Associated Press stories, Page 517
Justin Thomas leads Scottish Open by 1; Rory McIlroy 3 shots back
NORTH BERWICK, Scotland — Justin Thomas dressed in tartan-patterned trousers and played the part Thursday in the Scottish Open with an 8-under-par 62, his lowest opening round on the PGA Tour since his 59 in the Sony Open seven years ago. Rory McIlroy was three shots behind with a 65...
Pennsylvania lawmakers approve sale of canned alcoholic drinks in grocery stores and more retailers
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvanians will be able to buy canned alcoholic drinks, called ready-to-drink cocktails, from a wider variety of retailers under legislation approved Thursday. The state Senate approved the bill, 32-17, and sent it to Gov. Josh Shapiro’s desk. Under the bill, the approximately 12,000 restaurants, bars, beer distributors, grocery...
West Virginia, Idaho asking Supreme Court to review rulings allowing transgender athletes to compete
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia and Idaho are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review rulings that blocked the enforcement of state laws prohibiting transgender athletes from competing in sports. “If the Supreme Court takes this up, it will determine the fate of women’s sports across the entire country for...
Trump lawyers press judge to overturn hush money conviction after Supreme Court immunity ruling
NEW YORK — Donald Trump’s lawyers are urging the judge in his New York hush money case to overturn his conviction and dismiss the case in the wake of the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on presidential immunity. The former president’s lawyers wrote in papers made public Thursday that prosecutors rushed...
U.S. women’s basketball team looks to continue Olympic dominance
The U.S. women’s basketball team is on a historic run, winning seven straight Olympic gold medals. While no one has come close to ending that streak, the rest of the world is getting better. The Americans, who haven’t lost an Olympic contest since 1992, won by an average of 16...
Jasmine Paolini wins Wimbledon’s longest women’s semifinal
LONDON — Jasmine Paolini kept coming back, kept coming back, kept coming back against Donna Vekic in the longest Wimbledon women’s semifinal on record — after dropping the opening set, after being two games from defeat in each of the last two sets, after twice trailing by a break in...
Pennsylvania lawmakers pass nearly $48B budget almost 2 weeks late
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania lawmakers ground through a flurry of votes Thursday to approve a budget deal, nearly two weeks into the new fiscal year after being slowed by disagreements during closed-door negotiations over Democrats’ push for more public schools aid. The $47.6 billion plan for the fiscal year that started...
Here’s how to watch Biden’s news conference as he tries to quiet doubts after his poor debate
President Joe Biden will hold a news conference Thursday, the key event in a monumental week during which the Democratic incumbent is fending off calls for him to step aside as the party’s presumptive nominee following a shaky debate performance. It’s just the type of event that many political watchers...
Lawsuit filed against Hershey, Walgreens and others in a case of teen who died after eating spicy chip as part of online challenge
BOSTON — A lawsuit was filed Thursday against Hershey, Walgreens and several others in the case of a Massachusetts teen who died after he participated in a spicy tortilla chip challenge that was widely promoted on social media. Harris Wolobah, a 10th grader from the city of Worcester, died Sept....
Average rate on a 30-year mortgage falls slightly, easing borrowing costs for home shoppers
LOS ANGELES — The average rate on a 30-year mortgage fell slightly this week, providing modest relief for home shoppers facing record-high home prices. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the rate fell to 6.89% from 6.95% last week. A year ago, it averaged 6.96%. The average rate has...
Georgia has 2 more players, including LB Smael Mondon, arrested for reckless driving
Georgia starting linebacker Smael Mondon was arrested by Athens-Clarke County police on Wednesday night on charges of speeding and reckless driving, according to jail records. One day earlier, freshman offensive lineman Bo Hughley was arrested by University of Georgia police on similar charges as the team’s difficulty with driving offenses...
Primoz Roglic crashes near finish of stage won by Biniam Girmay on Tour de France
VILLENEUVE-SUR-LOT, France — Primoz Roglic lost more than two minutes to his rival Tour de France contenders after crashing near the finish where the new king of sprints, Biniam Girmay, completed a hat trick of stage wins on Thursday. Roglic hit the tarmac with some 12 kilometers left after a...
Bill Belichick joining ‘Inside the NFL’ for upcoming season
LOS ANGELES — Bill Belichick has added a second media job for the upcoming season. The CW Network announced Thursday that Belichick will be one of the analysts on “Inside the NFL.” Belichick, who coached the New England Patriots to six Super Bowl titles during his 24 years at the...
Carlos Alcaraz faces Daniil Medvedev, and Novak Djokovic plays Lorenzo Musetti in Wimbledon’s semis
LONDON — Carlos Alcaraz’s ability to hit any type of shot, from any position on the court, on any surface, keeps fans on the edge of their seats. Keeps other players guessing, too. Alcaraz delights in all of that — he loves putting on a show just as much as...
Last 2 Pac-12 teams determined to fight on, promise a bright future
LAS VEGAS — The Pac-12 may be down to the Pac-2, but that doesn’t mean the league or its remaining members — Oregon State and Washington State — aren’t gearing up for football. “We’re not licking our wounds, we’re licking our chops,” Washington State coach Jake Dickert said Wednesday at...
Lawsuit filed in case of teen who died after eating spicy chip as part of online challenge
BOSTON — A lawsuit was filed Thursday against Hershey, Walgreens and several others in the case of a Massachusetts teen who died after he participated in a spicy tortilla chip challenge that was widely promoted on social media. Harris Wolobah, a 10th grader from the city of Worcester, died Sept....
Houston utility says 500K customers still won’t have electricity next week as Beryl outages persist
AUSTIN, Texas — About 500,000 customers still won’t have electricity into next week as wide outages from Hurricane Beryl persist and frustration mounts over the pace of restoration, an official with Houston’s biggest power utility said Thursday. Jason Ryan, executive vice president of CenterPoint Energy, said power has been restored...
House rejects GOP effort to fine Attorney General Garland for refusal to turn over Biden audio
WASHINGTON — The House rejected a GOP effort Thursday to fine Attorney General Merrick Garland $10,000 a day until he turns over audio of President Joe Biden’s interview in his classified documents case as a handful of Republicans resisted taking an aggressive step against a sitting Cabinet official. Even if...
Biden says during news conference he’s going to ‘complete the job’ despite calls to bow outVideo
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden used his closely watched news conference Thursday to deliver a forceful defense of his foreign and domestic policies and batted away questions about his ability to serve another four years, declaring: “I’m not in this for my legacy. I’m in this to complete the job.”...
Shelley Duvall, star of ‘The Shining,’ ‘Nashville,’ dies at 75Video
Shelley Duvall, the intrepid, Texas-born movie star whose wide-eyed, winsome presence was a mainstay in the films of Robert Altman and who co-starred in Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining,” has died. She was 75. Duvall died Thursday in her sleep at her home in Blanco, Texas, her longtime partner, Dan Gilroy,...
Higher costs and low base fares send Delta’s profit down 29%. The airline still earned $1.31 billion
Americans are traveling in record numbers this summer, but Delta Air Lines said Thursday that it saw second-quarter profit drop 29% due to higher costs and discounting of base-level fares across the industry. The airline is also predicting a lower profit than Wall Street expects for the third quarter. On...
Sale of U.S. Steel kicks up a political storm, but Pittsburgh isn’t Steeltown USA anymore
PITTSBURGH — Generations of Pittsburgh residents have worked at steel mills, rooted for the Steelers or ridden the rollercoaster at Kennywood amusement park, giving them a bird’s eye view of the massive Edgar Thomson Works, the region’s last blast furnace. Now, Steeltown USA’s most storied steel company, U.S. Steel, is...
IRS collects milestone $1 billion in back taxes from high-wealth taxpayers
WASHINGTON — The IRS announced Thursday that it has collected $1 billion in back taxes from high-wealth tax cheats — a milestone meant to showcase how the agency is making use of the money it received as part of the Biden administration’s signature climate, health care, and tax package signed...
Demand for rare elements used in clean energy could help clean up abandoned coal mines in Appalachia
MOUNT STORM, W.Va. — Down a long gravel road, tucked into the hills in West Virginia, is a low-slung building where researchers are extracting essential elements from an old coal mine that they hope will strengthen the nation’s energy future. They aren’t mining the coal that powered the steel mills...
U.S. inflation cools again, potentially paving way for Fed to cut interest rates soon
WASHINGTON — Inflation in the United States cooled in June for a third straight month, a sign that the worst price spike in four decades is steadily fading and may soon usher in interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve. In a better-than-expected report, consumer prices declined 0.1% from May...
