AP National News

By BRIAN MELLEY Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — Sequoia National Park says lightning-sparked wildfires in the past two years have killed a minimum of nearly 10,000 giant sequoia trees in California. The estimate released Friday accounts for 13% to 19% of native sequoias that are the largest trees on Earth. The trees are reliant

By ANDREW SELSKY Associated Press SALEM, Ore. (AP) — The U.S. Senate has unanimously approved the nomination of Charles “Chuck” Sams III as National Park Service director, which will make him the first Native American to lead the agency that oversees more than 131,000 square miles of parks and other landmarks. Some conservationists hailed Sams’

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A federal magistrate has ordered the continued detention of a man who has been accused of leaving threatening messages against Alaska’s U.S. senators. Lisa Houghton, a spokesperson for the Alaska U.S. attorney’s office, says Jay Allen Johnson was ordered by the court to continue to be detained. Jason Weiner, an attorney

By ZEKE MILLER Associated Press BETHESDA, Md. (AP) — President Joe Biden remains “healthy” and “vigorous” and fit for duty, but is showing some signs of aging. That’s according to his doctor, who delivered the report Friday after the oldest president in American history underwent his first routine physical in office. In a history-making moment,

LACONIA, N.H. (AP) — The owner of the world’s largest videogame arcade was a regular presence at the New Hampshire landmark until his death last week at 90. New Hampshire Public Radio reported on Friday that Bob Lawton started Funspot in 1952 after borrowing $750 from his grandma to build a mini-golf course in the

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE and BARBARA ORTUTAY AP Technology Writers SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Fallen Silicon Valley star Elizabeth Holmes, accused of bamboozling investors and patients about her startup Theranos and its medical device that she said would reshape health care, unexpectedly took the witness stand Friday in her trial for criminal fraud. The decision

By MARINA VILLENEUVE Associated Press ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — The state Assembly’s investigation into former Gov. Andrew Cuomo concluded that the Democrat’s administration misrepresented how many nursing home residents died of COVID-19. That’s according to a lawmaker who reviewed the committee’s still-secret report. Assembly Member Phil Steck was among the Assembly Judiciary Committee members who

AURORA, Colo. (AP) — Three students were shot Friday during a fight in the parking lot of a high school in the Denver suburb of Aurora, the police chief said, only days after six teenagers from a nearby campus were shot and injured at a park. Those injured in the lunch-hour shooting outside Hinkley High

By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Kyle Rittenhouse, fighting back sobs, nearly collapsed out of the television camera’s sight as the last of five ‘not guilty’ verdicts was read in a Wisconsin courtroom. It instantly became the defining image of his murder trial’s climactic moment, which became the subject of such

By COLLEEN SLEVIN Associated Press DENVER (AP) — The Denver suburb of Aurora has agreed to pay $15 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the parents of Elijah McClain, a Black man who died after suburban Denver police stopped him on the street and put him in a neck hold two years ago. The

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) — A Southern California county has brought in outside investigators to look into whether its social services system failed to provide adequate housing, food and other services for 13 siblings rescued from horribly abusive conditions. ABC News reported Friday that Riverside County has hired a private law firm to look into the

By MIKE CORDER Associated Press THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Police have fired warning shots, injuring an unknown number of people, as riots broke out in downtown Rotterdam at a demonstration against plans by the government to restrict access for unvaccinated people to some venues. Police said in a tweet that “there are injuries in

By COLLEEN SLEVIN Associated Press DENVER (AP) — The Denver suburb of Aurora has agreed to pay $15 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the parents of Elijah McClain, a Black man who died after suburban Denver police stopped him on the street and put him in a neckhold two years ago. Sheneen McClain’s

SENECA, S.C. (AP) — Investigators say one of the most wanted fugitives in the United States apparently died about four months ago in a South Carolina home. Authorities say 70-year-old Frederick Cecil McLean had been on the U.S. Marshals Service’s 15 Most Wanted list since 2006, a year after the San Diego Sheriff’s Department issued

By ASHRAF KHALIL Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Mayor Muriel Bowser’s decision to ease mask requirements in the nation’s capital has sparked a public debate about timing, with the majority of the D.C. Council pleading with her to reconsider. It’s a localized debate that reflects a broader national dynamic in the country’s virus-mitigation stance —

By The Associated Press Here’s a collection curated by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists of what’s arriving on TV, streaming services and music platforms this week. MOVIES — Stephen Karam adapts his Tony-winning play “The Humans,” about three generations gathering in a prewar New York apartment for Thanksgiving, into a feature debuting on Showtime and

By ALEXANDRA JAFFE Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has pardoned two turkeys at the White House, an annual holiday tradition. In remarks full of jokes, Biden said the turkeys, named Peanut Butter and Jelly, were selected based on their “temperament, appearance and, I suspect, vaccination status.” He joked that “instead of getting

By JAKE BLEIBERG Associated Press DALLAS (AP) — A Texas judge has declared a mistrial in the first murder case against a man charged with killing 18 older women in the Dallas area over a two-year span. Judge Raquel Jones issued the ruling Friday when a jury deadlocked after deliberating since Thursday afternoon in the

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — In a Nov. 8 story about the involuntary manslaughter trial of Kansas City, Missouri, police Officer Eric J. DeValkenaere, The Associated Press, based on a story from The Kansas City Star, erroneously reported that the case was the first in which a white officer in the city was charged in