AP-National

By LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — New obstruction of justice crimes have been lodged against Sen. Bob Menendez. The new charges were in a rewritten indictment returned against the Democrat on Tuesday in Manhattan federal court. New charges of conspiracy to obstruct justice and obstruction of justice were added against Menendez and

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN Associated Press ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The wild population of Mexican gray wolves in the southwestern U.S. is still growing. Federal wildlife officials announced the results of an annual survey Tuesday, saying there are at least 257 wolves roaming parts of Arizona and New Mexico. That’s 15 more than the year

By JEFFRREY COLLINS Associated Press COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina lawmakers appear close to approving a bill that would allow anyone who can legally own a gun to carry the weapon openly. The House passed a compromise 86-33 on Tuesday. The Senate debated the proposal, but it did not immediately vote. The proposal includes

By BRUCE SCHREINER Associated Press FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear condemned efforts to limit diversity, equity and inclusion practices at public universities after marching with other Kentuckians on Tuesday to commemorate the 60th anniversary of a landmark civil-rights rally that featured Martin Luther King Jr. in the state’s capital city. “DEI is

By The Associated Press Russia’s spymaster says that opposition leader Alexei Navalny died of natural causes, a statement that appears to reflect the Kremlin efforts to assuage international outrage over the death of President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest foe. Sergei Naryshkin, the director of the Foreign Intelligence Service, a top Russian intelligence agency, made the statement

By the Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — In case you needed yet another incentive to cram all your travel items into a carry-on, Delta Airlines has just boosted the cost of your first checked bag by 17%. The increases adds $5 to the previous, and not-exactly-insignificant, $30 fee for domestic flights. Delta is the

By REGINA GARCIA CANO and JORGE RUEDA Associated Press CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela’s highly anticipated presidential election will take place July 28 – the birthday of the country’s late fiery leader Hugo Chávez – officials announced Tuesday, plowing ahead with a tight campaign season that deepens doubts over the participation of the opposition’s leading

By COREY WILLIAMS Associated Press Tumbleweeds, the gnarled icon of the Old West, rolled in over the weekend and kept rolling until blanketing some homes and streets in suburban Salt Lake City. Crews on Tuesday continued to plow, load and haul carcasses of twisted and dried tumbleweeds from neighborhoods in South Jordan, Utah, four days

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — University of Arizona President Robert Robbins is getting his salary cut, but he doesn’t have a problem with that. In fact, he asked for it. Robbins has become a central figure in the school’s financial crisis. The university based in Tucson is trying to dig out from a $177 million budget

NEW YORK (AP) — Alice McDermott’s novel about military wives in Vietnam, “Absolution,” and the Jamel Brinkley story collection “Witness” are among the finalists for the PEN/Faulkner Award. The other nominees announced Tuesday include Henry Hoke’s “Open Throat,” the rare novel to be narrated by a mountain lion; Claire Jiménez’s family drama-mystery, “What Happened to

By ZEKE MILLER AP White House Correspondent WASHINGTON (AP) — The Veterans Affairs secretary has reversed a department memo that aimed to ban VA displays of the iconic “V-J Day in Times Square” photograph of a Navy sailor kissing a strange woman on the streets of New York at the end of World War II.

By GEOFF MULVIHILL Associated Press Alabama lawmakers have passed legislation that was quickly signed by Gov. Kay Ivey to protect clinics that provide in vitro fertilization from lawsuits in response to a ruling last month from the State’s Supreme Court that frozen embryos have the rights of children under the state’s wrongful death law. The Republican-sponsored

By MARYCLAIRE DALE Associated Press PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The married LGBTQ leaders arrested during a traffic stop in Philadelphia were driving separately to take a car for repairs when the lead car was pulled over. The couple’s lawyer said Tuesday that a trooper had been driving in front of mayoral aide Celena Morrison before maneuvering

By JONATHAN J. COOPER Associated Press PHOENIX (AP) — Independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona says she won’t run for a second term this year. Sinema’s decision Tuesday comes after her estrangement from the Democratic Party left her politically homeless and without a clear path to reelection. Senate Republicans recently blocked a bipartisan bill to

PHOENIX (AP) — A man sought in New York in a fatal bludgeoning in a Manhattan hotel has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and other charges in Arizona in separate stabbings of two women over a week later in metro Phoenix. Raad Noah Almansoori was arraigned on charges stemming from the stabbings on Feb.

By JIM SALTER Associated Press ST. LOUIS (AP) — A federal agency is examining soil beneath homes in a small suburban St. Louis subdivision to determine if residents are living atop Cold War era nuclear contamination. But activists say the testing needs to be far more widespread. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is taking

By LARRY NEUMEISTER and CEDAR ATTANASIO Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández took the witness stand in his defense at his New York trial on Tuesday, denying that he teamed up with drug dealers to protect them in return for millions of dollars in bribes. His testimony in Manhattan

By The Associated Press Ukrainian sea drones have reportedly sunk another Russian warship in the Black Sea, the latest in a series of strikes that has crippled Moscow’s naval capability and limited its operations with the war now in its third year. Successful Ukrainian drone and missile strikes have provided a major morale boost for

By BEN FINLEY Associated Press Liberty University has agreed to pay an unprecedented $14 million fine for the Christian school’s failure to disclose information about crimes on its campus and for its treatment of sexual assault survivors, the U.S. Department of Education announced Tuesday. The fine is by far the largest ever levied under the

By The Associated Press Caitlin Clark’s record-setting game for Iowa against Ohio State on Sunday attracted more than 4 million television viewers at its peak and was the most watched women’s regular-season basketball game since 1999, Fox Sports announced Tuesday. Clark scored 35 points and passed Pete Maravich as the NCAA Division I overall career