Associated Press stories, Page 958
Biden to sign order prioritizing ‘environmental justice’
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Friday plans to sign an executive order that would create the White House Office of Environmental Justice. The White House said it wants to ensure that poverty, race and ethnic status do not lead to worse exposure to pollution and environmental harm. Biden is...
Judy Blume, on top of the world
KEY WEST, Fla. — At Books & Books, the nonprofit store Judy Blume and her husband have run for the past seven years, you will find her own work in various sections: from general fiction, among the other “B”-named authors, to a shelf dedicated exclusively to her — a name...
Emily in Paris: Parisians face influx of Netflix hero’s fans
PARIS — The immense success of the Netflix series “Emily in Paris” has transformed a quiet, untouched square in the French capital into a tourist magnet. In the historic Latin Quarter and just a short walk from the magnificent, domed Pantheon, tucked so deeply away that you could easily miss...
Frequent shootings put U.S. mass killings on a record pace
LOS ANGELES — The U.S. is setting a record pace for mass killings in 2023, replaying the horror on a loop roughly once a week so far this year. The carnage has taken 88 lives in 17 mass killings over 111 days. Each time, the killers wielded firearms. Only 2009...
Calling beer Champagne leaves French producers frothing
BRUSSELS — The guardians of Champagne will let no one take the name of the bubbly beverage in vain, not even a U.S. beer behemoth. For years, Miller High Life used the “Champagne of beers” slogan. This week, that appropriation became impossible to swallow. At the request of the trade...
Child among 10 family members killed in S. Africa shooting
JOHANNESBURG — Ten members of the same family, seven of them female and at least one of them a child, were killed in a mass shooting at a house in South Africa, police said Friday. A male suspect was killed in a shootout with police hours after and two men...
Appeals court halts House interview with ex-Trump prosecutor Mark Pomerantz
NEW YORK — A federal appeals court has temporarily blocked House Republicans from questioning a former Manhattan prosecutor about the criminal case against ex-President Donald Trump, the latest twist in a legal battle between Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office and the House Judiciary Committee. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court...
EPA agrees to make Pennsylvania cut Chesapeake Bay pollution
BALTIMORE — Pennsylvania must minimize its outsized role in polluting the Chesapeake Bay, according to a proposed settlement agreement announced Thursday that would subject the state to increased oversight from federal environmental officials. The agreement comes after other jurisdictions in the bay’s watershed — Maryland, Virginia, Delaware and the District...
Tornadoes kill 3 in central U.S.; new storms possibleVideo
DALLAS — Strong storms with tornadoes that plowed across the central U.S. killed at least three people in Oklahoma and left thousands without power Thursday as forecasters warned of potentially more severe weather. Authorities were still unsure of the full scale of injuries and destruction in Oklahoma, the storms produced...
Tennessee GOP lawmaker resigns after ethics panel finding
NASHVILLE — A Republican lawmaker in Tennessee resigned Thursday because of an ethics violation involving the Legislature’s workplace discrimination and harassment policy. Rep. Scotty Campbell, vice chair of the House Republican Caucus, was among the GOP legislators who voted two weeks ago to expel two Black Democratic lawmakers for protesting...
Man accused of shooting girl, parents over stray basketball arrested in Florida
GASTONIA, N.C. — A North Carolina man accused of shooting and wounding a 6-year-old girl and her parents after children went to retrieve a basketball that had rolled into his yard was arrested in Florida Thursday afternoon, authorities said. The violence was the latest in a string of recent shootings...
Former WWE wrestler Ted DiBiase Jr. charged in Mississippi welfare fraud case
JACKSON, Miss. — Companies run by a former professional wrestler received “sham contracts” in Mississippi and misspent millions of dollars of welfare money that was supposed to help some of the neediest people in the U.S., according to a new federal indictment. The indictment of former wrestler Ted “Teddy” DiBiase...
Hawaii blocks some Waikiki sands for seal pup
HONOLULU — The birth of an endangered seal at Hawaii’s most popular tourism hubs is highlighting the tension between protecting the islands’ fragile ecosystems and maintaining access to the pristine white sand beaches that attract millions of visitors each year. Hawaii officials this week fenced off a large stretch of...
Twitter begins removing blue checks from users who don’t pay
This time it’s for real. Many of Twitter’s high-profile users are losing the blue check marks that helped verify their identity and distinguish them from impostors on the Elon Musk-owned social media platform. After several false starts, Twitter began making good on its promise Thursday to remove the blue checks...
Racial gap in U.S. stroke deaths widened during pandemic
NEW YORK — The longstanding racial gap in U.S. stroke death rates widened dramatically during the covid-19 pandemic, government researchers said Thursday. Stroke death rates increased for both Black and white adults in 2020 and 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study. But the difference between...
Part party, part call to action: A look at pot holiday 4/20
SEATTLE — Thursday marks marijuana culture’s high holiday, 4/20, when cannabis fans gather in clouds of smoke at music festivals, celebrate with all-you-can-eat deals on chicken wings and other munchies, and take advantage of pot-shop discounts in legal weed states. This year’s edition provides an occasion for activists to reflect...
Trade-ups for quarterbacks becoming more common in NFL
Tired of spending years in the quarterback wilderness, shuffling in a string of mostly ineffective veterans at the game’s most important position, the Carolina Panthers made a bold move that has been all too common in recent years. The Panthers packaged two first-round picks, two second-round picks and star receiver...
Ravens prepare for draft amid Lamar Jackson-related uncertainty
OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Lamar Jackson’s contract situation looms over all aspects of Baltimore’s offseason — and the draft is certainly no different. Unless there’s a major breakthrough in negotiations before then, the Ravens will go into the draft without a lot of certainty at the game’s most important position,...
Browns enter another NFL draft with needs, without top picks
CLEVELAND — For the Cleveland Browns, being on the clock in this year’s NFL draft will again require extra patience. They’ll spend Day 1 on the sideline watching. Just as they did during the playoffs. After mortgaging their future in the controversial trade last year for quarterback Deshaun Watson, the...
Offensive line, secondary depth among Bengals draft needs
When it comes to draft philosophy, the Cincinnati Bengals are pretty consistent. If there is a quality offensive lineman or defensive back available when they are on the clock in the first round, they usually go in that direction. In fact, that has happened 11 times since 2003. With the...
Penn State’s James Franklin: Revenue sharing with players ‘inevitable’
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Penn State coach James Franklin believes major college football players will inevitably be paid and the sooner it happens the better it will be for all involved with the sport. In an interview this week with The Associated Press, Franklin said that while college sports leaders...
BuzzFeed to close news division, cut 15% of all staff
Pulitzer Prize-winning digital media company BuzzFeed will shut down its news division as it cuts about 15% of its entire staff. In a memo sent to staff, co-founder and CEO Jonah Peretti said that cuts would also occur across its business, content, tech and administrative teams, according to multiple media...
Distrust in America: Small mistakes, deep fear — and gunfire
In suburban Detroit, it was a lost 14-year-old looking for directions. In Kansas City, it was a 16-year-old who went to the wrong house to pick up his younger brothers. There was the 12-year-old rummaging around in a yard in small-town Alabama, the 20-year-old woman who found herself in the...
NATO chief: Ukraine’s ‘rightful place’ is in the alliance
KYIV, Ukraine — NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg defiantly declared Thursday that Ukraine’s “rightful place” is in the military alliance and pledged more support for the country on his first visit to Kyiv since Russia’s invasion just over a year ago. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged Stoltenberg, who has been instrumental...
IRS agent alleges Hunter Biden probe is being mishandled
WASHINGTON — An IRS special agent is seeking whistleblower protection to disclose information about what the agent alleges is mishandling of an investigation into President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, according to a letter sent to members of Congress. Mark Lytle, the attorney for the IRS whistleblower, wrote to lawmakers...
