Associated Press stories, Page 1850

BISMARCK, N.D. — North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum has no authority to appoint a coal company executive to fill a state House seat won by a Republican candidate who died before the election, the attorney general said Wednesday. Burgum announced Wednesday that he was appointing BNI Energy President Wade Boeshans...

NEW YORK — Across the nation, LGBTQ candidates achieved milestone victories in Tuesday’s election, including the first transgender person elected to a state Senate, and the first openly gay Black men to win seats in Congress. The landmark wins came not in only blue but also red states such as...

WASHINGTON — As Democrat Joe Biden inched closer to the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the White House, President Donald Trump’s campaign put into action the legal strategy the president had signaled for weeks: attacking the integrity of the voting process in states where the result could mean...

FRISCO, Texas — Dallas Cowboys receiver CeeDee Lamb stammered briefly when asked about his first practice with Cooper Rush and Garrett Gilbert as those two quarterbacks compete to start against the Pittsburgh Steelers. “We recently got Coop … Cooper … Rush. Cooper Rush,” Lamb said, the rookie finally putting the...

PORTLAND, Maine — Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine has won the hardest-fought race of her career, turning back a challenge by Democrat Sara Gideon. Collins survived to serve a fifth term following a costly race that was viewed as pivotal to control of the Senate. Collins, one of...

Regardless of the presidential election outcome, a vexing issue remains to be decided: Will the U.S. be able to tame a perilous pandemic that is surging as holidays, winter and other challenges approach? Public health experts fear the answer is no, at least in the short term, with potentially dire...

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — People across Puerto Rico awaited final results Wednesday of elections that saw long lines of voters and produced a tight gubernatorial race in the U.S. Caribbean territory. Pedro Pierluisi of the pro-statehood New Progressive Party held a slight lead over Carlos Delgado of the Popular...

WASHINGTON — Democrats faced increasingly long odds in the the battle for Senate control as Republicans brushed back multiple challengers to protect their majority. Still, it was too soon for the GOP to declare victory. In Maine, Republican Sen. Susan Collins won the hardest-fought race of her career, securing a...

Tre Tipton felt off. Yet the Pitt wide receiver spent years wrestling with his inner demons in silence, assuming it was up to him to sort things out on his own because, well, that’s just how things worked. “We have to be the manliest of men,” Tipton said. “From a...

From Ford Model T cars that popped off the assembly line in just 90 minutes to 60-second service for burgers, the United States has long had a major hand in making the world a frenetic and impatient place, primed and hungry for instant gratification. So waking up to the news...

A flash of luck helped astronomers solve a cosmic mystery: What causes powerful but fleeting radio bursts that zip and zigzag through the universe? Scientists have known about these energetic pulses — called fast radio bursts — for about 13 years and have seen them coming from outside our galaxy,...

WASHINGTON — Scattered protests took place from Washington, D.C. to Washington state in the hours after polls closed, but there were no signs of widespread unrest or violence linked to the U.S. election. The outcome of the hard-fought contest for the presidency remained undecided Wednesday, stirring worries that prolonged uncertainty...

HARRISBURG — Legal challenges and a mountain of uncounted ballots promised a long watch Wednesday to find out who the people of Pennsylvania chose as president, even as a host of other major races in the state — including for several congressional seats, statewide officers and the Legislature — remained...

SILVER SPRING, Md. — The U.S. trade deficit fell in September after hitting a 14-year high in August as exports outpaced imports. The Commerce Department reported Wednesday that the gap between what the U.S. sells and what it buys abroad fell to $63.9 billion in September, a decline of 4.7%...

Technology and health care companies drove stocks sharply higher Wednesday as Wall Street embraced the upside of more gridlock in Washington. The S&P 500 was up 2.4% and on pace for its best day in more than five months, as of 3:26 p.m. Eastern time. The Dow Jones Industrial Average...

BEIJING — President Xi Jinping tried to allay fears the ruling Communist Party’s latest development strategy might hamper trade, promising Wednesday that China will open wider and become “the world’s market.” Plans that call for Chinese industry to pursue self-reliance in technology and focus on domestic markets and suppliers will...

BEIRUT — Syrian government on Wednesday shelled the last rebel last enclave in the country’s northwest, killing at least seven people, including three children, rescuers and activists reported. The attack came during a day of heavy rain, and targeted the city of Idlib city and two towns, to the north...

ALGIERS, Algeria — Algeria’s secretive presidency confirmed Wednesday that the mysterious illness that caused President Abdelmadjid Tebboune to be hospitalized in Germany last month was the coronavirus. The presidency said that the state of 74-year-old Tebboune’s health is “gradually improving” and he “continues to receive treatment in a specialized German...

VIENNA — Life in Vienna returned to something like normal Wednesday as Austrian authorities investigated whether a 20-year-old man who fatally shot four people in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group had any accomplices. Officials say the suspect, identified as 20-year-old Kujtim Fejzulai, had a previous conviction for...

WASHINGTON — The fate of the United States presidency hung in the balance Wednesday morning, as President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden battled for three familiar battleground states — Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania — that could prove crucial in determining who wins the White House. It was unclear...

BERLIN — The United States on Wednesday formally left the Paris Agreement, a global pact forged five years ago to avert the threat of catastrophic climate change. The move, long threatened by U.S. President Donald Trump and triggered by his administration a year ago, further isolates the United States in...

PHOENIX — Democrat Mark Kelly won the Arizona Senate seat once held by John McCain, riding Arizona’s changing electorate to flip a Republican Senate seat in a state long dominated by the GOP. Arizona will send two Democrats to the Senate for the first time in nearly 70 years when...