Associated Press stories, Page 1681
Trial against opioid distributors begins in West VirginiaVideo
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A trial began Monday in a lawsuit filed in West Virginia accusing three drug distributors of fueling a local opioid epidemic with excessively large shipments of painkillers over several years. The city of Huntington and Cabell County filed the lawsuit against drug distributors AmerisourceBergen Drug Co., Cardinal...
Ex-consumer watchdog Richard Cordray tapped to manage federal student aid
COLUMBUS, Ohio — A former federal consumer watchdog and Democratic nominee for Ohio governor has landed his next job. The Department of Education announced Monday that Richard Cordray has been selected as its chief operating officer of federal student aid. Cordray, 62, previously served as Ohio treasurer and attorney general...
Analysis: After draft, some obstacles ahead for NFL in 2021Video
With a successful in-person draft in Cleveland behind it, the NFL inexorably moves on. What’s ahead might not go so smoothly as the selection process did on the shore of Lake Erie. For one, the league and the players’ union likely will be haggling over offseason programs for, well, the...
Lower-round QBs face long odds to make it in NFLVideo
The five teams that took quarterbacks in the first round of the NFL Draft head into the offseason program full of optimism that they have found the franchise cornerstone that will lead to great success for the next decade. History indicates at least a couple of those teams will be...
FDA expected to OK Pfizer vaccine for teens within week
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to authorize Pfizer’s covid-19 vaccine for young adults age 12 and older by next week, according to a federal official and a person familiar with the process, setting up shots for many before the beginning of the next school year....
Browns take chance on Malik McDowell, DT with troubled pastVideo
CLEVELAND — The Browns are giving Malik McDowell the chance to revive an NFL career stopped by some serious legal trouble. Cleveland signed the free agent defensive tackle and former Seattle draft pick and five undrafted free agents Monday. Selected in the second by the Seahawks in 2017, McDowell was...
Mitch McConnell says GOP open to $600 billion for infrastructureVideo
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Monday that Republicans are willing to spend up to $600 billion on infrastructure, far less than President Joe Biden is seeking, even as he ruled out supporting a higher corporate tax rate to pay for it. Instead McConnell is endorsing...
Bill and Melinda Gates announce they are ending marriageVideo
SEATTLE — Bill and Melinda Gates announced Monday that they are divorcing. The Microsoft co-founder and his wife, who launched the world’s largest charitable foundation, said they would continue to work together at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In identical tweets, they said they had made the decision to...
Witness rescues girl from Maryland bay after 5-car crash on bridge
OCEAN CITY, Md. — A witness to a five-vehicle crash on a Maryland bridge jumped into a bay and rescued a 2-year-old girl who had been ejected into the water while still in her car seat, according to authorities. The girl was thrown from a pickup truck on the Route...
Ohio proposal would ban drivers from holding phones, devices
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Holding a cell phone or other electronic device while driving in Ohio would be illegal under legislation introduced Monday that takes aim at distracted driving by targeting not just texting but scrolling through social media and other hands-on phone uses. Having an electronic device in your hand...
Biden lifts Trump refugee cap after delay backlashVideo
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Monday formally raised the nation’s cap on refugee admissions to 62,500 this year, weeks after facing bipartisan blowback for his delay in replacing the record-low ceiling set by former President Donald Trump. Refugee resettlement agencies have waited for Biden to quadruple the number of...
Minors primer: What’s new as minor league returns in 2021?Video
NEW YORK — They have waited for the Wahoos, stood by for the Sod Poodles, bided their time for the Biscuits or Trash Pandas. After more than a year of uncertainty and empty ballparks, fans in minor league cities finally are getting baseball back. “Small town baseball, it’s the fabric...
Groups say gunshot detection systems unreliable, seek review
CHICAGO — The gunshot detection system that set in motion the recent fatal police shooting of a 13-year-old boy in Chicago routinely reports gunshots where there are none, sending officers into predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods for “unnecessary and hostile” encounters, community groups argued in a court filing Monday. The...
West Virginia high school basketball player set to graduate fatally shot
BECKLEY, W. Va. — An 18-year-old high school basketball standout who was set to graduate this month has been killed in a shooting in southern West Virginia. Dewayne Marquette Richardson, Jr. was shot once in the chest Sunday night, news outlets reported, citing a statement from the Beckley Police Department....
Storms spawn twisters in Mississippi, kill 2 in GeorgiaVideo
YAZOO CITY, Miss. — Much of the South is facing the risk of more severe weather Tuesday, forecasters say, after tornadoes struck parts of the region Sunday night and Monday, causing heavy damage in some parts of Mississippi. Parts of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee, as well as corners...
Verizon sells internet trailblazers Yahoo and AOL for $5BVideo
AOL and Yahoo are being sold again, this time to a private equity firm. Wireless company Verizon will sell Verizon Media, which consists of the once-pioneering tech platforms, to Apollo Global Management in a $5 billion deal. Verizon said Monday that it will keep a 10% stake in the new...
EPA rule to phase out greenhouse gases used in refrigerators, coolants
WASHINGTON — In the first Biden administration rule aimed at combating climate change, the Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to phase down production and use of hydrofluorocarbons, highly potent greenhouse gases commonly used in refrigerators and air conditioners. The proposed rule follows through on a law Congress passed in December...
Calls for justice at N.C. funeral of Andrew Brown Jr.
ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. — The Rev. Al Sharpton issued a powerful call for transparency and the release of body camera footage at the funeral Monday for Andrew Brown Jr., a Black man shot and killed by deputies in North Carolina, with the civil rights leader likening withholding the video to...
Amazon to take over ‘Thursday Night Football’ package in ’22Video
Amazon Prime Video will become the exclusive home of the NFL’s “Thursday Night Football” package a year earlier than originally anticipated. Amazon and the league announced Monday that Prime Video will take over the entire package in 2022, which will make it an 11-season deal through 2032. It originally was...
Google signs deal with WNBA to help champion women’s sportsVideo
NEW YORK — The WNBA signed a multiyear deal with Google on Monday to be the presenting partner for the league’s playoffs, part of the technology giant’s efforts to help champion women’s sports. Twenty-five WNBA games will be televised on ABC and ESPN in celebration of the league’s 25th season,...
Wall Street logs gains Monday on strong earnings
Health care and energy companies helped push stocks higher Monday, as Wall Street kicked off the first trading day in May with more gains after a four-month winning streak. The S&P 500 rose 0.3%. Industrial and financial stocks also helped lift the market. Falling technology and communication stocks, and companies...
Top general drops opposition to change in sex assault policy
In a potentially significant shift in the debate over combating sexual assault in the military, the nation’s top general says he is dropping his opposition to a proposal to take decisions on sexual assault prosecution out of the hands of commanders. Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of...
GOP: Wolf should fire vendor that mishandled virus data
Pennsylvania should immediately terminate the no-bid state contract of a company that performed covid-19 contact tracing and exposed the private medical information of tens of thousands of residents, Republican state lawmakers said Monday. GOP leaders also called for state and federal probes into the Atlanta-based contractor’s mishandling of the data,...
Philadelphia man gets life term in parking lot slaying of ex-girlfriend
NORRISTOWN — A Philadelphia man who prosecutors said stabbed and ran over his ex-girlfriend in the parking lot of her suburban workplace has been sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole. Lawrence Crawley, 36, apologized Monday in Montgomery County Court before the mandatory sentence was imposed, The Philadelphia...
Restrictions easing in U.S. and Europe amid disaster in India
Air travel in the U.S. hit its highest mark since covid-19 took hold more than 13 months ago, while European Union officials are proposing to ease restrictions on visitors to the continent as the vaccine rollout sends new cases and deaths tumbling in more affluent countries. The improving picture in...
