Associated Press stories, Page 694
Tropicana Las Vegas, a Sin City landmark since 1957, will be demolished to make way for MLB baseball
LAS VEGAS — The Tropicana Las Vegas, a Sin City landmark for more than six decades, is shutting its doors in the spring to make room for a $1.5 billion Major League Baseball stadium that will be home to the relocating Oakland Athletics. Bally’s Corp. made the announcement Monday, saying...
Universal Orlando reveals details about resort’s new theme park, slated to open next year
ORLANDO, Fla. — Universal Orlando Resort’s new theme park opening next year will feature lands devoted to Super Nintendo World characters, Universal film monsters, the “Fantastic Beasts” films and the “How to Train Your Dragon” film franchise. But at the center of it all will be Celestial Park, theme park...
Chiefs back in Super Bowl because of simplified offensive approach
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — There was a moment back on Christmas Day, long before the Kansas City Chiefs could even start thinking about playing in the Super Bowl again, when Patrick Mahomes broke the huddle in a game against the Las Vegas Raiders. His team was in total disarray. Players...
Rock band critical of Putin is detained in Thailand, fearful of deportation to Russia
BANGKOK — Members of a rock band that has been critical of Moscow’s war in Ukraine remained locked up Tuesday in a Thai immigration jail, fearful they could be deported to Russia as a reported plan to let them fly to safety in Israel was apparently suspended. The progressive rock...
NFL playoffs, conference championship games draw highest viewership average on record
LOS ANGELES — The television audiences for the NFL playoffs and last Sunday’s conference championship games are the highest on record going back to 1988. According to the league and Nielsen, the first three weekends of the postseason averaged 38.5 million viewers on television and digital platforms, a 9% increase...
The U.S. hasn’t seen syphilis numbers this high since 1950. Other STD rates are down or flat
NEW YORK — The U.S. syphilis epidemic isn’t abating, with the rate of infectious cases rising 9% in 2022, according to a new federal government report on sexually transmitted diseases in adults. But there’s some unexpected good news: The rate of new gonorrhea cases fell for the first time in...
Burned remnants of prized Jackie Robinson statue found after theft from public park in KansasVideo
Fire crews found the burned remnants Tuesday of a prized bronze statue of Jackie Robinson that was stolen last week from a public park in Kansas, authorities said. The Wichita fire department received a call around 8:40 a.m. about a trash can on fire at Garvey Park in the southern...
Lions OC Ben Johnson staying put after interviewing with Commanders, Seahawks
DETROIT — Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson has decided to stay with the team and turn down potential opportunities to be an NFL head coach next season, leading the Washington Commanders and Seattle Seahawks to turn to other candidates. Two people familiar with the situation told the Associated Press...
New York expands the legal definition of rape to include many forms of nonconsensual sexual contact
ALBANY, N.Y. — New York will expand its legal definition of rape to include various forms of nonconsensual sexual contact, under a bill signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday. The state’s current limited definition was a factor in writer E. Jean Carroll’s sexual abuse and defamation case...
Chita Rivera, revered and pioneering Tony-winning dancer and singer, dies at 91Video
NEW YORK — Chita Rivera, the dynamic dancer, singer and actress who garnered 10 Tony nominations, winning twice, in a long Broadway career that forged a path for Latina artists and shrugged off a near-fatal car accident, died Tuesday. She was 91. Rivera’s death was announced by her daughter, Lisa...
Tyrrell Hatton joins Saudi-funded LIV Golf and becomes a part of Jon Rahm’s new team
Tyrrell Hatton of England made it official Wednesday by joining Saudi-funded LIV Golf, giving the league another player from the top 20 in the world and filling out the new team led by Masters champion Jon Rahm. Hatton had been mentioned as a LIV Golf target ever since the Saudi-funded...
Biden says he has decided on response to attack on U.S. troops
U.S. President Joe Biden said he had made a decision on how to respond to an attack by Iranian-backed militants that killed three American troops in the Middle East, although he did not reveal his plans as he spoke to reporters Tuesday. Biden said Iran was responsible for providing the...
Big Ten won’t expand conference basketball schedules and plans 15-team tournament for next year
ROSEMONT, Ill. — The Big Ten plans to stick with a 20-game conference schedule for men’s basketball and an 18-game schedule for women’s basketball when the league expands to 18 teams next year. The league also announced Tuesday that 15 of the 18 members will qualify for the Big Ten...
Philadelphia police release video in corner store shooting that killed suspect, wounded officerVideo
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Two Philadelphia police officers had their weapons holstered before a scuffle with a man inside a corner deli when one of the officers was shot by a suspect who was then fatally shot by the wounded officer’s partner, the city’s police commissioner said Tuesday. The department promised...
Official found it ‘strange’ that Michigan school shooter’s mom didn’t take him home over drawing
A Michigan school official told jurors Tuesday that he felt he had no grounds to search the backpack of a teenager before the boy fatally shot four fellow students, even though staff met with the teen’s parents that morning to discuss a violent drawing he had scrawled on a math...
An auction of Nelson Mandela’s possessions is suspended as South Africa fights to keep them
JOHANNESBURG — The planned auction of dozens of artifacts belonging to Nelson Mandela has been suspended pending a court application to completely halt it, the body that protects South Africa’s cultural heritage said Tuesday. The online auction had been scheduled by New York-based Guernsey’s auction house on Feb. 24, in...
Ohio could begin nitrogen gas executions under bill backed by state’s Republican attorney generalVideo
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio’s Republican attorney general put his weight behind a legislative effort Tuesday that would bring nitrogen gas executions to the state, ending a yearslong unofficial death penalty moratorium. Attorney General Dave Yost made remarks in a news conference about a bill sponsored by Republican state Reps. Brian...
Russian figure skaters set to get Olympic bronze ahead of Canada despite Valieva’s disqualification
GENEVA — Despite the disqualification of Kamila Valieva in a doping case, the Russian figure skating team still stands to finish on the podium and get bronze medals from the 2022 Beijing Olympics behind the United States and Japan. The Americans moved into the gold medal position in the team...
Gut-Behrami wins GS and cuts Shiffrin’s overall lead to 95 points with the American out injured
SAN VIGILIO DI MAREBBE, Italy — Lara Gut-Behrami won a World Cup giant slalom by a large margin on Tuesday and trimmed Mikaela Shiffrin’s lead in the overall standings to 95 points with the American out injured. Gut-Behrami beat Alice Robinson of New Zealand and Olympic champion Sara Hector, who...
Milan-Cortina board approves proposal to rebuild Cortina bobsled track but will keep open a ‘Plan B’
ROME — The local organizing committee for the 2026 Winter Olympics decided Tuesday to move forward with rebuilding a century-old bobsled track in Cortina d’Ampezzo but will also keep open a “Plan B” in case the new venue is not ready by March 2025. The committee said following a board...
Australian Open champion Jannik Sinner returns home to Italy amid great fanfare
ROME — Australian Open champion Jannik Sinner returned to Italy on Tuesday amid great fanfare, with RAI state TV broadcasting his arrival at the airport in Rome. Wearing a black hooded sweatshirt with his orange racket bag strapped onto his shoulders, Sinner was also holding a green bag with gold-colored...
Elon Musk says 1st human has received implant from Neuralink, but other details are scant
NEW YORK — According to Elon Musk, the first human to receive an implant from his computer-brain interface company Neuralink happened over the weekend. In a Monday post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Musk said that the patient received the implant the day prior and was “recovering...
ChatGPT violated European privacy laws, Italy tells chatbot maker OpenAI
LONDON — Italian regulators said they told OpenAI that its ChatGPT artificial intelligence chatbot has violated European Union’s stringent data privacy rules. The country’s data protection authority, known as Garante, said Monday that it notified San Francisco-based OpenAI of breaches of the EU rules, known as General Data Protection Regulation....
U.S. job openings rose in December, pointing to a still-durable labor market
WASHINGTON — America’s employers posted 9 million job openings in December, an increase from November and another sign that the U.S. job market remains resilient despite the headwind of higher interest rates. The number of openings was up from November’s 8.9 million, which itself was revised up in Tuesday’s report...
Elton John and Bernie Taupin to receive the 2024 Gershwin Prize for pop music
NEW YORK — The songwriters who gave us “Your Song,” “Tiny Dancer” and “Rocket Man” will add to their stuffed awards shelf later this year when Elton John and Bernie Taupin are awarded the Gershwin Prize. The Library of Congress said Tuesday that songwriter-performer John and lyricist Taupin will receive...
