AP National News

By MEG KINNARD Associated Press Disability rights groups and parents of children with disabilities want an immediate halt to a South Carolina law banning school districts from requiring face masks. The groups and parents last week filed for a temporary restraining order blocking the law from being enforced, while their lawsuit challenging the measure proceeds.

By CURT ANDERSON AP Legal Affairs Writer ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — A federal judge is considering claims that a new Florida law designed to deter violent public demonstrations is instead unconstitutionally chilling free speech and legitimate rights to protest. Attorneys for several organizations challenging the law championed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis asked U.S.

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — The chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee says the “retrograde vision” of Turkey’s president to cement Cyprus’ ethnic divide by striving for a two-state deal “is wrong” for all Cypriots. Robert Menendez, a Democratic senator from New Jersey, said a peace accord for Cyprus based on two separate states

By CHRISTINA LARSON AP Science Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Despite a few high-profile conservation success stories, birds of prey worldwide are in decline. A new analysis finds that 30% of 557 raptor species worldwide are considered near threatened, vulnerable or endangered. Eighteen species are critically endangered, including the Philippine eagle and the Annobon scops owl.

By RYAN J. FOLEY Associated Press IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A man has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in the stabbing death of University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts three years ago. Judge Joel Yates sentenced Cristhian Bahena Rivera on Monday to the mandatory sentence for first-degree murder

By DAVID McFADDEN Associated Press BALTIMORE (AP) — Baltimore’s first new Catholic school in nearly 60 years has opened its door to students. Baltimore is a city once steeped in Catholicism like few others in the U.S. Monday’s opening of Mother Mary Lange Catholic School is an anomaly in the national education landscape where the

By ELLIOT SPAGAT Associated Press CALIPATRIA, Calif. (AP) — Demand for electric vehicles has shifted investments into high gear to extract lithium from geothermal wastewater around California’s dying Salton Sea. The ultralight metal is critical to rechargeable batteries. Despite widespread availability in the United States, Nevada has the country’s only lithium plant, and U.S. production

By ELLIOT SPAGAT Associated Press CALIPATRIA, Calif. (AP) — Demand for electric vehicles has shifted investments into high gear to extract lithium from geothermal wastewater around California’s dying Salton Sea. The ultralight metal is critical to rechargeable batteries. Despite widespread availability in the United States, Nevada has the country’s only lithium plant, and U.S. production

By TOM HAYS Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — After several days of testimony from women claiming they were sexually abused by R&B star R. Kelly, a man has testified that Kelly exploited him in the same way. The witness took the stand at Kelly’s sex-trafficking trial in New York City on Monday. He claimed

By MARK SHERMAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Abortion providers in Texas are asking the Supreme Court to prevent enforcement of a state law that would allow private citizens to sue anyone for helping a woman get an abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy. The request to the court comes after a panel of

CASPER, Wyo. (AP) — Donations are pouring in for the widow and unborn child of a U.S. Marine from Wyoming killed in a bombing in Afghanistan. Twenty-year-old Rylee McCollum was among 13 service members killed by a suicide bomb attack Thursday at the Kabul airport. They were providing security as the airport was overwhelmed with

By STEPHEN HAWKINS AP Sports Writer The New Orleans Saints are at the home of another NFL team after being displaced by Hurricane Ida. Saints players and staff, along with about 120 family members, relocated to North Texas in advance of the storm that made landfall south of New Orleans on Sunday as a powerful

By ARITZ PARRA Associated Press MADRID (AP) — At least 29 Africans, including seven children, died last week while trying to reach Spain’s Canary Islands on a smuggling boat. That’s according to information released Monday from a U.N. agency, a Spanish migrant charity in touch with victims’ relatives. Spanish maritime services on Friday rescued 27

By COLLIN BINKLEY AP Education Writer The Education Department says it’s investigating five Republican-led states that have banned mask requirements in schools, saying the policies could amount to discrimination against students with disabilities or health conditions. The department’s office for civil rights sent letters to education chiefs in Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Utah.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland got married to longtime partner Skip Sayre Saturday night in New Mexico. Interior Department spokeswoman Melissa Schwartz says Haaland wore a dress designed and sewn by her sister. The ceremony incorporated elements honoring her Native American ancestry. The former New Mexico congresswoman is a member of

By STEVE KARNOWSKI Associated Press MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota Court of Appeals has affirmed a decision by state pollution regulators to issue a water quality certification for Enbridge Energy’s Line 3 crude oil pipeline. It’s the latest setback for opponents as the project nears completion. The court ruled that the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — At least 13 people were injured following an explosion at a police station near Colombia’s border with Venezuela, officials in the city of Cucuta said.  Police said the explosion Monday was caused by an “improvised explosive device” that was left near the station, which is located in one of Cucuta’s lower

By MICHAEL R. BLOOD AP Political Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Republican hasn’t won a statewide election in heavily Democratic California in 15 years. But the rapid ascent of conservative Larry Elder in the September recall election that could oust Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom is alarming liberals fearful of a historic upset. The Black

By JONATHAN MATTISE Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Emergency workers and volunteers in rural Tennessee are pushing to clean up as much debris as possible from recent deadly flooding before the remnants of Hurricane Ida threatened to interrupt recovery efforts with another dousing. The Humphreys County Emergency Management Agency on Monday noted the possibility

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is launching a new health office that will prod hospitals to cut carbon emissions, aiming to provide greener, more environmentally friendly medical care. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said Monday the new Office of Climate Change and Health Equity will also work