Canada issues U.S. travel advisory warning LGBTQ+ community about laws that may affect them
TORONTO — Canada this week updated its travel advisory to the U.S., warning members of the LGBTQ+ community that some American states have enacted laws that may affect them. The country’s Global Affairs department did not specify which states, but is advising travelers to check the local laws for their...
Election workers have gotten death threats and warnings they will be lynched, the U.S. government says
WASHINGTON — More than a dozen people nationally have been charged with threatening election workers by a Justice Department unit trying to stem the tide of violent and graphic threats against people who count and secure the vote. Government employees are being bombarded with threats even in normally quiet periods...
Ex-Proud Boys organizer sentenced to 17 years in prison for plot to keep Trump in power
WASHINGTON — A former organizer of the far-right Proud Boys extremist group was sentenced on Thursday to 17 years in prison for spearheading an attack on the U.S. Capitol to prevent the peaceful transfer of power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden after the 2020 presidential election. Federal prosecutors had...
Some U.S. airports strive to make flying more inclusive for those with dementia
PHOENIX — Andrea Nissen is trying to prepare her 65-year-old husband, who has Alzheimer’s disease, for a solo flight from Arizona to Oklahoma to visit family. She worries about travelers and airport officials misinterpreting his forgetfulness or habit of getting in people’s personal space, and feels guilty about not being...
McConnell’s latest freeze-up incident highlights seniority of Congress
WASHINGTON — Wednesday’s incident in which Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell had difficulty speaking in a public setting comes at a time of heightened concern about the health and ages of U.S. political leaders. But the Kentucky Republican is not even among the 10 oldest members of the current Congress....
Groups seek to use Constitution’s ‘insurrection’ clause to block Trump from 2024 ballots
As former President Donald Trump continues to dominate the Republican presidential primary, some liberal groups and a growing number of legal experts contend that a rarely used clause of the Constitution prevents him from being president after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. The 14th Amendment bars...
Texas AG Ken Paxton pursued perks beyond impeachment allegations, ex-staffers say
AUSTIN, Texas — Unexplained Caribbean and European trips that cost taxpayers more than $90,000. A $600 sports coat paid for by an event organizer. A $45 office Christmas cake taken as his own. These are among the perks that Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton ‘s former employees say he...
Train slams into a group of workers on the tracks at an Italian station, killing 5
ROME — A speeding out-of-service train slammed into a group of workers doing nighttime track maintenance in northern Italy on Thursday, killing five of them, authorities said. The crash occurred shortly after midnight at a station in Brandizzo, a town in Italy’s Piedmont region. Piedmont Gov. Alberto Cirio provided the...
North Korea says it simulated nuclear attacks on South Korea and rehearsed occupation of its rival
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea said Thursday its latest missile launches simulated “scorched earth” nuclear strikes on South Korea and that it’s also been rehearsing an occupation of its rival’s territory in the event of conflict. Pyongyang has previously tested nuclear-capable missiles and described how it would use them...
Building fire in Johannesburg leaves at least 73 dead, many homeless, authorities say
JOHANNESBURG — A nighttime fire ripped through a rundown five-story building in Johannesburg that was occupied by homeless people and squatters, leaving at least 73 people dead early Thursday, emergency services in South Africa’s biggest city said. Some of the people living in a maze of shacks and other makeshift...
Tropical Storm Idalia descends on North Carolina after pounding Florida, Georgia, South Carolina
PERRY, Fla. — Tropical Storm Idalia descended on the Carolinas on its way out to the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday, leaving a trail of flooding and destruction throughout the Southeast that stretched back to its landfall as a hurricane in Florida. Rescue and repair efforts continued in the areas the...
Bodies of 3 U.S. Marines killed in Australian aircraft crash retrieved from crash site
CANBERRA, Australia — The bodies of three U.S. Marines killed in a tiltrotor aircraft crash during a training exercise in Australia were retrieved from the crash scene while another Marine remained in critical condition, the Marine Corps said Tuesday. Those killed were from Illinois, Virginia and Colorado. The Marine V-22B...
Alex Murdaugh loses prison phone privileges after lawyer records phone call for documentary
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh has lost his phone privileges and his prison tablet computer after his lawyer recorded him reading his journal entries on a call for a documentary about his case, South Carolina Corrections Department officials said Wednesday. Prison policy prohibits inmates from talking to the...
Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell appears to freeze up againVideo
WASHINGTON — Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell appeared to briefly freeze up and was unable to answer a question from a reporter at an event in Kentucky on Wednesday, weeks after he had a similar episode in Washington. According to video from a local news station, the 81-year-old McConnell was...
Revelers hurl tomatoes at each other as streets are awash in red pulp in Spanish town’s Tomatina party
BUÑOL, Spain — Some 15,000 people, including many tourists, pasted each other with tomatoes Wednesday as Spain’s annual Tomatina street battle took place in the eastern town of Buñol. Workers on trucks tipped 120 tons of overripe tomatoes into the main street of the town for participants to throw. The...
Judge holds Rudy Giuliani liable in Georgia election workers’ defamation case, orders him to pay fees
WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Wednesday held Rudy Giuliani liable in a defamation lawsuit brought by two Georgia election workers who say they were falsely accused of fraud, entering a default judgment against the former New York City mayor and ordering him to pay tens of thousands of dollars...
Pennsylvania is considering an earlier 2024 presidential primary, partly to avoid voting on Passover
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania is considering changing the state’s 2024 presidential primary to an earlier day, although the proposed move may do little to give the state’s voters more say in deciding presidential nominees. State lawmakers plan to vote on legislation Wednesday that would change Pennsylvania’s primary from late April to...
Supermoon could team up with Hurricane Idalia to raise tides higher
A rare blue supermoon could raise tides above normal just as Hurricane Idalia lashes Florida’s west coast, exacerbating flooding from the storm. The moon was closest to the Earth on Wednesday, the same day Idalia made landfall as a high-end Category 3 hurricane near Keaton Beach in Florida’s sparsely populated...
Neurosurgeon investigating patient’s mystery symptoms plucks worm from woman’s brain
CANBERRA, Australia — A neurosurgeon investigating a woman’s mystery symptoms in an Australian hospital says she plucked a wriggling worm from the patient’s brain. Surgeon Hari Priya Bandi was performing a biopsy through a hole in the 64-year-old patient’s skull at Canberra Hospital last year when she used forceps to...
Hurricane Idalia hits Florida with 125 mph winds, flooding streets, snapping trees and cutting powerVideo
PERRY, Fla. — Hurricane Idalia tore into Florida at the speed of a fast-moving train Wednesday, splitting trees in half, ripping roofs off hotels and turning small cars into boats before sweeping into Georgia as a still-powerful storm that flooded roadways and sent residents running for higher ground. “All hell...
Millions more workers would be entitled to overtime pay under a proposed Biden administration rule
NEW YORK — The Biden administration will propose a new rule Wednesday that would make 3.6 million more U.S. workers eligible for overtime pay, reviving an Obama-era policy effort that was ultimately scuttled in court. The new rule, shared with The Associated Press ahead of the announcement, would require employers...
As Trump and Republicans target Georgia’s Fani Willis for retribution, the state’s governor opts out
ATLANTA — Some Republicans in Washington and Georgia began attacking Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis immediately after she announced the Aug. 14 indictment of former President Donald Trump for conspiring to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. But others, including Gov. Brian Kemp, have been conspicuous in their unwillingness...
Manor mayor seeks to ‘unite the community’ in 1st Labor Day celebration in over 20 years
For the first time in 21 years, Manor will host its Labor Day carnival. The event used to be hosted by the borough’s fire department, said Mayor Ed Malinoski, but it ceased in 2002. For the past year, Malinoski has spearheaded efforts to revive the event, which he has dubbed...
Dentist accused of killing wife by poisoning her protein shakes expected to plead not guilty
DENVER — A Colorado dentist accused of killing his wife by lacing her protein shakes with poison is expected to plead not guilty to charges including first-degree murder in October, his defense attorneys said Tuesday. Police said James Craig, who began an affair before his wife’s death on March 18,...
Lawyers indicted with Trump say they were doing their jobs. But that may be a tough argument to make
WASHINGTON — As John Eastman prepared to surrender to Georgia authorities last week for an indictment related to efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, he issued a statement denouncing the criminal case as targeting attorneys “for their zealous advocacy on behalf of their clients.” Another defendant, Rudy Giuliani, struck...
