Associated Press stories, Page 2310
Mississippi’s Jim Crow-era election system stands, for now
JACKSON, Miss. — A federal judge ruled Friday that he will not immediately block Mississippi’s unique, multistep process for electing a governor and other statewide officials, which was enacted at a time of Jim Crow segregation to maintain white rule. However, in a ruling handed down days before Tuesday’s election,...
Groups ask California governor to deter parolee deportations
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Immigrant rights groups called Friday for Gov. Gavin Newsom to end policies they say ease the transfer of prison inmates to federal authorities despite California’s efforts to provide a sanctuary to those who are in the country illegally. The groups asked Newsom to stop prison officials from...
Theater owners: ‘The Irishman’ ‘deserved better’ release
NEW YORK — Martin Scorsese’s crime epic “The Irishman” landed in theaters Friday, but not nearly enough of them for theater owners. John Fithian, president and chief executive of National Association of Theater Owners on Friday lamented Netflix’s rollout of one of the year’s most acclaimed films, from one of...
Louisiana man gets probation in whooping crane death
A Louisiana man was sentenced to probation Friday for killing one of the state’s oldest whooping cranes . Gilvin P. Aucoin Jr., of Ville Platte, shot the endangered whooping crane in July 2018 in Evangeline Parish. In a hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Carol B. Whitehurst, Aucoin changed his plea...
Beto O’Rourke announces he’s dropping 2020 presidential bid
Democrat Beto O’Rourke has announced he’s dropping his 2020 presidential bid. O’Rourke tweeted Friday that his campaign “has always been about seeing clearly, speaking honestly, and acting decisively.” He writes, “In that spirit: I am announcing that my service to the country will not be as a candidate or as...
Stocks hit records as strong jobs report calms trade worries
NEW YORK — Stocks powered to records Friday after an encouraging jobs report gave reassurance that the economy is still solid, despite the pain U.S. factories are feeling from President Donald Trump’s trade war. The Labor Department’s report showed that employers added more jobs in October than economists expected, and...
U.K. police say truck victims from Vietnam; 3 suspects held
LONDON — All 39 people found dead in a refrigerated container truck in England last week were Vietnamese nationals, British police said Friday, as three more people were arrested in Ireland and Vietnam in the sprawling international investigation into what appears to be a people-smuggling tragedy. British detectives initially said...
Trump taps cancer specialist from Texas hospital to run FDA
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Friday picked a cancer specialist and hospital executive to lead the Food and Drug Administration. If confirmed, Dr. Stephen Hahn of the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston would inherit a raft of high-profile public health issues, including leading the agency’s response to the...
Minnesota company snubs time change by removing clocks
MAPLEWOOD, Minn. — While most everyone wishes they could turn back time, one of the largest corporations in the country is sick of it. Minnesota-based 3M is taking advantage of the end of daylight saving time and removing about 1,000 wall clocks at its 400-acre Maplewood campus. For decades, nearly...
Trump fires up religious critics with job for televangelist
The ascension of Paula White as an official member of Donald Trump’s White House highlights how closely the president is relying on his inner circle of evangelical Christian supporters as he fights an impeachment probe during his reelection bid — while giving liberal evangelicals a new opening to push back...
Autopsy shows 8-foot python fatally strangled Indiana woman
OXFORD, Ind. — An autopsy has determined that an Indiana woman found with an 8-foot-long python wrapped around her neck was killed by the reptile. State Police said Friday the autopsy found that 36-year-old Laura Hurst’s cause of death was “asphyxiation due to strangulation by a snake.” Those findings are...
University of Texas fraternity closes over hazing claims
AUSTIN, Texas — The University of Texas chapter of the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity has been shut down following a university investigation into hazing allegations. The investigation found that during the 2018-19 school year fraternity pledges were shot with air soft guns and forced to eat spicy soup made with...
Storms kill 1, knock out power, downs trees on East Coast
MONTPELIER, Vt. — Storms that began on Halloween killed at least one person, caused flooding, down trees and power lines and damaged homes from the Deep South to the Northeast on Friday. More than 500,000 customers — from South Carolina to Maine and in Ohio — were without electricity Friday...
Fire crews take advantage of calmer weather in CaliforniaVideo
LOS ANGELES — Calmer weather allowed crews to increase containment of wildfires after a three-week siege of gusts fanned blazes across California and led utilities to cut power to prevent winds from blowing branches into electric lines and igniting an inferno. Winds subsided in virtually all parts of the state,...
Popular LGBT club in Slovenia capital attacked, no injuries
LJUBLJANA, Slovenia — Police in Slovenia say unknown assailants have attacked a popular LGBT club in Slovenia’s capital Ljubljana. Police say they are treating the incident as a hate crime. Slovenia’s Prime Minister Marjan Sarec and LGBT rights groups have condemned the attack. The Tiffany Club says the attack took...
U.S. added a solid 128,000 jobs in October despite GM strike
WASHINGTON — U.S. employers added a solid 128,000 jobs in October, a figure that was held down by a now-settled strike against General Motors that caused tens of thousands of workers to be temporarily counted as unemployed. The unemployment rate ticked up from 3.5% to 3.6%, still near a five-decade...
Man surrenders after authorities edit photo to add costume
KANKAKEE, Ill. — All it took for one fugitive in Illinois to turn himself in was a little photo manipulation. WBBM-TV in Chicago reports that the Kankakee County Sheriff’s Department posts notices about fugitives on its Facebook page each Wednesday. This week, the department posted a picture of Brandon W....
2 men killed at Utah Halloween party, authorities say
ROOSEVELT, Utah — Authorities say two men have been killed at a Halloween party in a central Utah town and officials are calling the killings a double homicide. The Duchesne County Sheriff’s Office said deputies called to a home near the town of Roosevelt early Friday found the two men...
4 dead in Halloween party shooting in Northern California
ORINDA, Calif. — Four people were killed and four others wounded in a shooting at a Halloween night party at a large rental home in a wealthy San Francisco Bay Area community, police said Friday. The shooting in Orinda, a community of about 20,000 just east of Oakland, happened at...
U.S. construction spending rises 0.5% in September
WASHINGTON — U.S. construction spending rose 0.5% in September, boosted by government and private residential projects. The Commerce Department said Friday that government construction rose 1.5% last month, powered by state and local building. The September increase comes as the previous August gain of 0.1% was revised down to -0.3%....
Officials: Suspected fentanyl bust in Ohio large enough to kill state’s entire population
DAYTON, Ohio — Authorities say a joint task force in Ohio has seized a quantity of suspected fentanyl large enough to kill the state’s population “many times over.” A Montgomery County sheriff’s news release says law enforcement recently confiscated over 20 kilograms, or more than 40 pounds, of suspected fentanyl....
Google parent Alphabet buying Fitbit for $2.1 billionVideo
SAN FRANCISCO — Fitbit is being acquired by Google’s parent company for about $2.1 billion. With the deal announced Friday, Alphabet wades into a very crowded field. Fitbit is a pioneer in wearable fitness technology, but it’s been under pressure from other device makers. Speculation swirled at the beginning of...
Pink or blue? Some gender reveal parties take dangerous turn
It was supposed to be a happy moment, a chance to declare the sex of a soon-to-be-born baby with a blast of color and burst of attention on social media. But the gender reveal party explosion that killed an Iowa woman this weekend highlights the extreme lengths some families go...
Exxon profit plummets with oil prices down
IRVING, Texas — Exxon Mobil’s profit tumbled with crude prices down about 15% from where they were last year, though a $300 million boost from a tax-related item helped. Exxon Mobil Corp. on Friday reported net income of $3.17 billion, or 75 cents per share. Those per-share earnings were 68...
U.S. Steel reports $84 million third-quarter loss
United States Steel Corp. on Thursday reported a third-quarter loss of $84 million, after reporting a profit in the same period a year earlier. On a per-share basis, the Pittsburgh-based company said it had a loss of 49 cents. Losses, adjusted for restructuring costs and non-recurring costs, were 21 cents...
