News

By LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Authorities say they’ve taken down a criminal racket in which corrupt lawyers and doctors used hundreds of desperate people, including drug addicts and homeless individuals, to feign trip-and-fall accidents to collect damages. They announced charges Wednesday against four individuals, including two lawyers and two doctors. They

By HALELUYA HADERO AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — A report released on Wednesday says donations to racial and social justice causes ticked up to 16% of American households in 2020. The bump in giving came as donors raced to provide support to affected communities in a year marked by protests and increased attention

By MEG KINNARD and DENISE LAVOIE Associated Press RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A federal appeals court has upheld the conviction and death sentence of a man on federal death row for the racist slayings of nine members of a Black South Carolina congregation. A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on

By RYAN J. FOLEY Associated Press IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A proposed class-action lawsuit claims that Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds’ decision to end enhanced unemployment benefits for tens of thousands of residents violated state law and asks a court to reinstate their aid. The lawsuit seeks to make claimants eligible for potentially hundreds of

By RUSS BYNUM Associated Press SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — A federal judge has scheduled a trial in early 2022 for three Georgia men charged with hate crimes in the killing of Ahmaud Arbery. U.S. District Court Judge Lisa Godbey Wood issued a written order saying jury selection in the case will begin Feb. 7. Father

By LOLITA C. BALDOR and BRIAN SLODYSKO Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Two members of Congress are facing criticism and questions following their surprise trip to Afghanistan this week. The trip by Democrat Seth Moulton, of Massachusetts, and Republican Peter Meijer, of Michigan, diverted resources from the U.S.’s chaotic withdrawal and enraged military leaders. House

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN Associated Press ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham wants to conserve more of the state’s land and water. She says doing so will boost other state efforts to mitigate climate change effects. The Democratic governor signed an executive order Wednesday creating a committee that will draft a

By STEPHEN GROVES Associated Press PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — A prosecutor says South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg will avoid a trial and take a plea deal on misdemeanor traffic charges in a crash last year in which he hit and killed a man who was walking near a rural highway. Beadle County State’s Attorney

KENOSHA, Wis. (AP) — An attorney for the Illinois teen accused of killing two men and wounding a third during a protest in Wisconsin last summer, says he doesn’t know who donated to his client’s defense and therefore cannot produce any names. Attorney Mark Richards was responding to a motion filed by prosecutors last week

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Rana Cash, executive editor of the Savannah Morning News in Georgia, has been named to the same position at The Charlotte Observer, the newspaper’s first Black editor in the North Carolina newspaper’s 135-year history. The 50-year-old Cash begins her new job in early October. She is replacing Sherry Chisenhall, who announced

LONDON (AP) — Several types of crispy pork snacks have been pulled from sale in Britain after almost 180 people became ill with suspected salmonella poisoning. The packets of pork scratchings sold under the labels Mr. Porky, Jay’s and The Real Pork Crackling Company were all made by snack company the Tayto Group. The Food

TUSCUMBIA, Ala. (AP) — Workers have used dynamite to demolish six smokestacks at a decommissioned power plant in Alabama. The implosion took place Wednesday at the old Colbert Fossil Plant, which was operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority for more than six decades beginning in 1955. TVA says the work is part of its move