Thousands gather in Denver to protest Elijah McClain’s death
DENVER — Thousands of demonstrators gathered outside a suburban Denver police building Saturday to call for justice in the death of Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old Black man put into a chokehold by police last year. McClain’s death last August has prompted a handful of small protests over the last 10...
3 New Mexico deaths from drinking hand sanitizer likely tied to alcoholism
Three people in New Mexico have died and a fourth is permanently blind after drinking a dangerous amount of hand sanitizer, officials said. The state’s Department of Health on Friday said another three patients remained in critical condition over the weekend. All seven people “are believed to have drunk hand...
Experts: Covid-19 surges hit cities that reopened early, not those with big protests
The United States may be seeing the most compelling evidence yet that the best way to stop the coronavirus is also the most disruptive and difficult: Stay home and avoid other people. At first glance, the evidence seems conflicting. States in the South and West that reopened their economies early...
California cracks down on scofflaw businesses, delays reopenings as virus surges
LOS ANGELES — With coronavirus cases and hospitalizations spiking across California, officials are cracking down on scofflaw businesses and putting the brakes on reopening in hopes of slowing the spread. The worsening pandemic has prompted Gov. Gavin Newsom to put a pause on issuing rules that would allow counties to...
N.Y. governor: Latest covid-19 numbers still trending in right direction
NEW YORK — The statewide coronavirus numbers continued to trend downward, with more than 99% of the most recent tests coming back negative, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Saturday. Only 703 of the 73,262 tests conducted Friday indicated coronavirus infection, while patient hospitalizations and the number of patients in intensive care...
Man charged in bridge shooting fired with handgun, AR-15
LEAVENWORTH, Kan. — A Kansas City-area man charged with randomly shooting into traffic last month on a bridge that connects Kansas and Missouri fired 15 rounds from a handgun before retrieving an AR-15-style rifle from his car and shooting at least 23 more rounds, according to court records. A criminal...
FBI investigates noose in Minnesota firefighter’s locker
BLOOMINGTON, Minn. — The FBI is investigating after officials in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington said Saturday a piece of rope resembling a noose was found in a Black firefighter’s locker. FBI spokesman Kevin Smith told The Associated Press the investigation is in its initial stages. The rope was tied...
Trump ally Candace Owens sows division among other Black supporters
WASHINGTON — The White House’s embrace of a prominent Black advocate for President Trump who made inflammatory remarks about George Floyd has caused turmoil among other Black conservatives close to the president, threatening their support for his reelection. The dispute began this month, shortly after Floyd’s death in the custody...
‘Occupy City Hall’ protest urges budget cuts for NYC police
NEW YORK — Hundreds of protesters camped outside City Hall are demanding that lawmakers slash the New York City police budget. The encampment in City Hall Park in lower Manhattan began forming earlier this week following weeks of street protests sparked by the death of George Floyd and other Black...
Florida reports 9,585 new coronavirus cases, setting another daily record in statewide surgeVideo
MIAMI — Florida’s Department of Health on Saturday confirmed 9,585 additional cases of COVID-19, surpassing Friday’s record-breaking 8,942 cases. The new cases brings the state total of confirmed cases to 132,545. There were also 24 new deaths announced Saturday, bringing the statewide death toll to 3,390. In just over a...
Nurses, doctors feel strain as virus races through Arizona
PHOENIX — They saw the ominous photos: Crowded hospitals, exhausted nurses, bodies piling up in morgues. It was far away, in New York, northern Italy and other distant places. Now, after three months of anxiously waiting and preparing, Arizona nurses and doctors are on the front lines as the coronavirus...
Princeton strips Woodrow Wilson’s name from school, citing his racist past
Princeton University Saturday announced it would strip the name of former U.S. President Woodrow Wilson from its school of public and international affairs and one of its residential colleges, following letters and calls from students and alumni. “We have taken this extraordinary step because we believe that Wilson’s racist thinking...
Critics question `less lethal’ force used during protests
AUSTIN, Texas — When a participant at a rally in Austin to protest police brutality threw a rock at a line of officers in the Texas capital, officers responded by firing beanbag rounds — ammunition that law enforcement deems “less lethal” than bullets. A beanbag cracked 20-year-old Justin Howell’s skull...
Mississippi gov: I’d sign bill to remove flag’s rebel emblem
JACKSON, Miss. — Mississippi lawmakers could vote in the next few days to remove the Confederate battle emblem from the state flag, a symbol that has come under intensifying criticism in recent weeks amid nationwide protests against racial injustice. Republican Gov. Tate Reeves said Saturday, for the first time, that...
621 new coronavirus cases, 24 deaths reported in Pa.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health on Saturday reported 621 new coronavirus cases and 24 new deaths. That bring the statewide total to 84,991 cases and 6,603 deaths. The state considers 633 patients as probable cases, but they are not confirmed. Pa. coronavirus by dayInfogram More than half of coronavirus cases...
Bar owners worry as virus surges in their workplaces
HOUSTON — The din of conversation and music that normally fills The Cottonmouth Club in downtown Houston fell silent last Friday when the owners shut it down for a second time during the coronavirus pandemic — a week before the Texas governor ordered all bars to follow suit amid a...
What to wear: Feds’ mixed messages on masks sow confusion
Forgive the American people if they’re in a fog about face masks. President Donald Trump and the federal government have done a number on them. First there was the don’t-do-it phase. Then the nice-but-not-for-me dissonance. Followed by the local-rules-don’t-apply exceptions. Topped off by Trump’s stated suspicion that some people wear...
Advocates, experts warn against polling place reductions
LOUISVILLE, Kentucky — With only one polling place open on election day this week in Louisville, Kentucky, voting went relatively smoothly compared with other recent primaries held amid the global pandemic. Does that mean other cities should consider the same in November? Voting rights groups say no. They caution that...
Milton Glaser, designer of ‘I Love NY’ logo, dies at 91
NEW YORK — Milton Glaser, the groundbreaking graphic designer who adorned Bob Dylan’s silhouette with psychedelic hair and summed up the feelings for his native New York with “I (HEART) NY,” died Friday, his 91st birthday. The cause was a stroke and Glaser had also had renal failure, his wife,...
Judge: Alaska corporations can get tribal virus relief money
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — Alaska Native corporations are eligible for a share of coronavirus relief funding set aside for tribes, a federal judge ruled late Friday in a case that has been closely watched around Indian Country. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta in Washington, D.C., initially granted a request from tribal...
Police: Illinois warehouse shooting suspect killed himself
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — A 48-year-old man suspected in the fatal shooting of two co-workers and the critical wounding of another at a Springfield, Illinois, warehouse died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, the city’s police chief said Friday. Michael L. Collins of Springfield, two other men and a woman all...
Seattle mayor meets with protesters over dismantling zone
SEATTLE — Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan met with demonstrators Friday after some lay in the street or sat on barricades to thwart the city’s effort to dismantle an “occupied” protest zone that has drawn scorn from President Donald Trump and a lawsuit from nearby businesses. Crews arrived with heavy equipment...
Georgia governor signs hate crimes measure into law
ATLANTA — Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed hate crimes legislation into law Friday after state lawmakers brokered a compromise over the proposal after 16 years of debate over whether to extend protections to people who are targeted because of biases. The Republican signed the proposal at the state Capitol surrounding...
Attorney: Ex-Baltimore mayor surrenders for prison term
Baltimore’s disgraced former mayor surrendered to federal authorities Friday to begin serving a three-year prison sentence stemming from a public corruption scandal. Catherine Pugh’s attorney, Steven Silverman, told The Associated Press his client “surrendered as directed.” Pugh was sentenced in February for fraudulently selling her self-published children’s books to nonprofit...
Family lawyer probing police actions in Elijah McClain’s death
DENVER — The lawyer for the family of Black man who died after being stopped by suburban Denver police last year because he was “being suspicious,” said Friday she and Elijah McClain’s relatives have been conducting their own investigation after an official inquiry cleared three white police officers Mari Newman...
