Associated Press stories, Page 2057
Texas A&M, Jimbo Fisher handed recruiting penalties by NCAAVideo
COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Texas A&M’s football program was placed on probation and coach Jimbo Fisher given a six-month show-cause order by the NCAA on Thursday after the Aggies were found to have violated recruiting and other rules beginning in January 2018. Fisher, who had just been hired by Texas...
FBI arrests Epstein pal Ghislaine Maxwell, accused of enabling abuse of girls
British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell was arrested Thursday on charges she helped lure at least three girls — one as young as 14 — to be sexually abused by the late financier Jeffrey Epstein, who was accused of victimizing dozens of girls and women over many years. According to the indictment,...
American, 4 other airlines reach loan agreements with U.S.
DALLAS — American Airlines and four smaller carriers have reached agreement with the government for billions more in federal loans, a sign of the industry’s desperate fight to survive a downturn in air travel caused by the virus pandemic. The Treasury Department said Thursday that it had finalized terms of...
Australian court upholds Geoffrey Rush’s defamation payoutVideo
An Australian court on Thursday rejected a newspaper publisher’s appeal against Oscar-winning actor Geoffrey Rush’s $2.9 million Australian dollars ($2 million) payout for defamation. Three Federal Court judges ruled that articles published by Sydney’s The Daily Telegraph newspaper in 2017 conveyed the imputation that Rush was a pervert and that...
Massachusetts tells fireworks seller to stop ads in stateVideo
BOSTON — The Massachusetts attorney general is demanding that a fireworks retailer with stores in New Hampshire stop targeting its advertising to residents of Massachusetts, where fireworks are illegal. Attorney General Maura Healey in a cease-and-desist letter sent Wednesday to Phantom Fireworks alleges the company is violating state consumer protection...
U.S. adds 4.8 million jobs as unemployment falls to 11.1%Video
WASHINGTON — U.S. employers added a substantial 4.8 million jobs in June, and the unemployment rate fell to 11.1%, as the job market improved for a second straight month yet still remained far short of regaining the colossal losses it suffered this spring. The nation has now recovered roughly one-third...
Closing bars to stop coronavirus spread is backed by scienceVideo
Authorities are closing bars, honky tonks and other drinking establishments in some parts of the country to stem the surge of covid-19 infections — a move backed by sound science about risk factors that go beyond wearing or not wearing masks. In the words of one study, it comes down...
Philadelphia police: Sleeping young children unharmed when man steals car
PHILADELPHIA — Two young children were unharmed when the car they were in was stolen early Thursday from a Philadelphia takeout restaurant while their mother was inside the business, authorities said. The mother was picking up food and had left the vehicle running as the children — a toddler and...
Black-owned businesses see sales surge amid racism reckoningVideo
BOSTON — When Mahdi Hashemian was looking for a bicycle for his 7-year-old daughter Zeynab last week, the Cambridge, Mass., resident decided to skip his local cycle shops in favor of a Black-owned one a few miles away in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood. At Spokehouse, a bike shop with “Black Lives...
Landslide at Myanmar jade mine kills at least 113 people
YANGON, Myanmar — At least 113 people were killed Thursday in a landslide at a jade mine in northern Myanmar, the government and rescue workers said, the latest in a series of deadly accidents at the sites in recent years. A statement from the Ministry of Information gave the death...
‘Incident’ damages construction near Iran nuclear siteVideo
TEHRAN, Iran — An “incident” damaged an under-construction building Thursday near Iran’s underground Natanz nuclear enrichment facility, though it did not affect its centrifuge operations or cause any release of radiation, a spokesman said. The affected building, described as an “industrial shed,” was above ground and not part of the...
U.K. judge rejects tabloid’s bid to throw out Johnny Depp libel suit
LONDON — A British judge on Thursday rejected an attempt by tabloid newspaper The Sun to quash a libel suit from actor Johnny Depp over an article claiming he abused his ex-wife. Depp is suing the newspaper’s publisher, News Group Newspapers, and Executive Editor Dan Wootton over a 2018 article...
British judge denies Venezuela access to gold in bank vault
LONDON — A British judge on Thursday refused to give Venezuela control of over $1 billion in gold sitting in a Bank of England vault, ruling that it is unlawful to give it to the President Nicolás Maduro since Britain does not recognize him as the president. Maduro has demanded...
Appeals court lifts restraint against Trump book publisher
A New York appeals court cleared the way Wednesday for a publisher to distribute a tell-all book by President Donald Trump’s niece over the objections of the president’s brother. The New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division said it was lifting a restraint that a judge put on Simon &...
Utah defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley to keep job after reviewVideo
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley will remain on staff but take a pay cut and must undergo diversity training after being suspended for using a racial slur in a 2013 text message. Utah announced Wednesday that Scalley will participate in diversity and inclusion education and have...
Trump, top officials defend response to Russia bounty threatVideo
WASHINGTON — Criticized for inaction, President Donald Trump and top officials on Wednesday stepped up their defense of the administration’s response to intelligence assessments that Russia offered bounties for killing U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Trump’s national security adviser said he had prepared a list of retaliatory options if the intelligence...
Those around NBA say this title will be toughest to winVideo
The 2020 NBA champion, if one is crowned, will have emerged as the ultimate winner from a season that lasted more than a full year from start to finish. A season that saw political unrest between the NBA and China, the deaths of David Stern and Kobe Bryant, racial issues...
Georgia Gov. Kemp: Mask mandate not needed amid coronavirus spike
ATLANTA — Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp says he has not yet weighed whether the state will take legal action against local governments that try to impose mask requirements, as Georgia faces a spike in confirmed coronavirus cases and hospitalizations. The Republican governor held a news conference Wednesday morning before departing...
Webb Simpson back on PGA Tour after family coronavirus scareVideo
DETROIT — Webb Simpson is competing on the PGA Tour again after his family had a coronavirus scare. One of Simpson’s daughters tested positive for covid-19, leading to him withdraw from last week’s tournament as a precaution. “The first test was positive, but (she) got tested again by the more...
Source: NFL cutting preseason in half, pushing back startVideo
The NFL will cut its preseason in half and push back the start of exhibition play so teams have more time to train following an all-virtual offseason made necessary by the coronavirus pandemic, a person with knowledge of the decision told the Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of...
Family: Human remains found in Texas are missing soldier Vanessa GuillenVideo
KILLEEN, Texas — The family of a soldier who has been missing since April believes partial remains that were found in Central Texas are her remains, the lawyer for her family said Wednesday, and the Army said it has identified two suspects in her disappearance. Pfc. Vanessa Guillen was last...
Healthy Kessel expected to give Coyotes a boost in return
GLENDALE, Ariz. — The start of Phil Kessel’s desert tenure did not go according to plan, for him or the Arizona Coyotes. Expected to give the Coyotes a scoring jolt, Kessel instead labored, in large part due to a string of injuries. The NHL’s pandemic-caused pause has give the 32-year-old...
Pennsylvania high court turns down lawmakers’ bid to end shutdown
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s high court on Wednesday ruled against an effort by Republican state lawmakers to end Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf’s pandemic shutdown orders. A divided court ruled that a resolution passed with mostly GOP votes was a “legal nullity” because it was not sent to Wolf to sign or...
Texas’ Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick criticizes Dr. Fauci as coronavirus cases surgeVideo
AUSTIN, Texas — As confirmed coronavirus case levels in Texas continue surging to record highs, Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick says the nation’s top infectious disease expert “doesn’t know what he’s talking about” as Patrick defends the state’s handling of the pandemic. Patrick also claimed without offering evidence that Dr....
Richmond orders removal of Confederate statues on city landVideo
RICHMOND — The mayor of Richmond, Va., on Wednesday ordered the immediate removal of all Confederate statues on city land, saying he was using his emergency powers to speed up the healing process for the former capital of the Confederacy amid weeks of protests over police brutality and racial injustice....
