Associated Press stories, Page 2551

CHICAGO — Police say at least two people in the Detroit area have died in the extremely cold weather, including a former member of the City Council in the town of Ecorse, Mich. Ecorse detective Tim Sassak tells TV station WDIV that the man was discovered Wednesday. Sassak says the...

ZAMBOANGA, Philippines — A grenade was thrown into a mosque in the southern Philippines where Muslim teachers were sleeping early Wednesday morning, killing two of them and injuring four, authorities said. It was the second explosion at a religious site in the south this week, though authorities didn’t see it...

WASHINGTON — Capitol Hill negotiators are hopeful of an agreement as they officially kick off talks on a homeland security spending bill stalled over funding for President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall. Left on their own, the seasoned House and Senate lawmakers say they could easily reach a border security...

HUNTSVILLE, Texas — A 61-year-old Texas inmate was set to be executed Wednesday for killing a Houston police officer more than three decades ago during a robbery. Robert Jennings was condemned for the July 1988 slaying of Officer Elston Howard during a robbery at an adult bookstore. Jennings would be...

RIO DE JANEIRO — A torrent of muddy mining waste unleashed by a dam breach that killed at least 84 people in southeastern Brazil is now heading down a small river with high concentrations of iron oxide, threatening to contaminate a much larger river that provides drinking water to communities...

SAN FRANCISCO — Pacific Gas & Electric Co. will be back in a U.S. courtroom a day after declaring bankruptcy, as it tries to convince a judge not to order dramatic steps to try to prevent its equipment from causing more wildfires. U.S. Judge William Alsup is scheduled to hear...

YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesia’s volatile Mount Merapi volcano has unleashed a river of lava that flowed 4,590 feet down its slopes. Kasbani, head of the Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation Center, says Merapi on the island of Java has entered an “effusive eruption phase.” Kasbani, who goes by a single...

WASHINGTON — Wary of reigniting a clash that proved damaging to Republicans, congressional GOP leaders signaled Tuesday that they want to de-escalate the battle over President Trump’s border wall and suggested they could be flexible as bargainers seek a bipartisan agreement. In what seemed a message aimed at the White...

CLEMSON, S.C. — Senior guard Marcquise Reed scored 26 points, and Clemson rediscovered its touch from long range Tuesday night in an 82-69 victory against Pitt in an ACC game at Littlejohn Coliseum. Reed, the Tigers’ leading scorer at 19.3 points per game, enjoyed another big night, making 8 of...

PAWTUCKET, R.I. — The state of the union is dark. A large majority of Americans say they are pessimistic about the state of the country and few expect things will get better in the year ahead, according to a poll released Tuesday by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs...

ATLANTA — Todd Gurley says he often communicated with two other former Georgia running backs, Sony Michel and Nick Chubb, during the 2018 season. Now that Gurley and Michel are having a Super Bowl reunion as the leading rushers for the Los Angeles Rams and New England Patriots, respectively, that...

MIAMI — Pine-Richland graduate and longtime Pirates infielder Neil Walker agreed Tuesday to a one-year contract with the Miami Marlins and is expected to compete for a starting job. The Athletic reported the deal is worth $2 million. Walker has a .268 career average and has reached double figures in...

NEW YORK — A young mother has died after falling down stairs at a Manhattan subway station while holding her 1-year-old daughter in a stroller. Malaysia Goodson, of Stamford, Conn., fell down the stairs at a midtown Manhattan station at around 8 p.m. Monday, police said. Goodson was unconscious when...

WASHINGTON — Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer says former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams will deliver the Democratic response to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address. Schumer told reporters Tuesday that he asked Abrams three weeks ago and he was “delighted” when she accepted. The role elevates Abrams...

CINCINNATI — A medical helicopter crashed Tuesday in a remote wooded area on its way to pick up a patient, killing all three crew members, authorities said. Survival Flight medical transportation reported around 7:20 a.m. Tuesday losing communication with a helicopter flying from the Mount Carmel Hospital in Grove City...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Rhode Island has been named the lead plaintiff in a class action lawsuit against Google’s parent company. State Treasurer Seth Magaziner said Tuesday a federal court in California approved his motion to make Rhode Island’s public employee retirement system the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit against Alphabet...

WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that the Islamic State and al-Qaida militants still pose a “serious threat” to the United States and cautioned the Trump administration against an early exit from Syria and Afghanistan. The comments by McConnell, R-Ky., appeared to be a pushback against the...

NEW YORK — Stocks posted an uneven finish on Wall Street on Tuesday, handing the S&P 500 index its second decline in a row. An early gain faded as investors assessed a mixed bag of corporate results and looked ahead to a heavy schedule of news on companies and the...

JOHANNESBURG — More than 130 migrants were thought to be missing after two boats capsized Tuesday off the tiny East African nation of Djibouti, the U.N. migration agency said. Local police had found five bodies and search efforts were underway, the U.N. statement said. Witnesses said the boats were overloaded...

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Gov. Tom Wolf is renewing his call for lawmakers to pass legislation expanding background checks on firearms in Pennsylvania and end an exception for shotguns, sporting rifles and semi-automatic rifles that are sold at gun shows. The Democratic governor’s statement Tuesday comes three months after a truck...

BATON ROUGE, La. — The 21-year-old man accused of killing five people including his parents in a multi-parish shooting over the weekend before fleeing to his grandmother’s house has confessed, authorities said Tuesday. Dakota Theriot told authorities he used a gun he stole from his father, Livingston Parish Sheriff Jason...

HOUSTON — Houston’s police chief says one of four narcotics officers shot while serving a search warrant at a suspected drug house has been struck by gunfire two other times during his career. Police Chief Art Acevedo said Tuesday that the 54-year-old police supervisor, whose name hasn’t been released, was...

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Pennsylvania’s Senate is resuming a push to make the Eastern hellbender the state’s official amphibian, an effort to highlight the plight of a creature whose numbers researchers say are declining because of pollution in rivers and streams. The bill emerged unanimously Tuesday from a Senate committee. A...