Associated Press stories, Page 2516

RENO, Nev. — Nevada’s latest bid to block incoming shipments of weapons-grade plutonium points to the U.S. Energy Department’s own scientific warnings about the dangers of prematurely moving the highly radioactive material out of South Carolina. State lawyers say in briefs filed this week with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court...

LORDSTOWN, Ohio — The last compact car rolled off the line Wednesday at General Motors’ massive assembly plant in Ohio as the automaker began moving toward its future while workers wondered about theirs. GM is eliminating all 1,700 hourly positions, perhaps for good, at the factory near Youngstown, the first...

LOS ANGELES — “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek said he has been diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer but intends to fight the disease and keep on working. In a video posted online Wednesday, the 78-year-old said he was announcing his illness directly to “Jeopardy!” fans in keeping with his long-time policy...

SAN FRANCISCO — A U.S. judge overseeing a criminal case against Pacific Gas & Electric Co. called the California utility’s efforts to prevent trees from hitting its power lines and starting wildfires “dismal” but scaled back his proposals to prevent its equipment from causing more blazes. Judge William Alsup said...

WASHINGTON — The U.S. envoy for Venezuela dismissed the possibility of American military action in the South American country in a recording made by two Russian pranksters and released Wednesday. Special Representative Elliott Abrams said in the recording that the United States wouldn’t use force in Venezuela unless the government...

CHICAGO — R. Kelly was taken back into custody Wednesday after appearing at a child-support hearing, authorities said, hours after the broadcast of an interview in which the R&B star cried and ranted about being “assassinated” by allegations of sexual abuse. A Cook County Sheriff’s Office official says singer Kelly...

Health care companies led U.S. stocks broadly lower Wednesday, giving the market its third straight loss. Technology and energy stocks also bore the brunt of the selling, offsetting gains in materials and utilities companies. Several retailers also rose. Smaller companies fell more than the rest of the market. The latest...

LOS ANGELES — Paul and Jamie Buchman are picking up where they left off 20 years ago on “Mad About You.” On-demand service Spectrum Originals said Wednesday a limited series will bring Helen Hunt and Paul Reiser back as the New York City couple. The original series, which aired from...

WASHINGTON — Sen. Martha McSally, the first female Air Force fighter pilot to fly in combat, said Wednesday that she was sexually assaulted by a superior officer, and later, when she tried to talk about it to military officials, she “felt like the system was raping me all over again.”...

WASHINGTON — A meeting of House Democrats turned contentious Wednesday as some new members who helped deliver the House majority confronted leaders over a resolution implicitly rebuking Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota over her comments on Israel. In the party’s weekly closed meeting, Democrats protested the way Speaker Nancy Pelosi...

NEW YORK — The Democratic National Committee says it won’t pick Fox News to televise one of the upcoming debates being held for its 2020 presidential contenders. The party chairman, Tom Perez, says he’s concluded that the network isn’t in a position to host a fair and neutral debate. He’s...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Reigning entertainer of the year Jason Aldean will receive the artist of the decade award at this year’s Academy of Country Music Awards in April. The ACM announced Wednesday that Aldean will join only five other honorees that have received the award since 1969, including Marty...

BERLIN — German police on Wednesday urged anyone who had a conflict with a recently deceased man to be wary, after a doctor was killed and a mother and daughter were injured by bombs apparently planted by him before he died. Westpfalz police spokesman Bernhard Christian Erfort told The Associated...

FRANKFORT, Ky. — Months after a Kentucky high school student was vilified following his interaction with a Native American protester, the state legislature is advancing a bill that would make it a crime to publish personal information of a child online with the intent to harass or intimidate. A Kentucky...

HARTFORD, Conn. — A Connecticut lawmaker wants to strike climate change from state science standards. A Virginia legislator worries teachers are indoctrinating students with their personal views on global warming. And an Oklahoma state senator wants educators to be able to introduce alternative viewpoints without fear of losing their jobs....

AURORA, Ind. — A school bus collided with a garbage truck in Indiana on Wednesday, seriously injuring one student and leaving 20 other people hurt, authorities said. Preliminary information indicates that 18 students, the bus driver and the driver of the garbage truck were injured in the crash, said Indiana...

HARRISBURG, Pa. — The builder of a natural gas gathering pipeline system in southwestern Pennsylvania is agreeing to a $1.5 million fine for failing to prevent sedimentation and erosion into streams during construction. The consent agreement between the state Department of Environmental Protection and Rice Midstream Holdings was released this...

WASHINGTON — Foreign leaders showered President Donald Trump and his family with more than $140,000 in gifts during their first year in the White House, with China and Saudi Arabia among the most lavish givers. According to the State Department’s annual accounting of such gifts, Chinese President Xi Jinping gave...

WASHINGTON — The U.S. trade deficit jumped nearly 19 percent in December, pushing the trade imbalance for all of 2018 to widen to a decade-long high of $621 billion. The gap with China on goods widened to an all-time record of $419.2 billion. The Commerce Department figures released Wednesday undermined...

BEAUREGARD, Ala. — All those listed as missing have been found and searches ended with no additional bodies discovered among the shattered homes, splintered pines and broken lives devastated by a tornado in rural Alabama, leaving the death toll at 23, authorities said Wednesday. “We are still in standby mode...

BILLINGS, Mont. — U.S. wildlife officials plan to lift protections for gray wolves across the Lower 48 states, a move certain to re-ignite the legal battle over a predator that’s rebounding in some regions and running into conflicts with farmers and ranchers, an official told The Associated Press. Acting Interior...

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A Florida travel insurance company has awarded a Georgia high school teacher $10,000 for reading the fine print in a policy she recently purchased. A Squaremouth statement says Donelan Andrews claimed the prize 23 hours after the contest began. The St. Petersburg-based company says it launched...

NEW YORK — Netflix has acquired the rights to Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” one of the most celebrated novels of the 20th century. The streaming company announced Wednesday that it will adapt the 1967 book into a Spanish language series. “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” which...

VALLEY FORGE — The national park on the site where George Washington and the struggling Continental Army endured a tough winter during the American Revolution boasts a new feature that’s a couple of hundred million years old — dozens of fossilized dinosaur footprints discovered on rocks used to pave a...

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Pennsylvania is joining 19 other states in a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s move to restrict taxpayer-funded family planning clinics from referring women for abortions. Attorney General Josh Shapiro joined the lawsuit filed Tuesday in an Oregon federal court challenging what critics call the “gag rule.” Shapiro,...