The Latest: No. 2 Australian city passes Sydney in new cases

SYDNEY — Australia’s Victoria state has recorded more coronavirus infections than New South Wales for the first time since an outbreak of the delta variant began in Sydney in June. Victoria is Australia’s second-most populous state and on Tuesday the state capital...

Federal judges: NYC can impose vaccine mandate on teachers

NEW YORK (AP) — The nation's largest school district can immediately impose a vaccine mandate on its teachers and other workers, after all, a federal appeals panel decided Monday, leading lawyers for teachers to say they'll ask the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene. The...

Foes of tax cuts, voting law changes ready petition filings

PHOENIX (AP) — Massive income tax cuts passed by the Arizona Legislature earlier this year and a series of election law changes could be put on hold until voters weigh in next year if opponents turn in enough signatures by a midnight Tuesday deadline. A coalition of...

Judge blocks Arizona laws banning school, city mask mandates

PHOENIX (AP) — A judge on Monday struck down Republican-passed Arizona laws that block schools from requiring masks and restrict the power of local governments to impose COVID-19 requirements, the latest turn in a nationwide legal battle over pandemic rules. If it...

Federal appeals court lifts order that blocked New York City from enforcing vaccine mandate for teachers, schools staff

'Person of interest' in woman's disappearance found dead

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Authorities found the body Monday of a maintenance worker who was considered a person of interest in the case of a central Florida college student who has been missing since Friday. Armando Manuel Caballero, 27, was found dead from an apparent...

Judge extends order halting Iowa schools mask mandate ban

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A federal judge on Monday extended a restraining order for 14 days that prohibits Iowa officials from enforcing a law that bans school districts from enacting mask mandates. The order issued by Judge Robert Pratt extends his initial order from...

House votes to extend Lamont's COVID power amid protests

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Connecticut lawmakers moved closer Monday toward extending Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont's emergency powers during the coronavirus pandemic for the sixth time, an issue that has become more contentious with each extension. The House of...

Iowa university faculty want to require masks in classrooms

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Faculty at Iowa public universities are demanding the right to require masks in their classrooms regardless of state law or policies against them. Biology professor Steve O'Kane Jr. has pushed a resolution among colleagues at the University of...

Education professor married to Mississippi ex-governor dies

MADISON, Miss. (AP) — Melody Bruce Musgrove, former director of the Office of Special Education Programs for the U.S. Department of Education and wife of former Mississippi Gov. Ronnie Musgrove, died Monday. She was 61. She died at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester,...