News

By TERRY SPENCER Associated Press FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — The attorney for parents suing to overturn the governor’s executive order banning strong student mask mandates says the order violates the authority of school districts to decide health issues. Attorney Craig Whisenhunt represents the parents. He argued in court Thursday that Gov. Ron DeSantis is

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina’s minimum age to be married is now higher after Gov. Roy Cooper signed a bill increasing it from 14 years old to 16. The increase takes effect immediately after the governor’s bill signing Thursday. It comes after the General Assembly gave unanimous support to the new threshold earlier this

By BEN FINLEY Associated Press NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — A school board in Virginia has agreed to pay $1.3 million in legal costs to the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU spent six years representing a student who sued over the school board’s transgender bathroom ban. Gavin Grimm’s suit against the Gloucester County School Board

By ERIC OLSON AP College Football Writer LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — College football programs are transitioning from traditional paper tickets to digital ticketing. Many fans like the feel of holding a ticket in their hand and hanging on to them as keepsakes. Others welcome the convenience of having a barcode on their smartphone scanned at

By KATHY GANNON and ELLEN KNICKMEYER Associated Press The Islamic State offshoot that President Joe Biden blames for a deadly suicide attack outside the Kabul airport got its start six years ago with several hundred fighters who regarded the Taliban as too moderate. The group known as Islamic State Khorasan formed along the mountain border

By MARIA VERZA Associated Press MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s president has again sidestepped questions about reinstating the U.S. “Remain in Mexico” policy. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Thursday that Mexico will continue helping the United States on immigration. But he noted “it can’t go on forever,” and said attention must turn to development

By SEAN MURPHY Associated Press OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma’s new attorney general is seeking execution dates for seven death-row inmates. In motions filed Thursday with the state’s Court of Criminal Appeals, Attorney General John O’Connor says the seven inmates have exhausted all their appeals. Six of the inmates were recently dismissed from a federal

By ANDREW DeMILLO Associated Press LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — The Arkansas Medical Board has opened an investigation following reports that inmates at a county jail were prescribed an anti-parasitic drug to combat COVID-19 even though it hasn’t been approved to treat the coronavirus. Board Director Amy Embry on Thursday declined to elaborate on the

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A $100 million fix to stop a San Francisco luxury high-rise from sinking and tilting even more is on hold while engineers try to learn why the building has sunk another inch (2.5 centimeters) during the repair. Doug Elmets, spokesman for the Millennium Tower, said in a statement that pile installation

By BRYAN ANDERSON Associated Press/Report for America RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina Senate Republicans on Thursday passed a bill to limit how teachers can discuss certain racial concepts inside the classroom. The proposal seeks to bar educators from compelling students to personally adopt any ideas from a list of 13 beliefs. The measure passed

By FABIOLA SÁNCHEZ and ALEXIS TRIBOULARD Associated Press MEXICO CITY (AP) — An all-woman Afghan robotics team known as the “Afghan Dreamers” are now safe in Mexico, but they say they want to help others who remain in their country after the Taliban takeover. The five women, accompanied by one man, arrived Tuesday after travelling

By SUDHIN THANAWALA and JAY REEVES Associated Press Kentucky and Texas have joined a growing list of states that have surpassed their record for hospitalized coronavirus patients. The two states on Wednesday reported the most COVID-19 patients in their hospitals since the pandemic began. At least six other states have already surpassed their records amid