Associated Press stories, Page 2397
Orangutan granted ‘personhood’ settles into new Florida home
WAUCHULA, Fla. — A 33-year-old orangutan granted legal personhood by a judge in Argentina is settling into her new surroundings at the Center for Great Apes in central Florida. Patti Ragan, director of the center in Wauchula, Florida, says Sandra is “very sweet and inquisitive” and adjusting to her new...
Pa. man found guilty of fatally stabbing girlfriend faces life term
MILLCREEK — A man accused of fatally stabbing his girlfriend amid an impending breakup has been convicted of murder. James Gilbert was also convicted Wednesday of aggravated assault, reckless endangerment and possession of an instrument of crime by a jury that deliberated for about 90 minutes. The murder count carries...
Jerry Sandusky’s resentencing on child sex abuse conviction delayed
BELLEFONTE — Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky’s resentencing on a 45-count child sexual abuse conviction is being delayed another two weeks. Judge Maureen Skerda on Thursday pushed the hearing back to 1 p.m. Friday, Nov. 22, at the county courthouse in Bellefonte. Skerda acted after Sandusky’s defense...
Trump denies he wanted Barr to publicly clear him
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday denied a report that he wanted Attorney General William Barr to hold a press conference to declare he broke no laws during a July phone call in which Trump pressed his Ukrainian counterpart to investigate Democrats. Trump tweeted just after midnight that the...
Court sentences Congo warlord to 30 years for atrocitiesVideo
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The International Criminal Court passed its highest ever sentence Thursday, sending a Congolese warlord known as “The Terminator” to prison for 30 years for crimes including murder, rape and sexual slavery. Bosco Ntaganda was found guilty in July of 18 counts of war crimes and crimes...
Marie Kondo’s doing what she can to make your kids tidyVideo
Not even Marie Kondo can follow all her rules for tidying all the time. “Of course, when things get very busy, I need to let go of some of my standards and methods, and I think that’s a completely natural thing,” the decluttering guru, Netflix realty star and mother of...
Ivanka Trump meets with female landowners on Morocco trip
SIDI KACEM, Morocco — Visiting Morocco for the first time, Ivanka Trump received a warm welcome Thursday from women in a region of the country where they are benefiting from changes that allow them to own land. One woman expressed her gratitude by hugging Ivanka Trump and kissing her hands....
A CGI James Dean is cast in new film, sparking an outcryVideo
James Dean hasn’t been alive in 64 years, but the “Rebel Without a Cause” actor has been cast in a new film about the Vietnam War. The filmmakers behind the independent film “Finding Jack” said Wednesday that a computer-generated Dean will play a co-starring role in the upcoming production. The...
Iconic Pacific bird sanctuary ravaged by plastic and deathVideo
MIDWAY ATOLL, Northwestern Hawaiian Islands — Flying into the uninhabited Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, Midway Atoll appears out of the vast blue Pacific as a tiny oasis of coral-fringed land with pristine white sand beaches that are teeming with life. But on the ground, there’s a different scene: plastic, pollution and...
Massacre of Americans shows drug war worse this time aroundVideo
MEXICO CITY — There was a time when the violence of Mexico’s 2006-2012 drug war shocked Americans, but barely touched them. This time around — like everything else about the country’s renewed cartel conflict — it’s worse. The slaughter of three U.S. women and six of their children, some infants,...
Location, location: Why Ukraine leader aimed for Oval OfficeVideo
WASHINGTON — The room features a couple of couches, an extremely old desk and a pair of classic wing chairs by the fireplace. But the location conveys power and instantly elevates the stature of any guest. Through weeks of impeachment hearings and investigation, the Oval Office has emerged as such...
Trump works up a sweat at a Louisiana campaign rallyVideo
MONROE, La. — President Donald Trump worked up a sweat in a steamy Louisiana arena Wednesday night as he attempted to boost Republican businessman Eddie Rispone’s effort to unseat incumbent Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards in the nation’s last governor’s race of the year. “It may be 120 degrees in...
Dry no more: Upstate New York town votes to allow alcohol sales
ARGYLE, N.Y. — Break out the bubbly! A town in upstate New York has voted to overturn a local ban on the sale of alcohol that dates back to the Prohibition era. The Post-Star reports that Argyle voted Tuesday to relinquish its status as a dry town. Voters in this...
Transportation, data service providers battle for bandwidth
WASHINGTON — Two big industries are fighting over radio frequencies that each could use to provide game-changing services. On one side is the transportation industry, including auto and truck makers and their suppliers. The frequencies would allow smart vehicles of the near future to talk to each other to use...
1 killed, 2 wounded in shooting at San Diego restaurantVideo
SAN DIEGO — Police searched for a gunman who shot three employees — killing one — at a fast food restaurant in San Diego on Wednesday. The shooting happened around 5:30 p.m. at a Church’s Chicken in the Otay Mesa area, officials said. The suspected gunman had been in the...
Removing Martin Luther King’s name in Kansas City opens wounds, discussionVideo
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City leaders and residents on Wednesday began what is likely to be a challenging conversation about how to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and recover from wounds inflicted during a nearly yearlong debate over naming a street for the civil rights icon in the...
Prosecutors: Roger Stone lied because ‘truth looked bad’ for TrumpVideo
WASHINGTON — Prosecutors in the trial of Roger Stone told jurors Wednesday that the longtime Donald Trump confidant repeatedly lied to Congress “because the truth looked bad” for the president. The opening arguments in the case against Stone, a longtime Republican operative and provocateur, made clear that the president will...
MLB union launches collusion investigation after ‘egregious’ comments
NEW YORK — Two days into the free agent market, the players’ association already is angry at a club. Union head Tony Clark issued a statement Wednesday in response to remarks attributed to Atlanta Braves general manager Alex Anthopoulos during a conference call with media. “Every day you get more...
Democrats sweep through suburban Philadelphia counties
HARRISBURG — Democrats completed an electoral sweep of Philadelphia’s four suburban counties in Pennsylvania, long a bastion of Republican control and a critical bellwether for statewide candidates. Democrats won control in Delaware and Chester counties in the election Tuesday for the first time going back to the Civil War and...
ACC coaches not fond of league’s Friday night showcasesVideo
When the ACC football schedule was finalized, Wake Forest coach Dave Clawson did a double-take — none of his team’s first three games would be on a Saturday. “To me it was just circumstantial that we got picked for three games,” said Clawson, whose Demon Deacons wound up playing all...
Matt Bevin seeks vote recanvass while Andy Beshear starts transition for Kentucky governorshipVideo
LOUISVILLE — Republican Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin asked Wednesday for a recanvass of vote totals, as election results showed him trailing by several thousand votes, but Democrat Andy Beshear turned his own focus toward transitioning into the governor’s office. Beshear, the state’s attorney general, said he’s confident in the election...
Diplomat William Taylor had ‘clear understanding’ of Ukraine quid pro quoVideo
WASHINGTON — A State Department envoy told lawmakers it was his “clear understanding” the U.S. government intended to withhold military aid from Ukraine until the country committed to investigations sought by President Donald Trump, including into a political rival, according to a transcript of the closed-door interview released Wednesday. William...
Singer Chris Brown holding high-end yard sale at his home
Chris Brown says he’s having a high-end yard sale at his Los Angeles home. The singer posted a flyer on his Instagram and Twitter accounts that included his home address in the Tarzana neighborhood and says the event started at 10 a.m. Wednesday and will go until 7 p.m. View...
Congress approves Toomey-led bill expanding animal cruelty law
WASHINGTON — Congress has passed a bill making certain types of animal cruelty a federal felony. The bill would expand a 2010 law that made creation or distribution of so-called “animal crushing” videos illegal. The new bill would make the underlying acts of cruelty a federal crime. The Senate unanimously...
Trump attacks whistleblower anonymity, but won’t utter nameVideo
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is blasting the media for not reporting the name of a person who has been identified in conservative circles as the whistleblower who spurred the impeachment inquiry. Yet Trump has carefully avoided using the name himself. Exposing whistleblowers can be dicey, even for a president....
