Associated Press stories, Page 2472

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Syracuse star Tyus Battle is not coming back for his senior year. In an open letter to fans published Friday in The Post-Standard of Syracuse, Battle made his decision after reports he’d leave surfaced when the Orange were eliminated in the first round of the NCAA Tournament....

WASHINGTON — U.S. consumer spending edged up a tiny 0.1 percent in January, while incomes advanced a modest 0.2 percent in February, further evidence that economic activity may have decelerated after strong growth for most of last year. The Commerce Department said Friday that the weak gain in consumer spending...

CANTON, Ill. — Authorities say a man convicted of murder as a suspected member of the notorious “Ripper Crew” that killed as many as 20 Chicago-area women in the 1980s has been released from prison. An alert from Illinois’ victim notification system was issued Friday saying 58-year-old Thomas Kokoraleis had...

PHILADELPHIA — The City of Brotherly Love was once revolutionary when it came to clean streets, gutters and sidewalks. Benjamin Franklin launched one of America’s first street sweeping programs here in the late 1750s. In 1952, the city tied with Memphis, Tennessee, as the nation’s cleanest. Those distinctions are long...

CHICAGO — City officials have ordered Jussie Smollett to pay $130,000 to cover the cost of the investigation into his report of a street attack that Chicago police say was staged to promote his career. A letter from the city’s legal department sent Thursday to Smollett and his attorneys said...

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis on Friday issued sweeping new sex abuse legislation for Vatican personnel and Holy See diplomats that requires the immediate reporting of abuse allegations to Vatican prosecutors, a policy shift aimed at being a model for the Catholic Church worldwide. The mandatory reporting provision of the...

BALTIMORE — Prosecutors in the murder case chronicled on the podcast “Serial” tested evidence from the 1999 crime last summer and found that none matched DNA from the convicted killer. Defense attorney C. Justin Brown tweeted Thursday that no forensic evidence links his client Adnan Syed to the killing of...

BANGKOK — Rangers at a national park in northeastern Thailand have rescued six baby elephants that were trapped in a mud pit. Park officials say the elephants were unable to climb up the pit’s slippery banks. Rescuers took five hours on Thursday to dig a path for them to clamber...

WASHINGTON — A federal judge is striking down the Trump administration’s highly touted small-business health insurance plan, calling it an “end run” around consumer protections. The ruling Thursday by U.S. District Judge John Bates in Washington, D.C., is the second setback in a week for the administration’s health care initiatives....

CALLAHAN, Fla. — Authorities say a pet zebra escaped from a Florida home and was shot and killed by its owner, who wasn’t licensed to own the animal. News outlets report the Nassau County Sheriff’s Office says the zebra, named Shadow, injured itself somehow while escaping Wednesday in the town...

WASHINGTON — Zion Williamson soared for a two-handed, rim-rattling, crowd-thrilling alley-oop that gave Duke its biggest lead during a tight tussle against Virginia Tech in the East Region semifinals. He is known for his dunks, to be sure, but he can do more. So much more. And now Williamson and...

CHICAGO — The FBI was already investigating Jussie Smollett before President Donald Trump tweeted that the agency and the Department of Justice would review the case, which the president called “an embarrassment” to the nation. Trump’s tweet on Thursday came two days after a surprise decision by Cook County prosecutors...

LAS VEGAS — Former U.S. Sen. Harry Reid told a Nevada jury Thursday that his career was cut short by injuries he suffered when a TheraBand exercise device slipped from his hand and he fell in his home bathroom in 2015. From a wheelchair on the witness stand in a...

NEW YORK — Washington pitcher Max Scherzer took over from Los Angeles Angels outfielder Mike Trout as baseball’s highest-paid player at $37.4 million and the World Series champion Boston Red Sox remained the sport’s biggest spender for the second straight year, according to a study of major league salaries by...

HUNTSVILLE, Texas — A member of the “Texas 7” gang of escaped prisoners won a reprieve Thursday night from execution for the fatal shooting of a suburban Dallas police officer after claiming his religious freedom would be violated if his Buddhist spiritual adviser wasn’t allowed to be in the death...

LONDON — Art experts in Britain have discovered that a painting long thought to be a fake Sandro Botticelli in fact came from the master’s own Florence workshop. After stripping back a century of yellowing varnish and surface dirt, conservators confirmed Thursday that “Madonna Of The Pomegranate” — a smaller...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Carsen Edwards scored 29 points as Purdue advanced to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2000, needing overtime to beat Tennessee, 99-94, on Thursday night after blowing an 18-point lead. The third-seeded Boilermakers (26-9) will play either top-seeded Virginia or No....

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Gonzaga is in the Elite Eight for the fourth time following a 72-58 victory over Florida State in the opening West regional semifinal on Thursday night. Rui Hachimura scored 17 points to lead the top-seeded Bulldogs, and Brandon Clarke had 15 points and 12 rebounds as Gonzaga...

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Presenting himself as both vindicated and vindictive, a fired-up President Trump on Thursday turned the findings of the special counsel’s Russia investigation into a political weapon at a boisterous Michigan rally that was part victory lap, part 2020 campaign push. With Robert Mueller’s investigation largely over,...

AUSTIN, Texas — The magical escape by Tiger Woods didn’t keep him from losing Thursday in the Dell Technologies Match Play. He just didn’t lose hope of playing on the weekend. The same couldn’t be said for defending champion Bubba Watson, Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson, Patrick Reed and a host...

GRAND CANYON WEST, Ariz. — Two people have died at the Grand Canyon in separate incidents this week that included one man stumbling over the edge of the rim while trying to take pictures, officials said. A helicopter lifted the body of the Hong Kong man from 1,000 feet below...

MILWAUKEE — Lorenzo Cain fired the ball high into the air and jumped up and down in the outfield, yelling and shaking his head from side to side. “I let them know. Not today,” a grinning Cain said. Not today, indeed. Cain soared above the wall to rob Jose Martinez...

NEW YORK — The new No. 3 is the new No. 1. Major League Baseball says that Bryce Harper has the sport’s top-selling jersey, ending a two-year reign for Aaron Judge’s No. 99. Harper signed a $330 million, 13-year deal with the Philadelphia Phillies this spring, and his new No....

PHILADELPHIA — Bryce Harper struck out twice in green Phanatic cleats in his $330 million debut and bowed to thousands of fans in No. 3 jerseys who gave him rousing standing ovations in the Philadelphia Phillies’ 10-4 win over the Atlanta Braves on Thursday. The other NL MVP pickup this...

LONDON — British Prime Minister Theresa May rolled the dice Thursday on another Brexit vote in Parliament, sending a tweaked and trimmed version of her EU divorce deal back to lawmakers who had rejected it twice before. But the agreement faced substantial opposition, even after May sacrificed her job for...