AP National News

By BRUCE SCHREINER and OBED LAMY Associated Press DYERSBURG, Tenn. (AP) — A storm system sweeping over large areas of the U.S. South and Midwest resulted in at least 16 weather-related deaths by early Sunday, with overnight tornado and flash flood warnings setting up more severe weather that forecasters say could cause rising waterways for

By MATT SEDENSKY AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Economy Candy’s shelves brim with sweets from around the world – gummies from Germany, lollipops from Spain, chocolates from Japan and a panoply of candies from across the U.S. Standing amid it all, columns of bright jellybeans to his left and exotic Kit Kats to

By VALERIE GONZALEZ Associated Press LOS FRESNOS, Texas (AP) — Leonardo Baez and Nora Avila-Guel’s bakery in the Texas community of Los Fresnos is a daily stop for many residents to share gossip over coffee and pick up cakes and pastries for birthdays, office parties or themselves. When Homeland Security Investigations agents showed up at

By ANNE D’INNOCENZIO AP Retail Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Sending children back to school in new sneakers, jeans and T-shirts is likely to cost U.S. families significantly more this fall if the bespoke tariffs President Donald Trump put on leading exporters take effect as planned, American industry groups warn. About 97% of the clothes

By DAVID A. LIEB Associated Press About 45 years have passed since a U.S. state last eliminated its income tax on wages and salaries. But with recent actions in Mississippi and Kentucky, two states now are on a path to do so, if their economies keep growing. The push to zero out the income tax

By JULIE WATSON Associated Press CAMPO, Calif. (AP) — Hiking the Pacific Crest Trail is a challenge, especially for adventurers making the entire run from Southern California to Canada, and Eric Kipperman’s job is to greet them at the start and lay bare the difficulties ahead. He has lately begun warning that the journey may

By BRIAN WITTE Associated Press ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Maryland lawmakers passed a measure Saturday to try to limit future liabilities from claims of sexual abuse at state and private institutions after thousands of people unexpectedly came forward with allegations of abuse, many of them in youth detention centers, putting potentially billions of dollars at

By NADIA LATHAN Associated Press/Report for America A district court judge on Friday awarded more than $6 million combined to four whistleblowers in their lawsuit against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton who were fired shortly after they reported him to the FBI. “By a preponderance of the evidence,” Travis County Judge Catherine Mauzy says in

By DAVE COLLINS Associated Press New York state officials have told the Trump administration that they will not comply with its demands to end diversity, equity and inclusion practices in public schools, despite the administration’s threats to terminate federal education funding. Daniel Morton-Bentley, counsel and deputy commissioner of the state Department of Education, said in

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. (AP) — A pair of critically endangered, nearly 100-year-old Galapagos tortoises at the Philadelphia Zoo have become first-time parents. In an announcement Friday, the zoo said it is “overjoyed” at the arrivals of the four hatchlings, a first in its more than 150-year history. The babies are the offspring of female Mommy and

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department told an appeals court Saturday that a judge did not have the authority to order the Trump administration to broker the return of a Maryland man who was mistakenly sent to a notorious El Salvador prison, and it suspended a government lawyer who

By TIM SULLIVAN Associated Press On Friday, March 14, President Donald Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 law giving him immense powers to deport noncitizens in a time of war. His use of that law was aimed at Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang that he has repeatedly and falsely claimed as part

By ZEKE MILLER and STEVE PEOPLES Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Not even 24 hours after his party lost a key Wisconsin race and underperformed in Florida, President Donald Trump followed the playbook that has defined his political career: He doubled down. Trump’s move Wednesday to place stiff new tariffs on imports from nearly all

By GRAHAM LEE BREWER Associated Press When Lakota artist Marty Two Bulls Jr. looks at the Black Hills of South Dakota, he doesn’t just see its natural beauty. He also sees a scar cut deep into the heart of the universe. The mountain range is central to the origin story of several tribal nations, including

By BRUCE SCHREINER and OBED LAMY Associated Press DYERSBURG, Tennessee. (AP) — Another round of torrential rain and flash flooding came Saturday for parts of the South and Midwest already heavily waterlogged by days of severe storms that also spawned deadly tornadoes. Forecasters warned that rivers in some places would continue to rise for days.

By DAVE COLLINS Associated Press Crowds of people angry about the way President Donald Trump is running the country marched and rallied in scores of American cities Saturday in the biggest day of demonstrations yet by an opposition movement trying to regain its momentum after the shock of the Republican’s first weeks in office. So-called

By CLAIRE RUSH and MARK THIESSEN Associated Press John Gutierrez had been thinking about buying a new laptop for the past year. The Austin, Texas, resident needed a computer with faster processing and increased storage for his photography work and had his sights set on a product from a Taiwanese brand. Then President Donald Trump

By PHILIP MARCELO Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Prosecutors are seeking more than seven years in prison for disgraced former U.S. Rep. George Santos after he pleaded guilty to federal fraud and identity theft charges. The U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York argued in a court filing Friday that a significant

By JOSH FUNK AP Business Writer OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Heading into this year, most U.S. farmers were hoping to break even or maybe record a small profit if they could find a way to limit their sky-high costs. But now they are faced with losing the biggest export market for many of their crops

By CHARLOTTE KRAMON Associated Press/Report for America ATLANTA (AP) — A revived attempt to fix Georgia’s inefficient system for compensating people wrongfully convicted of crimes almost died. Then it got tacked onto a bill that could compensate former President Donald Trump and more than a dozen codefendants for attorneys’ fees after they were indicted for

By MATTHEW BROWN Associated Press BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — President Donald Trump’s administration acted to roll back environmental safeguards around future logging projects on more than half of U.S. national forests under an emergency designation announced Friday that cites dangers from wildfires. Whether the move will boost lumber supplies as Trump envisioned in an executive

NEW YORK (AP) — Columbia University must give detained activist Mahmoud Khalil and other students 30 days’ notice before handing over any more documents to Congress as it investigates antisemitism on college campuses, a federal judge in New York ruled Friday. But U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian stopped short of outright blocking the Manhattan university

By MICHAEL R. BLOOD and AMY TAXIN Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles County has reached a $4 billion agreement to settle nearly 7,000 claims of sexual abuse in juvenile facilities since 1959, officials said Friday. The agreement, which still needs approval from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, far surpasses a

By MARTHA BELLISLE Associated Press Under criticism for staff cuts across the country, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum is directing national parks to “remain open and accessible” and says officials will ensure proper staffing to do so. The order, issued late Thursday, also calls for a detailed review of each park’s operating hours, trail closures and

By DAVID CRARY AP National Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Theodore McCarrick, a once-powerful Catholic cardinal who was defrocked by Pope Francis in 2019 after a Vatican investigation determined he had molested adults and children, has died. He was 94. Archbishop of Washington Robert McElroy issued a statement Friday confirming McCarrick’s death a day earlier but

By WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — The trade wars launched by U.S. President Donald Trump have escalated to new heights. Just days after Trump unveiled sweeping new “reciprocal” tariffs on imports from around the world, China on Friday levied a retaliatory 34% tariff on all U.S. products starting April 10. Stock

By FATIMA HUSSEIN, AAMER MADHANI and SARAH PARVINI Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Friday said he is signing an executive order to keep TikTok running in the U.S. for another 75 days to give his administration more time to broker a deal to bring the social media platform under American ownership.

By SETH BORENSTEIN AP Science Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — After Trump administration job cuts, nearly half of National Weather Service forecast offices have 20% vacancy rates — twice that of just a decade ago — as severe weather chugs across the nation’s heartland, according to data obtained by The Associated Press. Detailed vacancy data for

By MATT O’BRIEN AP Technology Writer Fifty years after the founding of Microsoft, the CEO of its artificial intelligence division has a big task: develop a new product line as integral to daily life as the software giant’s past innovations. “We’re really trying to land this idea that everybody is going to have their own

By LISA BAUMANN and MARK THIESSEN Associated Press An average of 1,200 tornadoes hit the United States yearly, and the country will probably get more killer supercells spawning tornadoes and hail as the world warms, according to a 2023 study. That study also warns the severe storms are edging eastward to strike more frequently in