AP National News

By HALLIE GOLDEN Associated Press Sgt. Joe Harris, believed to be the oldest surviving World War II paratrooper and a member of the U.S. Army’s first all-Black parachute infantry battalion, has died. He was 108. Harris died March 15 in a hospital in Los Angeles surrounded by family, grandson Ashton Pittman told The Associated Press.

By JEFFREY COLLINS Associated Press A large wildfire in the South Carolina mountains has doubled in size on each of the last three days. But fire crews have been able to keep the blaze away from structures. Firefighters battling the Table Rock Mountain fire have concentrated on saving lives and property by digging fire breaks

By LOLITA C. BALDOR Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. and Lithuanian troops and authorities are struggling to drain a swampy area in Lithuania in an ongoing effort to recover four American Army soldiers who went missing three days ago. The soldiers’ armored vehicle was discovered submerged in 15 feet of water and so far

By VALERIE GONZALEZ and JUAN A. LOZANO Associated Press McALLEN, Texas (AP) — Drenching rains along the Texas-Mexico border trapped hundreds of people in flooded homes and in cars stranded in high waters, scrambling rescue crews to calls for help that continued Friday even as the downpours let up. At least four people died, including

By HILLEL ITALIE and AARON MORRISON Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump’s executive order titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” targets the Smithsonian Institution — which has, he contends, “come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology.” Critics have pushed back, saying the order is an attempt to whitewash

By JEFFREY COLLINS Associated Press COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A South Carolina death row inmate on Friday chose execution by firing squad, just five weeks after the state carried out its first death by bullets. Mikal Mahdi, who pleaded guilty to murder for killing a police officer in 2004, is scheduled to be executed April

By DAVID FISCHER Associated Press The city of St. Augustine — with its centuries-old buildings and massive stone fort — is an enduring reminder of Spain’s storied history in Florida, going back generations before the United States even existed. But for two decades in the 1700s, Great Britain controlled the region, and archeologists have finally

By MATTHEW BROWN, HANNAH SCHOENBAUM and MEAD GRUVER Associated Press SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah has become the first state to ban fluoride in public drinking water, pushing past opposition from dentists and national health organizations who warn the move will lead to medical problems that disproportionately affect low-income communities. Republican Gov. Spencer Cox

By SCOTT BAUER Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin’s Democratic attorney general asked a court on Friday to block billionaire Elon Musk from handing out $1 million checks to voters this weekend, just days before the state’s hotly contested Supreme Court race was to be decided. Attorney General Josh Kaul filed the lawsuit in

By CARLA K. JOHNSON AP Medical Writer A little-known federal agency that touches the lives of people across the United States by funding the 988 crisis line, naloxone distribution and addiction treatment may be weakened and possibly eliminated in the proposed overhaul of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In Health Secretary Robert

By SHARON LURYE and JOCELYN GECKER AP Education Writers After decades of partnership with the U.S. government, colleges are facing new doubts about the future of their federal funding. President Donald Trump’s administration has been using the funding spigot to seek compliance with his agenda, cutting off money to schools including Columbia University and the

By HANNAH SCHOENBAUM and MEAD GRUVER Associated Press The Sundance Film Festival is Boulder bound, leaving its home of four decades in Park City, Utah, for a new chapter in neighboring Colorado. Organizers announced their decision Thursday after a yearlong search in which numerous U.S. cities vied to host the nation’s premiere independent film festival.

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Lawyers for Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University student the Trump administration is trying to expel from the U.S. because of his role in campus protests against Israel, are expected to appear Friday before a judge in New Jersey as they fight for his release from federal custody. Khalil, 30, was arrested

By MICHAEL CASEY Associated Press EVERETT, Mass. (AP) — For years, the mayor of a Boston suburb dreaded Wednesdays. That was the day when a local weekly would publish shocking allegations that he was on the take, sexually harassing women or under investigation by the FBI. Friends trashed Everett Mayor Carlo DeMaria on Facebook over

By GENE JOHNSON Associated Press TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — A U.S. judge in Washington state has blocked enforcement of President Donald Trump’s order banning transgender people from serving in the military, the second nationwide injunction against the policy in as many weeks. The order Thursday from U.S. District Court Judge Benjamin Settle in Tacoma came

Supporters of Palestinian causes with ties to American universities have been detained in the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants. President Donald Trump and other officials have accused protesters and others of being “pro-Hamas,” referring to the Palestinian militant group that attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Many protesters have said they were speaking out against

By JOCELYN GECKER AP Education Writer The Trump administration has opened investigations into the admissions policies at Stanford University and three campuses within the University of California system, including UC Berkeley, UCLA and UC Irvine, the Department of Justice said Thursday. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi has directed the department’s Civil Rights Division to investigate

By JUAN A. LOZANO Associated Press HOUSTON (AP) — The woman convicted of killing Tejano music legend Selena Quintanilla-Pérez has been denied parole and will continue serving a life sentence for fatally shooting the rising young singer at a Texas motel in 1995, the state’s parole board announced Thursday. Yolanda Saldívar, 64, was up for

By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH Associated Press A babysitter looked under a bed to reassure a worried child that there wasn’t a monster hiding there — and came face-to-face with a man who wasn’t supposed to be there, a sheriff’s office in Kansas said in a news release. The 27-year-old was booked into jail this week after

By JIM VERTUNO Associated Press AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A federal judge’s rebuke of Texas housing prisoners in lockups without air conditioning stopped short of ordering a fix before summer in what has become of the country’s biggest lawsuits over keeping prisoners safe during dangerous extreme heat. But U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman’s warnings to

By RIO YAMAT Associated Press LAS VEGAS (AP) — A man who set fire to Tesla vehicles in Las Vegas and who painted the word “resist” for authorities to find at the scene has been arrested. Paul Hyon Kim, 36, faces charges in connection with the March 18 attack in both state and federal court

By JENNIFER PELTZ and MICHAEL R. SISAK Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — A judge cleared the way Thursday for Luigi Mangione to get a laptop behind bars — if his jailers agree — so he can examine documents and other material in the UnitedHealthcare CEO murder case. New York state Judge Gregory Carro wrote

By JEFFREY COLLINS and BRITTANY PETERSON Associated Press When Nicole Taylor and her family moved to their new home in the South Carolina mountains six months ago, the gorgeous view of Table Rock Mountain was the clincher. She ended up with a porch-side seat to one of at least a half dozen wildfires in the

By PATRICK WHITTLE Associated Press PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — School officials in Maine said Thursday they will not comply with a proposed agreement from President Donald Trump’s administration that would bar transgender athletes from participating in girls’ sports. The U.S. Health and Human Services said earlier this month that the Maine Department of Education, Maine

By BILL BARROW and STEPHEN GROVES Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has once again scrambled the politics of organized labor and the working class with his planned tariffs on auto imports. The White House is eagerly promoting supportive comments from the nation’s top auto worker union leader, a previous Trump critic who

MATT BROWN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The rights of Americans to self-determine how to educate their children — a hotly contested matter that stretches back to at least the Civil War — have long been intertwined with the principle of equally and equitably educating children across racial lines. When President Donald Trump last week

By The Associated Press HELENA (AP) — Transgender people in Montana can no longer use bathrooms in public buildings that do not align with their sex assigned at birth after Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte signed new restrictions into law Thursday. The law, which takes effect with its approval, requires public buildings including the state Capitol,

By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — A lawyer for The Associated Press asked a federal judge Thursday to reinstate the agency’s access to the White House press pool and other official events, saying the Trump administration’s ban is a fundamental attack on freedom of speech and should be overturned. The government insisted

By SCOTT BAUER Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Billionaire Elon Musk says a Wisconsin voter has been awarded $1 million days before the conclusion of a fiercely contested state Supreme Court election that has broken spending records and become a referendum on Musk and the first months of President Donald Trump’s administration. The payment

By JOSH FUNK Associated Press The head of the Federal Aviation Administration told Congress during a hearing Thursday about a midair collision over Washington, D.C., that killed 67 people that the agency must do more to ensure flying remains safe. The FAA’s artificial intelligence-led review aimed at identifying safety threats at other airports with similar