AP National News

GREENSBURG, Pa. (AP) — A former relief pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates has been sentenced to two to four years behind bars for statutory sexual assault and other charges in a case involving a girl who was 13 when the encounters began. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported Tuesday that 30-year-old Felipe Vazquez has already served almost

By JONATHAN MATTISE and ADRIAN SAINZ Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — An order by the Tennessee governor letting parents opt their children out of following mask rules at school has drawn defiance from officials in Memphis and Nashville. Nashville District Attorney Glenn Funk offered an assurance Tuesday to a school board member that he

KALAMAZOO, Mich. (AP) — The family of a man identified as a suspect in the fatal shooting of a deputy in southwestern Michigan said he had been “tormented by invasive and irrational thoughts.” Gary Goidosik and Kim Goidosik referred to themselves in a statement Tuesday as the family of the shooter in the weekend death

By MOGOMOTSI MAGOME Associated Press JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Health activists in Africa have slammed Johnson & Johnson for exporting vaccines produced in South Africa to countries in Europe, which have already immunized a large proportion of their populations and often have a surplus of vaccines. The J&J doses were exported from South Africa, where they

By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer CANNES, France (AP) — Sean Penn is sort of done with movies. He’s still making them, here and there. But Penn is mostly seeing out commitments he made years earlier. After those? He’s not so sure how much more he’s going to be acting or directing.  The 61-year-old maverick

By RICK CALLAHAN Associated Press INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indiana health officials say they are notifying nearly 750,000 residents that a cybersecurity company “improperly accessed” their personal data from the state’s online COVID-19 contact tracing survey. The Indiana Department of Health said Tuesday the state was notified July 2 that a company gained “unauthorized access” to

By TOM FOREMAN Jr. Associated Press WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) — The dean of the school of journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who led the effort to bring award-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones to her faculty, says she’s stepping down. Susan King issued a statement to the faculty of the Hussman School

By ZEINA KARAM and AYA BATRAWY Associated Press Many women in Afghanistan remain at home because they are too terrified to venture into a new world ruled by the Taliban. The extremist group that once stoned women and restricted their every move is now back in power. In Afghanistan’s third-largest city, Herat, girls joined boys

By CARLA K. JOHNSON AP Medical Writer U.S. health officials may soon recommend COVID-19 booster shots for fully vaccinated Americans. While many details remain unclear, it’s common for protection from vaccines to decrease over time. Researchers have been monitoring the performance of the COVID-19 vaccines to see how long protection lasts and to understand when

CAIRO (AP) — Libyan authorities say a senior government official has been released, two weeks after armed men abducted him and his colleague in the capital of Tripoli. The chief of staff for the first deputy prime minister returned to the eastern city of Benghazi on Tuesday. The government hasn’t said which armed group was

WASHINGTON (AP) — Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has announced that he and husband Chasten have become parents.  Buttigieg, the first openly gay Cabinet secretary confirmed by the Senate, posted the news Tuesday  on Twitter.  He says he and Chasten are “overjoyed” and that had wanted to grow their family for some time.  He says the

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian state TV says Israel carried out a missile attack, targeting a military position in southern Syria. There was no immediate word on casualties in the Tuesday night attack. State TV said two missiles were fired toward the position near the southern town of Quneitra, on the edge of Syria’s Israeli-occupied Golan

By CURT ANDERSON AP Legal Affairs Writer ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — A Florida judge has refused to close pretrial hearings to the media and public in the case of the man accused of killing 17 people in a 2018 high school mass shooting. Broward County Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer on Tuesday rejected a motion

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A ship that sank four decades ago off Kodiak Island has sudden started leaking diesel fuel, and last month’s magnitude 8.2 earthquake off the Alaska Peninsula might be the cause. The Saint Patrick was hit by a rogue wave in 1981. Only two of the 12 people on board survived. The

By MEAD GRUVER Associated Press CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — A Missouri family alleges in a federal lawsuit that Yellowstone National Park rangers and Wyoming sheriff’s deputies seeking a murder suspect held them at gunpoint without adequate cause for an hour. Brett and Genalyn Hemry, of Independence, Missouri, seek unspecified damages to be determined at trial.

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbia’s autocratic leader Aleksandar Vucic has challenged Twitter to close his account like it did with Donald Trump’s, after several media outlets under his control have been labeled state-affiliated by the social media site. Vucic said Tuesday that “I can’t wait for them (Twitter) to close my account so I become

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A jury has acquitted a Little Rock police officer who was accused of using excessive force in the 2016 fatal shooting of a man holding a BB gun. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports jurors deliberated for about three hours on Monday before returning with a not guilty verdict for officer Dennis

By COREY WILLIAMS Associated Press Automaker FCA US has been fined $30 million after admitting that it paid off leaders of the United Auto Workers to try to win concessions in negotiations covering thousands of factory workers. U.S. District Court Judge Paul Borman also sentenced FCA US Tuesday to three years’ probation and ordered an

By KATE BRUMBACK Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — The Georgia State Board of Elections plans to appoint a review panel this week as part of a process that could lead to a takeover of elections in the state’s most populous county. Using a provision in Georgia’s sweeping new election law, Republican lawmakers last month asked

PHOENIX (AP) — In a story published August 17, 2021, about a lawsuit seeking to overturn provisions of a new Arizona abortion law, The Associated Press erroneously reported the name of an anti-abortion group. It is the Center for Arizona Policy, not the Center for Arizona Progress.