AP National News

By LISA BAUMANN Associated Press BELLINGHAM, Wash. (AP) — Flooding and landsides prompted the complete closure of the West Coast’s main north-south highway near Bellingham, Washington, as the culmination of days of storms and high winds wreaked havoc in the Pacific Northwest. The Interstate 5 closure was caused by the ongoing threat from debris and

By LYNN ELBER AP Television Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — There’s no supply-chain shortage when it comes to holiday movies and TV specials. That includes the movie “Candy Coated Christmas,” featuring  Ree Drummond of Food Network’s “The Pioneer Woman” series.  The movie will debut on discovery+. Old favorites such as 1965′s “A Charlie Brown Christmas”

By JOE McDONALD AP Business Writer BEIJING (AP) — Asian stock markets are higher as President Joe Biden and China’s Xi Jinping hold a summit meeting by video link. Market benchmarks in Shanghai, Tokyo and Hong Kong advanced. Sydney fell. Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index lost less than 0.1% as makers of household goods

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio’s largest public employee pension fund has sued Facebook, alleging that it broke federal securities law by purposely misleading the public about its product’s negative effect on children. The lawsuit by the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System also says Facebook also knew that its platform facilitated dissention, illegal activity, and violent

By TODD RICHMOND Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Attorneys in Kyle Rittenhouse’s murder trial sparred for the last time Monday in closing arguments. Rittenhouse faces multiple charges after he shot three men, killing two, during a protest against police brutality in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last year. He argues he fired in self-defense after the men

By ANDREA RODRÍGUEZ Associated Press HAVANA (AP) — A call for protests has gone unheeded in Cuba as some of the organizers complain that government supporters had surrounded their homes so they couldn’t go out, while others said they were warned by police that they would be arrested if they took to the streets. Government

BOYNE CITY, Mich. (AP) — The second fatal plane crash in three days in northern Michigan has killed a pilot and his passenger. Authorities say 61-year-old pilot Kenneth Daniel Yott of Pontiac and 21-year-old passenger Corbin Dennis Kennedy of Howell were found dead Monday afternoon in the Beechcraft King Air plane in a wooded area

By LISA BAUMANN Associated Press BELLINGHAM, Wash. (AP) — Days of heavy rainfall and high winds Monday coming from a powerful atmospheric river in Washington caused extensive flooding and mudslides that forced evacuations, closed schools and closed Interstate 5 south of Bellingham. More than 158,0000 customers were without power in western Washington Monday afternoon. Authorities

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Customers at Los Angeles restaurants will only get plastic utensils and napkins if they ask for them, under a new ordinance taking effect Monday that aims to reduce waste. The rule requires all restaurants with more than 26 employees to remove all single-use plastic utensil dispensers. Businesses must also stop including

By KIM TONG-HYUNG Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has returned from a monthlong break from public view to inspect a major development project near the border with China, which he said epitomizes his country’s “iron will” to achieve prosperity in the face of international isolation and pressure.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Nearly 300 people trapped overnight in their vehicles following mudslides on a highway in British Columbia are being flown by helicopters to safety while authorities try to determine if anyone may have been swept up in the flow of debris set off by torrential rain. A yellow Cormorant chopper dropped

By AAMER MADHANI and COLLEEN LONG Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has opened his virtual meeting with China’s Xi Jinping by saying their goal should be to ensure that competition between the two superpowers “does not veer into conflict.” Xi says, “China and the United States need to increase communication and cooperation.”

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex will delay fining shipping companies that let cargo containers stack up at terminals. The Southern California News Group reports the reprieve comes because of early compliance by companies in clearing cargo since the penalties were approved last month. The fines were set to begin Monday

By DAVID PITT Associated Press DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A new state audit report on government spending accuses Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds of using nearly $450,000 in federal coronavirus relief funds to pay salaries for 21 members of her staff for three months last year and concealing the spending by passing it through the

By JIM GOMEZ Associated Press MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has filed his candidacy for a Senate seat in next year’s elections, walking back his vow to retire from politics when his term ends. The announcement prompted rights groups to say he is working to evade accountability for his deadly anti-drug campaign

By AAMER MADHANI and COLLEEN LONG Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has opened his virtual meeting with China’s Xi Jinping on Monday by saying his goal is to ensure competition “does not veer into conflict.” The two leaders are meeting by video amid mounting tensions in the U.S.-China relationship. Biden has criticized

Associated Press CHICAGO (AP) — The head of Chicago’s largest police union says he’ll retire from the department amid a disciplinary hearing that could have ended with his firing. The Chicago Tribune reports that John Catanzara said Monday he felt the outcome of the proceedings against him was predetermined. The Chicago Police Board hearing centered

KENOSHA, Wis. (AP) — The man whose shooting by a Wisconsin police officer set off the street protests in Kenosha was rarely mentioned at Kyle Rittenhouse’s trial, but Jacob Blake turned up in Monday’s closing arguments. But not by name. Rittenhouse defense attorney Mark Richards referred to Blake as he argued to jurors that Rittenhouse

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — Former President Donald Trump has endorsed a primary challenger over first-term Rep. Peter Meijer of Michigan, who was among 10 Republicans who voted to impeach him for the deadly mob siege of the Capitol. Trump backed John Gibbs, who worked at the Department of Housing and Urban Development during his

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A deer ran through the front door of a Louisiana hospital and climbed up an escalator before it was captured and later euthanized because of injuries. News outlets report that surveillance video showed the animal bounding into Our Lady of the Lake Hospital in Baton Rouge through an open door