Associated Press stories, Page 2172
Gov. Wolf joins protesters; Philadelphia under curfew againVideo
HARRISBURG — Philadelphia will be under curfew again for a fifth straight night Wednesday, as Gov. Tom Wolf marched in Harrisburg with demonstrators protesting police violence against black people and racial injustice following the killing of George Floyd. Wolf, with officials from Harrisburg, marched from the Capitol steps to a...
Walmart drops ammunition, firearms on display in some stores
NEW YORK — Walmart says it has removed ammunition and firearms from displays at some of its stores in the wake of the killing of George Floyd that has set off sometimes violent demonstrations against police brutality and injustice against African Americans. “As a responsible seller of hunting and sporting...
PGA Tour announces coronavirus testing detailsVideo
The PGA Tour announced a deal with Sanford Health to conduct covid-19 testing of players, caddies and essential personnel five days before the season resumes. That applies to every stop on the PGA Tour, PGA Tour Champions and the developmental Korn Ferry Tour. Sanford Health is based in South Dakota...
Pilgrim’s Pride CEO among indicted for chicken price fixing
The CEO of Pilgrim’s Pride is one of four current and former chicken company executives indicted Wednesday on charges of price-fixing. The U.S. Department of Justice said a federal grand jury in Colorado found that executives from Colorado-based Pilgrim’s Pride and Georgia-based Claxton Poultry conspired to fix prices and rig...
AP source: MLB rejects 114-game plan, now looking at 50Video
NEW YORK — MLB rejected the players’ proposal for a 114-game schedule in the pandemic-delayed season with no additional salary cuts, telling the union that teams have no reason to think 82 games is possible and now will discuss even fewer. Players made their proposal Sunday, five days after management’s...
U.S. job losses in May could raise 3-month total to 30 million
The epic damage to America’s job market from the viral outbreak will come into sharper focus Friday when the government releases the May employment report: Eight million more jobs are estimated to have been lost. Unemployment could near 20%. And potentially fewer than half of all adults may be working....
Review: New novel explores race, identity, belonging
A new novel explores the construct of race in the diverging lives of light-skinned black twins, one of whom transitions into a life as a white woman. “The Vanishing Half” by Brit Bennett is beautifully written, thought-provoking and immersive. It follows Desiree and Stella, who hail from the town of...
Prosecutors charge 3 more officers in George Floyd’s death
MINNEAPOLIS — Prosecutors on Wednesday expanded their case against the police who were at the scene of George Floyd’s death, charging three of the officers with aiding and abetting a murder and upgrading the charges against the officer who pressed his knee on Floyd’s neck to second-degree murder. The most...
Cannes announces lineup for a festival canceled by covid
From an empty movie theater in Paris, organizers of the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday announced the films that would have played at there in May had it not been canceled by the pandemic. The selections were an exercise in what-might-have-been for Cannes, the premier international film festival that for...
Amy Grant has open heart surgery to fix heart condition
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A publicist for Amy Grant says the contemporary Christian singer had open heart surgery on Wednesday to fix a heart condition she has had since birth. Doctors discovered Grant had a heart condition called partial anomalous pulmonary venous return (PAPVR) during a routine checkup. Velvet Kelm, her...
Active-duty troops deployed to D.C. region start to leave
WASHINGTON — Active-duty troops brought in to help if needed with the civil unrest in the nation’s capitol are beginning to return to their home base, after two days of more peaceful demonstrations in Washington, D.C., senior defense officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday. The officials said that about...
Nation’s streets calmest in days; police credit curfews
MINNEAPOLIS — Protesters marched Wednesday in peaceful pleas to end police brutality, after a calmer night in cities across America void of the violence of recent days, as demonstrators heightened calls for justice in the killing of George Floyd. Curfews and efforts by protesters to contain earlier flare-ups of lawlessness...
New Mexico close to historic all-female U.S. House delegation
RIO RANCHO, N.M. — New Mexico has moved closer to possibly sending a historic delegation of all women of color to the U.S. House. According to unofficial results from Tuesday’s primary, Democrat Teresa Leger Fernandez, a Latina, won a seven-way race to capture her party’s nomination for the Democratic-leaning seat...
Parents, educators, experts talk to kids on race amid unrest
NEW YORK — As an African American parent, Cassandre Dunbar in Charlotte, North Carolina, always knew she and her husband would have “the talk” with their son, the one preparing him for interactions with law enforcement. But she never dreamed it would be necessary at 5 years old. “I thought...
Philadelphia to be under curfew for 5th straight nightVideo
PHILADELPHIA — Philadelphia will be under curfew again for a fifth straight night Wednesday. City officials said the curfew will extend from 6 p.m. until 6 a.m. Thursday. During that time, people will only be allowed to leave their homes to work at essential businesses or to seek medical attention...
Wall Street’s rally rolls into Day 4 on reopening hopes
Stocks are rising again Wednesday on optimism that the economy can climb out of its current hole more quickly than earlier feared. The S&P 500 was up 1.1% in midday trading, heading for its fourth straight gain as lockdowns loosen around the world and raise hopes for a coming economic...
Man charged with assault after thrown pickle hits highway worker
POWNAL, Vt. — A Massachusetts man is facing an assault charge after he allegedly threw a large pickle from a moving vehicle that hit a Vermont highway worker, police said. The incident occurred just before 6 p.m. Monday on U.S. Route 7 in Pownal near the border crossing into Massachusetts....
No crowds delight art lovers in Italy at reopened museumsVideo
FLORENCE, Italy — The Uffizi Galleries, the most-visited museum in Italy, is open after three months of covid-19 lockdown, delighting art lovers who don’t have to jostle with throngs of tourists thanks to new social distancing rules. Uffizi director Eike Schmidt told the Associated Press on Wednesday that the government-ordered...
‘Comeback kid’? West Virginia governor gets unlikely boost from coronavirus
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Before the coronavirus upended the world, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice was in trouble. His own party rebelled against him. Federal prosecutors investigated him. Embarrassing lawsuits loomed. But now some believe that the Republican governor has been able to use his daily virus news conferences to stabilize...
Trump administration moves to block Chinese airlines from U.S.Video
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration moved Wednesday to block Chinese airlines from flying to the United States in an escalation of trade and travel tensions between the two countries. The Transportation Department said it would suspend passenger flights of four Chinese airlines to and from the United States starting June...
Statue of divisive Philadelphia Mayor Frank Rizzo is removed
A crane lifted a long-polarizing statue of former Philadelphia Mayor Frank Rizzo from its home outside a public building in the wee hours of Wednesday, whisking it away after recent protests against police brutality hastened its removal. As National Guard troops deployed for the protests watched, the crane lifted the...
Scientists learn how tiny critters make ocean ‘snot palaces’
Master builders of the sea construct the equivalent of a complex five-story house that protects them from predators and funnels and filters food for them — all from snot coming out of their heads. And when these delicate mucus homes get clogged, the tadpole-looking critters — called giant larvaceans —...
Army: Defense Secretary Mark Esper reverses plan to send active-duty troops home
WASHINGTON — In an abrupt reversal, Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Wednesday overturned an earlier Pentagon decision to send a couple hundred active-duty soldiers home from the Washington, D.C., region, amid growing tensions with the White House over the military response to the protests. Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy told The...
Officials: Pennsylvania schools can reopen in-person teaching on July 1
Elementary and secondary schools inside Pennsylvania’s less restrictive reopening zones can resume teaching in person and other activities at the end of June, the Education Department announced Wednesday. The guidance issued by the department says school boards in the green and yellow zones under the stoplight-colored reopening system must first...
Scientist defends Sweden’s hotly debated virus strategy
Sweden’s chief epidemiologist on Wednesday defended his country’s controversial coronavirus strategy, which avoided a lockdown but resulted in one of the highest per capita COVID-19 death rates in the world. Anders Tegnell of the Public Health Agency denied that “the Swedish strategy was wrong and should be changed. That’s not...
