Associated Press stories, Page 1168

Transgender girls in Utah will be given the opportunity to participate in female sports as the school year begins after a judge on Friday reversed a ban pending legal challenges from parents. Instead of an outright ban, transgender girls will now go before a state commission of political appointees who...

Walmart, the nation’s largest employer, is expanding its abortion coverage for employees after staying largely mum on the issue for months following the Supreme Court ruling that scrapped a nationwide right to abortion. In a memo sent to employees on Friday, the company said its health care plans will now...

Part of a human foot found in a shoe floating in a hot spring in Yellowstone National Park earlier this week is believed to be linked the death of a person last month, park officials said Friday. The July 31 death is being investigated but officials do not suspect foul...

The Justice Department under Attorney General William Barr improperly withheld portions of an internal memo Barr cited in announcing that then-President Donald Trump had not obstructed justice in the Russia investigation, a federal appeals panel said Friday. The department had argued that the 2019 memo represented private deliberations of its...

A Michigan judge on Friday blocked county prosecutors from enforcing the state’s 1931 ban on abortion for the foreseeable future, after two days of witness testimony from abortion experts, providers and the state’s chief medical officer. The ruling follows a state Court of Appeals ruling this month that county prosecutors...

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — Two swimmers survived being bitten by sharks this week at South Carolina’s most popular beach. Both people were attacked in Myrtle Beach on Monday with one suffering a serious injury to the forearm and the second a more glancing bite to the leg, police told media...

MEXICO CITY — Nicaraguan police on Friday raided the residence of a Roman Catholic bishop who is an outspoken critic of President Daniel Ortega’s government, apparently detaining the senior clergyman and several other priests holed up inside for two weeks after police set up a cordon. The pre-dawn raid came...

WILMINGTON, Del. — President Joe Biden will host a White House summit next month aimed at combating a spate of hate-fueled violence in the U.S., as he works to deliver on his campaign pledge to “heal the soul of the nation.” The White House announced Friday that Biden will host...

BUFFALO, N.Y. — A Republican candidate for Congress in western New York said in a radio interview that U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland “should be executed” for authorizing a search former President Donald Trump’s home, before clarifying later in the show that he wasn’t being serious. Buffalo-area businessman Carl Paladino...

OMAHA, Neb. — A child likely died from a rare infection caused by a brain-eating amoeba after swimming in an eastern Nebraska river, health officials said, making it the second such probable death in the Midwest this summer and raising the question of whether climate change is playing a role....

NEW YORK — A citizen of Liberia and resident of Uganda was sentenced to over five years in prison Thursday after admitting that he participated in wildlife trafficking that authorities say moved rhinoceros horns and elephant ivory worth at least $3.4 million. Moazu Kromah, 49, of Kampala, Uganda, was sentenced...

Apple regularly issues updates to the software powering the iPhone, and sometimes it’s OK to dawdle when it comes to installing them. But that’s not the case with its latest — an upgrade that Apple released Wednesday to close a security hole that could allow hackers to seize control of...

BOSTON — Three men, including a Mafia hitman, have been charged in the killing of notorious Boston crime boss James “Whitey” Bulger in a West Virginia prison, the Justice Department said Thursday. The charges against Fotios “Freddy” Geas, Paul J. DeCologero and Sean McKinnon come nearly four years after Bulger’s...

A Pennsylvania man has been charged with abuse of a corpse, receiving stolen property and other charges after police say he allegedly tried to buy stolen human remains from an Arkansas woman for possible resale on Facebook. A spokeswoman for the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock...

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A Florida judge on Thursday declared a Florida law championed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis that restricts race-based conversation and analysis in business and education unconstitutional. Tallahassee U.S. District Judge Mark Walker said in a 44-page ruling that the “Stop WOKE” act violates the First Amendment...

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Justice Department to put forward proposed redactions as he committed to making public at least part of the affidavit supporting the search warrant for former President Donald Trump’s estate in Florida. U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart gave prosecutors...

BEREA, Ohio — Deshaun Watson has reached a settlement with the NFL and will serve an 11-game suspension and pay a $5 million fine rather than risk missing his first season as quarterback of the Cleveland Browns following accusations of sexual misconduct. Watson was accused of sexual assault and harassment...

The Big Ten’s new $7 billion media rights deal will string the conference’s top football games across three major networks each week, creating an NFL-style television schedule on Saturdays. The Big Ten announced Thursday it has reached seven-year agreements with Fox, CBS and NBC to share the rights to the...

WASHINGTON — Slightly fewer Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week as the labor market continues to stand out as one of the strongest segments of the U.S. economy. Applications for jobless aid for the week ending August 13 fell by 2,000 to 250,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Last...

MOSCOW — The Russian military said Thursday that it has deployed warplanes armed with state-of-the-art hypersonic missiles to the country’s Kaliningrad region, a move that comes amid soaring tensions with the West over Moscow’s action in Ukraine. Russia’s Defense Ministry said three MiG-31 fighters with Kinzhal hypersonic missiles arrived at...

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A prosecutor in a murder case complained about a judge’s ruling in a group text message that included the judge, resulting in a second mistrial for a man charged with killing his girlfriend’s young son. Now the defense wants the case dismissed altogether. Broward County Judge...

HUALIEN, Taiwan — The U.S. government will hold trade talks with Taiwan in a sign of support for the island democracy that China claims as its own territory, prompting Beijing to warn Thursday it will take action if necessary to “safeguard its sovereignty.” The announcement of trade talks comes after...

SAN FRANCISCO — Airbnb says it will use new methods to spot and block people who try to use the short-term rental service to throw a party. The company said this week it has introduced technology that examines the would-be renter’s history on Airbnb, how far they live from the...