Associated Press stories, Page 1779
Check downs? More like checkmate as Chiefs take what’s givenVideo
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The casual football fan is likely to describe the Kansas City Chiefs offense this way: a go-for-broke, throw-it-deep highlight reel built around a quarterback with record-setting arm strength and wide receivers boasting Olympic-caliber speed. They wouldn’t be entirely wrong. They wouldn’t be entirely right, either. One...
Johnson & Johnson asks U.S. regulators to OK its one-shot covid-19 vaccine
Johnson & Johnson asked U.S. regulators Thursday to clear the world’s first single-dose covid-19 vaccine, an easier-to-use option that could boost scarce supplies. J&J’s vaccine was safe and offered strong protection against moderate to severe covid-19, according to preliminary results from a massive international study. It didn’t appear quite as...
Agents visit Mercer County home of pink hat woman pictured at Capitol riot
SANDY LAKE — Federal agents on Thursday were at the Mercer County home of a woman who told a magazine this week she was at the U.S. Capitol last month during the riot by supporters of then-President Donald Trump, a TV station reported. WKBN-TV said investigators were conducting court-authorized activity...
Roger Goodell: Many lessons NFL learned in 2020 will carry forward
TAMPA, Fla. — The many lessons learned from 2020 will be needed as the NFL moves forward, commissioner Roger Goodell said Thursday in his annual state of the league news conference ahead of the Super Bowl. Held before both in-person and virtual audiences and staged outside of the arena that...
Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez seek climate emergency declaration from Biden
WASHINGTON — With Democrats in charge of Congress and the White House, progressive lawmakers including Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are pushing the Biden administration to act ever more aggressively on climate change. A week after President Joe Biden signed executive orders intended to combat the worst effects...
Lawmakers consider fast-track plan for abuse lawsuit window
HARRISBURG — A bid to amend the Pennsylvania Constitution to give victims of child sexual abuse a new legal window to sue over otherwise time-barred allegations got new life Thursday, days after the disclosure of a paperwork error threw it into disarray. Rep. Mark Rozzi, D-Berks, told colleagues during a...
Pa. lawmakers’ spending jumps, reserves grow during pandemic as deficit ballooned
HARRISBURG — The Pennsylvania Legislature’s spending grew by more than 8% last year, adding some $28 million to its own reserves as the state’s deficit ballooned and many residents struggled to pay bills during the pandemic. The Legislative Audit Advisory Commission on Thursday voted without debate to approve the legislative...
NASCAR revs ahead with new teams, new tracks, new energyVideo
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Michael Jordan took his own advice and just did it: Air Jordan formed his own NASCAR team and expects the foundation will be in place to build a stock car Dream Team centered around Bubba Wallace. Jordan has some company on the celebrity starting grid: Pitbull bought...
Facing expulsion, Trump resigns from Screen Actors Guild
NEW YORK — Donald Trump has resigned from the Screen Actors Guild after the union threatened to expel him for his role in the Capitol riot in January. In a letter dated Thursday and addressed to SAG-AFTRA president Gabrielle Carteris, Trump said he was resigning from the union that he...
More GameStops possible as small investors flex muscles
LOS ANGELES — GameStop and a handful of other stocks whose meteoric rise last month shocked Wall Street began falling back to Earth this week. But the campaign that briefly pushed GameStop up by 1,600% at the expense of hedge funds that were betting it would lose value, known as...
Minus fanfare, small college football getting underway
PARKLAND, Wash. — At some point each week since athletes returned to campus, Pacific Lutheran football coach Brant McAdams has donned the full uniform of personal protective equipment — gown, gloves, mask and face shield. There was never a chapter in any of the books on becoming a small college...
Biden delays Trump rule that weakened wild bird protections
BILLINGS, Mont. — The Biden administration said Thursday it was delaying a rule finalized in former President Donald Trump’s last days in office that would have drastically weakened the government’s power to enforce a century-old law protecting most wild birds. U.S. wildlife officials have said the rule could mean more...
Adviser: Trump won’t testify in Senate impeachment trial
WASHINGTON — House Democrats on Thursday asked Donald Trump to testify under oath for his Senate impeachment trial, challenging the former president to respond to their charge that he incited a violent mob to storm the Capitol. In a response, a Trump adviser said Trump won’t testify. The request in...
Former flight attendant lands 7-figure deal for 2 novels
A onetime flight attendant who conjured fictional nightmares during breaks on cross country red-eyes has a seven-figure deal for two novels. The Simon & Schuster imprint Avid Reader Press announced Thursday that T.J. Newman’s first book, the thriller “Falling,” comes out in July. The narrative is a horror story —...
Georgia town plans new election amid inquiry into 2019 vote
ARLINGTON, Ga. — A southwest Georgia town plans a new election after questions were raised about the city clerk’s actions in a 2019 vote. Arlington Mayor Raymond Williams tells WALB-TV that Superior Court Judge Joe Bishop last week set a new election date of March 16 for three city council...
Virus expert says she’s exploring bid for U.S. Senate in Ohio
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Dr. Amy Acton, the former state health director who became the face of Ohio’s early pandemic response, has stepped down from her nonprofit position to “carefully explore” running as a Democrat for the U.S. Senate, she said Thursday. Acton would be vying for a coveted open seat...
MLB average salary falls for 3rd straight year
NEW YORK — The average Major League Baseball salary dropped for an unprecedented third straight year, even before the shortened season caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic. The Major League Baseball Players Association said Thursday the 2020 average would have been $3.89 million if a full season had been played....
U.S. rushes to catch up in the race to detect mutant viruses
Despite its world-class medical system and its vaunted Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. fell behind in the race to detect dangerous coronavirus mutations. And it’s only now beginning to catch up. The problem has not been a shortage of technology or expertise. Rather, scientists say, it’s an...
Voting company launches $2.7B lawsuit against Fox, Giuliani, others over election fraud claims
MIAMI — A voting technology company is suing Fox News, three of its hosts and two former lawyers for former President Donald Trump — Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell — for $2.7 billion, charging that the defendants conspired to spread false claims that the company helped “steal” the U.S. presidential...
‘Ma Rainey,’ ‘Minari’ and Boseman lead SAG nominations
NEW YORK — Chadwick Boseman received two posthumous nominations from the 27th Screen Actors Guild Awards on Thursday, while the Korean American family drama “Minari” and Spike Lee’s Vietnam veteran drama “Da 5 Bloods” were among the nominees for best ensemble. The nominees, announced on Instagram Live, differed notably from...
NHL revises virus protocols with 40 players on covid-19 list
The NHL has followed the NBA in revising its virus protocols early in the season as a response to covid-19 problems cropping up around the league. Glass panels have been removed from behind benches for better air flow, players and coaches are not allowed at the arena until 1 hour...
Biden to end U.S. support for Saudi-led offensive in Yemen
President Joe Biden will announce an end Thursday to U.S. support for a grinding five-year Saudi-led military offensive in Yemen that has deepened humanitarian suffering in the Arabian peninsula’s poorest country, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said. The move would fulfill a campaign pledge by Biden, whose administration plans to...
Biden to freeze withdrawal of U.S. troops from Germany
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden will freeze Donald Trump’s planned withdrawal of some U.S. troops stationed in Germany, the White House said Thursday. The announcement, from White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, came ahead of Biden’s visit to the State Department. The White House also said the U.S. would...
Media grapples with how to cover Trump after White House
NEW YORK — Two weeks into Donald Trump’s post-presidency, it feels like he hasn’t really gone away. He’s stayed in the news, defying the tradition of former presidents abruptly falling off the radar upon their successor’s inauguration and despite the shutdown of his favored means of communication on Twitter. That...
Defend or rebuke? House GOP faces difficult vote over Rep. Marjorie Taylor GreeneVideo
WASHINGTON — House Republicans will be forced to go on the record, defending or rebuking Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has drawn bipartisan condemnation over her embrace of far-right conspiracy theories, racist comments, as well as her past endorsement of violence against Democrats. Democrats are expected to move forward Thursday...

