Associated Press stories, Page 1193

ATLANTA — Dwight Smith, a runner-up for NL rookie of the year who played on Atlanta’s World Series-winning team in 1995, died Friday, the Braves announced. He was 58. The Braves said the former outfielder and pinch-hitting specialist died of congestive heart and lung failure. He lived in suburban Peachtree...

In some corners of the personal finance advice world, getting into debt is just about the worst thing you can do. And yes, some forms of debt — particularly those that charge high interest rates — can keep you locked in a cycle of owing money for years. Still, there...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A West Virginia man charged with trying to kill his sister, who recently awakened from a two-year coma and identified him as her attacker, has died less than a week after his arrest, authorities said Friday. Daniel J. Palmer III of Cottageville was pronounced dead Thursday at...

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. — The Los Angeles Rams threw the last of their lavish offseason parties Thursday night so they could hand out their massive Super Bowl championship rings to their current and former players. Sean McVay sees the Friday morning after that soiree as the dividing line between the...

OCEANPORT, N.J. — While trainer Bob Baffert isn’t welcome at every thoroughbred track around the country, Monmouth Park has no problem letting the Hall of Famer bring his horses to New Jersey. After all, the $1 million Haskell Stakes is being run Saturday at the Jersey Shore track, and no...

NEWTON, Iowa — The longtime premise in Iowa of “If you build it, he will come” originates with the 1989 “Field of Dreams” movie. A twist on the slogan could be used this weekend at Iowa Speedway, where sponsor Hy-Vee has taken an “if you promote it, they will come”...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California punched back Friday against two recent landmark U.S. Supreme Court decisions as Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a controversial, first-in-the-nation gun control law patterned after a Texas anti-abortion law and urged other states to follow suit. He acted one month after conservative justices overturned the constitutional right...

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Law enforcement officers who charged into Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School minutes after Nikolas Cruz fatally shot 17 in one of its buildings described for jurors Friday the horrific scene they encountered. Two Coral Springs police officers and a Broward County sheriff’s deputy told of...

KAMPALA, Uganda — More than 50 million people across the East African region are expected to face acute food insecurity this year, a regional bloc said Friday, warning that some 300,000 in Somalia and South Sudan are projected to be under full-blown famine conditions. The assessment by Intergovernmental Authority on...

KYIV, Ukraine — Emergency workers recovered three bodies from a school hit by a Russian strike in eastern Ukraine, officials said Friday, one of a string of attacks on the nation. The casualties in the city of Kramatorsk followed a barrage Thursday on a densely populated area of Ukraine’s second-largest...

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — Six months after he got one of the most amazing phone calls in sports, David Ortiz is still awestruck at his good fortune. The former Boston Red Sox slugger known affectionately as Big Papi will be inducted into the Hall of Fame on Sunday. Maybe then baseball’s...

CLEVELAND — Deshaun Watson reported to his first training camp with the Browns on Friday still not knowing how long he’ll be their starting quarterback. Like one of his passes, Watson’s future remains up in the air. As he awaits word on whether he’ll be suspended by the NFL for...

ATLANTA — Two-time defending champion Alabama was predicted to win a third consecutive Southeastern Conference title in voting by media attending this week’s SEC Media Days. Alabama beat Georgia in last year’s SEC championship game in Atlanta before losing to the Bulldogs in the national title game. Media picked a...

WASHINGTON — Steve Bannon, a longtime ally of former President Donald Trump, was convicted on Friday of contempt charges for defying a congressional subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Bannon, 68, was convicted after a four-day trial in federal court on two...

CAHORS, France — Christophe Laporte ended the host’s drought of stage winners when he surged out of the peloton in the finale of the 19th stage and claimed his maiden win on the Tour de France on Friday. Just two days before the race ends in Paris, Laporte spared the...

WAYNESBURG — Authorities have filed charges against three more people in the case of a Pennsylvania 911 operator accused of failing to send an ambulance to the rural home of a woman who died of internal bleeding about a day later. According to a criminal complaint, the three men were...

WASHINGTON — This isn’t the end of the Capitol riot story. The House committee investigating the deadly events of a fateful, chilly January day — now a year and a half in the past — has wrapped up its hot summer series of televised hearings, each featuring revelatory details about...

The spread of monkeypox in the U.S. could represent the dawn of a new sexually transmitted disease, though some health officials say the virus that causes pimple-like bumps might yet be contained before it gets firmly established. Experts don’t agree on the likely path of the disease, with some fearing...

NEW YORK — Stocks are opening slightly higher on Wall Street Friday ahead of data that’s expected to show the manufacturing industry slowed again last month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 0.4% just after the opening bell while the S&P 500 is barely positive and the Nasdaq is...