Month: April 2023

By JESSE BEDAYN and COLLEEN SLEVIN Associated Press/Report for America DENVER (AP) — Democratic Colorado Gov. Jared Polis on Friday signed a set of health care bills enshrining access to abortion and gender-affirming procedures and medications, as the Democrat-led state tries to make itself a safe haven for its neighbors, whose Republican leaders are restricting

By JEFFREY COLLINS Associated Press COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The 12 U.S. soldiers died in a pine forest in South Carolina in 1780, their bodies hastily buried beneath a thin layer of soil as their comrades fled from the British who appeared ready to put a quick and brutal end to the American Experiment. But

By JAMEY KEATEN Associated Press GENEVA (AP) — Switzerland says it will spend about $2 billion to help Ukraine with humanitarian and development assistance over the next six years, ponying up financial aid for Ukraine as Western critics press Bern to do more to help it defend itself against Russian invaders and squeeze Russian interests.

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans cut their spending at retail stores and restaurants in March for the second straight month, a sign consumers are becoming more cautious after a burst of spending in January. Retail sales dropped 1% in March from February, a sharper decline than the 0.2% fall in

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST and CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department on Friday announced charges against more than two dozen members of Mexico’s powerful Sinaloa cartel, including sons of notorious drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, in a sprawling fentanyl-trafficking investigation. The three Guzman sons charged — Ovidio Guzmán López, Jesús Alfredo

By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The 38-year-old tech consultant charged with the murder of Cash App founder Bob Lee made his first appearance in a San Francisco courtroom Friday but did not enter a plea. Nima Momeni, who police say knew Lee, is now scheduled to be arraigned April 25.

By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press ROME (AP) — The Vatican pushed back hard Friday at “slanderous” insinuations against St. John Paul II that were aired following the reopening of an investigation into the 1983 disappearance of the teenage daughter of a Vatican employee. The kerfuffle erupted after Emanuela Orlandi’s brother, Pietro, spent eight hours meeting

By JESSE BEDAYN Associated Press/Report for America DENVER (AP) — Colorado’s Democratic governor is scheduled to sign a set of health care bills Friday afternoon that enshrine protections for abortion and gender-affirming care procedures and medications. Gov. Jared Polis and fellow Democrats in the Legislature want to make Colorado a safe haven for people in

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A Connecticut man who used a stolen riot shield to crush a police officer in a doorframe during the U.S. Capitol insurrection has been sentenced to more than seven years in prison for his role in one of the most violent episodes of the Jan. 6 attack.

MOSCOW (AP) — Finland’s embassy in Moscow says it received an envelope containing white powder. It has turned the envelope and two other sealed envelopes to Russian authorities for investigation, said Maria Zakharova, the spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry. Zakharova said Friday that the embassy reported three identical envelopes addressed to the Finnish military

By ANDREW DeMILLO ASSOCIATED PRESS LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — The push to restrict health care for transgender people has expanded beyond children, with Missouri’s new limits on gender-affirming care. The rules highlight how rapidly efforts targeting the rights of transgender people have grown this year. Those efforts have expanded even as they face new

By WILL WEISSERT and TOM DAVIES Associated Press INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Last year it was Uvalde. Now it’s Nashville and Louisville. For the second year in a row, the National Rifle Association is holding its annual convention within days of mass shootings that shook the nation. The three-day gathering kicked off Friday with thousands of

By GEOFF MULVIHILL Associated Press For California, New York and some other states trying to position themselves as safe havens for those seeking abortions, a federal court ruling this week could be a setback, adding barriers to obtaining one of the two drugs usually used in combination to end pregnancies with medication. A ruling from