Associated Press stories, Page 2467

VILNIUS, Lithuania — A Lithuanian man flying to Italy got a pleasant surprise when he boarded the plane: He was the only passenger on the Boeing 737-800. Skirmantas Strimaitis, who was flying from capital Vilnius to the northern Italian city of Bergamo for a skiing holiday March 16, had the...

PHILADELPHIA — State lawmakers, criminal justice reform advocates and rapper Meek Mill joined forces Tuesday to push for an overhaul of Pennsylvania’s probation system. House Democratic Whip Jordan Harris said at an event in downtown Philadelphia that he will soon introduce a bill designed to put fewer people on parole...

NASHVILLE — At least 128,000 children in Tennessee have been cut from the state’s low-income health insurance programs over the past two years. The Tennessean reports that one in every eight children in TennCare were unenrolled between December 2016 and this January. State officials say the purge is due to...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California’s attorney general said Tuesday it appears the sale of high-capacity ammunition magazines has started in the state for the first time in nearly two decades after a federal court judge tossed out a statewide ban. Attorney General Xavier Becerra asked a federal judge to delay implementing...

OROVILLE, Calif. — Officials at the nation’s tallest dam unleashed water down a rebuilt spillway Tuesday for the first time since it crumbled two years ago and drove hundreds of thousands of California residents from their homes over fears of catastrophic flooding. Water flowed down the spillway and into the...

With CBD showing up everywhere, U.S. regulators announced Tuesday they are exploring ways the marijuana extract could be used legally in foods, dietary supplements and cosmetics. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it will hold a public hearing May 31 to gather more information on the science, manufacturing and...

ALGIERS, Algeria — The Algerian Defense Ministry called Tuesday for President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to quit “immediately” after two decades in office, saying “there is no more time to waste” after six weeks of nationwide protests against the chief of state and his inner circle. The ministry’s appeal came in a...

BOSTON — Massachusetts authorities created a false picture of the Sackler family’s role in promoting OxyContin, the Sacklers said Tuesday in their first court response to allegations that individual family members — not just their company, Purdue Pharma — helped fuel the deadly opioid epidemic. The Sackler family says a...

RALEIGH, N.C. — The chairman of North Carolina’s Republican Party, an insurance magnate and two of his associates are facing federal charges for a plan to shower the state’s top insurance regulator with campaign contributions to ensure special business treatment, a criminal indictment unsealed Tuesday said. State GOP Chairman Robin...

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis said in a document released Tuesday that women have “legitimate claims” to seek more equality in the Catholic Church, but he stopped short of endorsing recent calls from his own bishops to give women leadership roles. In the text, Francis also told young adults they...

A day of listless trading on Wall Street ended with an uneven finish for stock indexes as the market lost some of its momentum after a three-day winning streak. After a brief early slide, U.S. stocks mostly wavered between small gains and losses through the rest of the day, as...

WASHINGTON — Trump administration officials are reining back the president’s threat to shut the southern border this week as they grapple with a surge of Central American migrants trying to enter the U.S. President Trump said last week he would seal the border with Mexico in the coming days if...

WASHINGTON — A career official in the White House security office says dozens of people in President Trump’s administration were granted security clearances despite “disqualifying issues” in their backgrounds, including concerns about foreign influence, drug use and criminal conduct. Tricia Newbold, an 18-year government employee who oversaw the issuance of...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — When the Patriots won the Super Bowl again — and covered the spread, too — all of New England was delirious, with the possible exception of Rhode Island’s tax collectors. The state’s sportsbooks lost $2.35 million because, come on, really, who’s going to bet against Tom Brady...

MANDAN, N.D. — Police on Tuesday identified the owner of a North Dakota property management business and three employees as the people whose bodies were found there a day earlier, and said they don’t yet have a suspect in the attack. Chief Jason Ziegler didn’t say how the victims died...

LONDON — Prime Minister Theresa May said Tuesday that she will seek to further delay Britain’s exit from the European Union and seek to make an accord with the political opposition in a bid to break the Brexit impasse. May made the announcement after the EU’s chief negotiator warned that...

HOUSTON — A fire at a Texas chemical plant Tuesday that sent plumes of black smoke into the air killed one worker and injured at least two others, authorities said, in the second major blaze at a Houston-area chemical facility in about two weeks. Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez confirmed...

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio’s coveted 18 electoral votes would be delivered to the presidential candidate who wins the national popular vote under a proposal making its way toward the state’s fall ballot. The proposed constitutional amendment, whose summary language was certified Monday, would force state lawmakers to assure the powerful...

LONDON — British police said Tuesday that they are investigating two attempts to sabotage railway lines that are believed to be linked to Brexit. The British Transport Police force said two “malicious obstructions” hit sections of rail line in central and eastern England on March 21 and 27. In both...

NEW YORK — James Patterson’s latest gift for literacy is a $1.25 million pledge to classroom libraries. On Tuesday, the best-selling author announced the fifth installment for his Patterson Partnership, formed in coordination with Scholastic Book Club. Patterson is giving $250 each to 4,000 teachers around the country to help...

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis said in a document released Tuesday that women have “legitimate claims” to seek more equality in the Catholic Church, but he stopped short of endorsing recent calls from his own bishops to give women leadership roles. In the text, Francis also told young adults they...

LOS ANGELES — “Inside Edition” anchor Deborah Norville will undergo surgery to remove a cancerous thyroid nodule from her neck. The 60-year-old host says in a video a viewer reached out a long time ago and told her she had seen a lump on her neck. Norville says she had...

MOSCOW — Russia’s Defense Ministry says three people have been injured in an explosion inside an elite military academy in Russia’s second-largest city. The ministry said in a statement on Tuesday that an unidentified “object” went off early afternoon inside the prestigious Mozhaisky Academy in St. Petersburg, which trains officers...

WASHINGTON — How many ways can you measure the first quarter of the year? For Democratic presidential candidates, it’s 300-plus events, 24 states and hundreds of voter questions. The Iowa caucus is still 10 months away, but the Democratic primary campaign is already an all-out sprint — passing eye-popping markers...