Medical marijuana bills challenge Bible Belt politics
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Facing a potentially historic vote on whether to legalize medical marijuana in Kentucky, Republican lawmaker John Schickel is conflicted. A retired...
Monsignor in landmark church abuse case goes back on trial
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Nearly two decades after the Roman Catholic priest-abuse scandal exploded in the U.S. in 2002, only one church official has ever gone...
US moves nearer to shutdown amid coronavirus fears
CHICAGO (AP) — Officials across the country curtailed many elements of American life to fight the coronavirus outbreak on Sunday, with health officials recommending that...
Tenn. brothers donate sanitizer products bought for resale
Thousands of bottles of hand sanitizer and packs of antibacterial wipes and medical masks have been donated after a failed attempt by two Tennessee brothers...
Cheap fares luring travelers to fly despite pandemic
With the coronavirus pandemic escalating in the U.S. and overseas, Dylcia McBlackwell couldn’t justify taking a single spring vacation. Air fares were so cheap, she...
How it spreads, infects: Coronavirus impact comes into focus
The medical impact of the new coronavirus is coming into sharper focus as it continues its spread in what is now officially recognized as a...
Happy 200th birthday to Maine, but virus zaps the party
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Mainers have a special bond with Massachusetts that’s friendly for the most part. What Mainer doesn’t love the Boston Red Sox,...
The Latest: Hungary closes its borders to foreigners
The Latest on the coronavirus pandemic, which has infected more than 169,000 people and killed more than 6,500. The COVID-19 illness causes mild or moderate...
Hospitals fear any surge of virus cases, supply shortages
TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — Government and hospital leaders are increasingly sounding the alarm about the health care system in the U.S. and its readiness to...
New York City schools to close Monday to fight coronavirus
NEW YORK (AP) — New York City will close the nation’s largest public school system Monday, sending over 1.1 million children home in hopes of...
States turn to cash reserves as coronavirus strains budgets
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo (AP) — States across the U.S. are allocating hundreds of millions of dollars to respond to the coronavirus, even as the U.S....
Federal government blasts PG&E’s deal with fire victims
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Tensions between the U.S. government and Pacific Gas & Electric are boiling over as the two sides battle over whether a...
Gigi Hadid among potential jurors for Weinstein’s rape trial
NEW YORK (AP) — Supermodel Gigi Hadid is in the running to be a juror in Harvey Weinstein’s New York City rape trial after telling...
Judge refuses to second-guess family separations at border
SAN DIEGO (AP) — A U.S. judge ruled Monday that the Trump administration is operating within its authority when separating families stopped at the Mexico...
Police suspect serial killer strangled Illinois teen in 1976
CHICAGO (AP) — A suspected serial killer strangled a suburban Chicago teenage girl in 1976 and likely killed another woman just days before she was...
Sheriff’s deputies evict homeless moms from Oakland home
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Four homeless women ordered by a judge last week to leave a vacant house they illegally occupied in Oakland were evicted...
St. Louis prosecutor: Racist interests try to force her out
ST. LOUIS (AP) — St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner on Monday filed what she called an unprecedented federal civil rights lawsuit, accusing the city,...
Witness recalls panic after children swept to sea in Oregon
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Joanne Cornelius had just finished taking photos of the breathtaking waves and extreme high tide outside her home on the Oregon...
Ex-drug company execs face reckoning in opioid bribery case
BOSTON (AP) — The founder and former top employees of a pharmaceutical company are facing a reckoning for their role in a bribery scheme that...
High anxiety: Proposed US hemp rules worry industry
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Hemp growers and entrepreneurs who were joyous a year ago after U.S. lawmakers reclassified the plant as a legal agricultural crop...
A fire, an SOS, a rescue: Man spends weeks in remote Alaska
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Tyson Steele watched his remote cabin go up in flames, mourned the death of his dog and then spent weeks in...
Man accused of killing hotel worker in Anguilla sues resort
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A Connecticut man charged with killing a hotel worker he says attacked his family on the Caribbean island of Anguilla has...
Jury selection at Weinstein’s rape trial enters sixth day
NEW YORK (AP) — Jury selection at Harvey Weinstein’s New York City rape trial resumed Tuesday, a day after supermodel Gigi Hadid caused a stir...
Bill to raise tobacco age has unlikely allies: Altria, Juul
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress is moving to pass the biggest new sales restrictions on tobacco products in more than a decade, with support from two...
Armored truck driver sentenced to 37 months in theft
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A former armored truck driver who took more than $900,000 from the vehicle was sentenced to 37 months in prison and...
Winning Mega Millions ticket worth $372M sold in Ohio
CLEVELAND (AP) — Someone in Ohio is going to have a wonderful life! A winning Mega Millions ticket worth $372 million was sold at a...
University of South Carolina to sell beer, wine at games
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — University of South Carolina fans will soon join a handful of other SEC schools in allowing alcohol sales at home athletic...
Splintered US moves to subject Trump to ‘profound disgrace’
WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump stands on the threshold of what two ex-presidents called the “profound disgrace” of impeachment, a permanent stain on his legacy....
US proposes new rules to increase organ transplants
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. government is overhauling parts of the nation’s transplant system to make sure organs from the dead no longer go to...
Giuliani associate got $1 million from indicted Ukrainian
NEW YORK (AP) — A business associate of Rudy Giuliani received a $1 million payment in September from an indicted Ukrainian oligarch who is a...
3 dead in Montana casino shooting, suspect killed by police
GREAT FALLS, Mont. (AP) — An overnight shooting Tuesday at a Montana casino left three people dead and another person injured, and the suspect was...
Mormons pulling 400,000 youths out of struggling Boy Scouts
KAYSVILLE, Utah (AP) — For decades, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was one of Boy Scouts of America’s greatest allies and the...
4 dead, several injured across South in outbreak of twisters
ALEXANDRIA, La. (AP) — A swarm of tornadoes and other storms that left a trail of destruction across the Southeast killed four people, injured at...
Weather officials: 24 tornadoes hit South over 2 days
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — At least two dozen tornadoes hit the Southeast this week in a deadly outbreak of severe weather, assessments by the National...
US senator proposes money, oversight to boost dam safety
U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand on Tuesday called for more federal money and oversight to shore up the nation’s aging dams following an Associated Press investigation...
Squirrels, bees could get US aid but not Yellowstone’s bison
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — U.S. wildlife officials rejected petitions Thursday to protect Yellowstone National Park’s storied bison herds but pledged to consider more help for...
Newly hired scientist for California among boat fire victims
Aboard were respected scientists, engineers, free spirits and parents with their teenage and adult children — all brought together over a passion for scuba diving....
Fire foiled rescued attempts by California boat crew
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The crew of a scuba diving boat that sank off the coast of Southern California made several attempts to rescue the...
Michigan State University fined $4.5 million in Nassar case
WASHINGTON (AP) — The government on Thursday ordered Michigan State University to make sweeping changes and pay a $4.5 million fine after determining that it...
The Latest: Dallas Opera cancels 2020 Domingo performance
The Latest on new sexual misconduct allegations against opera star Placido Domingo (all times Eastern): 8 p.m. The Dallas Opera has canceled a 2020 Placido...
No conviction in California warehouse fire stuns families
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — A jury on Thursday didn’t convict two men charged after flames tore through a party at a San Francisco Bay Area...
The Latest: Family stunned after verdicts in warehouse fire
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — The Latest on verdicts against two men charged with involuntary manslaughter after a fire in a California warehouse killed 36 partygoers...
Dorian grazes Carolina coast, aims for Outer Banks
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Hurricane Dorian sideswiped the Carolinas with shrieking winds, tornadoes and sideways rain Thursday as it closed in for a possible direct...
Hurricane death toll in Bahamas at 30 as aid begins to land
ABACO, Bahamas (AP) — Carrying possessions in plastic bags, some weary Bahamians whose homes were smashed by Hurricane Dorian waited Thursday for a flight out...
The Latest: Dorian churns north along North Carolina coast
OCRACOKE, N.C. (AP) — The Latest on Hurricane Dorian (all times local): 11:05 p.m. Forecasters say Hurricane Dorian is brushing up against North Carolina as...
Trucker, mail carrier at work, teen among Texas victims
The owner of a trucking company who was killed in West Texas had moved from Las Vegas after a 2017 mass shooting at a music...
High-capacity magazines get new scrutiny as Congress returns
SEATTLE (AP) — Lawmakers around the country are making a renewed push to ban high-capacity magazines that gunmen have used in many recent massacres, allowing...
Count on hurricanes to spark storms of online misinformation
The names of hurricanes may change, but one thing seems to stay the same: Misinformation spreads quickly during these dangerous storms. Hurricane Dorian, an extremely...
Not so easy to prevent the spread of mass shooters’ names
When law enforcement authorities gathered to discuss details of a mass shooting in West Texas that left seven people dead, there was one bit of...
4th time in 4 years: It’s hurricane evacuation time in US
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — It’s become a hurricane-season ritual in the Southeast: When a storm threatens, coastal residents board up homes, load up...