Associated Press stories, Page 681
Kobe Bryant immortalized with 19-foot bronze statue outside arena
LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Lakers unveiled a statue of Kobe Bryant on Thursday, honoring their late superstar with a 19-foot bronze likeness outside their downtown arena. The 4,000-pound statue depicts Bryant in his white No. 8 jersey with his right index finger raised as he walked off the...
Harold Varner III goes from worst to first in a week. He shares LIV Golf Vegas lead with Paul CaseyVideo
LAS VEGAS — Harold Varner III made an impressive turnaround in one week, going from last place in the LIV Golf season opener to a 7-under-par 63 on Thursday to share the first-round lead with Paul Casey. LIV Golf Las Vegas is being held the same week as the Super...
Chiefs still feel void after death of their matriarch, Norma Hunt
HENDERSON, Nev. — There is much that Clark Hunt will never forget about that night four years ago in Miami, when five decades of futility had finally ended, and the Kansas City Chiefs — the team his late father Lamar Hunt had founded — raised another Lombardi Trophy. The most...
Judge denies Peter Navarro’s bid to remain out of prison while appealing contempt of Congress case
A federal judge on Thursday denied Trump White House official Peter Navarro’s bid to remain out of prison while he appeals his contempt of Congress conviction for refusing to cooperate with an investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Navarro was sentenced last month to four...
Knicks take big swing at busy NBA trade deadline
Bojan Bogdanovic left Detroit to join a now even-more-formidable contender in New York. Gordon Hayward is leaving Charlotte for one of the NBA’s best surprise stories this season in Oklahoma City. Doug McDermott was once traded by Indiana to San Antonio, and now, the Spurs have traded him back to...
2 JetBlue planes make contact at Logan Airport, wingtip touches tail
BOSTON — Two JetBlue planes made contact Thursday morning at Boston Logan International Airport, with one wingtip touching another plane’s tail. No one was hurt and both flights were canceled, Jennifer Mehigan of the Massachusetts Port Authority said in an email. The left winglet of JetBlue Flight 777 struck the...
Former Penn State climate scientist Michael Mann wins defamation suit over comparison to molester, jury decides
WASHINGTON — A jury on Thursday awarded $1 million to climate scientist Michael Mann who sued a pair of conservative writers 12 years ago after they compared his depictions of global warming to a convicted child molester. Mann, a professor of climate science at the University of Pennsylvania, rose to...
Chiefs, 49ers should provide heavy dose of pre-snap motion in Super Bowl
LAS VEGAS — When the Super Bowl was in the balance in the fourth quarter a year ago, coach Andy Reid’s Kansas City Chiefs put a twist on their frequent pre-snap motion. The result? Two wide-open touchdown passes that helped the Chiefs beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 38-35, for a Super...
Near-total abortion ban rejected by Virginia House panel
RICHMOND, Va. — Lawmakers in the Virginia House of Delegates — controlled by Democrats who flipped the chamber in November after campaigning on abortion rights — decisively voted down a bill that would have instituted a near-total abortion ban. On a bipartisan 8-0 vote Wednesday night, a House subcommittee rejected...
Clayton Kershaw says he’s staying with Dodgers for 17th season
GLENDALE, Ariz. — Clayton Kershaw says he will return for his 17th season with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Kershaw said Thursday he will be back with the team as part of an agreement that includes a player option for 2025. The three-time Cy Young Award winner spoke as the big-spending...
ACC sets future basketball tournaments, championships for North Carolina amid coast-to-coast expansionVideo
The ACC will hold five straight men’s basketball tournaments in North Carolina starting in 2025, and the women’s tournament that has had a longtime home in Greensboro as the city of the league’s founding will split time between there and Charlotte. The ACC announced future sites for championships in 14...
CIA terminates whistleblower who prompted flood of sexual misconduct complaints
The CIA this week terminated a woman whose whistleblower account of being assaulted in a stairwell at the spy agency’s headquarters prompted a flood of colleagues to come forward with their own complaints of sexual misconduct. The woman’s attorney called the action a brazen retaliation. While the CIA said that...
Cristobal Del Solar shoots 57 to set Korn Ferry Tour recordVideo
BOGOTA, Colombia — Cristobal Del Solar of Chile set the Korn Ferry Tour record on Thursday with a 13-under-par 57 in the Astara Golf Championship, the lowest round in a PGA Tour-sanctioned event and matching the record on tours that are part of the Official World Golf ranking. Del Solar,...
Browns looking to buy land as potential future site for new stadium as talks with Cleveland continueVideo
CLEVELAND — Other than a few years after they moved to Baltimore, the Cleveland Browns have always played their games on the shores of Lake Erie. That could change in the future. The team reportedly is nearing a deal to buy 176 acres in a suburb south of Cleveland, a...
Average mortgage rate edges higher, but remain in the mid-6% range
LOS ANGELES — The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate edged higher this week, reflecting a recent uptick in the 10-year Treasury yield. The average rate on a 30-year mortgage rose to 6.64% from 6.63% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. A year ago, the rate averaged 6.12%. “Mortgage...
6 members of Philadelphia area family feared dead in house fire and shooting, prosecutor says
EAST LANSDOWNE — Six members of a family — including three children — are feared dead, an official said Thursday, from a fire at a house in suburban Philadelphia that went up in flames as two police officers who responded to the scene were shot and injured. Delaware County District...
Review: ‘Bob Marley: One Love’ doesn’t stirVideo
Bob Marley was born in 1945, the son of an 18-year-old mother and a much older white man who had nothing to do with his son. As a boy raised in poverty, he often slept on the cold ground. Five years after moving to Kingston’s Trench Town, he made his...
Former Olympian set to plead guilty to multiple charges of molesting boys in 1970s
BOSTON — A former Olympian and longtime track coach is expected to plead guilty Thursday to charges of sexually molesting young boys while working at a sports camp in western Massachusetts in the 1970s. Conrad Mainwaring, who was a hurdler for Antigua and Barbuda in the 1976 Summer Olympics in...
Special counsel alleged Biden couldn’t recall personal milestones. His response: ‘My memory is fine’Video
WASHINGTON — The longstanding concerns about President Joe Biden’s age and memory intensified on Thursday after the release of a special counsel’s report investigating his possession of classified documents. The report described the 81-year-old Democrat’s memory as “hazy,” “fuzzy,” “faulty,” “poor” and having “significant limitations.” It noted that Biden could...
Russian election officials reject antiwar politician’s bid to oppose Putin in next month’s vote
TALLINN, Estonia — Antiwar politician Boris Nadezhdin was rejected Thursday as a candidate in next month’s presidential balloting by Russian election authorities, a strong signal from the Kremlin that it won’t tolerate any public opposition to the invasion of Ukraine. The move by the Central Election Commission provides an even...
Texas man sentenced to 180 days in jail for drugging wife’s drinks to induce an abortion
HOUSTON — A Texas man who drugged his wife’s drinks in an attempt to induce an abortion was sentenced to 180 days in jail and 10 years on probation. Mason Herring, a 39-year-old Houston attorney, pleaded guilty Wednesday to injury to a child and assault of a pregnant person. He...
AI-generated voices in robocalls can deceive voters. The FCC just made them illegal
NEW YORK — The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday outlawed robocalls that contain voices generated by artificial intelligence, a decision that sends a clear message that exploiting the technology to scam people and mislead voters won’t be tolerated. The unanimous ruling targets robocalls made with AI voice-cloning tools under the...
2 JetBlue planes make contact at Logan Airport, wingtip touches tail
BOSTON — Two JetBlue planes made contact Thursday morning at Boston Logan International Airport, with one wingtip touching another plane’s tail. No one was hurt and both flights were canceled, Jennifer Mehigan of the Massachusetts Port Authority said in an email. The left winglet of JetBlue Flight 777 struck the...
Isiah Pacheco’s ‘angry’ running style could help lift Chiefs past 49ers in the Super Bowl
HENDERSON, Nev. — Chiefs running back Isiah Pacheco was relaxed Wednesday as reporters peppered him with questions, the opposite of his running style that has commonly been described as angry. When asked how he would describe his style, Pacheco deferred to the experts, or in this case the media. Kansas...
Coaching carousel adds intrigue to college football recruiting’s February signing period
College football’s busy recruiting calendar created a particularly hectic first few weeks on the job for all the head coaches who switched schools over the last month. When Nick Saban announced his retirement last month, it set off a chain reaction that resulted in head coaching changes at Arizona, Washington...
