Associated Press stories, Page 2625
Get ready for a Sweet 16 filled with favorites, star players, great matchups
Last year’s NCAA Tournament was an epic ride for the underdogs, from UMBC’s historic takedown of No. 1 Virginia to Loyola-Chicago’s march to the Final Four. This year, Cinderella stayed home to get some beauty sleep. Top seeds and power programs only, please. The top three seeds are still alive...
2,000 at Temple University get shots amid mumps outbreak
PHILADELPHIA — More than 2,000 students and staffers at Temple University took advantage of free vaccine booster shots Wednesday as the number of mumps cases at the school topped 100. Philadelphia health officials said 2,285 people were given shots during the first of two clinics offering the MMR vaccine. The...
James Fields changes plea to guilty on hate crimes in Charlottesville car attack
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — A man convicted on state murder charges in a deadly car attack at a white nationalist rally in Virginia pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal hate crime charges in a case that stirred racial tensions across the country. James Alex Fields Jr., of Maumee, Ohio, pleaded guilty to...
MLB hopes to gain control of local broadcast deals
NEW YORK — Major League Baseball hopes to gain control of local broadcasting agreements involving its teams, the reason behind its bid to purchase regional sports networks from The Walt Disney Co. Disney acquired 22 RSNs as part of its $71 billion purchase of 21st Century Fox’s entertainment business this...
Julia Louis-Dreyfus reveals last season story line of ‘Veep’
NEW YORK — Julia Louis-Dreyfus still had tears to shed as she said her official farewell to “Veep.” The only problem is she forgot to bring tissues. Shooting wrapped for the series in December, but those tearful goodbyes were not enough as she and the cast of the HBO comedy...
Official: Norway cruise ship engines failed from lack of oil
COPENHAGEN, Denmark — A cruise ship that was the focus of a daring rescue operation off Norway’s frigid North Sea coast became disabled because its engines didn’t have enough lubricating oil, the country’s top maritime official said Wednesday. Low oil levels were the “direct cause” of the engine failure that...
Texas retailer gives 60,000 bump stocks to feds to destroy
FORT WORTH, Texas — A Texas retailer of now-banned bump stocks has transferred about 60,000 of the gun-related items to the federal government to be destroyed. RW Arms of Fort Worth turned over the bump stocks to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The products will be shredded...
Facebook extends ban on hate speech to ‘white nationalists’
SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook is extending its ban on hate speech to prohibit the promotion and support of white nationalism and white separatism. The company previously allowed such material even though it has long banned white supremacists. The social network said Wednesday that it didn’t apply the ban previously to...
U.S.: North Korean nuke work ‘inconsistent’ with disarmament
WASHINGTON — North Korea’s work on nuclear weapons and missiles is “inconsistent” with its stated intent to move toward nuclear disarmament on the Korean Peninsula, the commander of American and allied forces in South Korea said Wednesday. Army Gen. Robert Abrams, in testimony before the House Armed Services Committee, also...
Powerball players seek $750M prize, 4th largest jackpot in U.S. history
DES MOINES, Iowa — After months without a winner, lottery players will have another shot at a Powerball jackpot that has soared to a massive $750 million. The Powerball drawing will be Wednesday night, giving those who buy a $2 ticket a chance at winning the fourth-largest lottery jackpot in...
Florida theme parks debuting new attractions this week
ORLANDO, Fla. — Some Florida theme parks will be debuting new attractions this week. SeaWorld Orlando on Wednesday is opening a Sesame Street land, while down the interstate, Legoland Florida in Winter Haven is debuting an area based on “The Lego Movie” and its sequel. Both additions to central Florida’s...
Apple vs. Netflix: Why turf wars are flaring in big tech
Apple’s latest move into streaming video illustrates an escalating trend: Tech’s biggest companies, faced with limits to their growth, are encroaching on each other’s turf. Apple is taking on Netflix. Facebook is edging into Amazon’s sphere with its e-commerce plans. Google, which has already challenged Amazon and Microsoft in cloud...
Pope allows ring-kissing after earlier pulling hand awayVideo
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis allowed nuns and priests to kiss his papal ring during his weekly audience in St. Peter’s Square on Wednesday, two days after a video that showed him pulling his hand away from several faithful drew disapproval from some of the pope’s conservative critics. Some conservative...
Barbara Bush blamed Trump for ‘angst,’ new book reveals
WASHINGTON — Barbara Bush says Donald Trump caused her “angst” during the 2016 election and led her to question whether she was still a Republican in the months before she died. The late former first lady’s thoughts about Trump were revealed in excerpts published Wednesday in USA Today of an...
Pa. woman admits giving birth at work, leaving baby in toilet
LANCASTER, Pa. — A Pennsylvania woman who gave birth in a restroom at her work and left the baby boy partially submerged in the toilet has pleaded guilty to felony child endangerment. Emmanuella Osei entered her plea during a court hearing Tuesday. The 23-year-old Reading woman faces up to 10...
Kirsten Gillibrand releases her 2018 taxes
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand has released her tax returns for 2018, showing she paid $29,170 in federal taxes on an income of about $214,000. The New York Democrat on Wednesday became the first presidential candidate to disclose the latest tax filing. Her income included her $167,000 Senate salary,...
U.S. trade gap falls 15 percent to $51.1 billion in January
WASHINGTON — The U.S. trade deficit tumbled nearly 15 percent in January as imports fell and exports rose. Shipments of American goods to China skidded to the lowest level in more than eight years as the world’s two biggest economies remained locked in a trade war. The Commerce Department said...
Arby’s manager charged in death of threatening customer
TULSA, Okla. — Authorities say the manager of an Oklahoma Arby’s restaurant has been charged in the fatal shooting of a customer who she said threatened her. Tulsa County jail records show 25-year-old Deionna Young is being held without bond Tuesday on a first-degree murder charge. Records don’t list an...
U.S. shuts interior checkpoints to focus on Mexico border
LAS CRUCES, New Mexico — U.S. immigration authorities have temporarily closed highway checkpoints in New Mexico and much of West Texas, as they reassign agents and use the outposts to help process the growing numbers of Central Americans arriving at the Mexican border. The checkpoints, located up to 100 miles...
Chinese viewers balk at ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ film censorship
BEIJING (AP) — A huge fan of rock legends Queen, Peng Yanzi rushed to see “Bohemian Rhapsody,” the biopic about the band’s late lead singer, Freddie Mercury, while he was traveling in Britain last October. It was a touching film that made him cry hard, Peng says. He loved it...
Search on for burial site of America’s first published poet
NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. — Anne Bradstreet was the North American continent’s first published poet, yet her legacy has largely been lost to time. Now, professors and students at Merrimack College in Massachusetts are trying to pinpoint her burial site while at the same restoring her legacy and what they say...
Heiress hoax scores woman celebrity treatment, and charges
NEW YORK — Anna Sorokin traveled in celebrity circles and tossed $100 tips — all the more reason to believe she was the German heiress she said she was. But behind the jet-set lifestyle and pricey threads, prosecutors say, was a fraudster who bilked friends, banks and hotels for a...
Trump buoyant at luncheon while Pelosi urges focus on policy
WASHINGTON — An exuberant President Donald Trump took a victory lap on Capitol Hill, emboldened by the end of the special counsel’s Russia probe, even as Democrats pressed insistently for Robert Mueller’s full report and Justice Department officials said more information could be released in “weeks, not months.” Trump strode...
Trump’s 2020 machine a far cry from fly-by-night 2016 effort
WASHINGTON — In 2016, President Donald Trump compared Hillary Clinton’s campaign to the lumbering federal bureaucracy. Now he’s building one of his own. From an office tower across the Potomac River from Washington, from the bowels of the Republican National Committee’s headquarters on Capitol Hill and from field offices across...
FAA to revamp aircraft construction oversight, official says
The Federal Aviation Administration plans to significantly revamp its oversight of airplane construction this summer after questions were raised about how it manages inspections done by the industry, according to testimony prepared for a Senate subcommittee hearing on Wednesday. The testimony by Calvin Scovel III, the Transportation Department’s inspector general...
