Associated Press stories, Page 1957
Gonzaga, Baylor remain atop AP Top 25 after game scrapped
Gonzaga and Baylor remained atop the AP Top 25 men’s basketball poll Monday after their hotly anticipated weekend game in Indianapolis was called off about 90 minutes before tipoff because of positive covid-19 tests and contact tracing within the Bulldogs’ program. Gonzaga received 54 of 61 first-place votes from a...
Dick Allen, fearsome hitter and 7-time All-Star, dies at 78Video
Dick Allen, a fearsome hitter who was a seven-time All-Star, the 1964 NL Rookie of the Year and the 1972 AL MVP, has died. He was 78. The Philadelphia Phillies, the team Allen started out with, announced his death on Monday. Allen’s No. 15 was retired by the Phillies in...
Report finds ‘directed’ microwave energy likely made U.S. diplomats ill
WASHINGTON — A new report by a National Academy of Sciences committee has found that “directed” microwave radiation is the likely cause of illnesses among American diplomats in Cuba and China. The study commissioned by the State Department and released Saturday is the latest attempt to find a cause for...
As coronavirus relief talks drag, Congress prepares temporary funding fixVideo
WASHINGTON — Lawmakers are giving themselves more time to sort through their end-of-session business on government spending and covid-19 relief, preparing a one-week stopgap spending bill that would prevent a shutdown this weekend. House floor leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said on Twitter that the temporary government funding bill is slated...
Adam Wainwright wins MLB’s Roberto Clemente Award
NEW YORK — Longtime St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright has won the Roberto Clemente Award, given annually by Major League Baseball for community involvement and philanthropy. Wainwright’s Big League Impact foundation and recording artist Garth Brooks’ Teammates for Kids Foundation teamed for a Home Plate Project with Texas pitcher...
Trump campaign appeals another ballot case in Pennsylvania
HARRISBURG — President Donald Trump’s campaign continues to press lawsuits over Pennsylvania’s election, appealing another case it lost to the state Supreme Court, this time over fewer than 2,000 ballots in a suburban Philadelphia county. The appeal, filed Friday, is one of at least four pending cases in which Trump...
Whitmer administration extends partial shutdown in Michigan by 12 days
LANSING, Mich. — Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration on Monday lengthened, by 12 days, a partial shutdown of businesses and schools to curb the coronavirus. The extended order, now due to end Dec. 20, will enable the state health department to assess how Thanksgiving travel affected the spread of covid-19,...
SpaceX capsules parked side-by-side at station for 1st time
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A SpaceX supply ship bearing Christmas goodies arrived at the International Space Station on Monday, parking alongside another Dragon capsule that carried up astronauts three weeks ago. It’s the first time Elon Musk’s company has two Dragons at the orbiting lab, filling both available slots. Unlike...
Michigan House cancels voting session after Giuliani test
LANSING, Mich. — The Michigan House canceled its voting session scheduled for Tuesday following an announcement that President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani had tested positive for the coronavirus. Giuliani visited Lansing last Wednesday to testify for hours before a Republican-led committee investigating alleged election irregularities. Without wearing a...
Chief says Erie’s new police car totaled in crash
ERIE — A Pennsylvania town’s new patrol car was totaled in a crash with a drunken driver, the police chief said. Chief Dan Spizarny told Erie News Now one of his officers was driving early Sunday when a van came speeding toward the rear of the patrol car, which had...
Final goodbye: Recalling influential people who died in 2020
In a year defined by a devastating pandemic, the world lost iconic defenders of civil rights, great athletes and entertainers who helped define their genres. Many of their names hold a prominent place in the collective consciousness — RBG, Kobe, Maradona, Eddie Van Halen, Little Richard, Sean Connery, Alex Trebek,...
Romania’s center-right prime minister resigns after election
BUCHAREST, Romania — Romania’s center-right prime minister resigned Monday after a general election in which voters delivered nominal victory to the left-leaning, populist opposition party. With 95% of votes counted in Sunday’s election, Ludovic Orban’s National Liberals have been defeated by the populist Social Democrat Party. However the Social Democrats...
Trudeau: Canada to get Pfizer vaccine by end of this year
TORONTO — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday Canada will get up to 249,000 doses of the vaccine developed by American drugmaker Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech before the end of December. The vaccine is expected be approved by Health Canada as soon as Thursday. Trudeau had come under criticism from...
Alabama sheriff removes ‘thugshots’ Christmas tree post
MOBILE, Ala. — An Alabama sheriff’s department has removed a photo of a Christmas tree adorned with what they called “thugshots” of people who have been arrested after criticism that it was demeaning and cruel. The Mobile County Sheriff’s Department deleted the photo from its Facebook page on Saturday, AL.com...
Millions of hungry Americans turn to food banks for 1st time
The deadly pandemic that tore through the nation’s heartland struck just as Aaron Crawford was in a moment of crisis. He was looking for work, his wife needed surgery, then the virus began eating away at her work hours and her paycheck. The Crawfords had no savings, mounting bills and...
NYC again reopens schools to in-person learning
NEW YORK — It’s back to school again for some New York City schoolchildren, weeks after the schools were closed to in-person learning because of rising covid-19 cases. The nation’s largest public school system, which shut down in-person learning last month, on Monday brought back preschool students and children in...
Virginia Military Institute removing Confederate statue
LEXINGTON, Va. — The Virginia Military Institute began work Monday to remove a prominent statue of Confederate Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, an effort initiated this fall after allegations of systemic racism roiled the school. A crew was inspecting the statue at the public military college in Lexington, poised to haul...
Chiefs rally to beat Broncos to clinch playoff berth
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Chiefs are so dynamic offensively they sometimes don’t even know when they’ve scored a touchdown. They were fortunate one of those cases didn’t come back to bite them Sunday night. Patrick Mahomes threw for 318 yards and a score, Harrison Butker was perfect...
Seton Hall rallies, and rallies, to beat Penn State in OT
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Sandro Mamukelashvili scored a career-high 30 points, Myles Cale scored 16 and Seton Hall beat Penn State, 98-92, in overtime on Sunday. The Pirates (2-3) led for just two-and-half minutes. Shavar Reynolds’ 3-pointer with 45 seconds left in the extra session gave Seton Hall a 93-91...
Trump cementing death penalty legacy up to Biden inaugural
CHICAGO — As Donald Trump’s presidency winds down, his administration is ratcheting up the pace of federal executions despite a surge of coronavirus cases in prisons, announcing plans for five starting Thursday and concluding just days before the Jan. 20 inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden. If the five go off...
The Dylan catalog, a 60-year rock ‘n’ roll odyssey, is soldVideo
NEW YORK — Bob Dylan has sold publishing rights to his catalog of more than 600 songs, one of the greatest treasures in popular music, to the Universal Music Publishing Group for an undisclosed sum. The catalog includes such modern standards as “Blowin’ In The Wind,” “Tangled Up in Blue,”...
Vatican says pope will visit Iraq in March, pandemic permitting
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis will make a pilgrimage to Iraq in March, pandemic conditions permitting, the Vatican said Monday, in announcing what would be the pontiff’s first trip aboard in more than a year. Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni on Monday said Francis will make the March 5-8 visit, with...
Romania’s opposition Social Democrats win national election
BUCHAREST, Romania — Romania’s opposition Social Democrats have taken a surprise lead over the governing National Liberals after a parliamentary election but appear less likely to emerge on top in what promises to be prolonged post-election wrangling to form a new coalition government. With 95% of ballots counted Monday, the...
Sinovac aims for 600 million dose capacity for covid vaccine
TAIPEI, Taiwan — Chinese vaccine company Sinovac announced Monday that it is planning to complete a new facility to double its annual vaccine production capacity to 600 million doses by the end of the year, while also securing a $500 million investment in a boost to its covid-19 vaccine development...
Nobel ceremonies go low-key this year because of coronavirus
STOCKHOLM — The pomp and ceremony of the Nobel prize ceremonies have been reined in this year amid measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus. There will be no glitzy banquet honoring winners in Stockholm or Oslo as the global pandemic curtails the usual celebrations. Instead, their achievements will...
