Associated Press stories, Page 2557

Matty McConnell scored 19 points, and Charles Baine added 17 as Robert Morris held off Sacred Heart, 72-64, and maintained its hold on first place in the Northeast Conference on Thursday night. The Colonials (11-9, 6-1) have won seven of their last eight games. Sacred Heart came into the game...

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Throughout the Patriots’ run of playoff success under Bill Belichick, one of his best-known attributes has been his ability to craft game plans that have stumped their opponents. He’s at it again. This postseason, New England’s best offensive weapon has been finding ways to keep the ball...

Gene Steratore is heading to the Super Bowl for the second straight season, this time in a very different capacity. Steratore wraps up his first year as CBS rules analyst at Super Bowl 53 in Atlanta on Feb. 3. He will be in the booth with Jim Nantz and Tony...

ATLANTA — Once again, Ray Lewis and the Super Bowl intersect in Atlanta. Lewis isn’t ducking from the bad memories of his career low point in 2000, when he and a pair of friends were charged for the stabbing deaths of two men outside a nightclub hours after the last...

OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Ravens coach John Harbaugh received a new four-year contract after a season in which he guided Baltimore to the AFC North title. The new deal is designed to keep the winningest coach in Ravens history under contract through the 2022 season. It replaces a pact that...

ST. LOUIS — A St. Louis police officer “mishandled” a gun and accidentally shot and killed a colleague early Thursday, authorities said. The shooting happened around 1 a.m. at an officer’s home, police Chief John Hayden told reporters during a news conference shortly after the shooting. Two on-duty male officers...

WASHINGTON — While Earth was a tad cooler last year than the last couple of years, it still was the fourth warmest on record, a new analysis shows. With the partial U.S. government shutdown, federal agency calculations for last year’s temperatures are delayed. But independent scientists at Berkeley Earth calculate...

ARLINGTON, Texas — Two-time All-Star shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera will get a chance to replace a likely Hall of Fame player in Texas by shifting to the corner on the left side of the infield. Cabrera finalized a $3.5 million, one-year contract with the Rangers on Thursday to take over at...

YORBA LINDA, Calif. — Courtney Force, the winningest female Funny Car driver in NHRA history, is stepping away from driving. Force is a 12-time Funny Car winner, was the No. 1 qualifer 28 times and ranked in the top 10 of the NHRA standings in six of her seven seasons....

SEBRING, Fla. — Investigators have found no obvious reason why a man accused of fatally shooting five women picked a small-town bank in Florida as the place to carry out his attack, authorities said Thursday. Zephen Xaver’s attack did not appear to be part of a robbery, and he had...

BERLIN — Police say an intoxicated German man who ducked out of a train for a cigarette during a short stop got into trouble when he tried to jump back on board between two cars after the train departed without him. Police said Thursday the 33-year-old clung on to the...

EVANSTON, Ill. — A Chicago suburb has tentatively agreed to pay a former doctoral student $1.25 million to settle a lawsuit alleging police officers tackled him to the ground and arrested him for stealing a car that turned out to be his own, his attorney said. Evanston City Manager Wally...

DES MOINES, Iowa — Sen. Joni Ernst says in an interview that she was raped by a boyfriend while she was a student at Iowa State University but didn’t report the assault. In an interview with Bloomberg posted online Wednesday night, Ernst disclosed the attack. She also clarified her discussions...

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration is taking a new step in its exploration of legalizing marijuana, with Lt. Gov. John Fetterman preparing a series of town hall-style public listening sessions. Fetterman, himself an advocate for legalizing marijuana, said Thursday he’ll hold a listening session in each of Pennsylvania’s...

YORK HAVEN —A Pennsylvania man says his emotional support alligator helps him deal with his depression. Joie Henney, 65, said his registered emotional support animal named Wally likes to snuggle and give hugs, despite being a 5-foot-long alligator. The York Haven man said he received approval from his doctor to...

CARSON CITY, Nev. — Nervous neighbors were shining floodlights on their property at night in a northern Nevada community where Connie Koontz and Sophia Renken were killed this month in slayings that authorities blame on a 19-year-old from El Salvador said to be in the U.S. illegally. Residents also were...

NEW YORK — E L James is working up some new thrills. The author of the blockbuster “Fifty Shades” trilogy has an “erotic love story” coming out April 16, Vintage Books announced Thursday. It’s called “The Mister” and, according to Vintage, will again be a story of sex, wealth and...

A new shopping platform announced Thursday at the World Economic Forum aims to change the way we buy many brand-name products. Loop, as the platform is called, would do away with disposable containers for things like shampoo and laundry detergent from some of the world’s biggest manufacturers. Instead, those goods...

Robots aren’t replacing everyone, but a quarter of U.S. jobs will be severely disrupted as artificial intelligence accelerates the automation of existing work, according to a new Brookings Institution report. The report, published Thursday, says roughly 36 million Americans hold jobs with “high exposure” to automation — meaning at least...

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has done something remarkable in the government shutdown: He’s unified the diverse new House Democratic majority firmly behind Speaker Nancy Pelosi. It’s not even about the wall at this point. Democrats are sticking together with an unusual amount of unity as a way to strengthen...

SANTA ANA PUEBLO, N.M. — As President Donald Trump’s approval rating falls, the Republican Party is grasping him ever tighter. Gathering in New Mexico, the Republican National Committee’s governing body will take the unusual step Friday of voting to declare the party’s “undivided support” for Trump and his “effective presidency.”...

MILAN — Europe’s human rights court on Thursday ordered Italy to pay Amanda Knox financial damages for police failure to provide legal assistance and a translator during a long night of questioning following the Nov. 1, 2007 murder of her British roommate. But the court said there was insufficient evidence...

Tax season is almost here, and this one could be tricky. It’s the first year that taxpayers will be filing under the massive tax law overhaul pushed through by the Trump administration. And a monthlong partial shutdown of the federal government threatens to complicate things further for some. Tax filing...

NEW YORK (AP) — Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, one of the richest people in President Donald Trump’s Cabinet, questioned Thursday why furloughed federal workers were using food banks instead of taking out loans to get through the monthlong partial government shutdown. Ross was asked on CNBC to comment on reports...

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said he is postponing his State of the Union address until the partial government shutdown ends, yielding after a weeklong showdown with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Following a high-stakes game of dare and double-dare, Trump conceded Wednesday night that “no venue that can compete with...