AP-National

By ZEN SOO AP Business Writer HONG KONG (AP) — China’s economy grew faster than expected in the first quarter of the year with help from policies and stronger demand, though signs of weakness in the troubled housing market persisted. The world’s second-largest economy expanded at a 5.3% annual pace in January-March, beating analysts’ forecasts

By FARNOUSH AMIRI Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is rejecting a long-shot effort from House Republicans to get President Joe Biden to testify before lawmakers in the GOP’s stalled impeachment inquiry. In a letter Monday to House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, the White House dismissed the invitation sent to Biden last

By JILL COLVIN and MICHAEL R. SISAK Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump began his day as a criminal defendant lashing out at the judge and prosecutors, casting himself as a victim and angrily posting on social media. In other words: a familiar routine. But inside the courtroom, which was closed

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A former U.S. Marine has been sentenced to nine years in prison for firebombing a Southern California Planned Parenthood clinic in 2022. Chance Brannon pleaded guilty in November to four felony counts, including malicious destruction of property by fire and explosives. He was sentenced Monday. Prosecutors say the 24-year-old also

By MATTHEW BARAKAT Associated Press ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A former detainee at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison described to jurors in Virginia the abuse he suffered in more than a month of incarceration in 2003. It included beatings and being threatened with dogs. The testimony Monday from Salah Al-Ejaili marks the first time Abu

By ANDREW SELIGMAN AP Sports Writer CHICAGO (AP) — Ken Holtzman, MLB’s winningest Jewish pitcher who threw two no-hitters for the Chicago Cubs and helped the Oakland Athletics win three straight World Series championships in the 1970s, has died. The Cubs announced Holtzman’s death Monday on social media. He was 78. Holtzman’s brother Bob Holtzman

By DOUG FEINBERG AP Basketball Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Caitlin Clark admitted she was a bit nervous before being chosen with the No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft by the Indiana Fever, even though it was no surprise. “I dreamed of this moment since I was in second grade, and it’s taken a

By MAYSOON KHAN and ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE Associated Press ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has announced the framework of a $237 billion budget that includes broad plans to drive new housing construction, address the influx of migrants and crack down on illegal marijuana shops. The governor announced what she described as the

ROCKFORD, Ill. (AP) — A judge has ordered a psychiatric evaluation for a northern Illinois man charged with killing four people and injuring seven others by stabbing, beating and driving over them. Winnebago County Judge Debra Schafer ordered the evaluation Monday for Christian Soto. The 22-year-old man was appearing in court by video link for

By JONATHAN MATTISE and KIMBERLEE KRUESI Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee would join the ranks of states where public school employees have to out transgender students to their parents under a bill advancing in the Republican-supermajority Legislature. GOP House lawmakers gave near-final passage to the bill on Monday. That now puts Tennessee just

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A St. Louis judge has awarded nearly $23.5 million to a former police officer who was beaten by colleagues while working undercover during a protest in 2017. Luther Hall was badly injured in the attack during one of several protests that followed the acquittal of former St. Louis officer Jason Stockley

By ANDREW DeMILLO Associated Press LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A long-awaited audit on a $19,000 lectern bought for Republican Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee cites multiples potential violations of state law in the item’s purchase. The audit requested by lawmakers about the lectern that drew nationwide scrutiny and attention was released on Monday. The report

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Former college coach and administrator Steve Sloan, who played quarterback and served as athletic director at Alabama, has died at 79, his longtime friend Tommy Limbaugh told The Associated Press on Monday. Sloan died Sunday with his wife, Brenda Faw Sloan, by his side after three months of memory care at

By DAVID KOENIG AP Airlines Writer Boeing is defending the integrity of the fuselages on two of its largest planes. Boeing engineering executives explained Monday the process for assembling fuselage panels on the 787 Dreamliner. The panels are made of carbon composites, which Boeing says is very resistant to the kind of fatigue that can

NAPLES, Fla. (AP) — NASA says it determined that an object that crashed through the roof of a Florida home last month was a chunk of space junk from equipment discarded at the International Space Station. The debris struck a home in Naples on March 8. NASA recovered the object from the homeowner and took

By RONALD BLUM AP Baseball Writer NEW YORK (AP) — John Sterling, the hyperexcitable New York Yankees broadcaster known for decades of indelible, personalized home run calls, announced his immediate retirement Monday at age 85. Sterling made the unexpected decision a few weeks into his 36th season as the Yankees’ radio play-by-play voice. He had

By JONATHAN MATTISE Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee’s Republican-led Legislature has unanimously passed a bill that would involuntarily commit certain criminal defendants for inpatient treatment. The bill approved Monday would also temporarily remove their gun rights if they are ruled incompetent to stand trial due to intellectual disability or mental illness. The proposal

By MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Russia and Ukraine are trading blame before the United Nations Security Council for the attacks on Europe’s largest nuclear power plant. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency says the attacks have put the world “dangerously close to a nuclear accident.” Without attributing blame, IAEA

By RIO YAMAT Associated Press LAS VEGAS (AP) — Authorities and relatives say a Las Vegas lawyer and his wife were fighting to win custody of her children from a previous marriage when the woman’s former father-in-law, also an attorney, fatally shot them during a deposition hearing in the case. The coroner’s office in Las

By AMY BETH HANSON and MATTHEW BROWN Associated Press HELENA, Mont. (AP) — The dying words of an Oregon man who had an asbestos-linked cancer are being replayed in a federal courtroom for a jury hearing a wrongful death case against Warren Buffett’s BNSF Railway. Attorneys for the estates of Thomas Wells and a second