Associated Press stories, Page 2367
More vaping illnesses reported, many involving marijuana
WASHINGTON — Health officials are investigating more cases of a breathing illness associated with vaping. While the cause remains unclear, officials said Friday that many reports involve e-cigarette products that contain THC, the mind-altering substance in marijuana. Officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday they are...
Wave of child sex abuse lawsuits threatens Boy Scouts
TRENTON, N.J. — The Boy Scouts of America is facing a threat from a growing wave of lawsuits over decades-old allegations of sexual abuse. The Scouts have been sued in multiple states in recent months by purported abuse victims, including plaintiffs taking advantage of new state laws or court decisions...
Commission: 11 Texas judges broke law by denying free bail
HOUSTON — Texas’ judicial ethics commission has found 11 current and former judges broke the law by indiscriminately denying free bail to thousands of poor people charged with crimes. The State Commission on Judicial Conduct this week publicly admonished the group of Harris County district judges, most of whom have...
$250 fine for white woman who brandished gun at black couple
STARKVILLE, Miss. — A white Mississippi woman who brandished a handgun at an African American couple while telling them to leave a campground has been convicted of a misdemeanor and fined $250. Local news outlets report 70-year-old Ruby Nell Howell of Starkville was found guilty Tuesday in Oktibbeha County Justice...
E-cigarette maker Juul facing mounting scrutiny by state AGs
WASHINGTON — E-cigarette giant Juul Labs is facing mounting scrutiny from state law enforcement officials, with the attorneys general in Illinois and the District of Columbia investigating how the company’s blockbuster vaping device became so popular with underage teens, The Associated Press has learned. The company’s rapid rise to the...
New plan calls for killing sea lions to save salmon in Columbia River
BOISE, Idaho — More than 1,100 sea lions could be killed annually along a stretch of the Columbia River to boost faltering populations of salmon and steelhead. Billions of dollars have been spent in Idaho, Oregon and Washington to save 13 species of Columbia Basin salmon and steelhead protected under...
Jim Leavelle, lawman at Lee Harvey Oswald’s side, dies at 99
DALLAS — Jim Leavelle, the longtime Dallas lawman who was captured in one of history’s most iconic photographs as he escorted President John F. Kennedy’s assassin as he was fatally shot, has died. He was 99. Leavelle, distinctive in his light-colored suit and white Stetson, is seen in the photograph...
TVs to shoes: This time consumers face pain of Trump tariffs
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s trade war with China, until now mainly an abstraction for American consumers, is about to hit home. Beginning Sunday, the U.S. government will begin collecting 15% tariffs on $112 billion in Chinese imports — items ranging from smartwatches and TVs to shoes, diapers, sporting goods...
Arrest warrant issued for Lakers center DeMarcus Cousins
MOBILE, Ala. — Alabama police have issued an arrest warrant for Los Angeles Lakers center DeMarcus Cousins on a misdemeanor domestic violence charge for harassing communications. The Mobile municipal court website indicates a warrant was issued for harassing communications, but does not list other details TMZ released an audio recording...
Donald Trump gets statue in wife’s homeland of Slovenia
SELA PRI KAMNIKU, Slovenia — There’s no mistaking it depicts Donald Trump: a large wooden statue of the U.S. president has been erected in Slovenia, the homeland of his wife Melania. The nearly 26-foot high construction shows Trump with his trademark hair style, blue suit, white shirt and a long...
Threat of mass shootings give rise to AI-powered cameras
Paul Hildreth peered at a display of dozens of images from security cameras surveying his Atlanta school district and settled on one showing a woman in a bright yellow shirt walking a hallway. A mouse click instructed the artificial intelligence-equipped system to find other images of the woman, and it...
Woman fell asleep in her parked car, woke to find it missing
HAMILTON, N.J. — Police in New Jersey say a possible carjacker apparently removed a sleeping 80-year-old woman from her parked car before stealing the vehicle and leaving her in the driveway. Hamilton police say the woman told them she’d fallen asleep in her parked car in a driveway around 9...
Electric bikes might soon be coming to national park trails
WASHINGTON — Motorized electric bicycles may soon be humming their way into serene national parks and other public lands nationwide, under a new Trump administration order — hotly opposed by many outdoors groups — allowing the so-called e-bikes on every federal trail where a regular bike can go. Sales of...
Trump eyes mental institutions as answer to gun violence
WASHINGTON — When shots rang out last year at a high school in Parkland, Fla., leaving 17 people dead, President Donald Trump quickly turned his thoughts to creating more mental institutions. When back-to-back mass shootings in Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas, jolted the nation earlier this month, Trump again...
Teen phenom Coco Gauff to take on defending champ Osaka at U.S. Open
NEW YORK — Coco Gauff is still not quite used to hearing her name shouted by thousands of U.S. Open spectators reveling in each booming serve, each “How did she do that?” shot and each victory by a 15-year-old American who is the youngest woman in the U.S. Open’s third...
5 whales dead after mass stranding on Maui beach
HONOLULU — Five whales died, including four that were euthanized, after a mass stranding Thursday on a beach on the Hawaii island of Maui. Ten melon-headed whales were found stranded alive early in the morning on Sugar Beach in the coastal resort community of Kihei. Hours later, a whale calf...
Hurricane Dorian bears down on northern Bahamas
Hurricane Dorian bore down on the northern Bahamas on Saturday with howlingwinds, surging seas and a threat of torrential rains, forcing some evacuations and hotel closures ahead of the fierceCategory 4 storm. Forecasters expected Dorian, packing 150 mph winds, to hit some Bahamian islands Sunday before heading nearFlorida and then...
1-year-old child dies in hot car in North Carolina
PINEVILLE, N.C. — Police in North Carolina say a baby has died after his mother left the 1-year-old in a hot car while she was at work. News outlets report Pineville Police responded to a 911 call Thursday evening and found the 1-year-old boy in his car seat in a...
Knowing when to prune is just as important as knowing how
Pruning is one of the most fundamental tasks in gardening, and knowing when to trim is as essential as knowing how. Pruning woody plants at the wrong time can interrupt bloom cycles and damage stressed plants. “It’s time to prune whenever your pruners are sharp” is an old adage that...
Trump attacks Fox News, but the network remains silent
NEW YORK — The one constant with President Donald Trump’s increasingly frequent attacks on Fox News has been the network’s refusal to respond, even as the president complains that “Fox isn’t working for us anymore.” In recent days, however, some Fox personalities like Bret Baier, Juan Williams and Brit Hume...
250 pigs escape; most back, some with help from hot dog buns
ORANGE, Vt. — About 250 pigs have been causing a ruckus in a Vermont town the past month after they escaped from their enclosure, but most of them had been returned as of Thursday thanks to a trail of hot dog buns and good ol’ fashioned corralling. Several farm workers...
Alabama governor apologies for wearing blackface in college
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey apologized Thursday for wearing blackface decades ago, becoming the latest politician to face scrutiny over racially insensitive photos and actions from their university days. Ivey, 74, issued the apology after a 1967 radio interview surfaced in which her now-ex-husband describes her actions at...
Condemned death row inmate waits to hear whether he will be spared
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A condemned Tennessee prisoner is waiting to hear whether he will be spared the death chamber after he claimed prosecutors illegally excluded African Americans from the jury pool. Abu-Ali Abdur’Rahman (ah-BOO’-ah-LEE’) (AHB’-dur-RAK’-mahn), who is black, faces an April 16 execution date for the 1986 murder of Patrick...
Feds: Drug ring had enough cheap fentanyl to kill 14 million
NORFOLK, Va. — Law enforcement officials in Virginia said Thursday that they’ve taken down a multi-state drug ring and seized enough cheap fentanyl from China to kill 14 million people. The bust was announced in the wake of growing efforts to stem the flow of fentanyl from Chinese labs to...
Texas governor says ‘mistakes’ made in immigrant rhetoric
EL PASO, Texas — Republican Gov. Greg Abbott said Thursday “mistakes were made” when he sent a fundraising mailer that called on supporters to “defend Texas” from illegal immigration, which was dated a day before a gunman targeting Mexicans killed 22 people in El Paso. The letter was condemned as...
