Month: April 2023

By JOHN HANNA AP Political Writer TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas board is telling high schools and middle schools that must see transgender athletes’ first birth certificates to decide what teams they can join. The Kansas State High School Activities Association wrestled with that issue Wednesday as an effort in the Legislature to end

By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and ERIC TUCKER Associated Press Federal prosecutors will urge a judge Thursday to keep behind bars a Massachusetts Air National guardsman accused of leaking highly classified military documents, arguing he may still have access to secret national defense information he could expose. In court papers filed late Wednesday, the Justice Department

By MIKE STOBBE AP Medical Writer NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. cigarette smoking dropped to another all-time low last year, with 1 in 9 adults saying they were current smokers, according to government survey data released Thursday. Meanwhile, electronic cigarette use rose, to about 1 in 17 adults. The preliminary findings from the Centers for

By PAUL WISEMAN AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Despite surging interest rates, punishing inflation and global turbulence, the U.S. economy stood firm last year. From employers to consumers, the picture was one of surprising resilience. This year may be shaping up as a more downbeat story. The economy is widely expected to decelerate steadily

By JIM SALTER and SUMMER BALLENTINE Associated Press CLAYTON, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri judge has temporarily halted a first-of-its-kind rule restricting access to gender-affirming health care just hours before it was set to take effect. A judge on Wednesday put the Republican attorney general’s emergency rule on transgender health care on hold until at

By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield is heading to Brazil next week, following up on recent high-level meetings between the presidents and top diplomats of the two countries. The U.S. Mission to the United Nations said late Wednesday that she will visit the capital, Brasilia, and then

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — San Francisco is repealing a ban on city-funded travel to 30 states that it says restrict abortion, voting and LGBTQ rights after determining the boycott is doing more harm than good. The Board of Supervisors voted 7-4 on Tuesday to repeal a section of the city’s administrative code that prohibits staff

By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Tucker Carlson emerged Wednesday, two days after Fox News fired him, with a two-minute, campaign-style monologue that didn’t address why he suddenly became unemployed. He posted a video on Twitter shortly after 8 p.m. Eastern, the time his Fox show used to begin, that talked

By MICHAEL GOLDBERG Associated Press/Report for America CONWAY, Miss. (AP) — A man who escaped from a Mississippi jail and is suspected in a Monday night killing died after barricading himself in a home and setting it on fire during an armed standoff with deputies, authorities said Wednesday. Plumes of smoke emanated from the charred

By ERIC TUCKER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court on Wednesday night moved former Vice President Mike Pence closer to appearing before a grand jury investigating efforts to undo the results of the 2020 presidential election, rejecting a bid by former President Donald Trump’s lawyers to block the testimony. It was not

By LINDSEY BAHR AP Film Writer LAS VEGAS (AP) — Universal started out its CinemaCon presentation with the big one: New footage from Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer.” “I know of no more dramatic tale, with higher stakes, twists and turns, paradoxes,” Nolan told a room full of theater owners Wednesday in Las Vegas. “In learning about

By MAURICIO SAVARESE and DAVID BILLER Associated Press SAO PAULO (AP) — A federal judge in Brazil on Wednesday ordered a temporary suspension of messaging app Telegram, citing the social media platform’s alleged failure to provide all information Federal Police requested on neo-Nazi chat groups. The move is regarded as part of the country’s push