AP National News

By SEAN MURPHY Associated Press OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A steady line of slow-moving thunderstorms that battered Oklahoma in recent weeks set multiple rainfall records across the state and helped ease drought conditions. But the saturated ground and torrential rains also came with a heavy price, including the deaths of multiple people who became trapped

By ALEXA ST. JOHN Associated Press DETROIT (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department filed lawsuits against four states this week, claiming their climate actions conflict with federal authority and President Donald Trump’senergy dominance agenda. The DOJ on Wednesday filed lawsuits against Hawaii and Michigan over their plans for legal action against fossil fuel companies for

By COLLIN BINKLEY AP Education Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — When the Justice Department lifted a school desegregation order in Louisiana this week, officials called its continued existence a “historical wrong” and suggested that others dating to the Civil Rights Movement should be reconsidered. The end of the 1966 legal agreement with Plaquemines Parish schools announced

By JENNIFER PELTZ and MICHAEL R. SISAK Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Harvey Weinstein ’s lawyers got their turn Thursday to question a woman who alleges the one-time Hollywood heavyweight held her down on a bed and forced oral sex on her nearly two decades ago. Miriam Haley, testifying for a third day at

By NICHOLAS RICCARDI Associated Press A federal judge on Thursday barred the Trump administration from deporting any Venezuelans from South Texas under an 18th-century wartime law and said President Donald Trump’s invocation of it was “unlawful.” U.S. District Court Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr. is the first judge to rule that the Alien Enemies Act cannot

By GEOFF MULVIHILL, CARLA K. JOHNSON and AMANDA SEITZ Associated Press President Donald Trump’s administration released a lengthy review of transgender health care on Thursday that advocates for a greater reliance on behavioral therapy rather than broad gender-affirming medical care for youths with gender dysphoria. The 409-page Health and Human Services report questions standards for

By KIM CHANDLER and MICHELLE L. PRICE Associated Press MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — President Donald Trump will travel to heavily Republican Alabama on Thursday to speak to graduating students at the University of Alabama, where he is expected to draw some protesters despite enjoying a deep well of support in the state. Trump’s evening remarks

By GENE JOHNSON and HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH Associated Press SEATTLE (AP) — Inside a Virginia courthouse, three immigration agents in plainclothes — one masked — detained a man who had just had misdemeanor assault charges dismissed. They declined to show identification or a warrant to the man, and one threatened to prosecute horrified witnesses who tried

By DEVI SHASTRI and MEGAN JANETSKY Associated Press Dr. Hector Ocaranza knew El Paso would see measles the moment it began spreading in West Texas and eastern New Mexico. Highways connect his border city with the epicenter of Texas’ massive outbreak, which is up to 663 cases. They’re the same roads used by thousands of

By SOPHIA TAREEN, THOMAS ADAMSON and YURI KAGEYAMA Associated Press CHICAGO (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of people in the U.S. and around the world rallied Thursday in May Day protests that united many in anger over President Donald Trump’s agenda from aggressive tariffs that are stoking fears of global economic turmoil to his administration’s

BEND, Ore. (AP) — The U.S. Forest Service on Thursday is set to evict dozens of homeless people living in an encampment in a federal forest in central Oregon. The federal agency has been working for years on plans to close part of the Deschutes National Forest near Bend for forest restoration and wildfire mitigation.

By SOPHIA TAREEN Associated Press CHICAGO (AP) — From worker rights rallies to marches for social justice, activists around the globe kicked off May Day demonstrations on Thursday. In some countries, it’s a public holiday honoring labor, but activists planning marches in the United States say much of their message is about fighting back against

By CHEYANNE MUMPHREY and CAROLYN THOMPSON Associated Press PHOENIX (AP) — As a first-generation college student, Austin Kissinger was looking forward to celebrating graduation with others of similar backgrounds who helped each other find their way at the University of Kentucky. Typically, Kentucky students who are the first in their family to graduate from college

By DEEPTI HAJELA Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Growing up on the south side of Chicago, the Rev. Dr. Howard-John Wesley was given the message early on: What one wore as a Black man mattered. Wesley’s pastor father, who migrated from Louisiana after World War II in search of more opportunities than those readily

By GISELA SALOMON and KATE PAYNE Associated Press MIRAMAR, Fla. (AP) — A record 1,120 people accused of being in the U.S. illegally were arrested in less than a week during sweep orchestrated by federal, state and local authorities in Florida, an operation officials credited on Thursday to the burgeoning number of local police departments

By JANIE HAR Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A tax on sugary drinks takes effect Thursday in the beachside community of Santa Cruz, seven years after California banned its cities and counties from implementing local grocery taxes as part of a reluctant deal with the powerful beverage industry. The 2-cent-per-ounce tax, approved by voters

By CURT ANDERSON Associated Press STARKE, Fla. (AP) — An Army combat veteran whose Gulf War experience triggered severe mental problems was executed Thursday evening in Florida for the 1998 shotgun slayings of his girlfriend and her three young children. Jeffrey Hutchinson, 62, was pronounced dead at 8:15 p.m. following a lethal injection at Florida

By RIO YAMAT Associated Press LAS VEGAS (AP) — A federal judge has denied the U.S. government’s request to release from prison a former FBI informant who made up a story about President Joe Biden and his son Hunter accepting bribes that later became central to Republicans’ impeachment effort. The decision, issued Wednesday by U.S.

By MARC LEVY and MARK SCOLFORO Associated Press YORK, Pa. (AP) — A police officer killed while responding to a Pennsylvania hospital siege was struck by a shotgun blast fired by another officer that also hit the attacker as he held a hospital worker hostage with a gun to her head, a prosecutor disclosed Wednesday.

By MIKE SCHNEIDER and DAVID FISCHER MIAMI (AP) — Florida’s attorney general asked federal courts Wednesday to let authorities enforce a new state law making it a misdemeanor for people in the U.S. illegally to enter Florida by eluding immigration officials. State Attorney General James Uthmeier also asked U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams in Miami

By SARAH PARVINI AP Technology Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Conservative activist Robby Starbuck has filed a defamation lawsuit against Meta alleging that the social media giant’s artificial intelligence chatbot spread false statements about him, including that he participated in the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Starbuck, known for targeting corporate

By MAKIYA SEMINERA Associated Press RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Following the lead of several conservative states and the president himself, North Carolina Republican lawmakers have advanced their own bills that target diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The North Carolina House passed a bill restricting DEI practices within state government on Wednesday after votes on it

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) — Members of a high school lacrosse program in upstate New York are accused of staging an armed abduction of younger players in an stunt that “went way beyond hazing,” prosecutors said this week — warning that the students will be charged with kidnapping if they don’t turn themselves into authorities soon.

By BEATRICE DUPUY Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Fashion icons like Dapper Dan, Janelle Monáe and the late André Leon Talley are known for their distinctive approaches to sartorial style — bold splashes of color, luxurious fabrics, playful construction, capes — but fashion savants and historians agree that a common thread weaves their tailored

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A Republican state lawmaker from Maine appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday after she was censured by the state House for a social media post about a transgender athlete, a move that comes amid sparring over the issue between the Democratically controlled state and the

By SEAN MURPHY and MARC LEVY Associated Press OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A least two people drowned when their vehicles were caught in floodwaters in Oklahoma on Wednesday as slow-moving thunderstorms inundated roads across parts of that state and Texas, authorities said, while Pennsylvania residents picked up from a powerful storm that left three people

By JOSH FUNK and JOHN SEEWER Associated Press Norfolk Southern began making promises to East Palestine, Ohio, soon after its train derailed and caught fire in February 2023, saying it would “make it right” after five tank cars of vinyl chloride were intentionally burned, sending up a huge black plume of smoke that spread more