Associated Press stories, Page 2156
‘SNL’ returns for work-at-home version with host Tom HanksVideo
NEW YORK — “Saturday Night Live” tried its first “quarantine version” of the comedy show, with coronavirus pioneer Tom Hanks, Coldplay singer Chris Martin and the comedy show’s entire cast phoning in with jokes from home. After being gone for more than a month, the NBC comedy institution returned to...
Pope urges solidarity on an Easter of both joy, virus sorrow
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis called for solidarity the world over to confront the “epochal challenge” posed by the coronavirus pandemic, as Christians celebrated a solitary Easter Sunday, blending the joyful feast day with sorrow over the toll the virus has already taken. Families who normally would attend morning Mass...
Signs missed and steps slowed in Trump’s pandemic response
WASHINGTON — By the time President Donald Trump first spoke publicly about the coronavirus, it may already have been too late. Interviewed at Davos, a gathering of global elites in the Swiss Alps, the president on Jan. 22 played down the threat posed by the respiratory virus from China, which...
UK PM Boris Johnson out of the hospital, says staff saved his life
LONDON — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was discharged from a London hospital where he was treated in intensive care for the coronavirus ahead of government figures Sunday in which the U.K. is expected to surpass 10,000 virus-related deaths. Johnson’s office said he left St. Thomas’ Hospital and will continue...
Memorable shots in the Masters from every club in the bagVideo
Every hole has a tale about the Masters. The playlist of shots is longer than any of the other majors because everyone knows Augusta National so well, players and fans alike. Every club has a story, too. What follows are some of the most memorable shots at the Masters from...
Clemson star Isaiah Simmons do-it-all talent for NFLVideo
Several years before building a Super Bowl roster in San Francisco, John Lynch the broadcaster was pining for a new kind of defensive playmaker. What the NFL needed to counter all the offensive innovations driving up scores, he said back in 2013, was a hybrid linebacker/safety who could stay on...
Puerto Rico extends lockdown to May to fight covid-19
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Puerto Rico’s governor announced Saturday that the U.S. territory will remain on lockdown until May 3 to curb coronavirus cases, marking one of the strictest measures taken in a U.S jurisdiction. Gov. Wanda Vázquez said nonessential businesses will remain closed and that people have to...
Judge: Kentucky church can conduct Easter drive-in service
FRANKFORT, Ky. — The city of Louisville, Ky., cannot halt a local church’s drive-in service planned for Easter, a federal judge on Saturday ruled. The ruling came as Republicans blasted Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s statewide plan to order people into quarantine if they attend mass gatherings, including religious ones. On...
Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy apologizes for covid-19 comments
STILLWATER, Okla. — Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy apologized Saturday for comments this week about the COVID-19 pandemic. “I have been made aware that comments from my press conference have offended some,” Gundy said in a statement. “It was never my intention to offend anyone and I apologize. My...
U.S. death toll overtakes Italy’s as Midwest braces
CHICAGO — The U.S. death toll from the coronavirus eclipsed Italy’s for the highest in the world Saturday, surpassing 20,000, as Chicago and other cities across the Midwest braced for a potential surge in victims and moved to snuff out smoldering hot spots of contagion before they erupt. With the...
Pope: Easter gives hope in our ‘darkest hour,’ despite fear
VATICAN CITY — Easter offers a message of hope in people’s “darkest hour,” Pope Francis said, as he celebrated a late-night vigil Mass on Saturday in St. Peter’s Basilica, with the public barred because of the covid-19 pandemic. The pontiff in his homily likened the fears of current times to...
Broncos star Von Miller polishing deejay and pass rush skills
Von Miller longs to make a name for himself scratching vinyl just like he has sacking quarterbacks. DJ Sauce Von the Don is the Denver Broncos star linebacker’s alter ego, one whose fledgling club concert career has been thwarted by the coronavirus outbreak. Miller said he spends part of each...
Chicago mayor takes hard line fighting coronavirus outbreak
CHICAGO — As large American cities try various strategies to keep people home to limit the coronavirus’s spread, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has balanced a blend of stern — and occasionally scolding — news conferences with lighthearted social media to drive home her point. Lightfoot’s hard-line approach began with an...
New coach Ron Rivera aims to start changing culture around RedskinsVideo
WASHINGTON — Ron Rivera made plenty of mistakes as a first-time NFL head coach that he hopes not to repeat this time around. Rivera also did enough good things early on with Carolina in 2011 that he’s trying to duplicate now with Washington. The new Redskins coach took some big...
Judge releases Michael Avenatti from jail over virus threat
LOS ANGELES — A judge has allowed Michael Avenatti to be temporarily freed from a federal jail in New York City and to ride out the coronavirus scare at a friend’s house in Los Angeles. The attorney, who rose to fame representing porn star Stormy Daniels in lawsuits against President...
Are schools open? Governor, NYC mayor give different answers
NEW YORK — Governor and mayor locked horns again Saturday, this time over whether school buildings in the nation’s largest district would close for the rest of the year, with classes continuing online. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a news briefing that public school sites in...
Kansas’ high court weighs virus limits on religious services
BELLE PLAINE, Kan. — An attorney for Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly told the state Supreme Court on Saturday that a Republican-dominated legislative panel exceeded its authority when it overturned the Democratic governor’s executive order banning religious and funeral services of more than 10 people during the coronavirus pandemic. Lawmakers countered...
‘Undrafted but undaunted’: Oilers’ Colby Cave dies at 25Video
Colby Cave, an excellent teammate whose lone goal for the Edmonton Oilers this season came on an “awesome” rush down the ice, died Saturday after a brain bleed this week. He was 25. The NHL club did not say what caused the bleed. Cave’s agent, Jason Davidson, has said the...
6 hospitalized after shooting breaks out at California party
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — A shooting broke out at a party in central California, sending six people to the hospital on Saturday and launching a search for four suspects, authorities said. The party, happening amid statewide stay-at-home orders intended to slow the spread of the coronavirus, might have gone unnoticed until...
Covid-19 and AIDS crisis: NYC gays see parallels, contrasts
NEW YORK — LGBT New Yorkers who lived through the AIDS crisis of the 1980s see some bleak parallels in the COVID-19 pandemic now wracking their city. But more so, they stress the differences. Now, they share the same plight as their fellow citizens while the federal government is pledging...
New York area walloped as global virus deaths pass 100,000
NEW YORK — The worldwide death toll from the coronavirus surged past 100,000 Friday as the epidemic in the U.S. cut a widening swath through not just New York City but the entire three-state metropolitan area of 20 million people connected by a tangle of subways, trains and buses. In...
Crime drops around the world as covid-19 keeps people inside
CHICAGO — The coronavirus pandemic that has crippled big-box retailers and mom and pop shops worldwide may be making a dent in illicit business, too. In Chicago, one of America’s most violent cities, drug arrests have plummeted 42% in the weeks since the city shut down, compared with the same...
Libertarians debate: How to respond to coronavirus pandemic?
NEW YORK — Steve Baker, one of the British parliament’s leading libertarians, was nearly in tears as he addressed the House of Commons in support of a bill that once seemed unthinkable: a massive economic aid package in response to the coronavirus pandemic. “Libertarian though I may be, this is...
Coronavirus ravages storied New Orleans Mardi Gras group
NEW ORLEANS — On Fat Tuesday, 51-year-old Cornell Charles was taking part in a storied New Orleans Mardi Gras tradition central to the city’s African American community — driving a car in the Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club’s parade. A month later his wife of three decades was watching...
Masters heartaches walk the fairways with green jacketsVideo
For every fist pump from Tiger Woods, there are images of Greg Norman’s lonely walk across Hogan Bridge as he loses the last of his six-shot lead and heads for more heartache at the Masters. Jack Nicklaus had his famous charge on the back nine. Ed Sneed infamously lost a...
