Associated Press stories, Page 1984
Weather slows California wildfires; thousands allowed homeVideo
SAN FRANCISCO — California wildfires were slowly being corralled Friday as cooler, humid weather and reinforcements aided firefighters and tens of thousands of people were allowed back home after days of death and destruction. In the past two days, evacuation orders were lifted for at least 50,000 people in the...
Flooding in Niger kills 45, displaces more than 226,000
NIAMEY, Niger — Flooding from heavy rains in Niger has killed at least 45 people this week and forced more than 226,000 from their homes, officials in the West African nation said Friday. Niger’s western region has been hardest hit by days of rain that caused the Niger River to...
S&P 500 notches this year’s longest weekly winning streakVideo
NEW YORK — The gains keep piling up on Wall Street, and the S&P 500 rallied again on Friday to close out its fifth straight winning week. The benchmark index rose 23.46, or 0.7%, to 3,508.01, setting another record high and several more superlatives. It was the seventh straight day...
County: 4 people tied to RNC in Charlotte have coranvirus
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Four people who were at the Republican National Convention in Charlotte have tested positive for the coronavirus, health officials in North Carolina’s Mecklenburg County said. WBTV reported Friday that those who tested positive at the event were immediately isolated. Nearly 800 people were tested who attended the...
Mom charged after 6-year-old son accidentally shoots himself
CINCINNATI — The mother of a 6-year-old boy who accidentally shot himself in his family’s Cincinnati home while she slept has been charged with felony child endangerment. Darnasia McKinney, 26, also faces a charge of receiving stolen property stemming from Thursday’s shooting. She was scheduled to make her initial court...
Russian navy conducts major maneuvers near Alaska
MOSCOW — The Russian navy conducted major war games near Alaska involving dozens of ships and aircraft, the military said Friday, the biggest such drills in the area since Soviet times. Russia’s navy chief, Adm. Nikolai Yevmenov, said that more than 50 warships and about 40 aircraft were taking part...
U.K. to allow emergency use of any effective covid-19 vaccineVideo
LONDON — Britain is preparing to revise its laws to allow the emergency use of any effective coronavirus vaccine before it is fully licensed — but only if the shots meet required safety and quality standards. In a statement Friday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative government said it was adopting...
Longtime Arizona basketball coach Lute Olson dies at 85
TUCSON, Ariz. — Lute Olson, the Hall of Fame coach who turned Arizona into a college basketball powerhouse, has died. He was 85. Olson’s family said he died Thursday evening. The cause of death wasn’t given. “Coach Olson is the absolute best, one of the greatest coaches ever and one...
Trump lashes Biden, defies pandemic on White House stage
WASHINGTON — Facing a national moment fraught with racial turmoil and a deadly pandemic, President Donald Trump accepted his party’s renomination on a massive White House South Lawn stage Thursday night, boasting of helping African Americans and defying his own administration’s pandemic guidelines to address a tightly packed, largely maskless...
Ill. teen charged in Kenosha shooting that killed 2, hurt 1
KENOSHA, Wis. — Prosecutors on Thursday charged a 17-year-old from Illinois in the fatal shooting of two protesters and the wounding of a third in Kenosha, Wisconsin, during a night of unrest following the weekend police shooting of Jacob Blake. Kyle Rittenhouse faces charges of first-degree intentional homicide, one count...
Laura thrashes Louisiana, nearby states face tornado threats
LAKE CHARLES, La. — One of the strongest hurricanes ever to strike the U.S., Laura barreled across Louisiana on Thursday, shearing off roofs, killing at least six people and maintaining ferocious strength while carving a destructive path hundreds of miles inland. A full assessment of the damage wrought by the...
North Carolina man freed after 1976 rape conviction vacated
CONCORD, N.C. — A North Carolina man who spent 44 years in prison for a rape he says he didn’t commit was freed Thursday. Ronnie Long’s attorney broke the news of his impending release via Twitter on Wednesday, the Charlotte Observer reported. “The state said it will ask the district...
Wolf, Republicans at odds over Pennsylvania election law
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Gov. Tom Wolf and Republican state lawmakers remained at odds Thursday over how to update Pennsylvania’s voting laws to handle an expected avalanche of mail-in ballots in November’s presidential election in the battleground state, even as Philadelphia moved ahead with an ambitious election plan. Wolf, a Democrat,...
Parish votes to keep Confederate statue; Laura topples it
LAKE CHARLES, La. — Just days ago, officials in Louisiana’s Calcasieu Parish voted not to move a Confederate statue from its prominent place in front of the courthouse. Then Hurricane Laura came along and toppled it. The South’s Defenders Monument was knocked off its pedestal as the Category 4 monster...
A 2nd day of NBA playoff games halted over racial injustice
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — An unprecedented NBA walkout over racial injustice postponed a second day of the playoffs Thursday, although players pledged to finish the postseason even as they wrestled with their emotions about wanting to bring change in their communities. For now, the basketball courts in the NBA’s...
Biden: Trump sees Wisconsin unrest as ‘political benefit’
WASHINGTON — Joe Biden said Thursday that President Donald Trump is “rooting for more violence” amid racially charged unrest in Wisconsin, and that he’d be willing to visit the state himself to try and defuse tensions. “He views this as a political benefit,” the Democratic presidential nominee said of Trump...
Trump to blast Biden as ‘extreme’ in convention speech
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump plans to tell voters that Democratic rival Joe Biden would pursue the “most extreme set of proposals ever put forward by a major party nominee” when the president delivers his acceptance speech Thursday night at the Republican National Convention. Trump has complained that the Democrats’...
Stocks climb after Fed says rates may stay low for longer
NEW YORK — Stocks edged further into record heights on Wall Street Thursday after the Federal Reserve made a major overhaul to its strategy, one that could keep interest rates low for longer. The S&P 500 rose 0.2% after earlier veering through a jumbled day of trading. Prices for stocks,...
Fox’s Tucker Carlson takes heat for Kenosha commentary
NEW YORK — Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, no stranger to the hot seat for his commentary, is being criticized for suggesting that no one should be surprised by the killing of two demonstrators during social unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Authorities “stood back and watched Kenosha burn,” he said on Fox...
AP source: NBA players decide to continue season at Disney
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — A person with knowledge of the situation says NBA players decided Thursday that they want to continue the season, coming to that consensus one day after three postseason games were postponed in a protest of racial injustice. It was not clear yet when the season...
NFL teams cancel practice in response to Blake shooting
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — Empty practice fields made for loud and powerful statements at facilities across the NFL. The Arizona Cardinals, Chicago Bears, Denver Broncos, Green Bay Packers, Indianapolis Colts, New York Jets, Tennessee Titans and Washington Football Team all chose to not practice Thursday in response to the shooting...
Innocent Florida inmate to be released after 37 years
TAMPA, Fla. — A Florida man who has spent the last 37 years in prison on a rape and murder charge was ordered released Thursday, after officials discovered new evidence that proved his innocence. Robert Duboise, who is 56, was serving a life sentence, convicted in 1983 for the murder...
U.S. rolls out free app for alerts on vehicle recalls
DETROIT — The U.S. government’s road safety agency is offering a smartphone app that will alert drivers if their vehicles are recalled. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration was scheduled to roll out the free app for both Android and Apple phones Thursday. Owners key in or scan their 17-digit...
More than 1 million Americans file for unemployment, againVideo
WASHINGTON — Just over 1 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, a sign that the coronavirus outbreak continues to threaten jobs even as the housing market, auto sales and other segments of the economy rebound from a springtime collapse. The Labor Department reported Thursday that the number of...
U.S. economy plunged an annualized 31.7% in 2nd quarterVideo
BALTIMORE — The U.S. economy shrank at an alarming annual rate of 31.7% during the April-June quarter as it struggled under the weight of the viral pandemic, the government estimated Thursday. It was the sharpest quarterly drop on record. The Commerce Department downgraded its earlier estimate of the U.S. gross...
