AP-National

By JACK DURA and TRISHA AHMED Associated Press BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A North Dakota lawmaker who had recently received his commercial pilot’s license was flying his own plane home from a family celebration in Arizona when it crashed in Utah, killing him, his wife and their two young sons. Family members say state Sen.

By BRIAN MAHONEY AP Basketball Writer With a new “player participation policy,” the NBA has made it clear that healthy players should be on the court. No argument from the players, who insist they aren’t interested in sitting. Some don’t like load management any more than the fans who wonder why some of the best

By CURT ANDERSON Associated Press Trustees of the New College of Florida have voted to stick with a Ron Desantis ally as the school’s president amid a conservative makeover launched by the governor. The trustees voted 10-2 on Tuesday for Richard Corcoran, who has served as interim president since January, over two other candidates. The

By GIADA ZAMPANO Associated Press ROME (AP) — At least 21 people were killed and 18 injured in a fiery bus crash in a borough of Venice, Italy, across the lagoon from its historic center, where firefighters and other emergency responders worked into the night trying to extract bodies and squelch the flames. The bus

LYNCHBURG, Va. (AP) — New reporting says preliminary findings from a federal investigation found that Liberty University failed to warn its Virginia campus community about safety threats. That’s including from individuals accused of sexual violence. The Washington Post and USA Today wrote Tuesday that they had received the confidential report by the U.S. Department of

By JONATHAN MATTISE Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee Democratic Rep. Justin Jones has filed a federal lawsuit challenging his expulsion and House rules restricting lawmakers’ floor comments that Republicans applied to silence Jones for part of one day. The lawsuit in Nashville argues that House Speaker Cameron Sexton and fellow Republicans have repeatedly

By MARY CLARE JALONICK and MICHAEL R. BLOOD Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Former union leader and Democratic insider Laphonza Butler was sworn in as the newest member of the Senate on Tuesday, replacing California Sen. Dianne Feinstein after her death and becoming only the third Black female senator in history. Butler was appointed by

By The Associated Press Police in West Virginia say two adoptive parents have been charged with felony neglect after two children were found locked inside a small barn and a third child was located in an unprotected loft inside an adjacent home. The parents were arraigned Tuesday on charges of gross child neglect creating a

By DAVID A. LIEB Associated Press JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Republicans in two states will be using caucuses to make their presidential picks next year after GOP-led legislatures canceled presidential primary elections. Republicans in Idaho and Missouri both plan to hold local presidential caucuses on March 2. That places them near the front of

By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH Associated Press A homeless Topeka man has been arrested in the rape and killing of a 5-year-old girl. Police said that officers responded just before 6 p.m. Monday to a medical call at a gas station and found a fire crew attempting to save Zoey Felix. She was rushed to a hospital

By KATHY McCORMACK Associated Press CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A lawyer representing a man charged with shooting a New Hampshire couple to death on a hiking trail last year says he spent months hiding from police, but over a probation violation from Utah, not the killings. The lawyer for Logan Clegg also said at the

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — A South African cabinet minister and three other lawmakers from the ruling African National Congress party have been cleared of corruption by a parliamentary ethics committee. Employment and Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi and lawmakers Cedric Frolick, Mosebenzi Zwane and Winnie Ngwenya were implicated following a commission of inquiry into

By The Associated Press Azerbaijani authorities have arrested several former separatist leaders of Nagorno-Karabakh after reclaiming control of the Armenian-populated breakaway region in a lightning military operation last month. Azerbaijan’s APA news agency says that Arayik Harutyunyan, who led the region before stepping down at the beginning of September, has been arrested and is being

By FATIMA HUSSEIN and ERIC TUCKER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration took aim Tuesday at the fentanyl trafficking threat, announcing a series of indictments and sanctions against Chinese companies and executives blamed for importing the chemicals used to make the deadly drug. Officials described the actions, which include charges against eight Chinese

By EVENS SANON and DÁNICA COTO Associated Press PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Foreigners with guns are met with hostility in most countries in the world. But the departure of armed soldiers and police from Haiti in 2017 after nearly two decades on the streets helped criminals seize control of much of the country. Gangs have

By BROOKE SCHULTZ Associated Press/Report for America HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A group of five Pennsylvania inmates have sued over the solitary confinement conditions in a state prison, saying the conditions are unconstitutional, worsening and creating mental illness in those held there. The lawsuit was filed in federal court Tuesday. It accuses the Department of

By MARY CLARE JALONICK Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is leading a bipartisan congressional delegation to China next week, traveling to the country amid heightened tensions and after several members of President Joe Biden’s Cabinet visited. His office says that Schumer, a Democrat, and Republican Sen. Mike Crapo of Idaho

By COLLEEN SLEVIN and JESSE BEDAYN Associated Press DENVER (AP) — Colorado’s highest court says it will hear the case of a Christian baker who refused to make a cake celebrating a gender transition. The decision announced Tuesday comes after a U.S. Supreme Court victory this summer for a graphic artist who didn’t want to

By MARK SHERMAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court seems likely to preserve the work of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau against a conservative-led challenge. Even some conservative justices sounded skeptical Tuesday of arguments that the agency, created after the 2008 financial crisis to regulate mortgages, car loans and other consumer finance, violates

By GIADA ZAMPANO Associated Press ROME (AP) — Hundreds of small tremors have shaken a densely populated volcanic area west of the Italian city of Naples in recent weeks, pushing the government to quickly redraft mass evacuation plans, even though experts don’t see an imminent risk of eruption. In the latest of a long string