Associated Press stories, Page 2232
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...
‘Hope’ the calf arrives in New Orleans amid pandemic
NEW ORLEANS — The Audubon Nature Institute in New Orleans welcomed a new resident, a baby giraffe named Hope. Sue Ellen, a middle-aged giraffe at the Freeport-McMoRan Audubon Species Survival Center, gave birth Monday, according to a Friday news release. Audubon Nature Institute President and CEO Ron Forman said Hope...
Advocates furious after outbreak at San Francisco shelter
SAN FRANCISCO — In the biggest outbreak at a homeless shelter in California to date, San Francisco’s mayor announced Friday that 70 people have tested positive for the coronavirus, infuriating advocates who had sought more aggressive action to protect homeless people. Mayor London Breed said that the outbreak involving 68...
Court lifts part of order blocking Texas abortion ban
AUSTIN, Texas — A federal appeals court on Friday partially rescinded a lower-court order that had largely blocked the enforcement of an abortion ban in Texas during the coronavirus pandemic. By a 2-1 vote, the three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld enforcement of an executive...
Airlines and Trump administration haggle over payroll grants
The Trump administration is proposing that a significant amount of the $25 billion in cash that airlines expected to keep workers on the job will instead be low-interest loans that big airlines will have to repay, according to two people familiar with the matter. The Treasury Department began sending proposals...
Browns new GM Andrew Berry prepared for unique, ‘virtual’ draftVideo
CLEVELAND — With degrees from Harvard in economics and computer science, Browns general manager Andrew Berry would seem perfectly suited to handle any pitfalls or problems he might encounter in his first NFL Draft — a draft like no other. He’s a one-man IT department. Cleveland’s new general manager said...
‘The Last Dance’ director talks project on Michael Jordan’s BullsVideo
Jason Hehir was a kid in the stands in Boston Garden on April 20, 1986, the day Michael Jordan scored a playoff-record 63 points. It was a Christmas gift from his father, who stuck a note promising “Two tickets to the Air Jordan Show” in his stocking that holiday season....
MLB players, including Pirates’ Cole Tucker, to play video game tourneyVideo
NEW YORK — Blake Snell, Juan Soto and Bo Bichette are among the baseball stars switching over to PlayStation with America’s pastime on hold. Thirty big leaguers — one from each team — have signed on to play a round-robin regular season on the “MLB The Show” video game with...
Dallas Cowboys sign cornerback Saivion Smith, former XFL player
FRISCO, Texas — The Dallas Cowboys signed cornerback Saivion Smith on Friday, adding the former XFL player about the same time the spring league announced it was suspending operations. Smith played for Houston, which was the only undefeated team in the XFL when the league stopped playing last month after...
Los Angeles adds new sexual battery count against Harvey Weinstein
LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles prosecutors have charged imprisoned former film producer Harvey Weinstein with an additional count of felony sexual battery by restraint. The district attorney’s office said the charge was filed over allegations the former movie mogul sexually assaulted a woman at a Beverly Hills hotel in May...
Doctors, nurses participate in lonely Good Friday procession at Vatican
VATICAN CITY — Nurses and doctors wearing their white hospital coats joined a torch-lit Good Friday procession in a hauntingly almost empty St. Peter’s Square, as Pope Francis presided over the ceremony which couldn’t be held at Rome’s Colosseum as tradition holds because of Italy’s lockdown in the covid-19 pandemic....
Beach towns in Mexico block themselves off because of virus
MEXICO CITY — In Mexico, beach towns have begun blocking off roads — in some cases, constructing barricades of rubble across roadways — to seal themselves off from the outside world in a bid to stop the new coronavirus from entering. The Gulf of California beach town of Puerto Peñasco...
Justice Department finds errors in additional warrant applications for national security wiretaps
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department has identified what it describes as “material errors” in two applications for national security wiretaps, but also says it has made important strides in overhauling a surveillance system that has come under political scrutiny because of mistakes made during the Russia probe. The department did...
Alaska Democrats hold mail-only presidential primary
JUNEAU, Alaska — Alaska Democrats are deciding their choice for the party’s presidential nominee, as just one major candidate — former Vice President Joe Biden — remains actively campaigning. Results are expected Saturday in the party-run primary, which became an exclusively vote-by-mail affair after concerns with COVID-19 scrapped plans for...
U.S. budget deficit totals $743.6 billion over past 6 months
WASHINGTON — The federal government’s budget deficit for the first half of this budget year totaled $743.6 billion, up 7.6% from last year, and well on its way to topping $1 trillion even before the impacts of the coronavirus were felt. The Treasury Department reported Friday that the deficit from...
