AP National News

By JANIE HAR Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — San Francisco’s DA has pushed back on the mayor’s call for increased policing to battle rampant drug dealing in one of the city’s most vulnerable neighborhoods. Chesa Boudin and others urged Mayor London Breed to put more money into housing and treatment to get at the

By WAYNE PARRY Associated Press TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — A bill that would give tax relief to Atlantic City’s casinos is being considered by New Jersey lawmakers. The full state Senate passed a bill Monday making changes to an existing law enabling the nine casinos to make payments in lieu of property taxes.  The Assembly

By AMY FORLITI and SCOTT BAUER Associated Press MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The jury has concluded its first day of deliberations without reaching a verdict in the manslaughter trial of the white suburban Minneapolis police officer who shot and killed Black motorist Daunte Wright after she says she mistook her gun for her Taser. The jury

By DAVE KOLPACK Associated Press MOORHEAD, Minn. (AP) — Authorities say preliminary autopsy results show seven people whose bodies were discovered inside a Minnesota home did not die from “any obvious trauma.” Police say all seven victims, including three minors, lived at the residence in south Moorhead. The Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office in St.

By PHILIP MARCELO and JILL LAWLESS Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — The nation’s second-largest city has called off its New Year’s Eve celebration, and its smallest state re-imposed an indoor mask mandate. The moves in Los Angeles and Rhode Island happened Monday as the omicron variant leaped ahead of other variants to become the dominant

By DAVID A. LIEB Associated Press JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A federal judge in Missouri has issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for federal contractors from being enforced in 10 states that sued. The order Monday comes on top of a nationwide injunction against the mandate issued earlier this month by

By FARNOUSH AMIRI and MARY CLARE JALONICK Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A committee investigating the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection has requested an interview with congressman Scott Perry of Pennsylvania. The Republican lawmaker is the first sitting member of Congress the panel has requested to speak with. The committee has requested Perry provide information

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — A worker injured in the destruction of a Kentucky candle factory hit by a tornado has died. That brings the total killed in that facility to nine. Governor Andy Beshear says the worker was hospitalized and recently succumbed to their injuries. During a news briefing on Monday, Beshear celebrated a toy

By MIKE STOBBE AP Medical Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Omicron has raced ahead of other variants and is now the dominant version of the coronavirus in the U.S. Federal health officials said Monday that omicron accounted for an estimated 73% of new infections last week. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention numbers show

PETROLIA, Calif. (AP) — A 6.2-magnitude earthquake has struck a rural stretch of Northern California’s coast. The U.S. Geological Survey says the quake brought significant shaking but likely minimal economic damage. The jolt was recorded just after noon on Monday off a tiny town called Petrolia. The National Weather Service says a tsunami is not

By ROB HARRIS AP Global Soccer Writer LONDON (AP) — Premier League clubs have decided against pausing the season despite 10 fixtures being postponed in the previous week due to widespread coronavirus outbreaks across squads. While more than 90% of players in the Italian and Spanish leagues have been fully vaccinated, the Premier League disclosed that

By LISA MASCARO and FARNOUSH AMIRI Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats are trying to pick up the pieces after West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin effectively crushed President Joe Biden’s big domestic policy bill. They faced serious questions Monday over whether the $2 trillion initiative can be refashioned to win his crucial vote or the

By The Associated Press New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo entered 2021 seeing his reputation as a leader in the COVID-19 fight starting to fray. The trouble came in waves. In January, the state’s attorney general issued a report confirming that thousands more people had died of COVID-19 in New York’s nursing homes than Cuomo’s administration

By ANDREW SELSKY Associated Press SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Oregon is on the verge of signing onto a $26 billion settlement with the three largest distributors of opioids and drugmaker Johnson & Johnson after being one of the latest holdout states to join. The state’s attorney general announced the breakthrough Monday. The state had argued

By LARRY NEUMEISTER and TOM HAYS Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — The sex trafficking trial of Ghislaine Maxwell is speeding to a conclusion. The jury began deliberations late Monday in Manhattan federal court. The jury went home after less than an hour. Earlier, a prosecutor said during closing arguments that the 59-year-old Maxwell is

By DON THOMPSON Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California prosecutors say retail giant Walmart illegally dumps more 1 million batteries, aerosol cans of insect killer and other products, toxic cleaning supplies, electronic waste, latex paints and other hazardous waste into California landfills each year. The company called the lawsuit unjustified. The state attorney general,

By LARRY NEUMEISTER and TOM HAYS Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — The fate of Ghislaine Maxwell is now squarely in the hands of a jury. The jury received the case in Maxwell’s sex-trafficking trial just before 5 p.m. Monday, after prosecutors and Maxwell’s defense attorneys delivered closing arguments. A prosecutor told jurors that the