AP-National

By PAT GRAHAM AP Sports Writer Shawn Barber, the Canadian pole vault record holder and 2015 world champion, has died from medical complications. He was 29. Barber died Wednesday at home in Kingwood, Texas, his agent, Paul Doyle, confirmed to The Associated Press. A cause of death was not known yet. Barber had been experiencing

WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal judge overseeing the 2020 election interference against Donald Trump has rejected his lawyers’ bid to hold special counsel Jack Smith’s team in contempt for actions prosecutors took after the judge put the case on hold. But the judge said Thursday that no further “substantive” court filings should be submitted without

By ALANIS THAMES AP Sports Writer MIAMI (AP) — A breakaway team of Cuban players who defected from the country had their club debut delayed this week when the Colombian government canceled a tournament there. Players with the Cuban Professional Baseball Federation, or FEPCUBE, say Colombia nixed the tournament over opposition to the Cuban team’s

By CHRISTINA LARSON AP Science Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Scientists have mapped the largest coral reef deep in the ocean, stretching hundreds of miles off the U.S. Atlantic coast. While researchers have known since the 1960s that some coral were present off the Atlantic, the reef’s size remained a mystery until new underwater mapping technology

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida will seek to streamline regulations and offer incentives to help make health care more accessible under two bills unanimously passed by the Senate. The votes on Thursday quickly pushed forward Republican Senate President Kathleen Passidomo’s top session priority. The bills would make it easier for foreign doctors and out-of-state health

By AMY TAXIN Associated Press SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A prosecutor has told jurors that a murder defendant acted callously in killing a 6-year-old boy in a car-to-car shooting on a Southern California freeway in 2021. Twenty-six-year-old Marcus Eriz is charged with killing Aiden Leos while the boy’s mother was driving him to kindergarten

By MICHAEL HILL Associated Press FORT EDWARD, N.Y. (AP) — The boyfriend of a 20-year-old woman fatally shot in the neck when they pulled into the wrong driveway described to a jury the moment when he heard a shot pierce the car, and then saw his girlfriend slumped over in the passenger seat. Blake Walsh

By ISABELLA VOLMERT Associated Press INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The Indiana state House of Representatives has unanimously passed bill that defines antisemitism as religious discrimination in education code. Opponents to the bill say it could be used to shut down support for Palestinians and criticism of Israel in classrooms and on campuses. The bill now advances

By STEVE KARNOWSKI Associated Press ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Early voting in Minnesota’s Super Tuesday presidential primary begins Friday. The state’s chief elections officer said at a news conference Thursday that his office is prepared to face the challenges of disinformation, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and physical threats and intimidation against poll workers. Secretary of

By KATE BRUMBACK Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is accusing the estranged wife of a special prosecutor she hired of trying to obstruct her criminal election-interference case against former President Donald Trump and others by seeking to question her in the couple’s divorce proceedings. A motion filed last week

By CHRISTINA A. CASSIDY Associated Press When New Hampshire voters cast their ballots in Tuesday’s first-in-the-nation primary, many will do so using scanners that are at least 15 years old — with some potentially dating back to Bill Clinton’s presidency. Election experts say the aging AccuVote ballot tabulators in use across roughly half the state’s

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Country music singer Chris Stapleton, Foo Fighters, Queen Latifah and New Orleans’ own Jon Batiste are among the star power set to join The Rolling Stones as headliners of this year’s New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, organizers announced Thursday. The event will take place over two weekends, starting April 25

By LISA MASCARO AP Congressional Correspondent WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans are laying the groundwork for impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. In its second impeachment hearing, the House Homeland Security Committee heard Thursday from parents whose tearful testimony seeks to link government border policy to their daughters’ deaths and from a law professor

By RIO YAMAT Associated Press LAS VEGAS (AP) — A panel of Nevada Supreme Court justices won’t reconsider former “Dances With Wolves” actor Nathan Chasing Horse’s request to dismiss a sprawling indictment that accuses him of leading a cult, taking underage wives and sexually abusing Indigenous women and girls. “Rehearing denied,” two of three justices

By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and CLAUDIA LAUER Associated Press A Justice Department report details a myriad of failures by law enforcement who responded to the shooting at a school in Uvalde, Texas, when children waited desperately for over an hour before police stormed a classroom to take the gunman down. The federal review, which was

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s parliament has approved legislation that is intended to ease deportations of unsuccessful asylum-seekers as Chancellor Olaf Scholz seeks to defuse migration as a political problem. The legislation approved Thursday foresees increasing the maximum length of pre-deportation custody from 10 days to 28 and specifically facilitating the deportation of people who are

By MARY CLARE JALONICK and KEVIN FREKING Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress sent President Joe Biden a short-term spending bill on Thursday that would avert a looming partial government shutdown and fund federal agencies into March. The House approved the measure by a vote of 314-108, with opposition coming mostly from the more conservative

By MIKE STOBBE AP Medical Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Wastewater testing does a good job at detecting mpox infections, U.S. health officials said in a report Thursday that bolsters a push to use sewage to track more diseases. U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention researchers found that over the course of a week,

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s leading soccer club Basaksehir says it’s ended its contract with Israeli player Eden Karzev following a disciplinary probe of his social media post calling for the release of hostages held in Gaza by the Hamas militant group. Thursday’s announcement comes days after another Israeli player, Sagiv Jehezkel, was briefly detained

By MATTHEW LEE AP Diplomatic Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken is planning to visit four African countries as the Biden administration tries to keep its eyes on all corners of the world while being consumed by crises in Ukraine, the Mideast and the Red Sea. The State Department says Blinken will