Associated Press stories, Page 1454
Dick Vitale taking extended break from ESPN college hoops
Dick Vitale is taking an extended break from the airwaves to rest his voice. The ESPN college basketball analyst said in a story posted Wednesday to ESPN Front Row that on a recent visit to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, throat specialist Dr. Steven Zeitels advised him to rest his...
Federal judge rejects Oklahoma’s lawsuit over Guard vaccine mandate
OKLAHOMA CITY — A federal judge in Oklahoma ruled against the state in its lawsuit challenging the vaccine mandates for members of the Oklahoma National Guard in a dispute that is the first critical test of the military’s authority to require National Guard troops to get the shot. U.S. District...
Ghislaine Maxwell convicted in Jeffrey Epstein sex abuse case
NEW YORK — The British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted Wednesday of luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by the American millionaire Jeffrey Epstein. The verdict capped a monthlong trial featuring sordid accounts of the sexual exploitation of girls as young as 14, told by four women who described...
Virus postpones Westminster Kennel Club’s annual dog show
NEW YORK — The Westminster Kennel Club’s annual dog show has become the latest event to be postponed or canceled in New York as the number of coronavirus cases surges. The club’s board of governors announced Wednesday it was postponing its 2022 event, scheduled for late January, to later in...
Panthers bench Cam Newton, will start Sam Darnold at QB vs. SaintsVideo
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Panthers coach Matt Rhule said Sam Darnold will start at quarterback Sunday against the New Orleans Saints instead of 2015 league MVP Cam Newton. Newton is 0-5 as Carolina’s starting quarterback this year and has lost 13 straight starts as the Panthers starting QB dating to the...
Rest of world junior championship canceled over covid-19Video
The remainder of the world junior hockey championship in Canada has been canceled over fears of a covid-19 outbreak. The International Ice Hockey Federation made the announcement Wednesday on the recommendation of the organization’s medical officials. Citing the spread of the coronavirus and the omicron variant, the IIHF canceled the...
In passing league, some NFL teams still find success on groundVideo
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Relying on a big-play quarterback to carve up opposing defenses in the passing game remains the best path to offensive success in the modern NFL. But for teams that don’t have an accomplished passer such as Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady or Patrick Mahomes, sticking to the...
Another round of snow before thaw comes to frigid NorthwestVideo
SEATTLE — A thaw-out is coming for frozen Seattle and Portland, Oregon, but not before another round of snow that could compound problems for a region more accustomed to winter rain than arctic blasts. More snow and rain fell on California on Wednesday, causing travel disruptions on mountain routes and...
Candace Parker voted AP Female Athlete of Year for 2nd time
Candace Parker wrestled with the decision to make a huge change in her life and leave Los Angeles — where she had played her entire WNBA career — and head home to Chicago. In the end, the appeal of a homecoming was too much for Parker to ignore, and it...
NHL cutting isolation time to 5 days, change applies in U.S.
The NHL is following other leagues and the CDC by cutting covid-19 isolation times to five days under certain conditions and where it is allowed by local laws. The change went into effect Wednesday and applies only in the U.S. because of stricter pandemic regulations in Canada. The league has...
Israel strikes Gaza after gunfire wounds civilian near fence
JERUSALEM — An Israeli and three Palestinians were wounded on Wednesday in the first exchange of fire in months on the Gaza frontier. The violence came as Israel announced measures aimed at improving living conditions in the occupied West Bank after a rare meeting of top officials. Israel has announced...
Biden, Putin to hold call over stepped up security demands
REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. — President Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin will speak Thursday as the Russian leader has stepped up his demands for security guarantees in Eastern Europe. The two leaders will discuss “a range of topics, including upcoming diplomatic engagements,” National Security Council spokeswoman Emily Horne said in a...
Lawsuit: Missouri shooting range made Muslim woman remove hijab
A firearms store and gun range in suburban Kansas City refused to let a Muslim woman use the range unless she removed her hijab, a Muslim civil rights organization alleged in a federal lawsuit. In a lawsuit filed Tuesday, the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the law firm of Baldwin...
Widespread flight cancellations continue as omicron spreads
NEW YORK — Hundreds of flights were canceled Wednesday as the omicron variant creates havoc both for travelers and for airlines that are having to cobble together flight crews as pilots, flight attendants and ground crews become infected or are exposed to others who have been. More than 850 flights...
China urges U.S. to protect its space station from satellites
China is calling on the United States to protect a Chinese space station and its three-member crew after Beijing complained that satellites launched by Elon Musk’s SpaceX nearly struck the station. A foreign ministry spokesman accused Washington on Tuesday of ignoring its treaty obligations to protect the safety of the...
New covid-19 cases in U.S. soar to highest levels on recordVideo
More than a year after the vaccine was rolled out, new cases of covid-19 in the U.S. have soared to their highest level on record at over 265,000 per day on average, a surge driven largely by the highly contagious omicron variant. New cases per day have more than doubled...
NHL players vent frustration over being barred from Olympics
Brad Marchand is not happy. Neither is Vladimir Tarasenko. And they are not alone. A handful of NHL players are voicing their frustration over the league’s decision barring them from participating in the Winter Olympics in China in February. Even though the agreement between the league and NHL Players’ Association...
Minnesota shuts down West Virginia in Guaranteed Rate Bowl
PHOENIX — Ky Thomas ran for 144 yards and a touchdown, Mar’Kiese Irving added 129 yards rushing, and Minnesota shut down West Virginia on defense to win the Guaranteed Rate Bowl, 18-6, on Tuesday night. Thomas and Irving became the Gophers’ one-two punch after Mohamed Ibrahim and Trey Potts sustained...
‘So difficult’: Winter snow, cold slam Northwest and Sierra
SEATTLE — The Pacific Northwest and Sierra Nevada grappled Tuesday with another day of snow, ice and unseasonable cold that has disrupted traffic, caused closures and forced people to find refuge in emergency warming shelters. Across western Washington and Oregon, officials and private groups opened emergency spaces for people as...
Holiday Bowl scrapped as virus issues hit UCLA before kickoffVideo
SAN DIEGO — The Holiday Bowl became the fifth postseason college football game to be canceled when UCLA was forced to pull out just hours before Tuesday’s kickoff because of covid-19 issues with the team. The Bruins were scheduled to face No. 18 N.C. State at Petco Park, the home...
Harry Reid, former Senate majority leader, dies at 82
LAS VEGAS — Harry Reid, the former Senate majority leader and Nevada’s longest-serving member of Congress, has died. He was 82. Reid died Tuesday, “peacefully” and surrounded by friends “following a courageous, four-year battle with pancreatic cancer,” Landra Reid said of her husband in a statement. “Harry was a devout...
Mom: 14-year-old shot by LA police ‘died in my arms’
LOS ANGELES — A 14-year-old was shopping for Christmas clothes last week with her mother when the pair heard screams and hid in a dressing room, where the girl was fatally shot by Los Angeles police after an officer fired a rifle at a suspect and a bullet pierced a...
Air Force uses rare passing game, beats Louisville to win First Responder BowlVideo
DALLAS — Haaziq Daniels threw for two touchdowns and ran for two others as Air Force beat Louisville, 31-28, in the First Responder Bowl on Tuesday. Daniels completed 9 of 10 passes for a season-high 252 yards, leading a triple-option offense that came into the game averaging an FBS-best 340.8...
John Madden, Hall of Fame coach and broadcaster, dies at 85Video
John Madden, the Hall of Fame coach turned broadcaster whose exuberant calls combined with simple explanations provided a weekly soundtrack to NFL games for three decades, died Tuesday morning, the league said. He was 85. The NFL said he died unexpectedly and did not detail a cause. Madden gained fame...
California man gets 2nd life term for synagogue attack
SAN DIEGO — A 22-year-old white supremacist was sentenced Tuesday to life in federal prison for killing a woman and injuring three others in a shooting at a Southern California synagogue in 2019, adding to the life term he received three months earlier in state court. John T. Earnest declined...
