AP-National

By GENE JOHNSON Associated Press SEATTLE (AP) — Providence health care system is refunding nearly $21 million in medical bills paid by low-income residents of Washington — and it’s erasing $137 million more in outstanding debt for tens of thousands of others — to settle the state’s allegations that it overcharged those patients and then

By MARIA SHERMAN AP Music Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — When the Kansas City Chiefs beat the Baltimore Ravens last Sunday to advance to the Super Bowl, the question on fans’ minds quickly became: Will Taylor Swift be able to attend to support her partner, Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, if she has a concert

By SCOTT BAUER Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Consultants hired by the Wisconsin Supreme Court to examine six proposed maps redrawing state legislative districts say the ones submitted by the Republican Legislature and a conservative law firm are partisan gerrymanders. They stopped short Thursday of declaring the other four constitutional. They said only the

By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press U.N. experts say the terrorist threat from al-Qaida, the Islamic State group and their affiliates remains high in conflict zones in Africa and in Afghanistan – and threat levels have risen in some regions including Europe. The panel of experts said in a new report to the U.N. Security

BLYTHE, Calif. (AP) — Authorities say eight corrections officers and an incarcerated man were injured in a riot involving around 200 inmates in the recreational yard of a Southern California prison. Corrections officials say the violence erupted around 10 a.m. Wednesday as officers were escorting an inmate across the yard as part of a contraband

By JEFF AMY Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia Power Co. said Thursday that vibrations found in a cooling system of its second new nuclear reactor will delay when the unit begins generating power. Plant Vogtle’s Unit 4 now will not start commercial operation until sometime in the second quarter of 2024, or between April

MEREDITH, N.H. (AP) — A New Hampshire man has been charged with assaulting two 7-year-old children at an elementary school, two weeks after similar charges were filed against another worker at the school. Manchester Police say witnesses saw the 24-year-old behavior technician at Parker-Varney Elementary School throw a 7-year-old boy to the ground, causing him

By KIM TONG-HYUNG Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s military said North Korea has fired multiple cruise missiles into waters off its western coast, extending a provocative series of weapons tests in the face of deepening tensions with the United States, South Korea and Japan. The launches came hours after state media

By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS Associated Press JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Ellen Gilchrist, a National Book Award winner whose short stories and novels drew on the complexities of people and places in the American South, has died. She was 88. An obituary from her family said Gilchrist died Tuesday in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, where she had

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The money that Mexican migrants send home to their relatives has grown by 7.6% in 2023, to reach a record $63.3 billion for the year. The money transfers, known as remittances, have been booming since the coronavirus pandemic, but the rate of growth appeared to cool somewhat in 2023. In 2022,

By ALEX VEIGA AP Business Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — One of the nation’s largest real estate brokerages has agreed to pay $70 million as part of a proposed settlement to resolve more than a dozen lawsuits across the country over agent commissions. The agreement was filed Thursday with federal courts overseeing lawsuits in Illinois

By BRENDAN FARRINGTON Associated Press TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — The Florida House has passed a bill to let 16- and 17-year-olds work longer and later hours. Thursday’s vote comes a year after the state created a law making it harder to hire immigrants in the country illegally. Supporters said teenagers and their parents know how

By COLLEEN SLEVIN Associated Press DENVER (AP) — An American founder of a Haitian orphanage who is accused of forcing four boys to engage in sexual acts more than a decade ago will remain behind bars for now. A magistrate judge in Colorado ruled Thursday that Michael Geilenfeld should be sent to a halfway house

By JEFF AMY Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia, once a self-proclaimed leader in criminal justice reform, is sliding a little further toward its old lock-’em-up ways. State senators voted 30-17 on Thursday to require cash bail for 30 additional crimes. That includes 18 offenses that are always or often misdemeanors. The bill is only

By JOSH FUNK and TOM KRISHER Associated Press Residents of eastern Ohio can now get an up-close view in newly released videos of the toxic towers of fire that forced them from their homes last February when officials decided to blow open five tank cars filled with vinyl chloride they worried might explode days after

By STEPHEN GROVES, MARY CLARE JALONICK and LISA MASCARO Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate will hold a crucial test vote next week on legislation that would pair new policies at the southern border with wartime aid for Ukraine and other American allies, leaders pressing ahead despite heavy skepticism from Republicans and some Democrats.

By JONATHAN LANDRUM Jr. AP Entertainment Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Kris Jenner has a new term: “Twist on it.” The driven matriarch of the Kardashian-Jenner family will bring the phrase to the Super Bowl forefront during her commercial. She will guest star in the ad for Oreo, which will be returning to the NFL’s

By MARGERY A. BECK Associated Press Weeks after Republican Gov. Jim Pillen announced Nebraska would not accept federal funds to feed children in need over the summer, an Omaha lawmaker is pushing her bill to require the state to accept the $18 million for children who might otherwise go hungry at times when schools are

By ASHRAF KHALIL Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — One of the great interspecies love stories of our time has come to an end. Walnut, a white-naped crane and internet celebrity, has passed away at age 42. She is survived by eight chicks, the loving staff at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, and

By SCOTT BAUER Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Wisconsin Supreme Court has ordered the state elections commission not to transmit the presidential primary ballot to county clerks as it ponders an attempt by Democratic U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips to get added as a candidate. The order Thursday comes six days after Phillips asked