Associated Press stories, Page 2402
Trump vows to retaliate against French digital tax
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump promised on Friday to retaliate against France for adopting a pioneering tax on internet giants like Google, Amazon and Facebook. He also managed to get in a shot at French wine. Trump, who doesn’t drink, tweeted: “I’ve always said American wine is better than French...
Europeans splash, dive, swim to beat record heat
PARIS (AP) — They frolicked in fountains, jumped in lakes and canals, waded in the sea. And no wonder. It was, after all, one of Europe’s hottest-ever days. As the temperature climbed and climbed to record highs in multiple countries Thursday, people converged on any body of water they could...
AP Source: Jay-Z pulls out of Woodstock 50 performance
Jay-Z’s got 99 problems but Woodstock isn’t one: The rap king has pulled out of the 50th anniversary Woodstock festival just weeks before the troubled event is supposed to take place. Jay-Z will no longer close the three-day festival scheduled for Aug. 16-18, a person familiar with the situation told...
Pennsylvania’s absentee ballot rules mean many arrive too late to be counted
PHILADELPHIA — Comparatively tight deadlines for absentee ballots mean Pennsylvania’s mail-in votes arrive too late to be counted far more often than the national average, a newspaper reported Friday. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that 4.2% of the state’s absentee ballots got to voting offices after the deadline to be counted...
Chevron is allowed to stay in Venezuela until October
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is allowing Chevron to continue operating in Venezuela at least until October despite U.S. sanctions aimed at ousting President Nicolás Maduro by choking off revenue from the world’s largest crude reserves. Friday’s action gives Chevron until Oct. 25, when the Treasury Department will decide again...
Hundreds of Hells Angels gathering in Carolina college town
CLEMSON, S.C. — Police are preparing for hundreds of Hells Angels to descend on a South Carolina college town next week for an annual gathering. The Greenville News reports an estimated 600 to 700 members of the motorcycle club are expected to ride into Clemson between Monday and Friday. Clemson...
Grasshoppers on the go make migratory stop in Vegas area
LAS VEGAS — A migration of mild-mannered grasshoppers sweeping through the Las Vegas area is being attributed to wet weather several months ago. Nevada state entomologist Jeff Knight told reporters on Thursday the number of adult pallid-winged grasshoppers traveling north to central Nevada is unusual but not unprecedented, and poses...
Girls cyberbullied more than boys amid U.S. harassment rise
SEATTLE — Rachel Whalen remembers feeling gutted in high school when a former friend would mock her online postings, threaten to unfollow or unfriend her on social media and post inside jokes about her to others online. The cyberbullying was so distressing that Whalen said she contemplated suicide. Once she...
University fires 9 officers over social media posts
NORFOLK, Va. — A historically black university in Virginia said Friday that it has fired nine of its police officers for sharing “misogynistic, racist and other offensive remarks via social media.” Hampton University’s statement did not detail the remarks the officers made. But it said they were fired for “egregious...
There’s no place like home for the ‘The Brady Bunch’
There’s no place like home for “The Brady Bunch,” even if was just a facade. An HGTV renovation of the Los Angeles house that was used for exterior shots of the TV sitcom reunited six cast members and rekindled the show’s spirit. “We enjoy being together, doing other projects, but...
Bill Cosby appeal to focus on other women’s testimony, quaaludes
Prosecutors set to defend Bill Cosby’s sexual assault conviction in appeals court next month call the accusations from other women no coincidence, but “the culmination of a decades-long pattern of behavior.” Cosby, a long-beloved actor and comedian, was convicted in the first celebrity trial of the #MeToo era. He turned...
U.S. economy slowed to 2.1% growth rate in 2nd quarter
WASHINGTON — The U.S. economy slowed sharply in the April-June quarter even as consumers stepped up their spending. The gross domestic product, the economy’s total output of goods and services, grew at a 2.1% annual rate last quarter, down from a 3.1% gain in the first quarter, the Commerce Department...
Bernie Sanders calls for shutdown of Michigan oil pipeline
DETROIT — Bernie Sanders has become the second Democratic presidential hopeful to call for shutting down an oil pipeline that crosses a channel linking two of the Great Lakes. The Vermont senator said in a tweet Thursday that Enbridge’s Line 5 should be decommissioned and new fossil fuel infrastructure banned....
Libya’s coast guard recovers dozens of bodies of migrants
CAIRO — Libya’s coast guard recovered dozens of bodies of Europe-bound migrants who perished at sea as search operations continued Friday, a day after up to 150 people, including women and children, went missing and were feared drowned after their boats capsized in the Mediterranean Sea. A top U.N. official...
2020 tests whether Democrats can win enough black voters without Obama
DETROIT — When Barack Obama was on the ballot in 2008 and 2012, there was no question that Terrance Holmes would vote for the first black president. But as he helped fix cars this week at a repair shop on Detroit’s west side, he recalled his ambivalence about the 2016...
Animal shelter says it mistakenly killed woman’s dog
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — An Alabama animal shelter says it mistakenly euthanized a woman’s dog only hours after picking it up. The Montgomery Advertiser reports Kim Wright found a note on her door Monday saying her dog Vinnie had been running loose in the neighborhood and was picked up by the...
Benevolent or fearsome? Yellowjackets can be both
Yellowjackets play a supportive role in gardening but can be dangerous around families and pets. People sensitive to bee venom should be especially careful from August through October, when yellowjacket numbers peak. They attack when threatened, and are known to crash cookouts too. “Yellowjackets, hornets and paper wasps are all...
Google crushes second quarter earnings expectations
SAN FRANCISCO — Google parent Alphabet beat analyst expectations for the second quarter Thursday, sending its shares up sharply as it bounced back from a rough first quarter. The company comforted investors with advertising revenue growth that edged out last quarter and assurances that video streaming site YouTube and the...
Police: Man killed father, brother, wounded mother in LA
LOS ANGELES — A man fatally shot his father, brother and two other people Thursday during a 12-hour rampage across Los Angeles’ sprawling San Fernando Valley, eluding a manhunt until he was arrested after gunning down a bus passenger, authorities said. Police said they did not know what motivated Gerry...
Duterte offers bounty for ‘head’ of lead killer of 4 police
MANILA, Philippines — Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte offered a bounty to anybody who can deliver to him the head of the communist rebel leader behind the killings of four police intelligence officers last week in an insurgency-hit central province. Duterte said in a speech late Thursday that he raised a...
N. Korea says missile test was ‘solemn warning’ to S. Korea
SEOUL, South Korea — A day after two North Korean missile launches rattled Asia, the nation announced Friday that its leader Kim Jong Un supervised a test of a new-type tactical guided weapon that was meant to be a “solemn warning” about South Korean weapons introduction and its rival’s plans...
Report: No radiation exposure at Grand Canyon National Park
GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, Ariz. — Authorities say final findings show there’s no radiation exposure from uranium ore samples that poses a health risk for employees and visitors at Grand Canyon National Park. Park officials announced in February that they were investigating whether anyone was exposed to radiation at unsafe...
Ravens open camp with new cast while delving into unknownVideo
OWINGS MILLS, Md. — New look, same goal. The Baltimore Ravens opened training camp Thursday with a revamped roster, a rewritten playbook and a starting quarterback who last summer didn’t have a lick of NFL experience. Operating in idyllic temperatures and under a clear blue sky, the Ravens began the...
Ex-Steeler Le’Veon Bell ready for ‘500 touches’ with Jets
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — Le’Veon Bell took a screen pass from Sam Darnold, shifted around some would-be tacklers and scooted down the sideline for a big gain. Nope, no sign of rust here. While it was just an early moment in the New York Jets’ first training camp practice Thursday,...
Toddler spins, scrambles on wild ride on airport bag belt
ATLANTA — Dramatic video shows a toddler who climbed onto a conveyor belt scrambling over suitcases during his wild ride on a luggage chute that took him underground inside the world’s busiest airport. Edith Vega’s son Lorenzo, 2, climbed aboard the belt when she briefly set him down to print...
