Month: May 2023

By MICHAEL R. SISAK Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. authorities have arrested two suspected Chinese government agents in connection with an alleged plot by Beijing to disrupt and ultimately topple the exiled anti-communist Falun Gong spiritual movement. John Chen and Lin Feng were charged in an indictment unsealed Friday with scheming to revoke

By MATTHEW BARAKAT Associated Press FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) — Three northern Virginia prosecutors who took office four years ago as progressive reformers are facing primary challenges in next month’s elections. Virginia’s June 20 Democratic primary could shed light on whether suburban voters still embrace the criminal justice reforms that carried them into office. The challengers

By JESSE BEDAYN Associated Press/Report for America DENVER (AP) — A federal judge ruled Friday that a rural Colorado school district can bar a high school student from wearing a Mexican and American flag sash at her graduation this weekend after the student sued the school district. Judge Nina Y. Wang wrote that wearing a

By LISA MASCARO, SEUNG MIN KIM, KEVIN FREKING and FATIMA HUSSEIN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden said a deal to resolve the government’s debt ceiling crisis seemed “very close” late Friday, even as the deadline for a potentially catastrophic default was pushed back to June 5 and seemed likely to drag negotiations

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Federal investigators say a Navy contractor’s aircraft caught fire before it crashed off the California coast earlier this month, killing three people on board. The Gates Learjet plunged into the Pacific Ocean near San Clemente Island on May 10 while trying to make an emergency landing at a Navy airfield on the

BY SONIA PÉREZ D. Associated Press GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Guatemalan police arrested the country’s prosecutor for crimes against migrants Friday, accusing him of alleged abuse of authority. Stuardo Campos was formerly an anti-corruption prosecutor in the country during the administration of former President Jimmy Morales. It was not immediately clear whether the accusations pertain

JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. (AP) — The director of a southern Indiana funeral home where 31 decomposing bodies and the cremains of 17 others were found pleaded guilty Friday to more than 40 counts of felony theft. Randy Lankford, owner of Lankford Funeral Home and Family Center in Jeffersonville, faces a proposed sentence of 12 years: four

By ACACIA CORONADO, JIM VERTUNO and JAKE BLEIBERG Associated Press AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Friday urged his supporters to protest at the state Capitol when Republicans in the House of Representatives take up historic impeachment proceedings that threaten to oust him. The House has set a Saturday vote to

By JIM VERTUNO and JAKE BLEIBERG Associated Press AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — After years of legal and ethical scandals swirling around Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, the state’s GOP-controlled House of Representatives has moved toward a Saturday impeachment vote that could quickly throw him from office. The extraordinary and rarely used maneuver comes in

AVON, Conn. (AP) — A hungry black bear barged into the garage of a Connecticut bakery, scared several employees and helped itself to 60 cupcakes before ambling away. Workers at Taste by Spellbound in the town of Avon were loading cakes into a van for delivery on Wednesday when the bear showed up. There are

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jurors have deliberated for more than a week without reaching a verdict in the rape retrial of “That ’70s Show” star Danny Masterson, and will have to return and resume talks after the long holiday weekend. The Los Angeles County jury of seven women and five men went home Friday without

By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS Associated Press JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi could have a Democratic primary for governor in August because a judge ruled Friday that the party improperly excluded a candidate from the ballot. The state Democratic Party immediately filed notice that it will ask the Mississippi Supreme Court to overturn the judge’s ruling

By MEAD GRUVER Associated Press CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — The mother of the man who killed Gabby Petito told her son in an undated letter that she would “dispose of a body” if needed because she loved him so much, according to copies of the note shared publicly for the first time this week by

By AARON MORRISON AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — A national Black Lives Matter nonprofit, whose philanthropic fortunes grew almost overnight during historic racial justice protests three years ago, raised just over $9 million in its last fiscal year, new IRS tax filings show. That’s significantly less than the $79 million in revenue reported