AP National News

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Megan Fox and Machine Gun Kelly are engaged. The actor and rapper have decided to legalize their dramatically eccentric coupling, according to Instagram videos that each posted Wednesday. Fox shared video of Kelly taking a knee under the tree where the two say they fell in love in July of 2020.

By KEVIN McGILL Associated Press NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal court has again rejected a Louisiana pastor’s lawsuit over Gov. John Bel Edwards’ past COVID-19 restrictions on public gatherings. U.S. District Judge Brian Jackson in Baton Rouge said Tony Spell’s lawsuit is moot because the restrictions long ago expired. And Jackson rejected Spell’s request

By MATTHEW BARAKAT Associated Press LEESBURG, Va. (AP) — A northern Virginia teenager found guilty of sexually assaulting classmates at two separate schools has been ordered to attend a locked, residential treatment facility until he turns 18. The 15-year-old boy was also ordered Wednesday to be placed on the sex offender registry at a hearing

SAN FRANCISCO More than 80 fact checking organizations are calling on YouTube to address what they say is rampant misinformation on the platform. A letter to CEO Susan Wojcicki published Wednesday calls the Google-owned platform one of the major conduits of online disinformation and misinformation worldwide. The fact checkers say YouTube’s efforts to address the

By ROB GILLIES Associated Press TORONTO (AP) — Students in Canada’s largest province will return to classrooms Monday, and teachers and staff will be provided with non-fitted N95 masks. The provincial government had said earlier this month that online learning would run until at least Jan. 17 because of a surge in infections with the

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) — Virginia’s attorney general says police in Virginia Beach used forged documents linking people’s DNA to a crime to get them to confess. Mark Herring made the announcement Wednesday following an investigation by the AG’s Office of Civil Rights. Herring’s office said in a statement that the city’s police department has

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Lael Brainard pledged in written remarks to help the Federal Reserve fight a spike in inflation while still supporting the economic recovery — a tricky balancing act she would face if confirmed as the Fed’s No. 2 official. Brainard, a member of the central bank’s Board

By BRIAN SLODYSKO Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democrats are trying to force a public showdown over their sweeping elections legislation. They’re aiming to launch debate on a key party priority even though there’s no assurance the bill will come to a vote. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer outlined the plan in a memo obtained

By SOPHIA TAREEN and KATHLEEN FOODY Associated Press CHICAGO (AP) — The Chicago Teachers Union has narrowly backed an agreement dictating COVID-19 safety protocols in the nation’s third-largest school district. Wednesday’s vote will keep kids in classrooms after five days of cancelled classes due to a standoff with the city over remote learning and virus

MOORHEAD, Minn. (AP) — A man accused of having sex with a 14-year-old girl has been apprehended in Mexico 21 years after he fled following his arrest in Minnesota. Curtis Lee Brovold met the girl from Moorhead, Minnesota, online in 2000. Brovold was arrested later that year but failed to show up for a court

WESTBROOK, Maine (AP) — Maine’s rotating ice disk has begun to form again in the Presumpscot River three years after its famous first appearance in 2019. Westbrook city officials shared photos Wednesday of the formation on Facebook. Ice disks form as a result of a collection of a current and vortex underneath the ice. Ice

UPPER DARBY, Pa. (AP) — Federal investigators have been poring over the wreckage of a medical helicopter a day after it crash-landed without loss of life next to a church in a residential area of suburban Philadelphia, somehow avoiding a web of power lines and buildings. Brian Rayner, senior safety investigator with the National Transportation

By DAVE KOLPACK Associated Press FARGO, N.D. (AP) — North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem says a police investigator violated state law by confiscating a radio journalist’s cellphone without a valid warrant and has been forced to return the device. Tom Simon, who works for Williston Trending Topics News Radio Live and Coyote Radio 98.5,

By ROB GILLIES Associated Press TORONTO (AP) — Officials in Canada’s largest province say parents will not be notified of a COVID-19 outbreak at their child’s school until there is 30% absenteeism rate among staff and students. Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce also said Wednesday that students will return to classrooms Monday. The government said

By TODD RICHMOND Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Prosecutors have added dozens of charges against a man accused of driving his SUV through a Christmas parade in suburban Milwaukee last year. Darrell Brooks Jr. was charged in November with six counts of first-degree intentional homicide in connection with the Nov. 21 killings in Waukesha.

By LISA MASCARO AP Congressional Correspondent WASHINGTON (AP) — The late Sen. Harry Reid has been remembered at the U.S. Capitol as a “legendary leader.” And President Joe Biden has paid silent tribute as Reid lay in state at the Capitol Rotunda. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer says Reid spoke softly but carried the “force

By MARK KENNEDY AP Entertainment Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Ronnie Spector, the cat-eyed, bee-hived rock ‘n’ roll siren who sang such 1960s hits as “Be My Baby,” “Baby I Love You” and “Walking in the Rain” as the leader of the girl group The Ronettes, has died. She was 78. Spector died Wednesday after

BATH, Maine (AP) — The last of a new class of warships has departed a Maine shipyard. The USS Lyndon B. Johnson was constructed at Bath Iron Works and departed Wednesday. It is the last in a class of three ships the U.S. Navy has described as the largest and most technologically sophisticated destroyers in

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Republican Rep. Trey Hollingsworth says he won’t seek reelection to the southern Indiana congressional seat that he first won in 2016 despite criticism that the wealthy Tennessee transplant had little connection to the state. Hollingsworth has been mentioned as a possible candidate for Indiana governor in the 2024 election and alluded to

NEW YORK (AP) — A judge’s ruling against Prince Andrew in a sexual abuse lawsuit is bad news for the British Royal. But it doesn’t say much about whether accuser Virginia Giuffre will ultimately prevail in her civil suit. The ruling Wednesday in New York dealt with narrow legal challenges raised by Andrew’s lawyers. They