AP National News

By JUAN A. LOZANO Associated Press HOUSTON (AP) — A task force in Houston has unveiled a new agreement its members say will improve communication and planning to ensure that events like last year’s Astroworld music festival don’t turn deadly. After the festival, questions were raised about whether there was sufficient coordination and communication among

By KEN SWEET AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — The former CEO of the failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX said Wednesday that he did not ’knowingly” misuse customers’ funds, and claimed he believes his millions of angry customers will eventually be made whole. The comments from Sam Bankman-Fried came during an interview with Andrew Ross

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Prosecutors say a 10-year-old Milwaukee boy aimed a gun at his mother, then shot and killed her, because she would not buy him a virtual reality headset. The boy was charged as an adult last week with first-degree reckless homicide. According to a criminal complaint obtained by the Journal Sentinel, the boy

By BRIAN MELLEY and ANDREW DALTON Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — A judge declared a mistrial Wednesday at the rape trial of “That ’70s Show” actor Danny Masterson after jurors, who were leaning strongly toward acquitting him, were deadlocked following the monthlong trial in which the Church of Scientology played a supporting role. Masterson,

By ACACIA CORONADO and SEAN MURPHY Associated Press OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Roger Coody has no legal training and his political experience until recently had been limited to registering people to vote. Now, the Oklahoma hairstylist is pushing a ballot proposal he wrote that would make abortion access a constitutional right in his deeply red

By REBECCA BOONE Associated Press BOISE, Idaho (AP) — In a normal year, University of Idaho students would be bustling between classes and the library, readying for the pre-finals cramming period known as “dead week.” On Wednesday, however, a little under half the students appeared to be gone, choosing to stay home and take classes

By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council has voted unanimously to keep pressing all countries to implement a resolution aimed at keeping nuclear, chemical and biological weapons out of the hands of terrorists, black marketeers and others. The council resolution approved Wednesday extends the mandate of the committee

By DÁNICA COTO Associated Press SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The U.S. Virgin Islands has reached a settlement of more than $105 million in a sex trafficking case against the estate of financier Jeffrey Epstein. The settlement announced Wednesday ends a nearly three-year legal saga for the U.S. territory, which sought to hold Epstein

By KIM CHANDLER and JEFF MARTIN Associated Press MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — A twister roaring out of the darkness smashed through a small Alabama community early Wednesday during an outbreak of tornadoes across the Deep South, killing a 39-year-old woman and her 8-year-old son on a street where generations of one family lived. One of

By MATTHEW PERRONE AP Health Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials approved the first pharmaceutical-grade version of the fecal transplant procedures that doctors have increasingly used to treat a potentially life-threatening intestinal infection. The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved the drug for adult patients at risk for reinfection with the infection commonly referred

SANDSTONE, Minn. (AP) — Four lion cubs that were orphaned during the war in Ukraine have arrived safely at a Minnesota animal sanctuary that has pledged to provide them a permanent home. A male cub named Taras and three females named Stefania, Lesya and Prada, who are all between four and five months old, spent

By SCOTT BAUER and FARNOUSH AMIRI Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has been interviewed by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Committee Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson told reporters that Vos would be the last witness before the panel completes its report, and Vos

By TOM DAVIES and ARLEIGH RODGERS Associated Press INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indiana’s Republican attorney general on Wednesday asked the state medical licensing board to discipline an Indianapolis doctor who has spoken publicly about providing an abortion to a 10-year-old rape victim who traveled from Ohio after its more-restrictive abortion law took effect. The complaint alleges

By JOHN ZENOR AP Sports Writer UAB has hired former NFL quarterback Trent Dilfer as its next head coach. UAB athletic director Mark Ingram announced the hiring Wednesday. Dilfer, who won a Super Bowl with the Baltimore Ravens in 2000, has been the head coach at Lipscomb Academy in Nashville, Tennessee, since 2019. He has

By KEN RITTER Associated Press LAS VEGAS (AP) — President Joe Biden says he intends to designate a broad rugged mountain area considered sacred by area Native Americans in southern Nevada as a new national monument. Biden told a gathering of tribal leaders in Washington on Wednesday that Spirit Mountain is central to the creation

By JOHN SEEWER and KANTELE FRANKO Associated Press Jurors have convicted a man in the killings of eight people from another Ohio family after weighing his denials and other testimony against the word of witnesses including his brother and mother, who previously pleaded guilty for their roles. Thirty-one-year-old George Wagner IV was found guilty Wednesday

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN Associated Press ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Environmentalists say the federal government isn’t doing enough to ensure the survival of the Rio Grande silvery minnow as drought tightens its grip on one of the longest rivers in the West. In a lawsuit filed Wednesday, the group WildEarth Guardians asked a federal judge

By DAMIAN J. TROISE and ALEX VEIGA AP Business Writers Wall Street closed out a solid November with a broad market rally Wednesday after the head of the Federal Reserve said the central bank could soon begin easing up on its aggressive interest rate increases aimed at taming inflation. Fed Chair Jerome Powell, speaking at

By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer NEW YORK (AP) — The Thanksgiving weekend wasn’t just big for turkey, family visits and the Macy’s parade. It was a big weekend for sports watching. Fox’s Thanksgiving showing of the NFL game between Dallas and the New York Giants reached 42 million people, which the Nielsen company said

INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — Retired NFL star Terrell Owens said a fight caught on camera in which he punched a man in a CVS parking lot was the result of an “aggressor” threatening him and a fan he was talking to at the California store. Owens, 48, told The Associated Press in a statement that