Associated Press stories, Page 2025
Record surge in daily shipping volumes for UPS in 2Q
A boom in online shopping during the pandemic pushed revenue higher at United Parcel Service Inc., which reported a $1.77 billion profit for the second quarter. UPS said Thursday that shipping volume jumped 23% to more than 21 million packages a day. Crucially, shipments from businesses to U.S. consumers soared...
NASA launches Mars rover to look for signs of ancient lifeVideo
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The biggest, most sophisticated Mars rover ever built — a car-size vehicle bristling with cameras, microphones, drills and lasers — blasted off Thursday as part of an ambitious, long-range project to bring the first Martian rock samples back to Earth to be analyzed for evidence of...
1.4 million seek jobless aid as virus keeps forcing layoffs
WASHINGTON — More than 1.4 million laid-off Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, further evidence of the devastation the coronavirus outbreak has unleashed on the U.S. economy. The continuing wave of job cuts is occurring against the backdrop of a spike in virus cases that has led many states...
Officials eye sedative given before death of Elijah McClain
Colorado health officials have opened an investigation into the use of a sedative given to a Black man by paramedics during a police stop in suburban Denver before his death last year. The inquiry is the latest in a series of new reviews of the case of Elijah McClain that...
Texas passes grim milestone of 6,100 covid-19 deathsVideo
AUSTIN — Texas passed a grim milestone of more than 6,100 deaths caused by the coronavirus, with 313 newly-reported fatalities Wednesday. The stark figures pushed Texas’ death total to 6,190 since the state recorded its first covid-19 death in early March. Death tolls escalated rapidly in recent weeks as the...
4 Big Tech CEOs tell Congress they don’t stifle competitionVideo
WASHINGTON — The leaders of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google fended off accusations Wednesday that their companies stifle competition, under intense questioning from lawmakers who have been i nvestigating Big Tech’s market dominance for the past year. Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, in his first appearance before Congress, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar...
MLB doubleheaders could get shortened to 7-inning gamesVideo
NEW YORK — Ernie Banks famously said, “Let’s play two.” Baseball players just might not want to play nine innings twice in one day during this pandemic-delayed season. While Cleveland swept the Chicago White Sox in the first doubleheader of the season Tuesday, union head Tony Clark called deputy commissioner...
Mexico’s Gaby Lopez is 1st LPGA player to test positive for covid-19Video
Gaby Lopez of Mexico is the first LPGA Tour player to test positive for the coronavirus as the tour returns this week in Ohio for the first time in more than five months. Lopez, who won the first LPGA event of the year in January, withdrew from LPGA Drive On...
Top-ranked Ash Barty withdraws from U.S. OpenVideo
SYDNEY — No. 1-ranked Ash Barty said she has withdrawn from the U.S. Open because she is not comfortable with traveling during the coronavirus pandemic. Barty is the biggest name yet to opt out of the Aug. 31-Sept. 13 Grand Slam tournament in New York because of the global health...
John McNamara, manager of ill-fated ’86 Red Sox, dies at 88Video
BOSTON — John McNamara, who managed the Boston Red Sox to within one strike of a World Series victory in 1986 before an unprecedented collapse on the field extended the team’s championship drought into the new millennium, died. He was 88. McNamara died Tuesday at his home in Tennessee, his...
Malik B, founding member of The Roots, has died at 47
LOS ANGELES — Malik B, a rapper and founding member of The Roots, has died. He was 47. The group announced the death of the Philadelphia-born emcee in a social media post Wednesday. The cause of death was not released. Malik B, whose real name is Malik Abdul Basit, was...
Koepka says knee is improving as he prepares to defend WGC title in MemphisVideo
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Brooks Koepka loves TPC Southwind, and he is hoping for the same boost he got here a year ago when he won the first World Golf Championship. Last year, Koepka only felt a bit ill. This year, the man who won three times last year, including a...
Dodgers’ Kelly suspended 8 games for buzzing, mocking AstrosVideo
HOUSTON — Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Joe Kelly was suspended for eight games by MLB on Wednesday, a day after throwing a fastball near the head of Houston’s Alex Bregman and taunting Astros star Carlos Correa. Benches cleared after Kelly’s actions during the sixth inning of Los Angeles’ 5-2 win...
Administration wants West Wing remodel money in coronavirus relief bill
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration wants $377 million in the next coronavirus relief bill for a long-delayed modernization of the West Wing, but the timetable for construction is yet to be determined. The sum, included in the draft aid legislation from Senate Republicans, would also cover a new security screening...
U.S. death toll from coronavirus hits 150,000
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The death toll from coronavirus in the United States hit 150,000 on Wednesday, by the far the highest in the world, according to the tally kept by Johns Hopkins University. The bleak milestone comes amid signs that the nation’s outbreak is beginning to stabilize in the Sun...
U.S. death toll from coronavirus hits 150,000
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The death toll from the coronavirus in the U.S. hit 150,000 on Wednesday, by the far the highest in the world, according to the tally kept by Johns Hopkins University. The bleak milestone comes amid signs that the nation’s outbreak is beginning to stabilize in the Sun...
Pa. House speakers get reprieve from criminal history plaques
HARRISBURG — The portraits of three former Pennsylvania House speakers who went to prison on corruption-related charges have received a reprieve of sorts. In one of his last acts in office, Mike Turzai, who in June resigned from his post as House speaker and his House seat, quietly ordered the...
Outrage builds after NYPD hustles protester into unmarked vanVideo
NEW YORK — The New York Police Department’s use of plainclothes officers and an unmarked minivan to haul away a vandalism suspect during a protest Tuesday created confusion and drew outrage from people who compared it to covert tactics used recently by federal agents in Portland, Ore. Bystander video of...
On Football: NFL opt-outs more prevalent than many expectedVideo
Now we know why a key topic in talks between the NFL and the players’ union focused on opt outs. Already, more than two dozen players have decided not to play the 2020 season. It certainly is not about the money, because those opting out voluntarily are getting a $150,000...
Pelosi orders masks for voting after Rep. Louie Gohmert tests positive for coronavirusVideo
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will require that masks be worn on the House floor after a Republican member of Congress tested positive for the coronavirus. The member, Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert, often shunned wearing masks and was known to vote without one. Pelosi announced on the House floor...
NFL MVP Lamar Jackson insists he’s ‘got to do better’ in 2020Video
Baltimore Ravens quarterback and reigning NFL MVP Lamar Jackson is eager to get started at training camp after an offseason in which he had a perilous encounter with a jet ski, tossed footballs to Antonio Brown and diligently avoided the coronavirus. Jackson guided the Ravens to a 14-2 regular-season record...
U.S. energy use hit 30-year low during pandemic shutdowns
BILLINGS, Mont. — U.S. energy consumption plummeted to its lowest level in more than 30 years this spring as the nation’s economy largely shut down because of the coronavirus, federal officials reported Wednesday. The drop was driven by less demand for coal that is burned for electricity and oil that’s...
Arizona train derails on bridge that collapses, catches fire
PHOENIX — A freight train traveling on a bridge that spans a lake in a Phoenix suburb derailed Wednesday, setting the bridge ablaze and partially collapsing the structure, officials said. Video images showed huge flames and thick black smoke rising into the air and three train cars in a park...
Prosecutors: Agents will probe crimes, not bust protests
MADISON, Wis. — Federal prosecutors worked Wednesday to dispel concerns that federal agents headed to a number of U.S. cities will be used to break up protests, insisting that the agents will work side-by-side with local and state investigators to solve violent crimes. President Donald Trump recently sent federal agents...
Garth Brooks doesn’t want to win CMA entertainer award againVideo
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Country superstar Garth Brooks says he is pulling himself out of nominations for the Country Music Association’s entertainer of the year award, saying it’s time for someone else to win the top prize. Brooks, who won the top prize in November, said during an online press conference...
