U.S./World category, Page 1206
Would overturning abortion rights turn back clock to 1973?
A wave of state abortion bans has set off speculation: What would happen if Roe v. Wade, the ruling establishing abortion rights nationwide, were overturned? Although far from a certainty, even with increased conservative clout on the Supreme Court, a reversal of Roe would mean abortion policy would revert to...
Tornado kills 2 people and injures 29 others in Oklahoma
EL RENO, Okla. — A tornado leveled a motel and tore through a mobile home park near Oklahoma City overnight, killing two people and injuring at least 29 others, authorities said Sunday. The twister touched down in El Reno, about 25 miles west of Oklahoma City, late Saturday night. It...
At the spelling bee, the most common sound is the toughest
The word that knocked runner-up Naysa Modi out of last year’s Scripps National Spelling Bee was “Bewusstseinslage” — one of those flashy, impossible-sounding German-derived words that make the audience gasp when they are announced. Naysa believes the seemingly mundane word that knocked her out the year before was just as...
Young homebuyers scramble as prices rise faster than incomes
For millennials looking to buy their first home, the hunt feels like a race against the clock. In the seven years since the housing crash ended, home values in more than three-quarters of U.S. metro areas have climbed faster than incomes, according to an Associated Press analysis of real estate...
Death toll for Mt. Everest climbers reaches 10 for this season
Officials say a British man died Saturday morning in an attempt to climb Mount Everest, bringing this season’s death toll to 10. Al Jazeera reports that 44-year-old Robin Haynes Fisher died after he “suddenly collapsed” while returning from the summit. Two other climbers died Friday, Irishman Kevin Hynes, 56, and...
Albinism pageant in Zimbabwe joyfully breaks down prejudice
HARARE, Zimbabwe — Ayanda Sibanda, a model with albinism, has invariably been called “yellow” or “white” by friends and even some relatives. But she hardly recalls anyone referring to her by her actual race. “I am black, that’s what I thought, but then I am always made to feel otherwise,”...
Nepal’s record-setting Everest guide returns as a hero
KATHMANDU, Nepal — Family, friends and supporters welcomed a veteran Sherpa guide upon his return to Nepal’s capital on Saturday, days after his 24th climb of Mount Everest extended his record. After flying back from Everest to Kathmandu, Kami Rita was greeted by the waiting crowd at the airport. His...
Family of woman mauled by lion pushes for new regulations
BURLINGTON, N.C. — Alex Black came face to face with an escaped lion when she was just 10 days into her unpaid internship at a private animal sanctuary. The 22-year-old had been preparing deer meat to feed the big cats, and suddenly found herself alone, staring down the lion in...
Fishermen face another quota cut, could hit lobster prices
PORTLAND, Maine — Fishermen already dealing with a dramatic reduction in the amount of a key bait fish they are allowed to harvest will likely face an additional cut next year that could drive up the price of lobster for consumers. Regulators on the East Coast are contending with a...
Lawyers for Noah’s Ark theme park are suing its insurance company for rain damage
It is one of the world’s classic stories. A gigantic ark gets built with the help of a higher power, a symbolic refuge from the depravity of humankind. It is a huge, grandiose structure constructed out of wood that is perhaps larger than anything comparable in the world. Then heavy...
Congregants grapple with church shooter once their colleague
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Minister Joey Spann watched Friday as 27-year-old Emanuel Kidega Samson was convicted of first-degree murder for killing one person and wounding seven others when he sprayed Spann’s church and its congregants with bullets in 2017. It was hard for Spann to recognize in Samson the same young...
Police say 10 wounded following shooting at New Jersey bar
TRENTON, N.J. — New Jersey police say 10 people have been wounded following a shooting at a Trenton bar. Authorities say police were notified of gunfire at about 12:25 a.m. Saturday outside a bar in the 300 block of Brunswick Avenue. Arriving officers found several victims in and around the...
Oregon man arrested after disappearance of mother, young son
SALEM, Ore. — Police in Oregon arrested a man Friday on suspicion of murder and kidnapping following the disappearance of a woman and their 3-year-old son. A search was continuing for the mother and son, but police had little hope they were alive. Karissa Fretwell, 25, of Salem and her...
Ashley Judd not interested in Weinstein settlement, says she plans to see him in court
NEW YORK — The tentative $44 million settlement involving Harvey Weinstein’s sexual misconduct allegations won’t drop the curtain on all lawsuits filed against the movie mogul, some of his accusers said Friday. Ashley Judd, the first A-list actress to speak publicly about Weinstein’s alleged pattern of predatory behavior, said in...
Evidence tells grim story of the night a police officer killed Justine Damond
MINNEAPOLIS — In plastic evidence bags lay Justine Rusczcyk Damond’s pajamas from that night: the pink top emblazoned with the words “Koala Australia,” stained and ripped from when the paramedics tried to save her that night. Next to it was the iPhone she used to summon the police officer who...
US challenges part of ruling that blocked grizzly bear hunts
BILLINGS, Mont. — U.S. officials asked a federal appeals court on Friday to overturn part of a judge’s ruling that blocked the first grizzly bear hunts in the Lower 48 states in almost three decades. The case before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals involves more than 700 grizzly...
Suspect in Utah shooting found in Idaho after 2-day manhunt
BOISE, Idaho — Idaho police captured a man Friday afternoon suspected of shooting and killing a motorist in northern Utah earlier this week after a two-day manhunt. Officers arrested 45-year-old Jonathan Llana about 3:15 p.m. in an area of southern Idaho outside of Pocatello about 10 miles from where the...
Tensions flare in Texas Capitol over new Sandra Bland video
AUSTIN, Texas — Texas authorities on Friday denied withholding a cellphone video of Sandra Bland’s confrontational traffic stop, responding to a Democratic legislator’s heated questions about why the 39-second clip never publicly surfaced until now. Bland, a 28-year-old black woman from outside Chicago, had used her phone in 2015 to...
‘Here we go again’: Judge blocks Mississippi abortion ban
JACKSON, Miss. — A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked a Mississippi law that would ban most abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected, at about six weeks of pregnancy. “Here we go again,” U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves wrote in his order. “Mississippi has passed another law banning abortions...
Man gets up to 20 years for bank robbery that netted $106
HOWELL, Mich. — A Michigan man has been sentenced to up to 20 years in prison for a bank robbery that netted $106. Robert Joseph Markus of Brighton was given his punishment Thursday in a Livingston County courtroom after earlier pleading guilty to bank robbery and armed robbery in a...
Longtime Georgia mail carrier retires, and strangers are sending him to Hawaii
Longtime mail carrier Floyd Martin retired from his neighborhood route in Marietta, Georgia, on Thursday, which might have called for a handshake or even a cake to send him off. Instead, the Atlanta suburb made a show of love and respect so big for Martin, it trended on social media,...
5 former Michigan Catholic priests charged with sex crimes
DETROIT — Michigan prosecutors announced the filing of sexual abuse charges Friday against five former Catholic priests as part of a state attorney general’s investigation into clergy abuse going back decades. Attorney General Dana Nessel said the priests served in dioceses in Detroit, Lansing and Kalamazoo, and that they’ve been...
Trump administration moves to revoke transgender health protection
The Trump administration proposed revoking Obama-era discrimination protections for transgender people in health care on Friday, a move LGBT groups fear will result in some Americans being denied needed medical treatment. The Health and Human Services Department released a proposed regulation that in effect says “gender identity” is not protected...
Ambulance called after House Judiciary Chairman Nadler appears to swoonVideo
NEW YORK — U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler was getting medical attention after he appeared to swoon during a news conference in New York City. The chairman of the House Judiciary committee had given remarks at an event about speed enforcement cameras in school zones when he slumped in his chair...
Construction set to begin to make White House fence taller
WASHINGTON — The White House is getting a taller fence for the first time in about a century as part of improvements beginning this summer for the perimeter of the grounds. Crews will replace the existing fence with a structure that will be about 13 feet tall, an increase of...
