Month: January 2022

By JIM SALTER Associated Press In a year when many U.S. cities saw a substantial increase in killings, St. Louis bucked the trend in 2021. That’s a dose of good news for a city that for decades has had among the worst murder rates in the nation. The number of killings in St. Louis dropped

By SUDHIN THANAWALA Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — Atlanta’s recently elected mayor has unveiled a new police precinct in the city’s large Buckhead district as he tries to head off an effort to make it a separate city. Mayor Andre Dickens said Thursday the precinct is expected to have at least 12 officers. It should

By MARCIA DUNN AP Aerospace Writer CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Scientists have concluded that a meteorite from Mars contains no evidence of ancient Martian life. The 4-pound rock caused a splash 25 years ago when a NASA-led team announced that its organic compounds may have been left by living creatures, however primitive. Researchers chipped

By BRIAN SLODYSKO Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is meeting privately with Senate Democrats at the Capitol, a visit intended to deliver a jolt to the party’s long-stalled voting and elections legislation. Before he arrived on Thursday, Arizona Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema all but dashed the bill’s chances, declaring she could not

By MARK SHERMAN and JESSICA GRESKO Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has stopped a major push by the Biden administration to boost the nation’s COVID-19 vaccination rate, a requirement that employees at large businesses get a vaccine or test regularly and wear a mask on the job. At the same time, the

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN Associated Press Federal authorities say a South Dakota man charged this week with storming the U.S. Capitol last year performed rap songs about the riot in videos posted on his YouTube channel. A relative told the FBI that Billy Knutson was a rapper who sold his music online and had posted on

BERLIN (AP) — A German report says East Germany’s secret police kept extensive records on Chancellor Olaf Scholz during his time as a senior member of the West German Social Democratic Party’s youth wing in the 1970s and 80s. Bild tabloid reported Thursday that files it obtained showed the Stasi closely followed his visits to

JERUSALEM (AP) — Thousands of Israeli nationalists have staged a protest outside the parliament building in Jerusalem, calling on the government not to demolish a West Bank settlement outpost. The demonstration on Thursday comes a month after a Palestinian gunman fired on a car filled with seminary students at the Homesh outpost, near the West

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Auditors say surplus ammunition for Arkansas’ state prison systems was taken and sold by a Department of Corrections employee. Auditor Don Morgan told a legislative committee Wednesday that 28,352 rounds worth nearly $8,800 that was to be disposed of in 2017 could not be found. Corrections Secretary Solomon Graves said

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR Associated Press People looking for health insurance in the grip of the omicron surge have through Saturday to sign up for taxpayer-subsidized private coverage under the Obama-era Affordable Care Act. President Joe Biden’s administration is on track is to deliver robust enrollment numbers, but those gains could turn into a mirage if