U.S./World category, Page 759
DOJ: West Virginia, Arkansas transgender restrictions unconstitutional
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Department of Justice on Thursday challenged bans involving transgender people that target athletes in West Virginia and children in Arkansas, slamming them as violations of federal law. The department filed statements of interest in lawsuits that seek to overturn new laws in those states. In West...
Tropical storm warning issued for northern Gulf CoastVideo
MIAMI — A tropical storm warning was issued Thursday for parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama as a potential tropical cyclone advanced toward the northern Gulf Coast. The warning extends from Intracoastal City, La., to the Alabama-Florida border, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. Heavy rainfall and flooding...
St. Louis gun-waving couple pleads guilty to misdemeanors
ST. LOUIS — A St. Louis couple who gained notoriety for pointing guns at social justice demonstrators last year pleaded guilty Thursday to misdemeanor charges and agreed to give up the weapons they used during the confrontation. Patricia McCloskey pleaded guilty to misdemeanor harassment and was fined $2,000. Her husband,...
Weird ‘living fossil’ fish lives 100 years, pregnant for 5
The coelacanth — a giant weird fish still around from dinosaur times — can live for 100 years, a new study found. These slow-moving, people-sized fish of the deep, nicknamed a “living fossil,” are the opposite of the live fast, die young mantra. These nocturnal fish grow at an achingly...
High court sides with Catholic agency in same-sex foster care dispute
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously sided with a Catholic foster care agency that says its religious views prevent it from working with same-sex couples as foster parents. The justices said the city of Philadelphia wrongly limited its relationship with the group as a result of the agency’s...
Scotch whisky makers welcome suspension of costly U.S. tariffs
LONDON — Scotch single malt whisky makers breathed a sigh of relief Thursday after the United States agreed to suspend tariffs on one of Scotland’s main exports following the resolution of a long-standing trade row between the U.S. and the EU over subsidies to aircraft companies Boeing and Airbus. President...
Sunshine, fatalism and 2 world views from 2 world leaders
WASHINGTON — Speaking near the steamy banks of a shimmering lake in Switzerland, one president nonchalantly removed his jacket and spoke confidently about standing up to an adversary. The other held court in a bland, air-conditioned room where he sought to portray strength amid scrutiny of human rights abuses. By...
‘Obamacare’ survives: Supreme Court dismisses big challengeVideo
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court, though increasingly conservative in makeup, rejected the latest major Republican-led effort to kill the national health care law known as “Obamacare” on Thursday, preserving insurance coverage for millions of Americans. The justices, by a 7-2 vote, left the entire Affordable Care Act intact in ruling...
Palestinian teen shot by Israeli troops in West Bank dies
JERUSALEM — The Palestinian health ministry said Thursday that a Palestinian teenager who was shot by Israeli troops in the West Bank a day earlier has died of his injuries. The Israeli military said Wednesday that a soldier stationed near a wildcat settler outpost near the West Bank city of...
Ex-Shake Shack manager accused of poisoning NYPD officers’ shakes sues
NEW YORK — A former New York Shake Shack manager has filed a lawsuit against the Detectives’ Endowment Association, the Police Benevolent Association, and about 20 unnamed officers accusing them of false arrest and defamation. Marcus Gilliam and other employees were accused by officers of serving them poisoned milkshakes last...
Chinese crewed spaceship docks with new space stationVideo
JIUQUAN, China — A Chinese spaceship carrying a three-person crew docked with China’s new space station at the start of three-month mission Thursday, marking a milestone in the country’s ambitious space program. The Shenzhou-12 craft connected with the Tianhe space station module about six hours after takeoff from the Jiuquan...
2 South Carolina executions halted until firing squad formed
COLUMBIA — The South Carolina Supreme Court on Wednesday blocked the planned executions of two inmates by electrocution, saying they cannot be put to death until they truly have the choice of the firing squad option set out in the state’s newly revised capital punishment law. The high court halted...
Man who drove at Minneapolis protesters charged with murder
MINNEAPOLIS — A St. Paul man accused of speeding up and driving into a group of protesters in Minneapolis while he was drunk, killing one person, was charged Wednesday with intentional second-degree murder. Prosecutors say Nicholas Kraus, 35, was visibly intoxicated Sunday night when he sped up and tried to...
Ohio House expels former Republican speaker in historic vote
COLUMBUS — Former Republican Speaker Larry Householder was expelled from the Ohio House in a vote Wednesday as a result of his indictment in an alleged $60 million federal bribery probe, only the second time the state Legislature has pushed out a member and the first time in 150 years....
Dead ‘murder hornet’ near Seattle is 1st found in U.S. in 2021
Scientists have found a dead Asian giant hornet north of Seattle, the first so-called murder hornet found in the country this year, federal and state investigators said Wednesday. Entomologists from the state and U.S. Agriculture departments said it’s the first confirmed report from Snohomish County, north of Seattle, and appears...
Millions fear eviction as housing crisis worsens
More than 4 million people say they fear being evicted or foreclosed upon in the coming months just as two studies released Wednesday found that the nation’s housing availability and affordability crisis is expected to worsen significantly following the pandemic. The housing crisis, the studies found, risk widening the housing...
Portland, scarred by unrest and violence, tries to come back
PORTLAND, Ore. — The smell of fresh empanadas wafted through the stands at Portland’s Saturday Market. People talked through their masks with artists as others sifted through fork windchimes, crystal necklaces, tie dye dresses and clay mugs. The weekly event was smaller than in years past, but longtime attendees say...
Hours after 4 killed in Chicago, 5 more hurt in shooting
Five people standing outside on Chicago’s West Side were shot in a violent end to a day that began with a mass shooting on the city’s South Side that left four people dead and four more injured, police said. Four men and one woman were shot about 9:20 p.m. Tuesday...
‘You stabbed me,’ boy tells father at double-murder trial
TAMPA, Fla. — Acting as his own lawyer, a double-murder defendant opened his death penalty trial by shouting at jurors that he did not attack his girlfriend and disabled daughter. Now he’s cross-examined his son, forcing the 11-year-old to describe exactly how he hurt him. Ronnie Oneal III claimed in...
U.S. Army has hidden or downplayed loss of firearms for years
The U.S. Army has hidden or downplayed the extent to which its firearms disappear, significantly understating losses and thefts even as some weapons are used in street crimes. The Army’s pattern of secrecy and suppression dates back nearly a decade, when The Associated Press began investigating weapons accountability within the...
Senators would stop ‘micropolitan’ label for 144 U.S. cities
Some lawmakers are trying to stop 144 U.S. cities from losing their designations as “metropolitan areas” as the federal government updates its standards, doubling the minimum number of residents required in a city’s urban core to 100,000 people. Sens. John Thune, a Republican from South Dakota, and Mark Kelly, a...
Computer trouble hits Hubble Space Telescope, science halted
The Hubble Space Telescope has been hit with computer trouble, with all astronomical viewing halted, NASA said Wednesday. The orbiting observatory has been idle since Sunday when a 1980s-era computer that controls the science instruments shut down, possibly because of a bad memory board. Flight controllers at NASA’s Goddard Space...
‘Pure business’ at Biden-Putin summit: No hugs, no brickbatsVideo
GENEVA — President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin concluded their summit on Wednesday with an agreement to return their nations’ ambassadors to their posts in Washington and Moscow and a plan to begin work toward replacing the last remaining treaty between the two countries limiting nuclear weapons. But...
5 things to watch for in Biden’s meeting with Vladimir PutinVideo
WASHINGTON — When President Joe Biden has his first head-of-state sit-down with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, it will be a test of mettle and wills, each leader confident in his ability to hold the upper hand over the other. Both have been fixtures in global politics for years, but...
Israelis march in east Jerusalem in test for new governmentVideo
JERUSALEM — Hundreds of Israeli ultranationalists, some chanting “Death to Arabs,” paraded Tuesday in east Jerusalem in a show of force that threatened to spark renewed violence just weeks after a war with Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. Palestinians in Gaza responded by launching incendiary balloons that caused at...
