Associated Press stories, Page 1483

Canines in the courtroom? The Pennsylvania Supreme Court says yes — under certain conditions. A trial witness may be accompanied by a “comfort dog” if the animal will help yield reliable, complete and truthful testimony, the justices ruled Wednesday in a precedent-setting opinion that established a “balancing test” for Pennsylvania...

Jared Bartlett’s infectious smile and occasional giggle answering questions after his best game at West Virginia only temporarily masked the pain of his older brother’s hit-and-run death three months ago. After the death was mentioned by West Virginia coach Neal Brown, the linebacker was asked about Richard Bartlett III at...

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Search teams fanned out Wednesday at a Florida wilderness park to look for the boyfriend of Gabby Petito, the young woman who authorities say was killed while on a cross-country trip with him. The search resumed around 8 a.m. Wednesday at the 24,000-acre Carlton Reserve park,...

SAN FRANCISCO — One desperate California school district is sending flyers home in students’ lunchboxes, telling parents it’s “now hiring.” Elsewhere, principals are filling in as crossing guards, teachers are being offered signing bonuses and schools are moving back to online learning. Now that schools have welcomed students back to...

The projectors are rolling. The ruby slippers are on. Many an Oscar sits glistening. The shark has been hanging, and waiting, for nearly a year. Nine years after it was announced, four years after its first projected open date, and five months since its last planned launch date, the U.S....

NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday sued his estranged niece and The New York Times over a 2018 story about his family’s wealth and tax practices that was partly based on confidential documents she provided to the newspaper’s reporters. Trump’s lawsuit, filed in state court in New...

DEL RIO, Texas — Many Haitian migrants camped in a small Texas border town are being released in the United States, two U.S. officials said Tuesday, undercutting the Biden administration’s public statements that the thousands in the camp faced immediate expulsion. Haitians have been freed on a “very, very large...

LOS ANGELES — Willie Garson, who played Stanford Blatch, Carrie Bradshaw’s friend on TV’s “Sex and the City” and its movie sequels, has died, his son announced Tuesday. He was 57. “I love you so much papa. Rest In Peace and I’m so glad you got to share all your...

WASHINGTON — The House voted Tuesday night to fund the government into early December, suspend the federal debt limit and provide disaster and refugee aid, setting up a high-stakes showdown with Republicans who oppose the package despite the prospects of a looming fiscal crisis. The Democratic-led House passed the measure...

BOISE — Health care workers are exhausted and angry. Some of Idaho’s coronavirus vaccines are expiring because they have sat unused for so long. And coronavirus case numbers and deaths continue to climb, putting the state among the worst in the nation for the rate of new covid-19 diagnoses. Idaho’s...

NEW YORK — In the midst of difficult negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement, MLB and its players’ association are scheduled to start a grievance hearing next Monday over the union’s claim the 2020 pandemic-affected season was too short. The timing of the hearing was disclosed to the Associated...

NEW YORK — One of two teens charged as adults in the fatal stabbing of a college student in a New York City park pleaded guilty Tuesday to murder and robbery charges. Luchiano Lewis was accused of holding Barnard College freshman Tessa Majors in a headlock and preventing her from...

TALLAHASSEE — Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis named a UCLA doctor and health policy researcher who shares his approach to managing the coronavirus pandemic to serve as the state’s surgeon general Tuesday. Like DeSantis, Dr. Jospeh Ladapo said he doesn’t believe in school closures, lockdowns or vaccine mandates. “Florida will...

NORTH PORT, Fla. — Gabby Petito was killed by another person, a coroner concluded while also confirming that the human remains found recently at a Wyoming national park were those of the 22-year-old woman who disappeared months after she set out on a cross-country road trip with her boyfriend, the...

BERLIN — Senior politicians in Germany expressed shock over the weekend killing of a young gas station clerk who asked a customer to wear a face mask, and they warned Tuesday against the radicalization of people who oppose the country’s pandemic restrictions. A 49-year-old German man was arrested in the...

PHILADELPHIA — Philadelphia Flyers center Kevin Hayes will miss four to six weeks after he had abdominal surgery Tuesday. Flyers coach Alain Vigneault said Hayes was skating with his teammates Monday at the team complex in Voorhees, N.J., when he “felt something in his groin.” Hayes had surgery and could...

NEW YORK — R. Kelly is unlikely to take the witness stand at his sex-trafficking trial, a lawyer for the R&B singer told a judge Tuesday. The remark by attorney Deveraux Cannick, made with the jury out the courtroom, came as the defense wound down its case at the trial...