AP National News

SHOW LOW, Ariz. (AP) — Authorities say a Utah man and a Tucson girl were killed when a single-engine plane crashed near the airport of the east-central Arizona city of Show Low. Deputy Chief Randy Chevalier of the Timber Mesa Fire and Medical District identified those killed Wednesday as 40-year-old David A. Gillette and 11-year-old

By DAMIAN J. TROISE and ALEX VEIGA AP Business Writers Stocks closed higher on Wall Street Thursday, leaving major indexes with solid gains in this holiday-shortened week. The S&P 500 closed at another record high. The benchmark index rose 0.6%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.6% and the Nasdaq rose 0.8%. Technology companies and

By PAUL J. WEBER Associated Press AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A Texas board has withdrawn a unanimous pardon recommendation for George Floyd over a 2004 drug arrest in Houston. The Texas Board of Pardon and Paroles says it had identified “procedural errors” in how pardons were issued this year. The same board in October had

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Authorities rescued one driver early Thursday but were unable to save two more from a submerged car in a flooded underpass south of San Francisco as a storm rolled through California. Residents of three Southern California canyons scarred by a wildfire last year were ordered to leave their homes because of

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A senior government human rights official says that 90% of crimes against activists and journalists go unpunished in Mexico. The assistant interior secretary in charge of human rights said Thursday that in cases where the culprits have been identified, almost half are local officials. Alejandro Encinas said new laws are needed

By COLLEEN BARRY Associated Press MILAN (AP) — An archaeological dig in Sicily has uncovered traces of a lost World War II American heavy bomber shot down in 1943, and possible human remains that could lead to identification of five airmen whose bodies were never recovered. The six-week dig that ended this week was carried

TAMPA, Fla (AP) — A federal judge in Florida has blocked President Joe Biden’s requirement for federal contractors to receive coronavirus vaccines, adding to a series of legal setbacks for the mandate. U.S. District Judge Steven D. Merryday on Wednesday wrote that Florida’s lawsuit against the rule demonstrated a “substantial likelihood” that the White House

By STEVE KARNOWSKI Associated Press MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A white suburban Minneapolis police officer has been found guilty of first-degree and second-degree manslaughter in the death of Daunte Wright, a Black man. Kim Potter said she meant to use her Taser to try to stop the 20-year-old Wright from fleeing during an April 11 traffic

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Authorities say two people were struck by gunfire in a shooting at a Los Angeles clothing store and one person is custody. Police Detective Meghan Aguilar says the shooting occurred around 11:45 a.m. Thursday at a Burlington Coat Factory store in the North Hollywood area of the San Fernando Valley. There

By JILL LAWLESS and LAURA UNGAR Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Britain’s public health agency says preliminary data suggests that people with the omicron variant of the coronavirus are 50% to 70% less likely to be hospitalized than those with the delta strain. One researcher described the findings announced Thursday as “a small ray of

By TOM KRISHER AP Auto Writer DETROIT (AP) — Under pressure from U.S. auto safety regulators, Tesla has agreed to stop allowing video games to be played on center touch screens while its vehicles are moving. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says the company will send out a software update over the Internet so

By AMY FORLITI and SCOTT BAUER Associated Press MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A suburban Minneapolis police officer who said she confused her handgun for her Taser was convicted of manslaughter in the death of Daunte Wright. The verdicts at Kim Potter’s trial Thursday prompted tears from the young Black man’s parents and a jubilant celebration by

By MATTHEW BROWN Associated Press BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Attorneys for an oil and gas company are asking a federal judge to reinstate a drilling lease on federal land considered sacred to Native American tribes in the U.S. and Canada. The energy lease in the Badger-Two Medicine area near the Blackfeet Reservation in northwestern Montana

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The mother of a transgender teenager who died by suicide at a youth detention center in Maine has settled a wrongful death lawsuit against the state for $225,000. The Bangor Daily News reported the settlement on Thursday in the 2016 death of 16-year-old Charles Knowles at Long Creek Youth Development Center.

By MICHAEL R. SISAK Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Revelers will still ring in the new year in New York’s Times Square next week, there just won’t be as many as usual under new COVID-19 restrictions. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday that viewing areas that normally accommodate about 58,000 people

By COLLEEN LONG Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is making two final nominations to the federal bench this year as he caps his first year in office with 40 judges confirmed. That’s the most since Ronald Reagan was president. Nancy Gbana Abudu, his nominee for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the

ATLANTA (AP) — Authorities say a man suspected in the shooting death of a rising Texas rap artist on an Atlanta area interstate was arrested as he was exiting a plane at Atlanta’s airport. The Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Office said Wednesday that James Edward Thomas was taken into custody at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on

PHOENIX (AP) — The first Native American woman elected to Arizona’s Senate has resigned to take a position with the U.S. Department of the Interior, led by Secretary Deb Haaland. Democratic state Sen. Jamescita Mae Peshlakai said in her resignation letter Wednesday that she will “be more impactful for all of the western United States”

By AMY FORLITI and SCOTT BAUER Associated Press MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The jury has reached an “outcome” in the manslaughter trial of the suburban Minneapolis police officer who killed Black motorist Daunte Wright after she says she mistook her gun for her Taser during a traffic stop. The jury announced it reached an outcome in

WASHINGTON (AP) — North Carolina Rep. Madison Cawthorn and his wife, Cristina Bayardelle, are divorcing after about a year of marriage and a statement from Cawthorn cites the difficulty of “balancing the enormity” of transitioning to a congressman’s life. While they agreed he should run, Cawthorn says their lives changed overnight after his election. News