AP National News

By KIM CHANDLER Associated Press MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama will withdraw from a 32-state voter registration database, the incoming secretary of state announced on Wednesday — a decision that drew sharp criticism from his outgoing counterpart. Republican Wes Allen, who will be sworn in as secretary of state in January, sent a letter announcing

By JUAN A. LOZANO Associated Press HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — Texas has executed an inmate for killing his pregnant ex-girlfriend and her 7-year-old son more than 17 years ago. Stephen Barbee was given a lethal injection Wednesday evening at the state penitentiary in Huntsville. He was pronounced dead at 7:35 p.m. He was put to

By YURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer TOKYO (AP) — Japan marked a trade deficit for the 15th month in a row in October as both imports and exports reached record highs. It comes as the costs of energy and food soar and the yen stumbles. The deficit at 2.16 trillion yen, or $15 billion, is

By WILL WEISSERT, SARA BURNETT and JILL COLVIN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans won control of the U.S. House on Wednesday, returning the party to power in Washington and giving conservatives leverage to blunt President Joe Biden’s agenda and spur a flurry of investigations. But a threadbare majority will pose immediate challenges for GOP

By BOB CHRISTIE and JACQUES BILLEAUD Associated Press FLORENCE, Ariz. (AP) — An Arizona man convicted of murdering two people in 1980 was put to death Wednesday in the state’s third execution since officials started carrying out the death penalty in May after a nearly eight-year hiatus. Murray Hooper died by lethal injection at the

By REBECCA BOONE and NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS Associated Press BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Police in the college town of Moscow, Idaho, say they have not identified a suspect or found a weapon in the weekend slayings of four University of Idaho students in a rental house near campus. Police continue to believe the attack was

By BOB CHRISTIE Associated Press PHOENIX (AP) — Two Republicans who control the board in a rural southeastern Arizona county now want to withdraw a lawsuit they filed two days ago seeking to force their own elections director to hand-count all the ballots cast in-person on Election Day. One of the GOP supervisors in Cochise

By MICHAEL GOLDBERG AND EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS Associated Press JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Officials in Mississippi’s capital city are scheduled to vote Thursday on a proposed agreement with the federal government for how to fix the city’s water system. The water system came dangerously close to collapsing more than two months ago. EPA Administrator Michael

By ZEKE MILLER and CHRIS MEGERIAN Associated Press NUSA DUA, Indonesia (AP) — President Joe Biden took an around-the-world victory lap after this month’s midterm election, where Democrats showed surprising strength in holding back Republicans. He visited Egypt, Cambodia and Indonesia to push for stronger action on climate change, closer economic ties in Asia and

By TODD RICHMOND Associated Press A judge sentenced a man who killed six people and injured many others when he drove his SUV through a Christmas parade in suburban Milwaukee to life in prison with no chance of release Wednesday, rejecting arguments from him and his family that mental illness drove him to do it.

By MICHAEL R. BLOOD AP Political Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — U.S. Rep. Karen Bass defeated developer Rick Caruso Wednesday to become the next mayor of Los Angeles, as voters elevated the first Black woman to hold the post as City Hall contends with multiple scandals that have shaken trust in government, an out-of-control homeless

By LISA MASCARO, BRIAN SLODYSKO and MARY CLARE JALONICK Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Mitch McConnell was reelected as Republican leader Wednesday, quashing a challenge from Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, the Senate GOP campaign chief criticized after a disappointing performance in the midterm elections that kept Senate control with Democrats. McConnell, of Kentucky,

By ADAM BEAM Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California will likely have a $25 billion budget deficit next year. The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office said Wednesday that state revenues are $41 billion below expectations. Revenue has increased steadily in the nation’s most populous state for the past decade. Earlier this year, lawmakers approved a

By STEVE PEOPLES and BRENDAN FARRINGTON Associated Press TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is joining several leading Republican officials insisting that it’s much too early for the GOP to focus on the next presidential election. He made the comments Wednesday morning, roughly 12 hours after former President Donald Trump formally launched his

By MARY CLARE JALONICK Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Legislation to protect same-sex and interracial marriages crossed a major Senate hurdle Wednesday, putting Congress on track to take the historic step of ensuring that such unions are enshrined in federal law. Twelve Republicans voted with all Democrats to move forward on the legislation, meaning a

CHICAGO (AP) — Builders say construction has resumed of the Obama Presidential Center, nearly a week after it was halted when a noose was found at the site. The Lakeside Alliance, a partnership of Black-owned construction companies, said in a statement Wednesday that work on the center in Jackson Park on Chicago’s South Side is

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Arizona-based First Solar Inc. has selected Alabama as the site of a more than $1 billion factory that will manufacture modules that generate solar power. A company statement says the plant will be located in Lauderdale County in the Tennessee Valley region and will create more than 700 jobs. It’s part

By KEN SWEET AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — A host of Hollywood and sports celebrities including Larry David and Tom Brady were named as defendants in a class-action lawsuit against cryptocurrency exchange FTX, arguing that their celebrity status made them culpable for promoting the firm’s failed business model. FTX has been in the

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A former Ohio bar owner who stormed the U.S. Capitol in a military-style stack formation with fellow members of the far-right Oath Keepers extremist group has testified that it was a “really stupid” decision. Jessica Watkins took the stand Wednesday in the case accusing her, Oath Keepers