AP National News

By MARTÍN ADAMES Associated Press SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) — An aviation company says a small plane it operates crashed in the Dominican Republic while attempting to land minutes after beginning a flight to Florida, killing all nine people aboard, including Puerto Rican music producer José Ángel Hernández. Helidosa Aviation Group says on its

Australia’s New South Wales state has recorded 1,742 new cases of COVID-19, its highest daily total since the pandemic began. Hospitalizations are also up across the state. There were 192 coronavirus patients in New South Wales hospitals on Thursday, up from 166 the day before. Of those, 26 were in intensive care. The previous peak

By ADRIAN SAINZ Associated Press MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Family and friends of slain rapper Young Dolph have remembered him as a generous philanthropist, skilled businessman and loving father at a ceremony renaming a street for him in the same area of Memphis where he grew up — and also was gunned down. Wednesday’s ceremony

By CHRISTINA A. CASSIDY and MARC LEVY Associated Press HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Partisan election reviews of the 2020 presidential election are underway in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin while Republican lawmakers elsewhere continue their calls to bring them to their states. They argue they are needed to restore public confidence in elections, but experts say the

By MICHAEL R. SISAK Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — A New York appeals court has excoriated Manhattan prosecutors for filling out Harvey Weinstein’s rape trial last year with what one judge deemed “incredibly prejudicial testimony” from women whose allegations weren’t part of the criminal charges against him. The strategy now has the potential to

By BRIAN MELLEY and MATTHEW BROWN Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Los Angeles federal grand jury has charged a Texas oil company and two subsidiaries for an oil spill off the California coast in October. Federal prosecutors said Wednesday that Amplify Energy Corp. and its two subsidiaries that operate oil rigs and a

By ERICA HUNZINGER AP Sports Writer DENVER (AP) — U.S. sports leagues are seeing rapidly increasing COVID-19 outbreaks with dozens of players in health and safety protocols, amid an ongoing surge by the delta variant of the coronavirus and rising cases of the highly transmissible omicron mutation. Both the NBA and NHL have postponed games

By NICK PERRY Associated Press WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Two Muslim worshippers who at different times charged toward a gunman to try and stop his massacre have each been awarded New Zealand’s highest honor for civilian bravery. Both men are credited with helping save others in the 2019 attack at two Christchurch mosques in

By DAN GELSTON AP Sports Writer PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Meek Mill played basketball before the 76ers game with 25 Philadelphia-area children from families who have been adversely affected by the criminal justice system. The Philly rapper and social activist says it was important to let the children know they are not forgotten as their parents

By MICHAEL R. BLOOD Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Port of Los Angeles is on track to move a record volume of import cargo this year. Officials at the nation’s busiest port expect to hit the new mark, even as they struggle to clear a backup of ship traffic and ease supply chain

By JAY COHEN AP Sports Writer CHICAGO (AP) — The Chicago Blackhawks have settled a lawsuit by a former player who said he was sexually assaulted by an assistant coach during the team’s run to the 2010 Stanley Cup title. After representatives for the Blackhawks and former first-round pick Kyle Beach met with a mediator

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — El Salvador’s congress has voted to strip a politician accused of making a deal with the country’s powerful street gangs of the legislative immunity that had prevented his prosecution. Sixty-six of the Legislative Assembly’s 84 lawmakers voted Wednesday to support the attorney general’s petition to open Norman Quijano to

By JOHN ANTCZAK and BRIAN MELLEY Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — California has emerged largely unscathed from drenching rainfall and heavy snow in the mountains as it prepares for a weaker round of storms likely to bring more relief to the drought-stricken state. Parts of the state were mopping up Wednesday from small mudslides

By JOHN FLESHER AP Environmental Writer TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Enbridge Energy is trying to shift to federal court a Michigan lawsuit seeking shutdown of an oil pipeline that runs beneath a channel linking two of the Great Lakes. Attorney General Dana Nessel filed suit in 2019, arguing that Enbridge’s Line 5 should not

By AMY FORLITI Associated Press ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin has pleaded guilty to a federal count alleging he willfully deprived George Floyd of his rights during the May 25, 2020, arrest that led to the Black man’s death. It means that Chauvin admitted for the first time that

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Authorities say a Tennessee man has been arrested in the fatal shooting of an off-duty police officer in 2015. The U.S. Marshals Service and the Shelby County district attorney’s office said Wednesday that 42-year-old Lorenzo Clark was arrested at a home after he was indicted on a charge of second-degree murder

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — For months, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell responded to surging inflation by counseling patience and stressing that the Fed wanted to see unemployment return to near-pre-pandemic levels before it would raise interest rates. But on Wednesday, Powell suggested that his patience has run out. High inflation

By BRIAN MELLEY Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Los Angeles federal grand jury has charged a Texas oil company and two subsidiaries for an oil spill off the California coast in October. Federal prosecutors said Wednesday that Amplify Energy Corp. and its two subsidiaries that operate oil rigs and a pipeline off Long