AP National News

By RUSS BYNUM Associated Press SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — A federal judge has scheduled a trial in early 2022 for three Georgia men charged with hate crimes in the killing of Ahmaud Arbery. U.S. District Court Judge Lisa Godbey Wood issued a written order saying jury selection in the case will begin Feb. 7. Father

By LOLITA C. BALDOR and BRIAN SLODYSKO Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Two members of Congress are facing criticism and questions following their surprise trip to Afghanistan this week. The trip by Democrat Seth Moulton, of Massachusetts, and Republican Peter Meijer, of Michigan, diverted resources from the U.S.’s chaotic withdrawal and enraged military leaders. House

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN Associated Press ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham wants to conserve more of the state’s land and water. She says doing so will boost other state efforts to mitigate climate change effects. The Democratic governor signed an executive order Wednesday creating a committee that will draft a

By STEPHEN GROVES Associated Press PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — A prosecutor says South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg will avoid a trial and take a plea deal on misdemeanor traffic charges in a crash last year in which he hit and killed a man who was walking near a rural highway. Beadle County State’s Attorney

KENOSHA, Wis. (AP) — An attorney for the Illinois teen accused of killing two men and wounding a third during a protest in Wisconsin last summer, says he doesn’t know who donated to his client’s defense and therefore cannot produce any names. Attorney Mark Richards was responding to a motion filed by prosecutors last week

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Rana Cash, executive editor of the Savannah Morning News in Georgia, has been named to the same position at The Charlotte Observer, the newspaper’s first Black editor in the North Carolina newspaper’s 135-year history. The 50-year-old Cash begins her new job in early October. She is replacing Sherry Chisenhall, who announced

LONDON (AP) — Several types of crispy pork snacks have been pulled from sale in Britain after almost 180 people became ill with suspected salmonella poisoning. The packets of pork scratchings sold under the labels Mr. Porky, Jay’s and The Real Pork Crackling Company were all made by snack company the Tayto Group. The Food

TUSCUMBIA, Ala. (AP) — Workers have used dynamite to demolish six smokestacks at a decommissioned power plant in Alabama. The implosion took place Wednesday at the old Colbert Fossil Plant, which was operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority for more than six decades beginning in 1955. TVA says the work is part of its move

By COLLEEN LONG and MICHAEL BALSAMO Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The House committee investigating the January insurrection at the U.S. Capitol is demanding a trove of records from federal intelligence and law enforcement agencies. The requests show the sweep of the lawmakers’ review of the deadly attack by a mob of Donald Trump supporters.

By TOM MURPHY AP Health Writer Pfizer is seeking U.S. approval of a booster dose of its two-shot COVID-19 vaccine. The drugmaker announced Wednesday that it has started the approval process for a third dose of its vaccine for all Americans ages 16 and older. The company said it expects to complete its application with

By ROBERT BURNS, ELLEN KNICKMEYER and MATTHEW LEE Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken says as many as 1,500 Americans in Afghanistan may still await evacuation, with six days to go before President Joe Biden’s deadline for completing the airlift from the Kabul airport. Blinken said 4,500 Americans have been flown

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A gunman walked into a Miami Beach restaurant and fatally shot a tourist who was protecting his 1-year-old son. Tamarius Blair Davis Jr. told investigators he shot 21-year-old Dustin Wakefield on Tuesday night because “was high on mushrooms, which made him feel empowered.  He told investigators he walked into La

DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK, Calif. (AP) — Death Valley National Park rangers are reminding visitors to limit stressful activities during summer heat after another hiker died along the same trail within days. Authorities say 52-year-old Blake Chaplin of Leawood, Kansas, was found dead Aug. 21 along the Golden Canyon Trail. The temperature on Aug. 21

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico has welcomed a group of 124 Afghan media workers and their families who fled their country after the Taliban takeover. The group arrived aboard a flight in the pre-dawn hours of Wednesday. The Afghans had worked for various media outlets, and had requested humanitarian visas because of the Taliban’s hostility

By DANIEL NIEMANN Associated Press DUESSELDORF, Germany (AP) — A former mayor of a central Afghanistan city is in Germany after having fled her homeland along with thousands of others who feared the Taliban’s takeover put their lives at risk. As a young female mayor appointed in 2018, Zarifa Ghafari was a shining example of

By DAVID EGGERT Associated Press LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Two conservative hoaxers face a record $5.1 million fine for allegedly making illegal robocalls to wireless phones without the owners’ consent in the 2020 election. The Federal Communications Commission says the proposed fine for Jacob Wohl, Jack Burkman and Burkman’s lobbying firm would be the largest

By ROXANA HEGEMAN Associated Press A federal report finds that in the run up to the 2020 presidential election U.S. states and territories had spent less than a third of the $805 million Congress had provided to shore up security for state and local election systems. A state-by-state snapshot released last month by the U.S.

By PAT EATON-ROBB Associated Press Mystic Aquarium says that a second of the five beluga whales it imported in May from a marine park in Canada is in failing health. The female whale is suffering from several health issues including a low white blood cell count and gastrointestinal issues, the aquarium said in a Facebook

By BEN FOX and JAMIE STENGLE Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 82,000 people have been evacuated from Afghanistan since the Taliban seized the capital Kabul on Aug. 14. It’s one of the largest U.S. airlifts in history. While the pace has picked up in recent days, it’s still a chaotic scramble as people

MARGATE, N.J. (AP) — The boardwalk fixture, Lucy the Elephant, is having all of its metal skin replaced because more than 50% of the exterior has degraded beyond repair. The executive director of the Save Lucy Committee, Richard Helfant, said Tuesday that the six-story high statue in Margate will close Sept. 20. Architects determined it