Associated Press stories, Page 681

GREEN BAY, Wis. — Green Bay Packers cornerback Jaire Alexander has been suspended by the team for Sunday night’s must-win showdown against Justin Jefferson and the Minnesota Vikings. The decision stems from, but wasn’t limited to, Alexander appointing himself a captain for the Packers’ 33-30 Christmas Eve win at Carolina....

CLEBURNE, Texas — A pickup slammed head-on into a minivan on a north Texas highway, killing six people and critically injuring three, Texas authorities said Wednesday. The deadly crash happened Tuesday near Cleburne, about 33 miles south of Fort Worth, according to the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office. A preliminary investigation...

DENVER — The Colorado Republican Party on Wednesday appealed the state’s supreme court decision that found former President Donald Trump is ineligible for the presidency, the potential first step to a showdown at the nation’s highest court over the meaning of a 155-year-old constitutional provision that bans from office those...

PORTAGE, Ind. — A 27-year-old man survived for six days on only rainwater while pinned tightly inside his crashed pickup beneath a highway bridge in northwest Indiana, police said. His ordeal ended when two men scouting for fishing spots Tuesday afternoon noticed the badly damaged vehicle, its white airbag deployed,...

DELANO, Calif. — “That ’70s Show” actor Danny Masterson has been sent to a California state prison to serve his sentence for two rape convictions. Authorities said Wednesday the 47-year-old Masterson has been admitted to North Kern State Prison, and they released his first prison mug shot. The photo shows...

CHICAGO — The mayors of Chicago, New York City and Denver renewed pleas Wednesday for more federal help and coordination with Texas over the growing number of asylum-seekers arriving in their cities by bus and plane. The mayors’ requests come as U.S. cities have struggled to manage the increasing number...

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Kyron Drones ran for 176 yards and a touchdown and also threw for two TDs as Virginia Tech withstood a second-half downpour to beat No. 23 Tulane 41-20 in the Military Bowl on Wednesday. Drones fumbled three times in the slippery conditions, but the Hokies (7-6) lost...

LOS ANGELES — It’s official: Yoshinobu Yamamoto is a Dodger. The team announced the signing of the Japanese right-hander to a 12-year, $325-million contract on Wednesday. Two weeks after securing two-way star Shohei Ohtani to a 10-year, $700-million deal, the Dodgers beat out at least a dozen other clubs that...

NEW YORK — Pro-Palestinian protesters briefly blocked entrance roads Wednesday to airports in New York and Los Angeles, forcing some travelers to set off on foot to bypass the jammed roadway. As U.S. airlines contended with a rush of holiday travel, the demonstrations snarled traffic on the outskirts of New...

Social media companies collectively made over $11 billion in U.S. advertising revenue from minors last year, according to a study from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health published on Wednesday. The researchers say the findings show a need for government regulation of social media since the companies that...

PHILADELPHIA — A man accused of slashing people with a large knife in recent weeks while riding a bicycle on a trail in Philadelphia and then charged in the cold-case rape and slaying of a medical student has now been charged in several other high-profile unsolved sexual assaults. Elias Diaz,...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — At his suburban St. Louis home, Brett Koenig can pull out his smartphone and open a sports betting app. But he can’t place a bet. He is blocked by a pop-up message noting he is not in a legal location. Missouri is one of a dozen...

NEW YORK — Donald Trump has centered his unlikely rise from reality television star to onetime — and potentially future — president on the idea that he’s wiser than Washington’s bumbling political class, once going so far as to label himself a “very stable genius.” But when it comes to...

At about 1 a.m. California time in 2013, a scientist emailed Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook with an irresistible pitch. “I strongly believe that we can develop the new wave of technology that will make Apple the No. 1 brand in the medical, fitness and wellness market,” he...

Tom Smothers, half of the Smothers Brothers and the co-host of one of the most socially conscious and groundbreaking television shows in the history of the medium, has died at 86. The National Comedy Center, on behalf of his family, said in a statement Wednesday that Smothers died Tuesday at...

NEW YORK — The New York Times has filed a federal lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft seeking to end the practice of using its stories to train chatbots, saying that copyright infringements at the paper alone could be worth billions. The paper joins a growing list of individuals and publishers...

PORTAGE, Ind. — A 27-year-old man survived for six days on only rainwater while pinned tightly inside his crashed pickup truck beneath a highway bridge in northwest Indiana, police said. His ordeal ended when two men scouting for fishing spots on Tuesday afternoon noticed the badly damaged vehicle, its white...

MOSCOW — A Russian politician calling for peace in Ukraine on Wednesday lost her appeal against election officials’ refusal to accept her nomination for the country’s presidential race that President Vladimir Putin is all but certain to win. Former regional legislator Yekaterina Duntsova has promoted her vision of a “humane”...

RIO DE JANEIRO — Heat exhaustion is the cause of death of a Brazilian fan who attended a concert of singer Taylor Swift in November, a forensics report obtained by the Associated Press on Wednesday shows. Ana Clara Benevides, 23, passed out during Swift’s second song in the Nov. 17...