U.S./World category, Page 825
New York lawmakers agree to legalize recreational marijuana
ALBANY, N.Y. — New York is poised the join the growing number of states that have legalized marijuana after state lawmakers reached a late-night deal to allow sales of the drug for recreational use. Democrats who now wield a veto-proof majority in the state Legislature have made passing it a...
White House says it’s working on access to migrant centersVideo
WASHINGTON — White House press secretary Jen Psaki declined to provide a specific date for when the media will get access to Border Patrol facilities temporarily holding thousands of migrant children seeking to live in the United States, but said Sunday the Biden administration was committed to transparency and “we’re...
U.S. waives FBI checks on caregivers at new migrant facilities
HOUSTON — The Biden administration is not requiring FBI fingerprint background checks of caregivers at its rapidly expanding network of emergency sites to hold thousands of immigrant teenagers, alarming child welfare experts who say the waiver compromises safety. In the rush to get children out of overcrowded and often unsuitable...
Police in Belarus capital arrest more than 100 protesters
KYIV, Ukraine — Police in the capital of Belarus arrested more than 100 people who assembled for a protest march Saturday to call for the resignation of the country’s authoritarian president. The planned event in Minsk indicated that supporters of the political opposition seek to revive the wave of mass...
China sanctions U.S., Canadian officials over Xinjiang
BEIJING — China on Saturday announced new sanctions against U.S. and Canadian officials in a growing political and economic feud over its policies in the traditionally Muslim region of Xinjiang. A statement from the Foreign Ministry said the head of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, Gayle Manchin, would...
Police: 2 dead in Virginia Beach oceanfront shootings
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Overnight shootings along the beachfront in Virginia Beach left two people dead and eight wounded in a scene described by authorities on Saturday as “very chaotic.” In a statement, the Virginia Beach Police Department said the first shooting occurred shortly after 11 p.m. Friday, when police...
No timeline given for extracting wedged ship from Suez Canal
SUEZ, Egypt — A giant container ship remained stuck sideways in Egypt’s Suez Canal for a fifth day Saturday, as authorities made new attempts to free the vessel and reopen a crucial waterway whose blockage is disrupting global shipping and trade. Meanwhile, the head of the Suez Canal Authority said...
Myanmar forces kill scores in deadliest day since coup
YANGON, Myanmar — As Myanmar’s military celebrated the annual Armed Forces Day holiday with a parade Saturday in the country’s capital, soldiers and police elsewhere reportedly killed dozens of people as they suppressed protests in the deadliest bloodletting since last month’s coup. The online news site Myanmar Now reported late...
Court sides with photographer in fight over Andy Warhol art
NEW YORK — A U.S. appeals court sided with a photographer Friday in a copyright dispute over how a foundation has marketed a series of Andy Warhol works of art based on one of her pictures of Prince. The New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the...
Beloved children’s author Beverly Cleary dies at 104
NEW YORK — Beverly Cleary, the celebrated children’s author whose memories of her Oregon childhood were shared with millions through the likes of Ramona and Beezus Quimby and Henry Huggins, has died. She was 104. Cleary’s publisher HarperCollins announced Friday that the author died Thursday in Carmel Valley, California, where...
Arizona GOP wants felony for protesters who damage statues
PHOENIX — Republicans in the Arizona Legislature are reacting to last year’s wave of damage to Confederate monuments by civil rights protesters here and across the nation by working to make it a felony to damage or destroy any public or private monument or statue. Rep. John Kavanagh supported his...
#FreeBritney movement prompts lawmakers to consider changing conservatorship laws
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A new spotlight on Britney Spears’ conservatorship that has her legions of fans calling for reforms has prompted California lawmakers to consider changes that could affect the pop singer’s protracted legal case in Los Angeles. The high-profile conservatorship has been the focus of intense speculation since Spears...
Colorado shooting suspect passed check in legal gun purchase
BOULDER, Colo. — The suspect in the Colorado supermarket shootings bought a firearm at a local gun store after passing a background check, and he also had a second weapon with him that he didn’t use in the attack that killed 10 people this week, authorities and the gun store...
NASA gives all clear: Earth safe from asteroid for 100 years
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Whew, now here’s some good cosmic news: NASA has given Earth the all clear for the next century from a particularly menacing asteroid. The space agency announced this week that new telescope observations have ruled out any chance of Apophis smacking Earth in 2068. That’s the...
Tornado outbreak rips across Deep South; at least 5 dead
OHATCHEE, Ala. — Tornadoes and severe storms tore through the Deep South, killing at least five people as strong winds splintered trees, wrecked homes and downed power lines. The tornado outbreak rolled into western Georgia early Friday. One large, dangerous tornado moved through Newnan and surrounding communities in the Atlanta...
Is sex addiction really a thing? Science is skeptical
ATLANTA — To join the church Atlanta spa shooting suspect Robert Aaron Long attended, you have to adhere to certain non-negotiable edicts, a terms of agreement of sorts for membership. In a section titled “Diligence of Members,” Crabapple First Baptist Church leaders defined marriage as between a man and a...
Maine legislator being investigated for Harvey Weinstein backdrop on Zoom
AUGUSTA, Maine — A Maine legislator who appeared for Zoom meetings twice with a background that made a joking reference to convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein is being investigated by the Legislature’s human resources department. The investigation will focus on whether state Rep. Bruce Bickford, a Republican from Auburn, violated the...
Officials urge vigilance as Germany sees 3rd infection wave
BERLIN — German health officials warned Friday that the country’s latest eruption of coronavirus cases has the potential to be worse than the previous two last year, and they urged people to stay at home during the upcoming Easter break to help slow the rapidly rising numbers of new infections....
Trains collide in southern Egypt, killing at least 32
CAIRO — Two trains crashed Friday in southern Egypt, killing at least 32 people and injuring 165, authorities said in the latest of a series of deadly accidents on the country’s troubled railways. Someone apparently activated the emergency brakes on the passenger train, and it was rear-ended by another train,...
Dominion Voting sues Fox for $1.6B over 2020 election claims
WASHINGTON — Dominion Voting Systems filed a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News on Friday, arguing the cable news giant, in an effort to boost faltering ratings, falsely claimed that the voting company had rigged the 2020 election. The lawsuit is part of a growing body of legal action...
Small Texas border town is route to U.S. for migrant children
ROMA, Texas — As darkness sets on the Rio Grande, U.S. Border Patrol agents hear pumps inflating rafts across the river in Mexico. It is about to get busy. Within an hour, the rafts drop off about 100 people in six trips into the United States, including many families with...
Man with weapons, body armor arrested at University of Kentucky hospital
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Police arrested an armed Kentucky man as he left a hospital after receiving a tip from another police department that he was in the area. A large police presence was at the University of Kentucky’s Chandler Hospital emergency room Thursday and university officials asked students and visitors...
Texas death toll from February storm, outages surpasses 100
AUSTIN, Texas — Texas officials on Thursday raised the death toll from February’s winter storm and blackouts to at least 111 people — nearly doubling the state’s initial tally following one of the worst power outages in U.S. history. The majority of the deaths are associated with hypothermia, according to...
USC agrees to $852 million payout in sex abuse lawsuit
LOS ANGELES — The University of Southern California has agreed to an $852 million settlement with more than 700 women who have accused the college’s longtime campus gynecologist of sexual abuse, the victims’ lawyers and USC announced Thursday. It’s believed to be a record amount for such a lawsuit. When...
Mass shooters exploited gun laws, loopholes before carnage
The suspect in the shooting at a Boulder, Colo., supermarket was convicted of assaulting a high school classmate but still got a gun. The man accused of opening fire on three massage businesses in the Atlanta area bought his gun just hours before the attack — no waiting required. They...
