AP National News

By PATTY NIEBERG and LINDSAY WHITEHURST Associated Press LOUISVILLE, Colorado (AP) — In Colorado and other states hit by natural disasters this year, the pandemic has injected extra uncertainty and created more obstacles for families trying to rebuild. Shortages of workers and raw materials are making rebuilding slower and more expensive. In areas where real

By SCOTT BAUER Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A top Republican lawmaker in the presidential battleground state of Wisconsin says there is “zero chance” the GOP-controlled Legislature will take over the awarding of the state’s 10 presidential elector votes in 2024, even as Democrats worry that is their goal. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos told

By MARK SHERMAN and JESSICA GRESKO Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court’s conservative majority appears skeptical of the Biden administration’s authority to impose a vaccine-or-testing requirement on the nation’s large employers. Fully vaccinated themselves for arguments Friday, the court’s six conservative justices appeared to view the administration’s requirement for businesses with at least

By RUSS BYNUM Associated Press BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) — Ahmaud Arbery’s family has asked a judge to show no lenience in sentencing three white men convicted of murder for chasing the running Black man and fatally shooting him. The Superior Court judge has limited sentencing options because murder carries a mandatory life sentence in Georgia.

HOUSTON (AP) — The mother of a 2-year-old girl whose body was found in a Houston bayou in 2020 has pleaded guilty for her role in the child’s death. Court records show Sahara Ervin pleaded guilty to tampering with evidence, a human corpse, during a court hearing Wednesday. Maliyah Bass had been playing in her

By ZEKE MILLER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will deliver his first State of the Union address on March 1, the White House confirmed Friday. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sent the president a formal invitation to speak to Congress and the American public one year into his term. It will mark the

BERLIN (AP) — A Berlin teacher has been convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison for the killing of another man that the court said was carried out as part of “cannibalism fantasies.” The 42-year-old also was convicted of disturbing the peace of the dead after a trial that opened in August. The

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Authorities in Mexico’s Gulf coast state of Veracruz say a heap of bodies has been found piled on a roadside. The state public safety department calls the killings “a reaction to the results of work being done to fight crime.” The department did not say in a statement Friday how many

By MARINA VILLENEUVE and MICHAEL HILL Associated Press ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo plans to appear virtually before a judge who is considering whether to dismiss the only charge against him in connection with sexual harassment allegations that drove him from office. Albany County District Attorney David Soares told Judge

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Republican Wisconsin lawmakers are pushing for tougher bail policies after a man who is charged with driving his SUV through a suburban Milwaukee Christmas parade, killing six people and injuring more than 60, had been released on $1,000 bail in a domestic violence case. There have been bipartisan calls for bail

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. (AP) — Rex Dearmont Rust, co-president of the Missouri-based media company Rust Communications, has died. The company’s flagship newspaper, the Southeast Missourian in Cape Girardeau, reported that Rust died Thursday evening after a yearlong battle with cancer. He was 52. Rust grew up in Cape Girardeau and graduated from Harvard University in

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A  judge has awarded nearly $1 million in damages to the families of four fishermen who died when their Maine-based boat mysteriously sank off the Massachusetts coast in 2020. The 82-foot Portland, Maine-based Emmy Rose went down early Nov. 23, 2020, as it was heading to port after a seven-day fishing

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE Associated Press DENVER (AP) — President Joe Biden is headed for Colorado to comfort residents grappling with rebuilding homes and businesses that were destroyed last week by a rare winter fire. The blaze burned through a pair of heavily populated suburbs between Denver and Boulder. Two people remain unaccounted for out of

By STAN CHOE and DAMIAN J. TROISE AP Business Writers NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks turned mixed Friday as Treasury yields rise, with much of Wall Street seeing the Federal Reserve on course to raise interest rates as soon as March despite a mixed report on the U.S. jobs market. The S&P 500 was 0.1%

The Associated Press Tributes to Sidney Poitier poured in from Hollywood and elsewhere following the death of the groundbreaking actor and cultural icon. Poitier, who died Thursday at the age of 94, was the first Black actor to win an Academy Award for best lead performance and the first to be a top box-office draw.

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Hundreds of Novak Djokovic’s supporters have gathered at a rally in downtown Belgrade to protest his confinement in Australia after his entry was denied by border authorities because of COVID-19 vaccination regulations. The top-ranked Serb is hoping to defend his title at the Australian Open and win a men’s record 21st

BRISTOL, Conn. (AP) — Former players David Cone and Eduardo Perez are joining Karl Ravech to form a new broadcast team for ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball” telecasts. Alex Rodriguez, the scandal-tainted three-time MVP who had been on the telecasts during the past four seasons, will shift to eight Sunday night alternate telecasts on ESPN2 with

By LINDSEY TANNER and MIKE STOBBE AP Medical Writers Hospitalizations of U.S. children under 5 with COVID-19 have soared to unprecedented levels, a worrisome trend in youngsters too young to be vaccinated. That’s according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data released Friday. Since early December, as the highly contagious omicron variant has spread

MOSCOW (AP) — As Kazakhstan struggles to cope with an increasingly violent uprising this week, it has turned for help to a Russian-led security bloc, the Collective Security Treaty Organization. Known as the CSTO, it was created in the early 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Thousands of Russian troops have now been

BERLIN (AP) — Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s office says he has tested positive for the coronavirus after apparently being infected by a member of his security team. The chancellery said Friday that Nehammer currently has no symptoms and is working from quarantine at home. It said that he has received three vaccine shots, and that