Associated Press stories, Page 1397
No NHL players boosts Russian hopes for Olympic gold in men’s hockeyVideo
Seven weeks before puck drop at what was supposed to be the first Olympics with NHL players since 2014, the league pulled the plug amid a rash of postponements for coronavirus-related reasons. Instead of getting the world’s best on Olympic ice for the sixth time since 1998, the tournament will...
Beijing Olympics will showcase hockey’s next generationVideo
The disappointment of the NHL not participating in the 2022 Winter Olympics quickly turned to excitement for a handful of U.S. players at the world junior championship. Matty Beniers, Jake Sanderson and Brock Faber were together in Red Deer, Alberta, when USA Hockey’s John Vanbiesbrouck asked them to go to...
U.S. women’s hockey once again led by a shining KnightVideo
Cammi Granato never had forgotten the young girl she lent her stick and gloves to during one of the former U.S. Olympian’s first hockey camps in Chicago in the late 1990s. It was years later when Granato discovered that girl just happened to be Hilary Knight. “Her stick broke, and...
Nathan Chen vs. Yuzuru Hanyu the latest in Olympic figure skating rivalriesVideo
In the pantheon of figure skating rivalries, Nancy and Tonya soars like a triple lutz above the rest. Two athletes in their prime, each trying to be America’s golden girl, on the biggest stage in winter sports. And it came draped in the most bizarre of controversies: An attack on...
China richer, stronger, more confrontational compared to 2008 OlympicsVideo
BEIJING — China has undergone history-making change since the last time it was an Olympic host in 2008: It is richer, more heavily armed and openly confrontational. As President Xi Jinping’s government prepares for the Winter Olympics, it has greater leverage to exert influence abroad and resist complaints from the...
Roger Goodell pressured by Congress to release Washington report
Former Washington Commanders employees and members of Congress pressured the NFL and commissioner Roger Goodell on Thursday to release a report about the team’s history of sexual harassment and its sexist, hostile workplace culture. They said the team and owner Dan Snyder have not been held accountable for their misdeeds....
Blackhawks owner on Kyle Beach: ‘Not going to talk about anything’
CHICAGO — Speaking Wednesday night at a town hall organized by the team, Chicago Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz angrily rejected any conversation connected to the franchise’s response when a player said he was sexually assaulted by an assistant coach. It was the first time the franchise’s top leaders had faced...
Arizona GOP chair files suit to block Jan. 6 panel subpoena
PHOENIX — Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward and her husband have filed a lawsuit seeking to block a subpoena of their phone records by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Kelli Ward and Michael Ward were presidential electors who would have voted for...
NBC announcers ready to call Olympics action from U.S.Video
Dan Hicks had a short drive from his home to NBC Sports headquarters in Stamford, Conn., the past two years to call the French Open and some World Cup skiing events. He didn’t imagine he would be doing it for an Olympics, though. With China’s strict policy about those who...
Olympic champ Chloe Kim eyes 2nd gold on her termsVideo
Chloe Kim, prodigy, is no more. The same goes for Chloe Kim, political symbol. And that’s a good thing for snowboarding in general and the sport’s current standard-bearer more specifically. Eight years ago, she was the halfpipe’s Next Big Thing. Four years ago, the California-born daughter of South Korean immigrants...
Jim Harbaugh says he’ll stay at Michigan after Vikings interview
Jim Harbaugh will stay at Michigan after all, ending his dalliance with a return to the NFL after interviewing with the Minnesota Vikings for their head coach vacancy Wednesday. Harbaugh withdrew from consideration and will be back at his alma mater for an eighth season. “With an enthusiasm unknown to...
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem’s abortion ban stifled by Republican lawmakers
PIERRE, S.D. — A Republican-controlled South Dakota House committee declined Wednesday to consider a proposal from Gov. Kristi Noem aimed at banning nearly all abortions, stifling a top item on the governor’s agenda. The Republican governor loudly trumpeted her proposal this year, which would have mimicked the private enforcement of...
Former Browns coach Hue Jackson implies he was paid to loseVideo
CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Browns say suggestions by former coach Hue Jackson and an associate that he was paid by the team to lose games are “completely fabricated.” Jackson, who is now coaching at Grambling, made several posts on Twitter implying he received bonus payments from Browns owner Jimmy Haslam...
Recruiting wars: A&M’s Fisher says rumors about booster-funded endorsement deals are ‘garbage’Video
After Texas A&M added yet another blue-chip prospect to the highest-rated recruiting class in college football Wednesday, coach Jimbo Fisher went off about rumors that booster-funded endorsement deals were fueling the Aggies’ success. “There is no $30 million fund. There is no 10 million, there is no five million. This...
Police: HBCU bomb threat caller described elaborate plotVideo
WOODSTOCK, Ga. — A caller who threatened to blow up a historically Black university in Florida — one of numerous threats made against schools across the nation — described an elaborate plot involving seven bombs hidden in duffel bags and backpacks around the school’s perimeter, a Florida police chief said....
Stocks rise on Wall Street, extending their weekly gainsVideo
Another wobbly day of trading on Wall Street ended with more gains for stocks Wednesday, as the latest batch of company earnings reports kept investors in a buying mood. The S&P 500 rose 0.9% after having briefly dipped into the red in the early going. The Dow Jones Industrial Average...
Spieth, Cantlay carry load of limited star power at PebbleVideo
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Patrick Cantlay was 12 when his father first brought him to Pebble Beach, and it remains one of his favorite golf courses in the world. “Every time I’m here I feel lucky and no different this week,” he said. Jordan Spieth feels the same way. He...
FBI confirms it bought spyware from Israel’s NSO Group
WASHINGTON — The FBI has confirmed purchasing NSO Group’s powerful spyware tool Pegasus, whose chronic abuse to surveil journalists, dissidents and human rights activists has long been established. It suggested its motivation was to “stay abreast of emerging technologies and tradecraft.” The agency added in a statement Wednesday that it...
Media barred from Justice Gorsuch talk to Federalist Society
WASHINGTON — Justice Neil Gorsuch is speaking this weekend to the conservative legal group that boosted his Supreme Court candidacy, in a session at a Florida resort that is closed to news coverage. Gorsuch is billed as the banquet speaker Friday at the Florida chapter of the Federalist Society’s annual...
4 charged in overdose death of actor Michael K. WilliamsVideo
NEW YORK — Four men face charges that they were members of the drug distribution crew that supplied a deadly mix of narcotics to Michael K. Williams, the renowned actor from “The Wire” who overdosed just hours after buying fentanyl-laced heroin in a deal recorded on security camera video. The...
Army to immediately start discharging vaccine refusers
WASHINGTON — The Army said Wednesday it will immediately begin discharging soldiers who have refused to get the mandatory covid-19 vaccine, putting more than 3,300 service members at risk of being thrown out soon. The Army’s announcement makes it the final military service to lay out its discharge policy for...
Wolf, Democrats outline proposal for $1.7B in pandemic funds
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s governor and his Democratic allies in the Legislature on Wednesday laid out a proposal to spend federal pandemic relief money on workers, environmental and climate change programs as well as a one-time property tax subsidy for lower-income homeowners and renters. The plan was announced less than a...
Pennsylvania high court to decide congressional district map
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s Democratic-majority Supreme Court wrested control Wednesday of choosing new district lines for the state’s shrinking congressional delegation, a process that deadlocked the governor and Legislature. The five Democratic justices issued an order directing a lower judge to give them a report by Monday that recommends a new...
America East bans Stony Brook from conference tournaments
Stony Brook’s basketball teams will need to receive at-large bids to the NCAAs if the Seawolves want to make it to the tournament this year. The America East announced Wednesday that the school is ineligible for conference postseason tournaments because it’s leaving for the Colonial Athletic Association next year. Stony...
Review: Journey to the origins of the Earth
“Otherlands: Journeys in Earth’s Extinct Ecosystems,” by Thomas Halliday (Random House) If there is one uncertainty that has persisted since the beginning of time, it’s our planet’s impermanence. Thomas Halliday ventures into the vastness of this predicament in his book “Otherlands: Journeys in Earth’s Extinct Ecosystems,” a compendium on Earth’s...
