AP-National

By JASON DEAREN and MICHAEL REZENDES Associated Press A former bishop in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who was featured in an Associated Press investigation into how the church protects itself from allegations of sexual abuse was arrested by police in Virginia this week after being indicted on charges he sexually abused

By MIKE SCHNEIDER Associated Press ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The shakeup of Walt Disney World’s governing district more than a year after it was taken over by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ appointees continues with the departure of its board chairman. Martin Garcia’s departure as chairman of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District is coming a week

FLANDREAU, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota prosecutors will seek the death penalty for a Sioux Falls man charged in the death of a deputy who was struck while putting out spikes during a police chase. Joseph Gene Hoek pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and aggravated eluding Wednesday in the death of Moody County Chief

HAMILTON, Mont. (AP) — A Utah man has died after being caught in an avalanche while backcountry skiing in western Montana. Ravalli County officials say 64-year-old David Macfarlane of Park City died Tuesday in the slide near Lost Trail Pass on the Montana-Idaho border. Sheriff-Coroner Steve Holton says Macfarlane was one of a group of

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Federal prosecutors have charged a former rideshare driver in connection with an antisemitic attack on a passenger at San Francisco International Airport in 2023. The 39-year-old man was arrested Wednesday. He is charged with committing a federal hate crime. The alleged attack occurred on Oct. 26, 2023, weeks after the Hamas-led

SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — Patriarch Neophyte of Bulgaria, who was the first elected head of the Orthodox Church in the post-communist Balkan country, died at a hospital in Sofia. He was 78. The Orthodox Holy Synod said in a statement that the patriarch had been hospitalized for four months for lung ailments. The Holy Synod

PHOENIX (AP) — A Massachusetts man has been sentenced three years and six months in federal prison for making an online threat to bomb then-Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs’ election office. The Justice Department said James Clark’s sentencing on Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Phoenix followed his guilty plea last August to sending

By ANITA SNOW Associated Press PHOENIX (AP) — Public health officials in Arizona’s most populous county report they confirmed a staggering 645 heat-associated deaths last year. That is another consecutive annual record in arid metro Phoenix. The numbers in the preliminary report released Wednesday alarmed officials in America’s hottest big metro. They raise concerns about

By The Associated Press The nation’s chief accident investigator says she’s gone to the top of Boeing — the company’s CEO — and still can’t get answers about who worked on the panel that blew off a jetliner in January. Jennifer Homendy — chair of the National Transportation Safety Board — says Boeing CEO David

By MICHAEL RUBINKAM and MARC LEVY Associated Press SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro is unveiling a plan to fight climate change. Shapiro announced Wednesday that he’ll back legislation to make power plant owners in the state pay for their greenhouse gas emissions. The plan also would require utilities to buy more electricity

By GARY D. ROBERTSON Associated Press RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A federal trial over North Carolina’s photo voter identification law remains set for May. That is because a judge on Wednesday refused Wednesday to end efforts by civil rights groups that sued over the requirement on allegations that its provisions are marred by racial bias.

SEATTLE (AP) — The Washington State Bar Association has approved far lower case limits for public defenders in an effort to stop them from quitting, to help with recruiting and to fairly represent defendants. The Seattle Times reports the new limits adopted Friday are designed to cut maximum caseloads by about two-thirds. Skeptics agree the

TRAPPE, Pa. (AP) — George Parker Widman, a longtime Associated Press photographer and 1988 Pulitzer finalist, has died at the age of 79.  An obituary provided by the family says he died Friday at his home in Trappe, Pennsylvania. Widman was born on Sept. 16, 1944. In the 1970s, he was Gannett Utica photography director

By MATTHEW BROWN Associated Press BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Federal prosecutors say a Montana rancher illegally used tissue and testicles from wild sheep that were killed by hunters in central Asia and the U.S. to breed “giant” sheep hybrids for sale to private hunting preserves in Texas. The defendant admitted conspiring with others to create

By JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER Associated Press HONOLULU (AP) — Authorities say a man accused of dousing a woman with acid in Hawaii last year allegedly tried to cast doubt on himself as a suspect by plotting with a fellow inmate to carry out a second, similar attack. A new grand jury indictment says while jailed

By SEAN MURPHY Associated Press OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The death of a nonbinary high school student the day after a fight inside an Oklahoma high school restroom has been ruled a suicide by the state medical examiner’s office. A summary autopsy report released on Wednesday has determined that Nex Benedict had toxic levels of

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — A boat carrying 91 migrants has reached a small island south of Crete that is seeing a spike in the arrival of people attempting the long and dangerous crossing from Africa, A Greek coast guard statement said the migrants, who were found on a beach on Gavdos island Tuesday, were being

By RONALD BLUM Associated Press James Conlon will retire as music director of the Los Angeles Opera at the end of the 2025-26 season, ending a 20-year run that will have spanned half the company’s history. Conlon made the announcement Wednesday, five days before his 74th birthday. He will become conductor laureate in 2026-27 and

By MATT O’BRIEN AP Technology Writer The popular artificial intelligence image-generator Midjourney has started blocking its users from creating fake images of President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump ahead of the upcoming U.S. presidential election, according to tests of the AI tool by The Associated Press. With the election in full swing, it’s

By BEN FINLEY Associated Press NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — The U.S. government could end its legal fight against a planned expedition to the Titanic shipwreck. Assistant U.S. attorney Kent Porter told a federal judge Wednesday that the U.S. is seeking more information after the company scaled back its dive plans. RMS Titanic Inc. originally planned