Top General News
R. Kelly sentenced to 30 years in sex trafficking case
NEW YORK (AP) — Disgraced R&B superstar R. Kelly was sentenced Wednesday to 30 years in prison for using his fame to sexually abuse young fans, including some who were just children, in a systematic scheme that went on for decades. Through tears and anger, several of Kelly's...
Lone surviving attacker in Paris massacre guilty of murder
PARIS (AP) — The lone survivor of a team of Islamic State extremists who terrorized Paris in 2015 was convicted Wednesday of murder and other charges and sentenced to life in prison without parole for the deadliest peacetime attacks in French history. The special terrorism court...
Most say nation on wrong track, including Dems: AP-NORC poll
WASHINGTON (AP) — An overwhelming and growing majority of Americans say the U.S. is heading in the wrong direction, including nearly 8 in 10 Democrats, according to a new poll that finds deep pessimism about the economy plaguing President Joe Biden. Eighty-five percent of U.S....
High court noon: Jackson to be sworn in as Breyer retires
WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly three months after she won confirmation to the Supreme Court, Ketanji Brown Jackson is officially becoming a justice. Jackson, 51, will be sworn as the court's 116th justice Thursday, just as the man she is replacing, Justice Stephen Breyer, retires. ...
Toll now at 53 in San Antonio as families wait for answers
SAN ANTONIO (AP) — In the chaotic minutes after dozens of migrants were found dead inside a tractor-trailer sweltering under the Texas sun, the driver tried to slip away by pretending to be one of the survivors, a Mexican immigration official said Wednesday. The driver along with...
EXPLAINER: Abortion ruling sparks wave of new legal issues
The Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade has set off a frenzy of activity in courthouses around the country, with judges asked to decide when or if state-imposed bans or other far-reaching restrictions on abortion can go into effect. Some of the disputes involve bans that have...
A viral reprise: When COVID-19 strikes again and again
For New York musician Erica Mancini, COVID-19 made repeat performances. March 2020. Last December. And again this May. “I’m bummed to know that I might forever just get infected,” said the 31-year-old singer, who is vaccinated and boosted. “I don’t want to...
1955 warrant in Emmett Till case found, family seeks arrest
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A team searching the basement of a Mississippi courthouse for evidence about the lynching of Black teenager Emmett Till has found the unserved warrant charging a white woman in his 1955 kidnapping, and relatives of the victim who initiated the hunt want authorities to...
Giuliani's former Ukraine fixer gets 20 months in prison
NEW YORK (AP) — Lev Parnas, an associate of Rudy Giuliani who was a figure in former President Donald Trump's first impeachment investigation, was sentenced Wednesday to a year and eight months in prison for fraud and campaign finance crimes by a judge who said fraud had become “a way of...
Enviros train drone pilots to find and pursue pollution
POOLESVILLE, Md. (AP) — When environmentalist Brent Walls saw a milky-white substance in a stream flowing through a rural stretch of central Pennsylvania, he suspected the nearby rock mine was violating the law. Recent rains had filled the ponds at the mine that allow sediment to...
Latest General News
South Dakota Freedom Caucus to push policy further right
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — A contingent of South Dakota Republican lawmakers on Wednesday formally announced they were forming a group billed the “South Dakota Freedom Caucus" as they try to drive politics further to the right in a Statehouse where the GOP holds every statewide office and 90% of...
Ronaldo lawyers seek $626K from woman's lawyer in Vegas case
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Cristiano Ronaldo is asking a U.S. judge to order a woman’s lawyer to pay the international soccer star more than $626,000 after claiming in a failed lawsuit seeking millions of dollars that Ronaldo raped the woman in Las Vegas nearly a decade earlier. In a...
Louisiana AG warns doctors against performing abortions
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Louisiana’s attorney general on Wednesday warned doctors against performing abortions, despite a judge’s order blocking the state from enforcing its ban on the procedure. In a letter to the Louisiana State Medical Society, Attorney General Jeff Landry said...
South Dakota interim AG dismisses 2 of Ravnsborg's top aides
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota's interim attorney general on his first day in office Tuesday dismissed two of former Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg's top appointees who were involved in the aftermath of Ravnsborg's 2020 fatal car crash. Ravnsborg was removed from office...
Caspian nations reaffirm pledge to keep foreign armies out
ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin and the leaders of the other four countries along the Caspian Sea on Wednesday reaffirmed their shared commitment to keep foreign militaries out of the region. The presidents of Russia, Iran, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan...
Lamont says 'tsunami' of retirements not as bad as predicted
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — The impact of the predicted tsunami of Connecticut state employees retiring from government service appears smaller than first feared, given an uptick in hiring and current state workers withdrawing their retirement paperwork in advance of Friday's deadline, according to...
Elmo, 3, joins youngest Americans in getting vaccinated
V is for vaccine. Elmo got a COVID-19 vaccine Tuesday, according to Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind “Sesame Street." In a public service announcement posted to YouTube, the beloved 3-and-a-half-year-old “Sesame Street” star talked...
$50.6B budget with property tax help, surplus goes to Murphy
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey lawmakers passed a record $50.6 billion budget Wednesday, sending the spending plan with $2 billion in property tax aid, a new child tax credit, a break on Motor Vehicle Commission fees, marriage license cost waivers and billions in more spending compared with last...
Sale puts Ben & Jerry's ice cream back in West Bank, kind of
JERUSALEM (AP) — A new agreement in Israel will put Ben & Jerry's ice cream back on shelves in annexed east Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank despite the ice cream maker's protest of Israeli policies, according to Unilever, the company that owns the brand. The Vermont...
1/6 hearings fuel the question: Did Trump commit a crime?
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Jan. 6 committee has heard dramatic testimony from former White House aides and others about Donald Trump’s relentless efforts to overturn the 2020 election — and his encouragement of supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol bent on achieving his goal. But the big...
