Associated Press stories, Page 554

ORLANDO, Fla. — A high school along Florida’s Atlantic Coast has removed a graphic novel based on the diary of Anne Frank after a leader of a conservative advocacy group challenged it, claiming it minimized the Holocaust. “Anne Frank’s Diary: The Graphic Adaptation” was removed from a library at Vero...

NEW YORK — Major League Baseball’s new rules designed to speed pace of play and encourage more action seem to be working through the first 1 1/2 weeks of the season. Batting average is up 16 points, stolen bases have spiked 30% and the average game time is down 31...

MIAMI — Getting to the play-in tournament probably wasn’t the goal of any team when training camps opened back in September. It does, however, beat the alternative. There are 12 teams with playoff spots right now, 10 teams whose seasons are over — and eight teams with a second chance....

People working from home became younger, more diverse, better educated and more likely to move during the worst part of the covid-19 pandemic, according to survey data from the U.S. Census Bureau. In many respects, the demographic makeup of people working from home from 2019 to 2021 became more like...

PORTLAND, Ore. — When Gadiel Galvez learned that the owner of his mobile home park south of Seattle was looking to sell, he and other residents worried their largely Latino community would be bulldozed to make way for another Amazon warehouse. So, they decided to form a cooperative and buy...

NEW YORK — Hilary Swank has given birth to twins — a boy and a girl. The 48-year-old “Million Dollar Baby” actor posted a photo of her and her twins looking at the sunset on Instagram Sunday evening with the caption: “It wasn’t easy. But boy (and girl!) was it...

NEW YORK — Hilary Swank has given birth to twins — a boy and a girl. The 48-year-old “Million Dollar Baby” actor posted a photo of her and her twins looking at the sunset on Instagram Sunday evening with the caption: “It wasn’t easy. But boy (and girl!) was it...

During California’s prolonged, wet winter, beekeeper Gene Brandi said he had to spend twice as much money on a sugary syrup to feed his honeybees and keep them alive. That’s because the bees sent to pollinate blooming almond orchards took longer than usual to emerge from their hives due to...

WASHINGTON — Not even the annual White House Easter Egg Roll is safe from presidential politics. President Joe Biden, the host of Monday’s festivities on the South Lawn, said he plans to participate in “at least three or four more Easter egg rolls, maybe five.” Biden was alluding to his...

NEW YORK — The WNBA is adding charter flights for the entire playoffs and back-to-back regular season games this year, the league announced Monday. The league will pay for all of the flights. “It’s significant dollars,” WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert told The Associated Press. “Now that we have best of...

BOISE, Idaho — A mother accused in the triple murder of her two youngest children as well as her new husband’s previous wife was willing to “remove any obstacle in her way to get what she wants,” a prosecutor told jurors Monday morning. “The defendant used money, power and sex...

ISLAMABAD — The U.N. food agency said Monday it urgently needs $800 million for the next six months to help Afghanistan, which is at the highest risk of famine in a quarter of a century. Aid agencies have been providing food, education and health care support to Afghans in the...

A grand jury in Ohio will hear evidence this week to decide whether police officers should face criminal charges in the shooting of Jayland Walker, a 25-year-old Black man whose death sparked protests in Akron last summer. Eight officers fired dozens of rounds at Walker following a car and foot...

CHICAGO — The first openly gay person to lead the American Medical Association takes the reins at a fractious time for U.S. health care. Transgender patients and those seeking abortion care face restrictions in many places. The medical judgment of physicians is being overridden by state laws. Disinformation is rampant....

Emma Hernandez is defiant even if she fears what may come in the latest stage of the nation’s fight over abortion: a widening prohibition to safe and legal ways to end unwanted pregnancies, including access to abortion pills. Competing rulings by two federal judges over the availability of the abortion...

WASHINGTON — After almost three months of testimony, dozens of witnesses and countless legal fights, a jury will soon decide whether the onetime leader of the Proud Boys extremist group is guilty in one of the most serious cases brought in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol....

JERUSALEM — Thousands of Israelis led by at least seven Cabinet ministers marched Monday to an evacuated West Bank settlement, in a defiant signal that Israel’s most right-wing government in history is determined to accelerate settlement building on occupied lands despite international opposition. The mass rally also threatened to further...

NEW YORK — Legally, the most important words former President Donald Trump said after he was charged with 34 felonies by the Manhattan District Attorney last week were “not guilty.” But, politically, the most significant may be “election interference.” Trump’s repetition of those words, which have been taken up by...

HARRISBURG — Democratic Sen. Bob Casey will seek a fourth term in office, bringing the power of incumbency and unmatched name recognition in Pennsylvania politics to his party’s defense of a seat in a critical presidential battleground state. The announcement by Casey, the longest-serving Democratic U.S. senator in Pennsylvania history,...

TAIPEI, Taiwan — China’s military declared Monday it is “ready to fight” after completing three days of large-scale combat exercises around Taiwan that simulated sealing off the island in response to the Taiwanese president’s trip to the U.S. last week. The “combat readiness patrols” named Joint Sword were meant as...

Christopher Bell held on through a restart eight laps from the end to hold off Tyler Reddick and win the dirt race at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday night. Bell was a whiz-kid dirt racing sensation growing up, and that experience helped the Joe Gibbs Racing driver to his fifth...

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Phil Mickelson never will receive the sort of adulation that once shadowed his every step. Too many missteps along the way. But give Lefty credit. He sure LIVened things up Sunday afternoon at the Masters. Already the oldest major champion in golf history, the 52-year-old Mickelson made...