AP-National

By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer NEW YORK (AP) — NBC News cut ties Tuesday with former Republican National Committee chief Ronna McDaniel less than a week after hiring her as an on-air political contributor, a decision that followed a furious protest by some of its journalists and commentators. In announcing the decision in a

By CHEVEL JOHNSON RODRIGUE Associated Press NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Fair Grounds Race Course, which plays host to the 2024 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, begins its annual transformation in earnest Tuesday as organizers prepare to take over the field this spring for two weekends of music, food and fun. “Jazz Fest is

HOUSTON (AP) — Police are investigating the death of an 8-year-old girl whose body was found inside a large pipe for a lazy river at a Houston hotel where she’d been swimming with her family. Aliyah Jaico’s death Saturday has been ruled an accidental drowning by the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences. Her autopsy

By GARY FIELDS Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark could face sanctions, including disbarment in Washington, D.C., if a three-person panel thinks he violated ethics rules in his role in trying to help former President Donald Trump overturn the 2020 presidential election. The center of the hearing before the Board

By JEFF AMY Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia’s Republican state senators are making another attempt to impose a conservative stamp on the state’s public schools. A bill passed Tuesday would ban transgender girls from playing high school sports with other girls. It would also limit sex education and would require a system for notifying

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN Associated Press ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Top officials were gathering Tuesday in southern New Mexico to mark the 25th anniversary of the nation’s only underground repository for radioactive waste. The nuclear pollution came from decades of research and bomb making. The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant has taken in around 13,850 shipments

By JULIE CARR SMYTH and SAMANTHA HENDRICKSON Associated Press COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Two families of transgender minors have filed a constitutional challenge to an Ohio law that severely limits gender-affirming healthcare for youth under 18. Tuesday’s lawsuit, brought in Franklin County Common Pleas Court by the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Ohio and

By JONATHAN LANDRUM Jr. AP Entertainment Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Sean “Diddy” Combs’ lawyer said Tuesday that the searches of the rapper’s Los Angeles and Miami properties by federal authorities in a sex trafficking investigation were “a gross use of military-level force” and that Combs is “innocent and will continue to fight” to clear

By STEFANIE DAZIO Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Southern California police department has been handcuffed by Lego after the toy company asked the agency to stop adding Lego heads to cover the faces of suspects in images it shares on social media. The Murrieta Police Department has been using Lego heads and emojis

By KEVIN McGILL Associated Press NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Advocates for adult victims of childhood sexual abuse say they will ask Louisiana’s Supreme Court to reconsider a ruling that wiped out 2021 legislation giving them a renewed opportunity to file damage lawsuits. The ruling bucked a trend. Advocates say 24 other states have laws that

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A federal court has dismissed an attempt by conservative Pennsylvania lawmakers to overturn automatic voter registration, along with lawmakers’ other challenges to actions designed to boost voter access. Pennsylvania U.S. District Judge Jennifer Wilson wrote in her decision Tuesday that the lawmakers did not have legal standing in their filing. The

By HANNAH FINGERHUT Associated Press DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa attorney general’s office said it is still working on an audit of its victim services that has held up emergency contraception funding for victims of sexual assault. Attorney General Brenna Bird, a Republican, paused the funding while awaiting the results of the audit

By MICHAEL CASEY Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — Two former officials of a Massachusetts veterans home where at least 76 people died during the COVID-19 pandemic will avoid jail time in the case. Bennett Walsh, the former superintendent of the Veterans’ Home in Holyoke, and Dr. David Clinton, its former medical director, settled their criminal

By CHRISTOPHER WEBER Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — A mountain lion killed a man and seriously wounded his brother last weekend in northern California. But such attacks on humans are rare. The mauling last weekend was the first fatal encounter with a mountain lion in the state in two decades. The big cats that

By WAYNE PARRY Associated Press The bridge that collapsed into a Maryland river after a ship strike was iconic. It was erected almost five decades ago, named after the author of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” and part of the very fabric of Baltimore. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore calls its loss Tuesday unprecedented and heartbreaking. Erected in

By PAUL J. WEBER Associated Press AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The securities fraud case against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is over after nine years. He will stay in office under an agreement announced in a Houston courtroom on Tuesday. The deal with special prosecutors abruptly ends the long-running criminal case, which at one time

By KIM CHANDLER Associated Press The private liberal arts school Birmingham-Southern College in Alabama has announced it will close at the end of May. The College Board of Trustees voted Tuesday to close the college located on the west side of Birmingham, one of Alabama’s major cities. The 168-year-old college with about 1,000 students said

By MATTHEW PERRONE, AMANDA SEITZ and CHRISTINE FERNANDO Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Supreme Court justices on Tuesday did not appear ready to limit access to the abortion pill mifepristone, in a case that could have far-reaching implications for millions of American women and for scores of drugs regulated by the Food and Drug

By MEG KINNARD Associated Press COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Nicole Shanahan, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ‘s pick to be his running mate in his independent bid for president, brings youth and considerable wealth to Kennedy’s long-shot campaign but is little known outside Silicon Valley. Shanahan, 38, is a California lawyer and philanthropist. Shanahan leads the

By TOM WITHERS AP Sports Writer CLEVELAND (AP) — The Cavaliers are stepping up their off-court game. The NBA franchise unveiled renderings for a new world-class practice and high-tech training facility for public use in downtown that will further develop unused land on the Cuyahoga River and potentially help lure free agents to Cleveland. Pending