AP National News

By AMANCAI BIRABEN Associated Press PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota lawmakers are advancing a number of bills that would curb Chinese influence in South Dakota’s farmland. Republican Rep. Will Mortenson proposed Thursday investigating partnerships between landowners and foreign entities. It comes after other lawmakers pushed forth other propositions tackling foreign influence, like banning contracts

By DAVID BAUDER Associated Press Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Easy listening, some called Burt Bacharach’s music, and not always kindly. But listen closely, and there was nothing easy about it. Bacharach, who death at age 94 was announced on Thursday, leaves behind a rich catalog of work. The best centered on his collaborations with

By BRUCE SCHREINER Associated Press FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Republican lawmakers in Kentucky advanced a bill Thursday to allow teachers to misgender their transgender students, plunging into a culture war issue despite pleas to resist doing so from a Senate colleague whose transgender son died recently. The GOP-dominated Senate Education Committee heard impassioned pleas from

By DAVID A. LIEB Associated Press JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Racial tensions in Mississippi echoed in Missouri Thursday, as Black Democratic lawmakers accused the state’s Republican House leadership of racism for shutting down a Black lawmaker’s speech and passing a bill that could strip power from the Black woman elected as prosecutor in St.

By MIKE SCHNEIDER Associated Press ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Questions about female athletes’ menstrual history will no longer appear on medical forms Florida high school students are required to fill out before participating in sports, though the new form will still ask athletes for their sex assigned at birth, rather than just their sex. The

By SEUNG MIN KIM, JOSH BOAK and STEVE PEOPLES Associated Press TAMPA, Florida (AP) — President Joe Biden is taking direct aim at Republicans who have floated cuts to Social Security and Medicare. He told an audience in Florida on Thursday that he would create a “nightmare” for anyone who tried them. It’s a state

By KATE BRUMBACK Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — Newly released Atlanta police body camera video shows officers clearing tents from the site of a planned public safety training center and then reacting after they heard the barrage of gunfire that left an environmental activist dead and a state trooper injured. The four Atlanta police officers

By MATTHEW DALY and GABE STERN Associated Press MCCARRAN, Nev. (AP) — A Nevada company that recycles batteries for electric vehicles has won a $2 billion green energy loan from the Biden administration. Redwood Materials, a recycling venture founded by the former chief technology officer at Tesla, secured a conditional loan from the Energy Department’s

By MARYCLAIRE DALE Associated Press Ten retired players are accusing the NFL of lying and flagrantly violating federal law in denying disability benefits. The allegations are found in a potential class-action lawsuit that was filed Thursday in Baltimore. The players say they left the game with lingering physical or cognitive injuries that make their daily

By JUSTIN SPIKE Associated Press KAHRAMANMARAS, Turkey (AP) — As hours have turned to days after Turkey’s deadly earthquake, rescues are becoming rarer. Many of the family members left behind are facing an awful truth: that it’s unlikely they’ll ever be reunited with their relatives. In cities like Nurdagi and Kahramanmaras, crews continue the frantic

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A Delaware man who threatened a Black police officer with a pole attached to a Confederate battle flag as he stormed the U.S. Capitol was sentenced on Thursday to three years in prison. Kevin Seefried, 53, tearfully apologized for his participation in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — The organization that created a high school African American studies program rejected by Florida says it’s still waiting for specifics from the state about how the course violates state law. The College Board also disputed what it said were Florida’s claims it had deleted 19 topics from the proposed Advance Placement

By JONATHAN LANDRUM Jr. AP Entertainment Writer PHOENIX (AP) — Rihanna is putting in the work ahead of her Super Bowl halftime show, focusing so hard on what she promises will be “a jam-packed show” that her upcoming birthday and Valentine’s Day almost slipped her mind. “The setlist was the biggest challenge. That was the

By WAYNE PARRY Associated Press SHAMONG, N.J. (AP) — The age-old debate pitting personal freedom versus the common good is roiling fragile forests in New Jersey that the United Nations has singled out for special protection. State officials have long been dealing with tensions between vehicle users in the 1.1-million-acre Pinelands region and those who

By ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE Associated Press TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has moved one step closer to taking over Walt Disney World’s self-governing district. Republicans in the House approved a bill Thursday to require the Republican governor to appoint a five-member governing board over the Disney government. The proposal comes after a high-profile

By BETH HARRIS AP Racing Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Not all of Burt Bacharach’s hits were on the charts. The Oscar-winning songwriter and pianist found success at the racetrack, too. He first got into horse racing in 1968, the year in which he co-wrote hits “Do You Know the Way to San Jose” by

By ABBY SEWELL and KAREEM CHEHAYEB Associated Press BEIRUT (AP) — A Syrian baby girl whose mother gave birth to her while trapped under the rubble of their home during this week’s devastating earthquake now has a name: Aya, Arabic for “a sign from God.” With her parents and all her siblings killed, her great-uncle

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic Rep. Angie Craig of Minnesota is recovering after an assault in her Washington apartment building. Her chief of staff, Nick Coe, says there’s no evidence the attack was politically motivated. He says Craig was assaulted in the elevator of her apartment building Thursday morning. She defended herself and suffered bruising, but

By KEVIN McGILL Associated Press NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A New Orleans woman says in a federal lawsuit that she was illegally blocked from a state senator’s Twitter account after posting comments critical of the lawmaker’s anti-abortion efforts. And she wants a federal judge to restore her access to the account. The lawsuit filed Thursday

By MADDIE BURAKOFF AP Science Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Archaeologists in Kenya have dug up some of the oldest stone tools ever found, but who used them is a mystery. In the past, scientists assumed that our direct ancestors were the only toolmakers. But two big fossil teeth found along with the tools at