NCAA Tournament, beating UMass Lowell, 64-50, on Saturday in the America East championship. Fourth-seeded Hartford was in the title game for the second straight season after last...
Critics call Sen. Ron Johnson’s insurrection comments racist
MILWAUKEE — Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson is being called racist for an interview in which the white Republican said he wasn’t worried about the predominantly white supporters of President Donald Trump during the deadly insurrection at the Capitol, but that he might have been if they had been Black Lives...
How Cuomo investigation, possible impeachment could play out
NEW YORK — Gov. Andrew Cuomo has urged New Yorkers to “wait for the facts.” Patience, though, has grown thin. The state’s two U.S. senators, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, and most of the other 29 members of New York’s congressional delegation have called for his...
Spacewalkers take extra safety precautions for toxic ammonia
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Spacewalking astronauts had to take extra safety precautions Saturday after possibly getting toxic ammonia on their suits from the International Space Station’s external cooling system. Victor Glover and Mike Hopkins had no trouble removing and venting a couple of old jumper cables to remove any ammonia...
Virus tolls similar despite governors’ contrasting actions
Nearly a year after California Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered the nation’s first statewide shutdown because of the coronavirus, masks remain mandated, indoor dining and other activities are significantly limited, and Disneyland remains closed. By contrast, Florida has no statewide restrictions. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has prohibited municipalities from fining people...
More than 1,000 Guard troops now leaving D.C.; others stay on
WASHINGTON — More than 1,000 National Guard members will be leaving Washington, D.C. over the next few days, but several thousand others will stay on for days or weeks, in the ongoing mission to provide security for the U.S. Capitol that has drawn criticism from lawmakers and reluctance from the...
Immigrant living in church for years wins temporary reprieve
BEDFORD, Mass. — A Guatemalan woman who has been living in a Massachusetts church for more than three years to avoid deportation has been granted a reprieve to remain in the country for now. Maria Macario was issued a one-year stay of her deportation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement...
Wyoming shelves hate crime law decades after Shepard’s death
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Lawmakers in Wyoming, where gay college student Matthew Shepard was killed more than 20 years ago, again decided not to adopt a hate crimes law. Wyoming is one of just three states that haven’t enacted hate crimes legislation since Shepard was beaten and left for dead in...
Governors applaud Biden’s vaccine timeline, but need supply
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Governors largely cheered President Joe Biden’s declaration that all adults should be eligible for coronavirus vaccinations by May 1, but the goal will require a shift for states that have been methodical in how they roll out the shots. The top health official in California said the...
IRS says new round of covid relief payments on the way
WASHINGTON — Along with daylight saving time, this weekend could bring Americans fatter bank balances. Officials at the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service said Friday that processing of the new round of stimulus payments has already begun, with the aim of having the first payments start showing up in...
Better with age? Westwood takes lead at Players ChampionshipVideo
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Lee Westwood isn’t interested in comparing himself with the player who rose to No. 1 in the world a decade ago. All he knows is he is playing some of his best golf, and he gets another chance to see if it can hold up...
Dutch inventor of audio cassette tape, Lou Ottens, dies at age 94
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Lou Ottens, the Dutch inventor of the cassette tape, the medium of choice for millions of bedroom mix tapes, has died, said Philips, the company where he also helped develop the compact disc. Ottens died Saturday at age 94, Philips confirmed. A structural engineer who trained...
Kansas withdraws from Big 12 tourney after positive covid test
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas withdrew from the Big 12 Tournament on Friday after a positive covid-19 test within the men’s basketball program, becoming the third major team to have its conference postseason come to an end because of the coronavirus. The development sent No. 13 Texas into the championship...
Brazil reaches deal for 10 million shots of Russian vaccine
Brazil’s federal government said Friday it has reached a deal to purchase 10 million doses of the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine against covid-19, though the shot is yet to be approved by the South American nation’s health agency. The Brazilian Health Ministry said on Twitter that the jabs will be...
Tom Brady signs extension, frees salary cap space for Buccaneers
TAMPA, Fla. — Tom Brady has agreed to a contract extension with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers that provides the Super Bowl champions with much-needed salary cap relief and will help the seven-time NFL champion reach a goal of playing until he’s at least 45. Brady posted a picture of himself...
Minneapolis reaches historic $27M settlement with George Floyd’s family
The city of Minneapolis on Friday agreed to pay $27 million to settle a civil lawsuit from George Floyd’s family over the Black man’s death in police custody, as jury selection continued in a former officer’s murder trial. Council members met privately to discuss the settlement, then returned to public...
UN says Ebola in Guinea may be linked to 2014 outbreak
A top official at the World Health Organization said that a genetic analysis of the ongoing Ebola outbreak in Guinea suggests it may have been sparked by a survivor of the devastating West Africa epidemic that ended five years ago. At a press briefing in Geneva, WHO emergencies chief Dr....
Gov. Wolf seeks to phase out Pennsylvania’s gas tax
Amid a deepening stalemate over financing highways and public transit, Gov. Tom Wolf on Friday proposed phasing out Pennsylvania’s gasoline tax, the second-highest in the nation, and appointed a commission to recommend alternative ways to pay for the state’s needs. Wolf ordered a commission of several dozen lawmakers, transportation industry...
Nick Markakis retires after 15 years with Braves, Orioles
ATLANTA — Outfielder Nick Markakis has retired after 15-year career with the Atlanta Braves and Baltimore Orioles. The 37-year-od Markakis, who was a free agent, told The Athletic in a story published Friday that he was done playing after accumulating 2,388 hits, earning his lone All-Star selection in 2018 and...
What’s this craze for ‘NFTs’ all about, anyway?
LONDON — A digital art piece, tweaked using cryptocurrency technology to make it one-of-a-kind, sold at auction this week for nearly $70 million. That transaction made global headlines and buoyed already-mushrooming interest in these kinds of digital objects — known as non-fungible tokens, or NFTs — that have captured the...
Maskless, boozing JetBlue passenger faces $14,500 FAA fine
An airline passenger could wind up paying $14,500 for refusing to wear a face mask and drinking alcohol that he had brought on board. The Federal Aviation Administration said Friday it proposed the civil penalty against a passenger on a Dec. 23 JetBlue Airways flight that left New York’s John...
Biden moves to relieve strain of child border crossings
The Biden administration hopes to relieve the strain of thousands of unaccompanied children coming to the southern border by ending a Trump-era order that discouraged potential family sponsors from coming forward to care for them. The 2018 policy called on Health and Human Services to share information about family sponsors...
Conflict grows between U.S. and allies over vaccine supply
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s administration is stockpiling tens of millions of doses of a covid-19 vaccine whose authorization in the U.S. remains uncertain, frustrating U.S. allies who say those doses should be used now to save lives overseas. The standoff is part of a growing global debate over who...
Philly to dim lights to make it safer for birds in flight
The lights of Philadelphia might not shine as bright in the coming weeks as a coalition in the City of Brotherly Love tries to prevent millions of migrating birds that pass through twice a year from slamming into skyscrapers and crashing to the sidewalk. Bird Safe Philly on Thursday announced...
