News

By JANET MCCONNAUGHEY, MICHAEL KUNZELMAN and JEFF AMY Associated Press NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The levees, floodwalls and floodgates that protect New Orleans held up against Hurricane Ida’s fury, but costly upgrades to the city’s flood protection system couldn’t spare some neighboring communities from the rising water. Ida was the toughest test for New Orleans

By MELINDA DESLATTE and RUSS BYNUM Associated Press BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana hospitals in Hurricane Ida’s path have been forced to evacuate dozens of patients after the storm tore away parts of their roofs, sent water leaking inside and left facilities relying on generator power. Gov. John Bel Edwards said members of the

By DAVID FISCHER Associated Press MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Officials with a South Florida museum are collecting the photos, notes and other personal items that make up a memorial wall near the site of the deadly building collapse that killed 98 people. A group from HistoryMiami Museum was working Monday near the Champlain Towers

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