National News

FILE - A sign is seen outside a clinic with the South Plains Public Health District, Feb. 23, 2025,...

U.S. measles cases surpass 2019 count, while Missouri is latest state with an outbreak

The U.S. is having its worst year for measles spread since 1991, with a total of 1,288 cases nationally and another six months to go. But in Gaines County, Texas, which was once the nation’s epicenter for measles activity, health officials said they are no longer seeing ongoing measles transmission. The U.S. Centers for Disease […]
1 year ago
FILE - People vote, Nov. 5, 2024, in Oak Creek, Wis. (AP Photo/Morry Gash, File)Credit: ASSOCIATED ...

New lawsuit seeks to redraw Wisconsin’s congressional maps before 2026 midterms

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A new lawsuit seeking to redraw Wisconsin’s congressional district boundary lines was filed on Tuesday, less than two weeks after the state Supreme Court declined to hear a pair of other lawsuits that asked for redistricting before the 2026 election. The latest lawsuit brought by a bipartisan coalition of business leaders […]
1 year ago
FILE - A voter leaves a polling location after voting Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024 in Rutledge, Ga. (AP Ph...

A Georgia election with few voters: Turnout is ‘miserably low’ in the race for utility regulator

ATLANTA (AP) — Every time the door swings open this week at the county courthouse in the tiny south Georgia town of Statenville, six election workers have a moment to hope that someone is coming to vote. “Anybody that comes in pretty much has to walk by our office,” said Renee Church, the elections supervisor […]
1 year ago
FILE - Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian t...

US issues sanctions against UN investigator probing abuses in Gaza

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The Trump administration announced Wednesday that it is issuing sanctions against an independent investigator tasked with probing human rights abuses in the Palestinian territories, the latest effort by the United States to punish critics of Israel’s 21-month war in Gaza. The State Department’s decision to impose sanctions on Francesca Albanese, the […]
1 year ago
A U.S. Supreme Court police officer stands watch as anti-abortion protesters rally outside of the S...

Supreme Court keeps hold on Florida immigration law aimed at people in the US illegally

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to allow Florida to enforce an immigration law making it a crime for people who are living in the U.S. illegally to enter the state. The high court’s action will keep the law on hold while a legal challenge continues. The court did not explain its […]
1 year ago
Bryan Bedford, President Donald Trump's nominee to run the Federal Aviation Administration, testifi...

Senate confirms new FAA administrator at a time of rising concern about air safety

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Senate on Wednesday confirmed Bryan Bedford to lead the Federal Aviation Administration, putting him in charge of the federal agency at a precarious time for the airline industry after recent accidents, including the January collision near Washington, D.C. that killed 67 people. Bedford was confirmed on a near party-line vote, […]
1 year ago

Editorial Roundup: United States

Excerpts from recent editorials in the United States and abroad: ___ July 3 The Washington Post on One Big Beautiful Bill and a potential debt crisis The odds of a federal debt crisis just got more daunting. On Thursday, Congress passed the One Big Beautiful Bill, a sweeping piece of legislation that threatens to leave […]
1 year ago

Wisconsin elections commission says former Madison clerk broke laws

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A “confluence of errors” including unlawful actions by the former clerk in Wisconsin’s capital city led to nearly 200 absentee ballots not being counted in the November presidential election, an investigation by the state elections commission released Wednesday concluded. Maribeth Witzel-Behl resigned as Madison city clerk in April amid investigations by […]
1 year ago
FILE - Amazon employees load packages on carts before being put on to trucks for distribution for A...

Customers seeking deals gave Amazon’s Prime Day and competing sales a solid start

NEW YORK (AP) — The first day of Amazon’s Prime Day event and competing retail sales that kicked off on Tuesday drove solid online spending compared to a year earlier, according to two data sources. Adobe Digital Insights, which tracks visits to e-commerce sites, reported that U.S. consumers spent $7.9 billion at online stores on […]
1 year ago
FILE - A girl holds a hand over her eyes during a vigil for Stephen Perkins outside Decatur, Ala. C...

Alabama attorney general pushes for trial of an ex-officer accused of fatally shooting an armed man

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — A former Alabama police officer charged with murder for shooting an armed Black man in the man’s front yard during a dispute with a tow-truck driver shouldn’t be granted immunity before going to trial, the state’s attorney general says. In a court brief filed late Tuesday, Attorney General Steve Marshall said […]
1 year ago
FILE - Students cross the campus of Dartmouth College, March 5, 2024, in Hanover, N.H. (AP Photo/Ro...

Republicans urge US universities to cut ties with Chinese-backed scholarship program

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans are urging seven U.S. universities to cut ties with a Chinese scholarship program that lawmakers call a “nefarious mechanism” to steal technology for the Chinese government. In letters to Dartmouth College, the University of Notre Dame and five other universities, leaders of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist […]
1 year ago
Smoke fills the sky as firefighters battle the Rancho Fire in Laguna Beach, Calif., on Monday, July...

13-year-old suspected of setting off fireworks that sparked Southern California wildfire

LAGUNA BEACH, Calif. (AP) — A 13-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion of setting off fireworks that sparked a wildfire this week in coastal Southern California, forcing the evacuations of about a hundred canyon homes, authorities said. Crews with air support protected residences from the Rancho Fire as flames raced through dry brush Monday afternoon […]
1 year ago

Police investigating death of Maine paddleboarder as a homicide after discovery of body

UNION, Maine (AP) — Police in Maine are investigating the death of a paddleboarder near a campground in rural Maine as a homicide and asking the public for help finding the killer. The body of Sunshine Stewart, 48, of Tenants Harbor, Maine, was found Thursday on Crawford Pond in Union. The manner of death was […]
1 year ago
President Donald Trump waves to the media after exiting Air Force One, at Joint Base Andrews, Md., ...

Trump sends out tariff letters to 6 more countries but he avoids major US trade partners

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump sent out tariff letters to six smaller U.S. trading partners on Wednesday with a pledge to announce import taxes on other countries later in the day. None of the countries targeted in the first batch of letters — the Philippines, Brunei, Moldova, Algeria, Libya and Iraq — is a […]
1 year ago

Appeals court overturns right-wing influencer’s conviction for spreading 2016 election falsehoods

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal appeals court on Wednesday overturned a self-styled right-wing propagandist’s conviction for spreading falsehoods on social media in an effort to suppress Democratic turnout in the 2016 presidential election. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan ordered a lower court to enter a judgment of acquittal for Douglass […]
1 year ago
This photo provided by Mattel, Inc., shows the new Barbie doll with type 1 diabetes (T1D). (Mattel,...

Mattel introduces its first Barbie with Type 1 diabetes

NEW YORK (AP) — Mattel has introduced its first Barbie representing a person with Type 1 diabetes, as part of wider efforts from the toy maker to increase inclusivity among its dolls. In an announcement Tuesday, Mattel said it had partnered with Breakthrough T1D — a Type 1 diabetes research and advocacy organization formerly known […]
1 year ago

Nvidia is again Wall Street’s most valuable company. How it got there, by the numbers

Nvidia reached another milestone in its rise to becoming one of the world’s most important companies: the first publicly traded company to reach a market value of $4 trillion. Nvidia and other companies benefiting from the boom in artificial intelligence have been a major reason the S&P 500 has recently climbed to a record. Their […]
1 year ago
FILE--Former Rhode Island Gov. Edward DiPrete, shown in this Jan. 12, 1998 file photo. AP Photo/Mat...

Former Rhode Island Gov. Edward DiPrete dies at 91

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Former Rhode Island Gov. Edward DiPrete, who served as the state’s chief executive for six years and was later jailed for corruption, has died. He was 91. Robert Murray, DiPrete’s former chief of staff, co nfirmed that the Republican died Tuesday after celebrating his 91st birthday with family. DiPrete, a Republican, […]
1 year ago

X CEO Linda Yaccarino resigns after two years at the helm of Elon Musk’s social media platform

NEW YORK (AP) — X CEO Linda Yaccarino said she’s stepping down after two years running Elon Musk’s social media platform. Yaccarino posted a positive message Wednesday about her tenure at the company formerly known as Twitter and said “the best is yet to come as X enters a new chapter with” Musk’s artificial intelligence […]
1 year ago
FILE - A sign is displayed outside the Seminole Hospital District offering measles testing, Feb. 21...

The US is having its worst year for measles in more than three decades

The U.S. is having its worst year for measles spread in more than three decades, with a total of 1,288 cases nationally and another six months to go in 2025. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday that the national case count surpassed 2019, when there were 1,274 cases for the year […]
1 year ago
Susan Monarez, President Donald Trump's nominee to be director of the Centers for Disease Control a...

Senate committee advances Susan Monarez to be Trump’s CDC director

The U.S. Senate’s health committee on Wednesday approved Susan Monarez to be President Donald Trump’s director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, taking her one step closer to confirmation. The committee voted 12-11 for advancing her nomination to the full Senate. The vote went along party lines, with Democrats in opposition. Monarez, […]
1 year ago
Former US President Joe Biden kneels in prayer during funeral services for Mark and Melissa Hortman...

Biden’s former doctor refuses to answer questions in House Republican probe

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s former White House physician is refusing answer questions as part of the House Republican investigation into Biden’s health in office. Dr. Kevin O’Connor invoked doctor-client privilege and his rights under the Fifth Amendment during an appearance Wednesday before the House Oversight Committee. That’s according to the doctor’s attorneys. Republicans […]
1 year ago
Exterior view of the Allegany County Circuit Court building in Cumberland, Maryland on Tuesday, Jul...

Three Zizians face trial together in Maryland amid sprawling federal investigation

CUMBERLAND, Md. (AP) — Three members of a violent cultlike group, including its alleged ringleader, will be tried together on charges of trespassing, gun and drug possession after police discovered them camping in box trucks in rural western Maryland. The group known as Zizians, which attracted a fringe contingent of computer scientists who connected online […]
1 year ago
Gov. Gavin Newsom, R-Calif., speaks to a crowd gathered at an event space during a two-day swing th...

Trump administration sues California over transgender athlete policies

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s administration sued the California Department of Education on Wednesday for allowing transgender girls to compete on girls sports teams, alleging the policy violates federal law. The move escalates an ongoing battle between the Republican administration in Washington and Democratic-led California over trans athletes competing in girls and women’s sports. […]
1 year ago