News

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) — Prosecutors in Virginia have dropped all charges against a man charged with hiring a hitman to kill his ex-wife after the accused hitman refused to cooperate with the investigation into the 2004 double slayings that also left the woman’s 7-year-old son dead. Christopher Schmidt had been held in jail on

By SYLVIA HUI Associated Press LONDON (AP) — A coroner presiding over an inquest into the death of British woman who was poisoned by a Soviet-developed nerve agent wants the probe to be turned into a public inquiry so she can examine Russia’s possible involvement. Unlike an inquest, British law allows a public inquiry to

By KATE BRUMBACK Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia’s governor on Wednesday appointed a review panel to determine whether a district attorney who was indicted on charges of criminal misconduct while in office should be suspended while the case is pending. Chattahoochee Circuit District Attorney Mark Jones is accused of trying to get a police

By BRENDAN FARRINGTON Associated Press TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A federal judge has struck down part of a Florida immigration enforcement law as racially motivated. U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom on Tuesday rejected parts of the 2019 law banning local government sanctuary policies and requiring local law enforcement to make their best efforts to work

By ALAN FRAM Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate negotiators say bipartisan congressional talks on overhauling policing practices have ended without agreement. New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker has told reporters that bargainers were not making progress on issues like whether to hold individual officers personally liable for abusive behavior. The breakdown marks an unproductive end

By MIKE SILVERMAN Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — The Met Opera’s season opens on Monday, and for the first time in its 138-year history it will perform an opera by a Black composer. The staging of “Fire Shut Up in My Bones” will be an awakening in other ways too for the Met, which

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s broadcasting regulators have extended the license of Discovery Inc.-owned TVN24. But they also also adopted a resolution to pressure the American company to sell its majority stake in the TV news channel, which airs coverage that is critical of Poland’s government. The National Broadcasting Council had delayed the renewal of

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has announced that masks will be required inside temples to limit the spread of COVID-19. Church leaders said Wednesday that masks will be required temporarily in an effort to keep temples open. The message isthe latest in a series of statements from

NEW YORK (AP) — Jim Sheeler, a former Rocky Mountain News journalist who won a Pulitzer Prize for his extensive and compassionate reporting on the families of Colorado soldiers killed in the Iraq War and the man tasked with notifying them, has died. Sheeler, also an author, was 53. Case Western Reserve University, where Sheeler

By JIM SALTER Associated Press The St. Louis County prosecutor’s office is investigating an incident caught on cellphone video in which white officers allowed a police dog to repeatedly bite a Black man during an arrest. The video of the arrest Monday in the St. Louis suburb of Woodson Terrace has sparked outrage online and

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled Wednesday that the Fed plans to announce as early as November that it will start withdrawing the extraordinary support it unleased after the coronavirus paralyzed the economy 18 months ago. Powell said that if the job market maintained its steady