Associated Press stories, Page 1119
No. 4 USC hopes to break playoff dry spell for Pac-12
LAS VEGAS — The Pac-12 will take a neutral stance when No. 4 Southern California plays No. 12 Utah in the championship game Friday night, but there’s little doubt what a USC victory would mean for the conference. A win by the 11-1 Trojans would put them in the College...
Matt Gaetz friend gets 11 years for sex crime, other countsVideo
ORLANDO — A former Florida tax collector whose arrest led to a federal probe into U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for sex trafficking of a minor and other offenses. Joel Greenberg, former tax collector for Seminole County, was accused of stalking a political...
Trump probe: Court halts Mar-a-Lago special master review
WASHINGTON — A unanimous federal appeals court on Thursday ended an independent review of documents seized from former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate, removing a hurdle the Justice Department said had delayed its criminal investigation into the retention of top-secret government information. The decision by the three-judge panel represents a...
Senate moves to avert rail strike amid dire warnings
WASHINGTON — The Senate moved quickly Thursday to avert a rail strike that the Biden administration and business leaders warned would have had devastating consequences for the nation’s economy. The Senate passed a bill to bind rail companies and workers to a proposed settlement that was reached between the rail...
High court to rule on Biden student loan cancellation plan
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court agreed Thursday to decide whether the Biden administration can broadly cancel student loans, keeping the program blocked for now but signaling a final answer by early summer. That’s about two months before the newly extended pause on loan repayments is set to expire. The administration...
Max Beckmann self-portrait sold at German auction for $20.7M
BERLIN — A self-portrait painted during World War II by German expressionist artist Max Beckmann sold Thursday in Berlin for 20 million euros ($20.7 million), a price that appears to be a record for an art auction in Germany. The buyer of Beckmann’s “Self-Portrait Yellow-Pink” at the Grisebach auction house...
Antonio Brown faces arrest warrant for domestic incident
TAMPA, Fla. — Former NFL wide receiver Antonio Brown is wanted on a battery charge stemming from a domestic incident, Tampa police said Thursday. Investigators said Brown, 34, and a woman were involved in a verbal altercation Monday afternoon at a home in Tampa. Brown threw a shoe at the...
Russian shelling cuts off power again in liberated Kherson
KHERSON, Ukraine — Russian shelling cut off power in much of the recently liberated Ukrainian city of Kherson on Thursday, just days after it was restored amid Moscow’s ongoing drive to destroy key civilian infrastructure as freezing weather sets in. In Kyiv, Mayor Vitali Klitschko warned the capital’s millions of...
TCU takes its CFP hopes into Big 12 title game vs. Kansas State
ARLINGTON, Texas — It has been quite a comeback for third-ranked TCU, one much bigger than that 18-point deficit the Horned Frogs erased to beat Kansas State six weeks ago. A year after Sonny Dykes became their coach, the Frogs (12-0, 9-0 Big 12, No. 3 CFP) still haven’t lost...
No. 2 Michigan begins Big Ten title quest against Boilermakers
INDIANAPOLIS — Michigan needed a decade to reach its first Big Ten championship game. On Saturday, the Wolverines return to Indianapolis with even bigger aspirations. They can win back-to-back conference titles for the first time since 2003-04, break the single-season school record with win No. 13 and clinch a second...
Israel’s Netanyahu puts hardliner in charge of settlements
JERUSALEM — Israel’s designated prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Thursday a coalition deal that will give a hardline, pro-settler party control over a number of key government ministries and a senior role in overseeing the construction of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank. The agreement with the Religious...
The mind behind the Rubik’s Cube celebrates a lasting puzzle
NEW YORK — If you’ve ever had trouble solving a Rubik’s Cube, a good piece of advice is to break it down into steps. It’s worth a shot: That advice is from the man who invented it. “Problem solving is a very basic activity of the human mind and if...
Hawaii volcano’s lava oozes toward key Big Island highway
KAILUA-KONA, Hawaii — Rivers of glowing lava oozing from the world’s largest volcano could swallow the main highway linking the east and west coasts of Hawaii’s Big Island as early as this weekend, and there’s nothing humans can do to stop it, experts said. Mauna Loa awoke from its 38-year...
No. 1 Georgia looks to add SEC title to trophy case vs LSU
ATLANTA — The No. 1 Georgia Bulldogs have their eyes on the biggest prize of all. Yet there’s a gnawing desire to add another Southeastern Conference title to the trophy case. Undefeated Georgia heads into Saturday’s SEC championship game against No. 11 LSU having surely done enough to earn a...
Kunselman to run for open seat on Pennsylvania high court
HARRISBURG — A second Pennsylvania appellate court judge, Deborah Kunselman, said Thursday she will run for an open seat on the state Supreme Court in next November’s election. Kunselman, a Democrat, serves on the state Superior Court. Kunselman, 55, was endorsed in the primary by the Democratic Party when she...
College Football Playoff expands to 12 teams in 2024 season
The College Football Playoff announced Thursday it will expand to a 12-team event starting in 2024, completing an 18-month process that was fraught with delays and disagreements. The announcement came a day after the Rose Bowl agreed to amend its contract for the 2024 and 2025 seasons, which was the...
Gaylord Perry, 2-time Cy Young winner, dies at 84
GAFFNEY, S.C. — Baseball Hall of Famer and two-time Cy Young Award winner Gaylord Perry, a master of the spitball who wrote a book about using the pitch, died Thursday. He was 84. Perry died at his home in Gaffney at about 5 a.m. Thursday of natural causes, Cherokee County...
Clemson, North Carolina square off for ACC championship
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Its College Football Playoff hopes dashed following a devastating loss to in-state rival South Carolina, No. 10 Clemson is turning its attention to returning to its familiar perch atop of the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Tigers (10-2, 8-0 ACC, No. 9 CFP) are seeking their seventh ACC...
U.K. royals arrive in Boston to showcase youthful monarchy
BOSTON — The Prince and Princess of Wales embarked Wednesday on their first overseas trip since the death of Queen Elizabeth II, aiming to showcase the younger face of a monarchy that is tackling important issues like climate change as it attempts to remain relevant in a modern, multicultural Britain....
New frothy TV drama series ‘Riches’ mixes money and bloodVideo
NEW YORK — There’s a new TV drama about the exploits of a stylish, privileged and super-successful fictional family whose scheming members are at each other’s throats. They make the folks at “Succession” look almost functional. “Riches,” which premieres Dec. 2 on Amazon Prime Video is set in the corporate...
An inflation gauge tracked by the Fed slows to still-high 6%
WASHINGTON — A measure of inflation that is closely monitored by the Federal Reserve eased but remained at an elevated level in October, likely reinforcing the Fed’s intent to keep raising interest rates to cool the economy and slow the acceleration of prices. Thursday’s report from the Commerce Department showed...
Applications for jobless benefits decline last week
WASHINGTON — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits came back down last week, hovering near levels suggesting the U.S. labor market has been largely unaffected by the Federal Reserve’s aggressive interest rate hikes. Applications for jobless aid fell to 225,000 for the week ending Nov. 26, a decline...
Jamie Lee Curtis to receive AARP Career Achievement Award
LOS ANGELES — “Scream Queen” Jamie Lee Curtis will be this year’s recipient of AARP The Magazine’s Movies for Grownups Awards career achievement honor. Curtis will receive the honor at the AARP’s annual Best Movies and TV for Grownups ceremony, the group announced Thursday. Alan Cumming returns to host the...
Key allegations, witnesses as Trump Organization trial winds down
NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump’s inaugural address clocked in at just 16 minutes. Closing arguments that are slated for Thursday in his company’s criminal tax fraud case? Prosecutors and defense lawyers say those could take seven hours or more. Those projections speak to the complexity of the case,...
Obama heads to Georgia as Warnock seeks big early vote advantage
ATLANTA — Georgia voters have cast more than 1 million ballots ahead of the Dec. 6 U.S. Senate runoff between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker, with Warnock looking to juice an apparent Democratic head start in early voting with a visit Thursday from Barack Obama. The...
