Associated Press stories, Page 2211
Workers must risk infection or losing unemployment payments
ATLANTA — Some of the millions of American workers laid off because of the coronavirus are beginning to face a tough choice — return to work and risk infection, or stay home and risk losing unemployment payments. The decision is most pressing in states where governors have started allowing businesses...
PBS Memorial Day concert shifts to TV event because of virus
The coronavirus has wiped out plans to bring tens of thousand of people to the U.S. Capitol for the annual Memorial Day weekend concert shown on PBS, but organizers are pressing ahead went a revamped event. Performers like Trace Adkins, Cynthia Erivo, Renee Fleming and Christopher Jackson will appear on...
Wall Street pulls back as dismal economic data piles higher
Stocks are falling on Wall Street Thursday after more reports made clear the worldwide devastation the coronavirus outbreak is causing for the economy. The dour figures helped drive most U.S. stocks to losses, and the S&P 500 was down 1.4% in afternoon trading. Treasury yields also sank, while European stocks...
Russian prime minister says he tested positive for coronavirus
MOSCOW — Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said Thursday that he has tested positive for the new coronavirus, becoming the highest-ranking Russian official known to have gotten infected. Mishustin told President Vladimir Putin during a video call that he would self-isolate but planned to stay in touch on key policy...
Trump tweets raise speculation about potential Flynn pardonVideo
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday tweeted his support for his former national security adviser Michael Flynn, raising speculation that a pardon may be coming after Flynn’s lawyers released internal FBI documents they claim show the FBI was trying to entrap him. Trump has long said he is considering...
Trump harshly blames China for coronavirus pandemic; a lab ‘mistake’?Video
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday speculated that China could have unleashed the coronavirus on the world due to some kind of horrible “mistake,” and his intelligence agencies said they are still examining a notion put forward by the president and aides that the pandemic may have resulted from...
Surf’s down in California: Governor set to close beachesVideo
HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. — California Gov. Gavin Newsom will order all beaches and state parks closed starting Friday after people thronged the seashore last weekend despite his social distancing order that aims to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Eric Nuñez, president of the California Police Chiefs Association, said a...
Producer’s memoir talks life of hits, magic of Eddie Van Halen
In a life full of magical musical moments, few compare for Ted Templeman to the night he first saw Van Halen in a mostly empty Hollywood club. The elite record-maker and Warner Bros. record executive who had spent the decade producing albums for The Doobie Brothers, Van Morrison, Carly Simon...
30 million have sought U.S. unemployment aid since virus hitVideo
WASHINGTON — More than 3.8 million laid-off workers applied for unemployment benefits last week as the U.S. economy slid further into a crisis that is becoming the most devastating since the 1930s. Roughly 30.3 million people have now filed for jobless aid in the six weeks since the coronavirus outbreak...
Police called when Brooklyn funeral home puts bodies in trucksVideo
NEW YORK — Police were called to a Brooklyn neighborhood Wednesday when a funeral home overwhelmed by the coronavirus resorted to storing dozens of bodies on ice in rented trucks, and a passerby complained about the smell, officials said. Investigators who responded to a 911 call found that the home...
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis takes first ‘baby step’ to reopening stateVideo
TALLAHASSEE — Florida’s restaurants and retail stores will be allowed to reopen Monday at 25% capacity, if the local government allows it, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Wednesday, as the state begins the slow climb from the economic abyss caused by the coronavirus. The governor specifically excluded hard-hit, heavily populated Miami-Dade,...
Biden assault allegation prompts GOP attacks, Dem worriesVideo
WASHINGTON — A sexual assault allegation is raising Joe Biden’s first big challenge as the Democrats’ presidential nominee, fueling Republican attacks and leaving many in his own party in an uncomfortable bind. Biden’s campaign has denied the allegation from his former Senate staffer, Tara Reade, who has said Biden assaulted...
VA defends use of unproven drug on veterans for coronavirus
WASHINGTON — Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie on Wednesday defended the use of an unproven drug on veterans for the coronavirus, insisting they were never used as “test subjects” but given the treatment only when medically appropriate. In a letter and call with major veterans organizations, Wilkie said the malaria...
Jameis Winston taking mature approach to new role as backup in New OrleansVideo
NEW ORLEANS — The reeducation of Jameis Winston is beginning with the New Orleans Saints. For now, the 2013 Heisman Trophy winner, 2015 top NFL draft choice and mercurial five-year starting quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers resembles an eager, enthusiastic and even humble student. “Everyone needs those humble experiences,”...
Baseball Hall of Fame cancels induction ceremonyVideo
Derek Jeter, Larry Walker and the rest of this year’s Baseball Hall of Fame class will have to wait another year for their big moment at Cooperstown. The Hall of Fame announced Wednesday it has canceled the July 26 induction ceremony because of the coronavirus pandemic. Instead, the class will...
Tae Crowder looking forward to finally celebrating being Mr. Irrelevant
Tae Crowder is going to have to settle for being Mr. Irrelevant without the frills for now. To be honest, the Georgia linebacker is just happy he was picked by the New York Giants in the NFL Draft on Saturday, even if it was with the 255th and last selection...
Smallest businesses get a few hours at head of relief loan line
NEW YORK — The smallest companies seeking coronavirus relief loans were moving to the head of the line Wednesday after the Small Business Administration said that for eight hours ending at midnight Eastern time it would accept loans only from small lenders. The step was being taken to ensure that...
Many field hospitals went largely unused, will be shut down
NEW YORK — Gleaming new tent hospitals sit empty on two suburban New York college campuses, never having treated a single coronavirus patient. Convention centers that were turned into temporary hospitals in other cities went mostly unused. And a Navy hospital ship that offered help in Manhattan is soon to...
Kenseth jumped at chance to come out of retirement to drive Ganassi’s NASCAR rideVideo
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Matt Kenseth had a blissful year of retirement. He had time to travel with his wife and four daughters, made his first visit to Europe and took up marathon running. It was free time he never had in 22 years of racing at NASCAR’s national level. “It...
Secretariat 7-2 favorite for virtual Kentucky Derby this weekendVideo
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Secretariat is the early 7-2 favorite for this weekend’s virtual Kentucky Derby, an animated race between all 13 Triple Crown winners on the day the Derby would have been held before the coronavirus pandemic postponed it. The virtual Derby will use computer-generated imagery of the 13 horses...
Russia slams U.S. arguments for low-yield nukes
MOSCOW — The Russian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday rejected U.S. arguments for fielding low-yield nuclear warheads, warning that an attempt to use such weapons against Russia would trigger an all-out nuclear retaliation. The U.S. State Department argued in a paper released last week that fitting the low-yield nuclear warheads to...
Roger Goodell reduces salary to $0, NFL workers taking pay cutsVideo
Commissioner Roger Goodell has reduced his salary to $0, and other NFL employees will be taking pay cuts or furloughs because of the coronavirus pandemic. Goodell, who makes upward of $30 million a year from salaries and bonuses, voluntarily had his salary reduced this month, a person familiar with the...
52 who worked or voted in Wisconsin election have covid-19
MADISON, Wis. — There are no plans to postpone or otherwise alter a special congressional election in Wisconsin that is less than two weeks away, even though more than 50 people who voted in person or worked the polls during the state’s presidential primary this month have tested positive for...
Fed signals it will likely hold interest rates near zero for months
WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve is signaling that it will keep its key short-term interest rate near zero for the foreseeable future as part of its extraordinary efforts to bolster an economy that is sinking into its worst crisis since the 1930s The Fed says it will also continue to...
No ‘Black Widow’ or ‘F9’ leaves a muted summer movie seasonVideo
LOS ANGELES — The six-year fan campaign for a standalone Black Widow movie was paying off: at long last, a film would put Scarlett Johansson’s popular Avenger front and center. And, like many of Marvel’s biggest spectacles, it was set to open the weekend of May 1. “Black Widow” was...
