Associated Press stories, Page 2476
Guaranteed spots in Indy 500 divides owners
INDIANAPOLIS — Bobby Rahal remembers watching the start of the Indianapolis 500 from a suite with his sponsors after he failed to make the 1993 field. He was bitter to miss “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing,” but understood the sanctity of only the fastest 33 racing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway....
‘Vanilla’ Preakness still has intrigue without Derby winner
BALTIMORE — Hall of Fame trainers D. Wayne Lukas and Bob Baffert sit side by side in the corner of the stakes barn at Pimlico Race Course sizing up the Preakness. “A lot of speed in there,” Baffert said. Lukas responded without missing a beat, “My horse is fast.” “There’s...
Government audit: Ben Carson’s $40K office purchases broke law
WASHINGTON — Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson violated the law when his department spent more than $40,000 to purchase a dining set and a dishwasher for his office’s executive dining room, government auditors concluded. In a report released Thursday, the Government Accountability Office said HUD failed to notify...
Trump says Iran, too, may be confused about war signals
WASHINGTON — After two weeks of mixed signals on Iran, from high-profile U.S. military moves to administration assertions that it’s not angling for war, President Donald Trump said Friday that even the Iranians may be confused about what comes next. “With all of the Fake and Made Up News out...
Report: Brakes unused on fiery Russian plane that killed 41
MOSCOW — A Russian state news agency says a report from the country’s civil aviation authority indicates that the crew of an airliner that caught fire while making an emergency landing, killing 41 people, had not deployed the plane’s air brakes. The report Friday indicated that human error could be...
Judge refuses to toss suit over Pepe the Frog poster sales
A federal judge will let a jury decide whether conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ Infowars website had a legal right to sell a poster featuring the image of Pepe the Frog, a cartoon character that became hijacked by far-right extremists. U.S. District Judge Michael Fitzgerald refused Thursday to throw out a...
House approves sweeping bill to expand gay rights
WASHINGTON — Democrats in the House approved sweeping anti-discrimination legislation Friday that would extend civil rights protections to LGBT people by prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. The protections would extend to employment, housing, loan applications, education, public accommodations and other areas. Called the Equality Act, the...
Prosecutor: Mom and daughter strangled pregnant Chicago teen
CHICAGO — A pregnant Chicago teen who was killed and whose baby was cut from her womb was strangled while being shown a photo album of the late son and brother of her attackers, a prosecutor said Friday in urging a judge to keep the defendants locked up. Assistant State’s...
Feds want stolen Alexander Hamilton letter returned
BOSTON — A 1780 letter from Alexander Hamilton to the Marquis de Lafayette stolen from the Massachusetts Archives decades ago has been found and now an effort is underway to get it back. The U.S. attorney’s office in Boston this week filed a forfeiture complaint in federal court asking a...
United Airlines to lay off 100 in Houston, outsource jobs
HOUSTON — United Airlines says it will cut about 100 accounting jobs in Houston in July and shift the work to a contractor. The airline reported the layoffs in a letter this week to the Texas Workforce Commission. It did not identify the contractor that will handle accounting of revenue...
Massachusetts set to test ‘cannabis cafes’
BOSTON — Massachusetts marijuana regulators have approved of a plan to slowly roll out “cannabis cafes” where adults could use pot in a social setting. The 3-2 vote by the Cannabis Control Commission on Thursday calls for an initial test program in as many as a dozen communities where licenses...
‘Caine Mutiny,’ ‘Winds of War’ author Herman Wouk has died
Herman Wouk, the versatile, Pulitzer Prize winning author of such million-selling novels as “The Caine Mutiny” and “The Winds of War” whose steady Jewish faith inspired his stories of religious values and secular success, died on Friday at 103. Wouk was just 10 days shy of his 104th birthday and...
Texas man suspected of cutting off mom’s head with hacksaw
DENTON, Texas — A Texas man used a hacksaw to cut off his mother’s head before fleeing and leading police on a chase into Oklahoma last week before they arrested him, authorities said. Isaac Israel Warriner, 22, was being held Friday in a Denton County, Texas, jail on charges including...
Penn State fencing assistant fired over groping allegation
STATE COLLEGE — A woman says she told Penn State University’s head fencing coach that one of his assistants had groped her on a plane, but the coach failed to report her accusation to the school as required. Jennifer Oldham, a North Carolina fencing coach, tells The Philadelphia Inquirer that...
’60 Minutes’ Steve Kroft to retire from the show
The ticking clock for the longest tenured reporter at “60 Minutes” is about to go silent. CBS says Steve Kroft, 73, will retire from the news magazine at Sunday’s season finale. It will cap his 30th season and Kroft will discuss his plans to step down on the air. Kroft...
No home birth: Harry and Meghan’s Archie born in a hospital
The birth certificate for the son of Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, reveals that Archie was born in a private hospital in London. The certificate filed Friday makes clear that Meghan did not give birth to the child in the couple’s Frogmore Cottage home, as had been...
California kids having slumber party fight off nude intruder
CLOVIS, Calif. — Police say two girls having a slumber party fought off a naked man who broke into the home through a window and sexually assaulted them last weekend. Police Chief Matt Basgall in the Fresno suburb of Clovis said the 10-year-old girl who lives in the home and...
Federal appeals court rules against Trump on ending DACA
RICHMOND, Va. — The federal appeals court has ruled the Trump administration acted in an “arbitrary and capricious” manner when it sought to end an Obama-era program that shields young immigrants from deportation. A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2 to 1 Friday that...
Body of missing W.Va. teen found, mother’s boyfriend charged
BERKELEY SPRINGS, W.Va. — Authorities say they’ve found the body of a missing West Virginia girl, and her mother’s boyfriend has been arrested. News outlets report Morgan County Sheriff K.C. Bohrer said during a news conference Thursday that 15-year-old Riley Crossman’s decomposed body was found on an embankment near a...
1 dead, 1 missing, 1 hurt after explosion levels Eastern Pa. home
MOUNTAIN TOP — Authorities say one person has been killed and another is missing after an explosion destroyed a home in northeastern Pennsylvania. Officials say emergency responders found 20-year-old Nathan Hedgepeth injured but alive just before 2 a.m. Friday on the lawn outside the home in Dorrance, about 115 miles...
For trans people, gender-swap photo filters are no mere game
Snapchat’s new photo filter that allows users to change into a man or woman with the tap of a finger isn’t necessarily fun and games for transgender people. Some say it reduces their very real and often painful experiences to folly. Thirty-one-year-old Bailey Coffman is a transgender woman from New...
Trevor Williams leaves with injury, Pirates bullpen falters in loss to PadresVideo
SAN DIEGO — Ian Kinsler hit a mighty three-run homer to put the San Diego Padres ahead of the Pittsburgh Pirates, and then had a profane outburst as he crossed home and then again in the dugout. Many fans on social media felt it was directed at them, and manager...
Trail Blazers put up fight, but Warriors take 2-0 series lead
OAKLAND, Calif. — Stephen Curry scored 37 points, and the Golden State Warriors rallied from a 15-point halftime deficit before holding off the Portland Trail Blazers for a 114-111 win Thursday night and a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference finals. CJ McCollum missed a driving jumper with 32 seconds...
New shrub rose hybrids are easy to care for, easy to love
Roses are among the oldest flowers in cultivation, although many have earned a reputation as fussy or difficult to grow. Some of the newer shrub rose hybrids, however, are disease-resistant, carefree and repeat-blooming — just the qualities novice gardeners love. “They are generally much healthier, more free-flowering, easier to prune...
Bruins, Tuukka Rask shut door on Hurricanes to reach Stanley Cup Final
RALEIGH, N.C. — Boston’s top line kept finding ways to score, especially on the power play. With a chance to clinch another series, Tuukka Rask was perfect — again. Rask posted his seventh career playoff shutout, and the Bruins swept the Carolina Hurricanes out of the Eastern Conference final, winning...
