Associated Press stories, Page 273
Dick’s buys 1-of-a-kind Paul Skenes baseball card for $1.1 million, will display it at Ross Park store
Dick’s Sporting Goods purchased a one-of-a-kind Paul Skenes baseball card for $1.11 million in a two-week auction and will display it at the company’s Ross Park House of Sport location. There were 64 bids on Skenes’ debut patch card, which is autographed and contains a patch that was on the...
Detentions of European tourists at U.S. borders spark fears of traveling to America
SAN DIEGO — Lennon Tyler and her German fiancé often took road trips to Mexico when he vacationed in the United States since it was only a day’s drive from her home in Las Vegas, one of the perks of their long-distance relationship. But things went terribly wrong when they...
Hegseth says he’ll meet with Musk at the Pentagon to discuss ‘efficiencies’
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said late Thursday that he would be meeting with billionaire Elon Musk at the Pentagon Friday to discuss “innovation, efficiencies & smarter production.” Musk, a top adviser to President Donald Trump, and his Department of Government Efficiency have played an integral role in the...
Trump’s call to dismantle Education Department shows Republican rightward lurch and his grip on GOP
WASHINGTON — A little more than 23 years ago, Republican President George W. Bush sat at a desk at a high school in Hamilton, Ohio, and signed a law that would vastly expand the role of the Education Department and transform American schooling. On Thursday, his Republican successor, President Donald...
Johnson & Johnson plans $55 billion in U.S. investments over the next 4 years
Johnson & Johnson says it will invest more than $55 billion within the United States over the next four years, including four new manufacturing plants. A number of companies have highlighted investments in the U.S. in recent months, a focus of Trump administration. Johnson & Johnson said Friday that it...
Trump has ordered the dismantling of the Education Department. Here’s what it does
WASHINGTON (AP) — Moving to fulfill a campaign promise, President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday calling for the dismantling of the Education Department, an agency Republicans have talked about closing for decades. The order says Education Secretary Linda McMahon will, “to the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by...
Israel vows to take more land in Gaza to pressure Hamas into releasing hostages
JERUSALEM — Israel’s defense minister said Friday he has ordered ground forces to advance deeper into the Gaza Strip, and vowed to hold more land until Hamas releases the remaining hostages it holds. “The more Hamas continues its refusal to release the kidnapped, the more territory it will lose to...
Trump orders a plan to dismantle the Education Department while keeping some core functions
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday calling for the dismantling of the U.S. Education Department, advancing a campaign promise to take apart an agency that’s been a longtime target of conservatives. Trump has derided the Education Department as wasteful and polluted by liberal ideology. However, completing...
Top Russian official visits North Korea to meet Kim
SEOUL, South Korea — A top Russian security official traveled to North Korea on Friday to meet leader Kim Jong Un, after North Korea recently reportedly sent additional troops to Russia to support its war against Ukraine. A brief dispatch by Russia’s state-run news agency Tass reported that Sergey Shoigu,...
Sudan’s military says it has retaken Khartoum’s Republican Palace, seat of country’s government
CAIRO — Sudan’s military said Friday it retook the Republican Palace in Khartoum, the last heavily guarded bastion of rival paramilitary forces in the capital, after nearly two years of fighting. The seizure of the Republican Palace, surrounded by government ministries, represents a major symbolic victory for Sudan’s military against...
Russian drones strike Ukrainian city of Odesa, underlining challenges for even limited truce
KYIV, Ukraine — Russian drones pummeled the Ukrainian Black Sea port city of Odesa, injuring three people and sparking massive fires, officials said Friday, an attack that underlined Moscow’s intention to pursue aerial attacks even as it agreed to temporarily halt strikes on energy facilities. The strike came shortly before...
London’s Heathrow Airport closed for the day after a substation fire, disrupting travel
LONDON — Britain’s Heathrow Airport was closed all day Friday after a fire at a nearby electrical substation knocked out its power, disrupting flights for hundreds of thousands of passengers at Europe’s busiest travel hub. At least 1,350 flights to and from Heathrow were affected, flight tracking service FlightRadar 24...
No. 11 seed Drake holds on after blowing big lead, stuns MissouriVideo
WICHITA, Kan. — Bennett Stirtz scored 21 points, and No. 11 seed Drake, a team relying heavily on Division II transfers, held on after blowing most of a 15-point lead to beat sixth-seeded Missouri 67-57 on Thursday night in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Tavion Banks added 15...
Here’s how some human rights and LGBTQ+ groups prepared for major foreign aid cuts under Trump
In early 2024, Matthew Hart took a hard look at the upcoming elections around the world and worried that the outcomes did not look promising. “What we knew was that the winds were not in our favor. The winds were not in our sail, and we saw all around the...
The release of a 1961 plan to break up the CIA revives an old conspiracy theory about who killed JFK
A key adviser warned President John F. Kennedy after the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961 that the agency behind it, the CIA, had grown too powerful. He proposed giving the State Department control of “all clandestine activities” and breaking up the CIA. The page of Special...
Keith Mitchell settles for 5-way tie for Valspar Championship lead
PALM HARBOR, Fla. — Keith Mitchell thrived in a tough wind on a tough Copperhead course at Innisbrook on Thursday until he dropped two shots late in his round and had to settle for a 4-under-par 67 and a five-way share of the lead in the Valspar Championship. The gusts...
NCAA Tournament roundup: Creighton tops Louisville for 5th straight opening-round winVideo
Jamiya Neal scored a career-high 29 points and had 12 rebounds, Steven Ashworth connected from well beyond the arc on the way to 22 points, and ninth-seeded Creighton beat No. 8 seed Louisville, 89-75, on Thursday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Coach Greg McDermott’s Bluejays (25-10) won...
Government cannot deport Georgetown scholar until court rules, judge orders
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A federal judge on Thursday ordered immigration officials not to deport a Georgetown scholar that the government detained until the court has had a chance to rule. U.S. District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles in Alexandria, Virginia, ordered that Badar Khan Suri “shall not be removed from the...
Former NFL, Michigan assistant coach Matt Weiss charged with hacking for athlete’s intimate photos
DETROIT — Former NFL and University of Michigan assistant football coach Matt Weiss hacked into the computer accounts of thousands of college athletes seeking intimate photos and videos, according to an indictment filed Thursday. Weiss, who worked for the Baltimore Ravens before joining the University of Michigan in 2021, was...
In the rapidly shifting world of work, many employees are unclear what’s expected of them
NEW YORK — When Nikelle Inman started a new job coaching first-generation college students, she looked forward to meeting with them one-on-one to talk about how to surmount obstacles and find resources to succeed. Instead, she and her fellow success coaches at a community college in North Carolina spent a...
Former Cy Young Award winner Jake Peavy returns to Padres as special assistant to CEO
SAN DIEGO — Jake Peavy, the 2007 NL Cy Young Award winner and member of the San Diego Padres Hall of Fame, has joined the team as special assistant to CEO Erik Greupner. Greupner said Thursday the three-time All-Star will assist multiple departments and serve as a team ambassador. “I’m...
LSU ‘walking double-double’ Aneesah Morrow is closing out her prolific career in March Madness
BATON ROUGE, La. — When Aneesah Morrow, LSU’s prolific forward, is around her family, she’ll sometimes be teased about her prodigious appetite. “She can probably outeat my sons,” Morrow’s mother, Nafeesah, said with a laugh this week as she also recalled telling LSU’s basketball staff, “you won’t have a problem...
Kirsty Coventry elected IOC president and is first woman, first African to lead global Olympic body
COSTA NAVARINO, Greece — Kirsty Coventry was elected president of the International Olympic Committee on Thursday and became the first woman and first African to get perhaps the biggest job in world sports. “It is a signal that we are truly global,” the Zimbabwe sports minister and two-time Olympic swimming...
Freshman star Cooper Flagg is ready to go for No. 1 seed Duke in NCAA’s East Region bracket
RALEIGH, N.C. — Duke freshman star Cooper Flagg says he’s good to go after spraining his left ankle last week, just in time for March Madness. The top-seeded Blue Devils said Flagg will be active for Friday’s first-round game against Mount St. Mary’s in the NCAA Tournament’s East Region. Meanwhile,...
Dolly Parton, ‘doing better,’ reappears to open Dollywood where her late husband had 1 rule
As the Grand Ole Opry marked 100 years Wednesday night, Reba McEntire said what many people may have been thinking: The party wasn’t the same without Dolly Parton throwing down. “It’s been a great night of celebration, but of course, it’s just not the same without you,” McEntire said to...
