News

By MICHAEL BALSAMO Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The NAACP is urging the Justice Department to investigate whether a federal crime was being committed when Texas Republicans threatened to have their Democratic colleagues arrested. The threats stemmed from their refusal to attend a legislative session in an effort to try and block a sweeping elections

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — When the Tokyo Olympics began during a rising number of coronavirus cases, the majority of the host nation were in opposition. Japanese Emperor Naruhito dropped the word “celebrating” from his opening declaration of welcome. But once the Games began and local media switched to covering Japanese athletes’

ASHBURN, Va, (AP) — A northern Virginia school board has voted to expand access for transgender students to school facilities and groups. The Washington Post reports that the Loudoun County School Board voted 7-2 for the guidelines on Wednesday, a day after hundreds of people for and against the changes converged for a public hearing.

By DÁNICA COTO Associated Press SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Tropical Storm Fred has weakened to a tropical depression while sweeping over the Dominican Republic and dumping heavy rains that forecasters warn could cause dangerous flooding and mudslides there and in neighboring Haiti. Some 300,000 customers in the Dominican Republic are without power Wednesday

By ANDREW DALTON AP Entertainment Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Real estate heir Robert Durst testified at his murder trial that he has changed his mind many times, but has concluded that he didn’t actually see his wife step onto a commuter train the night she disappeared in 1982. Durst also testified that he lied

GREENVILLE, Calif. (AP) — California’s largest single wildfire in recorded history continued to grow after destroying more than 1,000 buildings, nearly half of them homes, while authorities in Montana ordered evacuations as a wind-driven blaze roared toward several remote communities. The east end of Northern California’s Dixie Fire flared up as winds increased. In southeastern

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Authorities say a California surfing school owner has been charged with killing his two young children with a spear gun in Mexico because he thought they would become monsters. The U.S. attorney’s office says Matthew Coleman of Santa Barbara was charged Wednesday with the foreign murder of U.S. nationals. Prosecutors say

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican icon Vicente Fernandez is in critical but stable condition after being hospitalized for a fall last week, according to an Instagram post made by his medical team on Wednesday. While the 81-year-old king of ranchera music is on a ventilator, his brain function is intact, according to his doctors. They

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal judge in San Francisco has ordered a new mental health evaluation for a Mexican man acquitted of murder in the 2015 fatal shooting of a woman on a busy public pier. The killing of Kate Steinle became a national flashpoint over immigration because Jose Ines Garcia Zarate was in

By MARCIA DUNN AP Aerospace Writer CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Scientists have fine-tuned the path of the asteroid Bennu and say the odds of it smacking into Earth are higher than previously thought but still quite low. NASA’s Osiris-Rex spacecraft is headed back to Earth after collecting samples from the large rubble pile of

By DÁNICA COTO Associated Press SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Puerto Rico’s governor says all employees at restaurants or other enclosed places that serve food or drinks will have to get vaccinated against the coronavirus. Customers visiting those places will have to show their vaccination card or a negative virus test. The new rules

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — Heat and humidity broiled parts of Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and other midwestern states Wednesday while storms accompanied by heavy rain bowled over trees and flooded roads. Thousands of homes and businesses in western and northern parts of Michigan’s lower peninsula remained without power following damage to power lines. Wind gusts

By JOCELYN GECKER and KATHLEEN RONAYNE Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California will become the first state in the nation to require all teachers and school staff to get vaccinated or undergo weekly COVID-19 testing — a wide order that applies to more than 800,000 staffers. The statewide vaccine mandate for K-12 educators comes

By VANESSA GERA Associated Press WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s parliament has passed a law that would prevent former Polish property owners, among them Holocaust survivors and their descendants, from regaining property expropriated by the country’s communist regime. Israel condemned the legislation, with Foreign Minister Yair Lapid saying it “damages both the memory of the

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV Associated Press MOSCOW (AP) — A helicopter carrying tourists has crashed into a deep volcanic crater lake on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia’s far east, leaving up to eight people missing. Officials said at least eight survived. Emergency workers including divers were searching for survivors in Kurile Lake in the Kronotsky nature