RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A divided North Carolina Supreme Court confirmed Friday that it was OK for a new law that shifted the power to appoint State Board of Elections members away from the Democratic governor to have taken effect earlier this month, even as the law’s constitutionality is deliberated. The Republican majority on the […]
DETROIT (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department’s new pardon attorney said he is going to take a “hard look” at two men who are serving long prison terms for leading a conspiracy to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. “On the pardon front, we can’t leave these guys behind,” Ed Martin Jr. said this week on […]
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Two groups filed a lawsuit Friday over an executive order by West Virginia Republican Gov. Patrick Morrisey granting religious exemptions from required school vaccinations. The American Civil Liberties Union’s West Virginia chapter and Mountain State Justice filed the lawsuit against the state Department of Health, its Bureau for Public Health and […]
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Friday permanently blocked another of President Donald Trump’s executive orders targeting a major law firm, calling it unconstitutional retaliation designed to punish lawyers for their legal work that the White House does not like. The ruling from U.S. District Judge John Bates marks the second time this month […]
Privacy and hunger relief groups and a handful of people receiving food assistance benefits are suing the federal government over the Trump administration’s attempts to collect the personal information of millions of U.S. residents who use the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. The lawsuit filed in Washington, D.C., on Thursday says the U.S. Department of Agriculture […]
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A man convicted of raping and killing a woman near a central Florida bar has been scheduled for execution in Florida under a death warrant signed Friday by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, the seventh this year. Thomas Lee Gudinas, 51, is set to die by lethal injection June 24 at Florida […]
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — New Hampshire has agreed to pay $2.25 million to the mother of Harmony Montgomery, a 5-year-old girl whose father was convicted of murdering her. Crystal Sorey filed a negligence lawsuit against the state last May accusing social workers of ignoring signs that her daughter was being physically abused by her ex-husband […]
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — President Donald Trump green-lit disaster relief for eight states on Friday, assistance that some of the communities rocked by natural disasters have been waiting on for months. The major disaster declaration approvals allow Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Mississippi, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas access to financial support through the Federal Emergency Management […]
DAYTON, Ohio (AP) — Representatives of Balkan nations that benefited from the 30-year-old Dayton Peace Accords joined Americans of both political parties on Friday to affirm the value of NATO to maintaining peace around the world. U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker told a public forum at the University of Dayton held in conjunction with […]
WASHINGTON (AP) — Even as his fame and wealth have soared over the decades, Bruce Springsteen has retained the voice of the working class’ balladeer, often weighing in on politics — most notably when he was a regular presence on Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. This month, though, his music and public statements have ended up […]
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) — Purdue Fort Wayne joined a line of schools dropping sports because of budget cuts and the looming era of revenue sharing with athletes, announcing Friday it would discontinue its baseball and softball programs immediately. The university announced $6 million in budget cuts Thursday, and discontinuing the two sports will save […]
NEW YORK (AP) — Jurors heard from a dozen witnesses during a second week of testimony in the Sean “Diddy” Combs trial as prosecutors sought to prove sex trafficking and racketeering. Rapper and actor Kid Cudi was on the witness stand. So was singer Dawn Richard, formerly of the group Danity Kane. There was more […]
WASHINGTON (AP) — Chief Justice John Roberts agreed Friday to temporarily pause orders that would require Elon Musk ’s Department of Government Efficiency to publicly disclose information about its operations. The order came after the Trump administration appealed to the Supreme Court in a lawsuit filed against DOGE by a government watchdog group. Citizens for […]
DENVER (AP) — A jury in Colorado found a couple guilty on Friday of conveying false information about a threat against a Black mayoral candidate when they burned a cross in front of his campaign sign, even though the couple was trying help the candidate by generating sympathy among voters. Prosecutors argued that Ashley Blackcloud, […]
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Friday that U.S. Steel will keep its headquarters in Pittsburgh as part of what he called a “planned partnership” between the iconic American steelmaker and Japan-based Nippon Steel, which has sought to buy it. Nippon Steel’s nearly $15 billion bid to buy U.S. Steel was blocked by former […]
WASHINGTON (AP) — Military air traffic controllers lost contact with an Army helicopter for about 20 seconds as it neared the Pentagon on the flight that caused two commercial jets to abort their landings this month at a Washington airport, the Army told The Associated Press on Friday. The aborted landings on May 1 added […]
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A California utility has agreed to pay the federal government $82.5 million stemming from an enormous 2020 wildfire that churned through mountains northeast of Los Angeles and into the Mojave Desert, officials said Friday. The U.S. Justice Department announced the payment by Southern California Edison on Thursday. U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli […]
Flamingos, pelicans, herons and parrots are just a few of the wild birds that call Miami home, but it’s the roosters, hens and baby chicks that have come to rule the roost in recent years. Not only found in residential neighborhoods like Little Havana, Little Haiti and Wynwood, the fowl families are also making their […]
NEW YORK (AP) — Ask someone for their thoughts: Could it now cost you a nickel? If you want to call somebody stingy, would you say they’re a quarter-pincher? And if they spend money unwisely, are they now dime-wise but pound-foolish? OK, maybe those are some minor, small-stakes, dare we say penny-ante concerns in the […]
NEW YORK (AP) — The impending “death” of the U.S. penny has spotlighted the coin’s own price tag — nearly 4 cents to make and distribute each, or quadruple its value. Months after President Donald Trump called on his administration to cease penny production, the U.S. Mint announced this week that it had made its […]
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump signed executive orders Friday intended to quadruple domestic production of nuclear power within the next 25 years, a goal experts say the United States is highly unlikely to reach. To speed up the development of nuclear power, the orders grant the U.S. energy secretary authority to approve advanced reactor […]
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Investigators first believed Doris Worrell was killed in a botched robbery after her husband found her fatally shot at the South Georgia business they ran in 2006. When suspicion later turned toward Worrell’s husband, he fled the U.S. to live in Costa Rica with the couple’s live-in nanny. Nearly 19 years […]
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Federal investigators on Friday were combing a San Diego neighborhood a day after a private jet carrying a music executive and five others crashed there and are presumed dead. Miraculously, everyone on the ground escaped safely, officials said, including a family of four who fled with their dogs after the aircraft […]
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina’s highest court on Friday left intact a murder conviction that a lower appeals court had thrown out on the grounds that a jury shake-up during deliberations violated the defendant’s rights and required a new trial. By a 5-2 decision, the state Supreme Court reversed last year’s decision of a […]
