AP National News

By JOHN O’CONNOR AP Political Writer SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Illinois has outlawed automatic weapons amid a torrent of mass shootings including a 4th of July parade shooting that killed seven and injured 30. Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the bill into law Tuesday after the House approved the ban 68-41. Illinois is the ninth state,

By AUDREY McAVOY Associated Press HONOLULU (AP) — Hawaii’s new attorney general says more than two dozen elders won’t be subject to another round of prosecutions for blocking a road three years ago to prevent the construction of a new telescope on a mountain summit that many Native Hawaiians consider sacred. Law enforcement arrested 38

WASHINGTON (AP) — Blake Hounshell, a well-known political journalist who edited The New York Times’ “On Politics” newsletter and formerly held several leadership positions at Politico, has died at 44. In a note to staff, executive editor Joe Kahn and managing editor Carolyn Ryan called Hounshell a “dedicated journalist who quickly distinguished himself as our

By ASHRAF KHALIL Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The fatal shooting of a middle-school student has sparked public uproar in Washington as the nation’s capital struggles with rising tensions about violent crime and racial justice. Police say they found 13-year-old Karon Blake early Saturday morning suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. A police media report says

By ADAM SCHRECK and HYUNG-JIN KIM Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea’s spike in missile tests, growing nuclear ambitions and other provocative acts pose a “serious threat” that could lead to a dangerous miscalculation and spark a wider conflict, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said Tuesday. Speaking with The Associated Press

By JUAN A. LOZANO and MICHAEL GRACZYK Associated Press HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — A former suburban Houston police officer was executed Tuesday for hiring two people to kill his estranged wife nearly 30 years ago amid a contentious divorce and custody battle. Robert Fratta, 65, received a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville

By ROD McGUIRK and NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press ROME (AP) — Cardinal George Pell, a onetime financial adviser to Pope Francis who spent 404 days in solitary confinement in his native Australia on child sex abuse charges before his convictions were unanimously overturned, died Tuesday in Rome. He was 81. Pell suffered fatal heart complications

By CLAIRE SAVAGE Associated Press/Report for America CHICAGO (AP) — Illinois lawmakers approved during the last day of their lame-duck session a measure that would secure access to reproductive and gender-affirming health care. The legislation makes Illinois the latest state to pursue abortion rights protections since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last

By BRIAN MELLEY and CHRISTOPHER WEBER Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — Sinkholes swallowed cars and floodwaters swamped towns and swept away a small boy as California deals with more wild winter weather. Millions of people were under flood warnings, and more than 110,000 homes and businesses were without power because of heavy rains, hail

By CLAIRE RUSH Associated Press/Report for America SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Oregon’s newly sworn-in Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek signed three executive orders to tackle the state’s housing and homelessness crises on her first full day in office Tuesday. One order declared a homelessness state of emergency, while another directed state agencies to prioritize reducing homelessness.

By ANITA SNOW Associated Press PHOENIX (AP) — Yuma County, Arizona politicians, tribal leaders and the head of a local humanitarian group called on a politically diverse delegation of senators from around the U.S. to craft immigration reform amid an increase in migrant arrivals that can overwhelm local resources. Arizona Sen. Krysten Sinema, an Independent,

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — The owner of a former vermiculite mine in northwestern Montana that spread harmful asbestos in and around the town of Libby has offered $18.5 million to settle the last of the state’s environmental claims. The proposed settlement was filed Tuesday in W.R. Grace & Co.’s bankruptcy case for the Libby Asbestos

By JOSH FUNK AP Business Writer OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Chickens may not be able to fly very far, but the price of eggs is soaring. A lingering bird flu outbreak, combined with soaring feed, fuel and labor costs, has led to U.S. egg prices more than doubling over the past year, and hatched a

By DEMETRIS NELLAS Associated Press ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Constantine, the former and last king of Greece, who won an Olympic gold medal before becoming entangled in his country’s volatile politics in the 1960s as king and spent decades in exile, has died. He was 82. Doctors at the private Hygeia Hospital in Athens said

By TOM DAVIES Associated Press INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb urged skeptical state legislators to support funding for several big-ticket spending plans, arguing that the state needed to take action on multiple fronts. Holcomb used the annual State of the State address Tuesday to seek the support of the General Assembly dominated by

HOUSTON (AP) — A grand jury will determine whether a customer at a Houston restaurant will face charges after fatally shooting a man who pointed a gun that appeared real at customers and took their cash. Following the shooting last week, police had asked for the public’s help in identifying the man who fatally shot

PRESTONSBURG, Ky. (AP) — Some former clients of a disgraced Kentucky attorney who ran the largest U.S. Social Security scam in history may have a chance to get their lost disability payments back. An agreement reached with the Social Security Administration would allow about 500 former clients of ex-disability attorney Eric Conn to request a

By SCOTT McFETRIDGE Associated Press DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An apparent cyberattack on Iowa’s largest school district has led officials to cancel classes for 30,000 students for a second day as technicians scramble to protect data and restore the computer system, the district’s leader said Tuesday afternoon. The Des Moines school district’s interim superintendent,

By REBECCA BOONE Associated Press BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A woman charged with conspiring to kill her two children and her new husband’s late wife says she has an alibi, and that the kids were killed while they were at her late brother’s apartment. Attorneys for Lori Vallow Daybell made the claim in court documents

By JULIE CARR SMYTH Associated Press COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Republican Attorney General Dave Yost has asked the Ohio Supreme Court to weigh in on the future of Ohio’s near-ban on abortions, despite arguing in July that the same court lacked jurisdiction to determine the paused law’s constitutionality. Yost appealed for the high court’s intervention