AP National News

By KATHLEEN RONAYNE Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California water agencies that serve 27 million people will get just 5% of what they requested from the state to kick off 2023. Thursday’s announcement by water officials comes as the nation’s most populous state anticipates a fourth dry year. California typically gets half its annual

By MARK SHERMAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court agreed Thursday to decide whether the Biden administration can broadly cancel student loans, keeping the program blocked for now but signaling a final answer by early summer. That’s about two months before the newly extended pause on loan repayments is set to expire. The

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ten Los Angeles students appear to have overdosed on cannabis edibles Thursday at their middle school in the San Fernando Valley, officials said. The students, between 12 and 15 years old, were in mild to moderate distress at Van Nuys Middle School around 10:30 a.m., according to the Los Angeles Fire

By JOHN O’CONNOR AP Political Writer SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — The Illinois Senate has approved followup bill clarifying a watershed criminal justice overhaul, which takes effect Jan. 1 and will notably eliminate cash bail for defendants awaiting trial. The followup bill by Democrats adds numerous offenses to the list of crimes that qualify a defendant

By MARK LONG AP Sports Writer GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Florida backup quarterback Jalen Kitna has been released from jail on $80,000 bond a day after he was arrested on five child pornography charges that police say included images images of a man having sex with a young girl. A judge set the bond and

By ERIC TUCKER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A unanimous federal appeals court on Thursday ended an independent review of documents seized from former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate, removing a hurdle the Justice Department said had delayed its criminal investigation into the retention of top-secret government information. The decision by the three-judge panel represents

By The Associated Press The rapper Ye is no longer buying conservative social media site Parler. That’s according to a statement Thursday from the company Thursday. It said was a decision made in the interest of both parties in mid-November. Parler is a small platform in the emerging space of right-leaning, far-right and libertarian social

By RALPH D. RUSSO AP College Football Writer Over the past 25 years, college football’s postseason format for crowning a national champion has grown from two teams to four and now, starting in 2024, to 12. For a sport that started in 1869 and spent most the 20th century using bowls and polls to determine

By KEVIN FREKING and JOSH FUNK Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Legislation to avert what could have been an economically ruinous freight rail strike won final approval in Congress on Thursday as lawmakers responded quickly to President Joe Biden’s call for federal intervention in a long-running labor dispute. The Senate passed a bill to bind

By ACACIA CORONADO Associated Press AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The city of Uvalde has sued the local prosecutor’s office seeking access to records and other investigative materials on the May shooting at Robb Elementary School that left 19 children and two teachers dead. The move highlights ongoing tensions over the slow police response and resulting

SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — Hundreds of people have attended a street protest in Bulgaria’s capital to oppose a revision of the Election Code that reinstates paper ballots. The previous reformist government had replaced those ballots with voting machines. The We Continue the Change party and the Democratic Bulgaria political alliance called Thursday’s protest in Sofia,

By MARGERY A. BECK Associated Press The U.S. Justice Department has announced a settlement with the state of Iowa to resolve allegations of abuse and inadequate care at the state-run Glenwood Resource Center, a center for people with intellectual disabilities. A proposed consent decree announced Thursday by the DOJ would see an independent monitor appointed

By MICHAEL R. SISAK Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s company “cultivated a culture of fraud and deception” by lavishing luxe perks on executives and falsifying records to hide the compensation, a prosecutor told jurors Thursday during closing arguments at the Trump Organization’s criminal tax fraud trial. Assistant Manhattan District Attorney Joshua Steinglass’

By EVENS SANON Associated Press PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — A mayor in Haiti tells The Associated Press that more than 12 people have been killed and numerous homes set on fire in a community near the country’s capital as gangs fight to control more territory. Mayor Joseph Jeanson Guillaume said Thursday that the incident occurred

By KEN RITTER Associated Press LAS VEGAS (AP) — A 58-year-old ex-convict has been sentenced to 18 to 45 years in prison for killing and dismembering a man whose severed head was found in a stolen pickup truck about a year ago in Las Vegas. Eric Holland declared himself truly remorseful at sentencing Wednesday for

By RAF CASERT and FATIMA HUSSEIN Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union was edging closer to setting a $60-per-barrel price cap on Russian oil — a highly anticipated and complex political and economic maneuver designed to keep Russia’s supplies flowing into global markets while clamping down on President Vladimir Putin’s ability to fund

By STEVE KARNOWSKI Associated Press MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday proposed increasing the amount of ethanol and other biofuels that must be blended into the nation’s fuel supplies over the next three years, a move welcomed by renewable fuel and farm groups but condemned by environmentalists and oil industry groups. “This

By JOCELYN NOVECK Associated Press Aline Kominsky-Crumb, an American cartoonist known for her feminist themes and often brutally frank, highly personal and self-critical work, has died at the age of 74. Kominsky-Crumb, who was a close collaborator of her cartoonist husband, Robert Crumb, died of cancer Tuesday at their longtime home in France, said Alexander

NEW YORK (AP) — Hate rats? Are you a “somewhat bloodthirsty” New Yorker with excellent communication skills and “a general aura of badassery”? Then you might have what it takes to be the city’s new rat czar. Mayor Eric Adams’ administration posted a job listing this week seeking someone to lead the city’s long-running battle

By ED WHITE Associated Press A Michigan city agreed to pay $1,000 to a car owner to settle a lawsuit about marking tires to catch parking violators. The deal in Bay City followed a declaration in August that a similar practice in Saginaw was illegal. Federal Judge Thomas Ludington said chalking tires without a warrant