Month: April 2023

By JOE McDONALD Associated Press BEIJING (AP) — Chinese leader Xi Jinping said Wednesday that Beijing will send an envoy to Ukraine to discuss a possible “political settlement” to Russia’s war with the country. Beijing has previously avoided involvement in conflicts between other countries but appears to be trying to assert itself as a global

By AMANDA SEITZ Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal government wrote duplicate checks to doctors who provided care for veterans, costing taxpayers as much as $128 million in extra payments, according to a new watchdog report out this week. In nearly 300,000 cases, private doctors were paid twice — once by the Veterans Health

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s president acknowledged Wednesday he did “briefly faint” over the weekend before he was diagnosed with COVID-19, something his spokesman had previously denied. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said his doctors had been concerned enough to administer a liter of rehydration fluids. He said in a videotaped chat from the National

By BEN FINLEY and DENISE LAVOIE Associated Press NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — The Virginia school district where a 6-year-old shot his teacher argues that her injuries fall under the state’s workers compensation act and cannot be addressed through her $40 million lawsuit. That’s according to court documents filed Wednesday by the Newport News School Board.

SOLEDAD, Calif. (AP) — Authorities and his lawyer say rapper MoneySign Suede has died after being stabbed in a shower at a California prison. The rapper’s real name was Jaime Brugada Valdez. The Huntington Park 22-year-old was found in the shower area of the Correctional Training Facility in Soledad Tuesday night and died at a

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Montana transgender lawmaker Zooey Zephyr was silenced by her Republican colleagues on Wednesday in a vote that bars her from participating on the House floor for the remainder of the 2023 session. The crackdown followed a standoff between Montana Democrats and Republicans after Zephyr told Republican colleagues in the House they

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A former gynecologist at the University of California, Los Angeles has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for sexually abusing female patients over the course of a 35-year career. Dr. James Heaps has been in custody since a jury convicted him in October of three counts of sexual battery by

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE and FATIMA HUSSEIN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Actor Angelina Jolie, home improvement duo Chip and Joanna Gaines and Olympic snowboarder Chloe Kim headlined the list of big names from politics, business, sports and entertainment glamming up a fancy black-tie dinner that President Joe Biden hosted Wednesday for South Korean President Yoon

By JIM SALTER and SUMMER BALLENTINE Associated Press CLAYTON, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri judge has blocked 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 ruled against the Republican attorney general’s emergency rule on transgender health care, putting it on hold

By LISA MASCARO and KEVIN FREKING Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans narrowly passed sweeping legislation Wednesday that would raise the government’s legal debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion in exchange for steep spending restrictions, a tactical victory for Speaker Kevin McCarthy as he challenges President Joe Biden to negotiate and prevent a catastrophic federal

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minneapolis NAACP is suing the city of Minneapolis over allegations that police officers used phony social media accounts to spy on activists without a legitimate public safety purpose. The lawsuit, filed in federal court Wednesday, alleges that the Minneapolis Police Department discriminated against the NAACP and violated its members’ constitutional rights