Associated Press stories, Page 1521
MLB .244 batting average worst since ’68, up after crackdown
NEW YORK — The major league batting average dropped to .244 this season, its lowest since the year of the pitcher in 1968, though offense picked up markedly following baseball’s midseason crackdown on grip-enhancing substances for pitchers. MLB’s stricter enforcement had the desired impact, ending a run of 12 consecutive...
Police: Former NASCAR driver killed in dispute involving estranged wife
ATHENS, Ga. — Former NASCAR driver John Wes Townley was shot to death over the weekend during a dispute that involved a hatchet after showing up at a house occupied by his estranged wife and another man, police said Monday. The 31-year-old Townley, who raced eight seasons, had the weapon...
With MVPs out, new stars set to shine in MLB postseason
A funny thing about this year’s likely MVPs — none was valuable enough to push his teams into the postseason. Shohei Ohtani, Bryce Harper, Fernando Tatis Jr., Juan Soto, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. — all contenders for the individual prize and all set to watch from home while a champion is...
Florida school massacre suspect’s jail brawl trial delayed
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The trial of the suspect in the 2018 Florida high school massacre for fighting a jail guard was delayed Monday because his lead lawyer on the case has been hospitalized. Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer ruled that jury selection in Nikolas Cruz’s trial on jail battery charges...
Mich. Gov. Whitmer vetoes election bills, says they perpetuate lies
LANSING, Mich. — Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer vetoed several Republican-sponsored election bills, saying they would have perpetuated falsehoods to discredit the 2020 presidential election and made it tougher for people living in large senior facilities and apartment complexes to vote. Two measures would have codified existing practices by limiting access...
UK pledges to hit all-renewable electricity by 2035
All Britain’s electricity will come from renewable sources by 2035, the governing Conservatives announced Monday, saying the move would help end the country’s reliance on imported fuel. Business and Energy Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said “the only way to strengthen Britain’s energy security is zero carbon power that is generated in...
Whistleblower: Facebook chose profit over public safety
NEW YORK — A data scientist who was revealed Sunday as the Facebook whistleblower says that whenever there was a conflict between the public good and what benefited the company, the social media giant would choose its own interests. Frances Haugen was identified in a “60 Minutes” interview Sunday as...
Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram suffer worldwide outage
The massive global outage that plunged Facebook, its Instagram and WhatsApp platforms and many people who rely heavily on these services — including Facebook’s own workforce — into chaos Monday is gradually dissipating. Facebook said late Monday that it’s been working to restore access to its services and is “happy...
Jaguars’ Urban Meyer apologizes for ‘just stupid’ actions in videoVideo
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Jacksonville Jaguars coach Urban Meyer apologized to his family, his team and owner Shad Khan for actions he called “just stupid.” A video surfaced Saturday night showing a woman dancing close to Meyer’s lap, a clip that quickly went viral and made headlines across the country. Another...
Biden tells GOP to ‘get out of the way’ on debt limit
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden accused Republican lawmakers on Monday of blocking efforts to increase the government’s borrowing authority, saying they’re playing “Russian roulette with the U.S. economy” by committing to filibuster the measure ahead of an Oct. 18 deadline. Biden called on the Senate to suspend the nation’s debt...
Russia film crew set to blast off to make 1st movie in space
In a historic first, Russia is set to launch an actor and a film director into space to make a feature film in orbit — a project the nation’s space chief has hailed as a chance to raise the prestige of Russia’s space program. Actor Yulia Peresild and director Klim...
Wainwright gets $17.5M from Cards in ’22, over double ’21
ST. LOUIS — St. Louis pitcher Adam Wainwright is guaranteed $17.5 million under his 2022 contract with the Cardinals, more than double his $8 million salary this year. The 40-year-old also has a full no-trade provision in the deal announced Friday, not that it makes any difference. Wainwright has the...
Ex-U.S. Rep. Todd Akin, sunk by ‘legitimate rape’ remark, dies
Former U.S. Rep. Todd Akin, a conservative Missouri Republican whose comment that women’s bodies have a way of avoiding pregnancies in cases of “legitimate rape” sunk his bid for the U.S. Senate and became a cautionary tale for other GOP candidates, has died. He was 74. Akin had cancer for...
Doctors grow frustrated over covid denial, misinformation
The covid-19 patient’s health was deteriorating quickly at a Michigan hospital, but he was having none of the doctor’s diagnosis. Despite dangerously low oxygen levels, the unvaccinated man didn’t think he was that sick and got so irate over a hospital policy forbidding his wife from being at his bedside...
EU regulator OKs Pfizer vaccine booster for 18 and older
AMSTERDAM — The European Union’s drug regulator gave its backing Monday to administering booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech covid-19 vaccine for people 18 and older. The European Medicines Agency said the booster doses “may be considered at least 6 months after the second dose for people aged 18 years and...
Treasury to shift rental assistance to places with demand
The Treasury Department on Monday announced plans to start reallocating the billions of dollars in federal rental assistance in a bid to get more money into the hands of tenants facing eviction. The plan is a response to the slow distribution of rental assistance in many parts of the country....
Stocks fall as tech retreats; price of oil hits 7-year high
Technology companies led a broad slide for stocks Monday on Wall Street, as rising bond yields and energy prices stoked investors’ concerns about higher inflation. The S&P 500 fell 1.3%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.9% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 2.1%. The price of oil hit a seven-year...
Nurse fatally shoots co-worker at Philadelphia hospital
PHILADELPHIA — A nurse at a Philadelphia hospital fatally shot his co-worker early Monday morning, fled the scene and was shot in a gunfight with police that wounded two officers, authorities said. The 55-year-old nurse was wearing scrubs when he shot his co-worker on the ninth floor of Thomas Jefferson...
Henrietta Lacks’ estate sues company over use of her cells
COLLEGE PARK, Md. — The estate of Henrietta Lacks sued a biotechnology company on Monday, accusing it of selling cells that doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital took from the Black woman in 1951 without her knowledge or consent as part of a “a racially unjust medical system.” The estate’s federal...
U.K. eases travel rules but upsets nations not on list
LONDON — Simplified international travel rules took effect Monday in the U.K., easing quarantine and testing requirements for fully vaccinated travelers from more than 50 countries, and the Conservative government vowed it will seek to regularly expand the rules to more nations. Still, the rules have sparked anger from many...
2 win medicine Nobel for showing how we react to heat, touch
STOCKHOLM — Two scientists won the Nobel Prize in medicine Monday for their discoveries into how the human body perceives temperature and touch, revelations that could lead to new ways of treating pain or even heart disease. Americans David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian separately identified receptors in the skin as...
U.S. decides not to open formal probe of Tesla battery fires
DETROIT — U.S. automobile safety regulators have denied a petition seeking an investigation into Tesla software updates, saying it’s unlikely a probe would find a safety defect. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Monday denied the 2019 petition, which alleged that over-the-internet software updates cut battery range in response...
William Shatner will fly to space aboard Blue Origin rocketVideo
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Captain Kirk is rocketing into space next week — boldly going where no other sci-fi stars have gone. Jeff Bezos’ space travel company, Blue Origin, announced Monday that “Star Trek” actor William Shatner will blast off Oct. 12 from West Texas. “Yes, it’s true; I’m going...
Covid vaccine mandate takes effect for NYC teachers, staff
NEW YORK — New York City teachers and other school staff members were all supposed to be vaccinated against covid-19 when the bell rang Monday morning in one of the first school district mandates in the country requiring employees to be inoculated against the coronavirus. Mayor Bill de Blasio gave...
Amid global energy crunch, OPEC+ weighs how much oil to pump
FRANKFURT, Germany — With oil prices near three-year highs, OPEC and allied countries are deciding whether to stay with their plans to gradually restore production that was cut back during the pandemic recession — or to pump more oil to a recovering global economy that’s increasingly thirsty for it. Analysts...
