AP National News

By MATT O’BRIEN AP Technology Writer Ashley Dayer’s dream of winning a National Science Foundation grant to pursue discoveries in bird conservation started when she was an early-career professor with an infant in her arms and a shoestring laboratory budget. Competition is intense for NSF grants, a key source of funding for science research at

By JENNIFER McDERMOTT Associated Press For years, proponents of green energy have argued that a slow, inefficient permitting process in the United States hinders a transition to clean sources of electricity. “Permitting reform,” as it’s called, is needed to unleash green energies like solar and wind, which don’t emit greenhouse gases that cause climate change,

By MIKE CATALINI Associated Press A man set a bonfire using wooden pallets in New Jersey’s Pine Barrens and left them without fully extinguishing the blaze, sparking a quick-moving wildfire with smoke affecting air quality in the New York City area, authorities said Thursday. Authorities arrested Joseph Kling, 19, of Waretown, New Jersey, and charged

By JOSH BOAK and AMELIA THOMSON-DEVEAUX Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans’ trust in President Donald Trump to bolster the U.S. economy appears to be faltering, with a new poll showing that many people fear the country is being steered into a recession and that the president’s broad and haphazardly enforced tariffs will cause prices

By JOHN HANNA Associated Press TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — State lawmakers across the U.S. have introduced at least 240 anti-China proposals this year, aiming to ensure public funds don’t buy Chinese technology or even T-shirts, coffee mugs and key chains for tourists. They’re also targeting sister-city relationships between American and Chinese communities. After years celebrating

By KIM CHANDLER Associated Press ATMORE, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama man who dropped his appeals and said he deserved to die for a 2010 rape and murder was executed Thursday evening, using his final words to apologize to the woman he killed. James Osgood, 55, was pronounced dead at 6:35 p.m. following a three-drug

By SOPHIA TAREEN Associated Press WAUKEGAN, Ill. (AP) — Grieving relatives and survivors of a mass shooting at a 2022 July Fourth parade recounted harrowing details for hours in a packed courtroom this week, telling a judge that the attack has done long-lasting damage. But the man who admitted to carefully planning the shooting, and

By STEVE KARNOWSKI Associated Press ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Gov. Tim Walz pledged Wednesday night to do everything in his power to protect Minnesotans from the chaos that he said President Donald Trump has unleashed on the country and the world. Delivering his annual State of the State speech to a joint session of

By JUAN A. LOZANO Associated Press HOUSTON (AP) — The State Bar of Texas rescinded a speaking invitation to the NAACP’s president after the civil rights group challenged the Trump administration’s dismantling of the Education Department, citing new rules over speaking topics the bar says could be deemed political. Derrick Johnson, the NAACP’s president and

By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and ERIC TUCKER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has charged an alleged high-ranking member of Tren de Aragua in Colombia with terrorism offenses, making the first case of its kind against a member of the gang the Trump administration has designated a foreign terrorist organization, officials said Wednesday.

By MEG KINNARD Associated Press U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis is the latest judge at odds with the Trump administration. In a scathing rebuke, she characterized the government as acting in “bad faith” by refusing to provide information about what it has done to try to free Kilmar Abrego Garcia from a prison in El

By PHILIP MARCELO and JAKE OFFENHARTZ Associated Press MINEOLA, N.Y. (AP) — A woman and toddler whose remains were discovered scattered along an oceanfront highway not far from the victims of Long Island’s infamous Gilgo Beach killings were identified Wednesday as a U.S. Army veteran from Alabama and her daughter. Tanya Denise Jackson, 26, of

By MARK VANCLEAVE and HANNAH FINGERHUT Associated Press NORTHWOOD, Iowa (AP) — Iowans attending a forum Wednesday hosted by Sen. Chuck Grassley started to turn on each other as the lawmaker faced heated questions about President Donald Trump ‘s first months in office. The room of about 100 people in north-central Worth County, near the

By BEN FINLEY Associated Press A federal judge temporarily halted her order requiring the Trump administration to provide information on its efforts so far, if any, to retrieve a man who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador. The seven-day pause ordered by U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis on Wednesday came with the agreement of lawyers

By KATE PAYNE Associated Press/Report for America TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida students who were traumatized by the 2018 Parkland school shooting — and last week’s deadly shooting at Florida State University — are urging the Republican-controlled statehouse not to roll back gun restrictions passed in the wake of the killing at Marjory Stoneman Douglas

By AMANDA SWINHART Associated Press BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — A large crowd of supporters and advocates gathered outside a Vermont courthouse Wednesday to support a Palestinian man who led protests against the war in Gaza as a student at Columbia University and was arrested during an interview about finalizing his U.S. citizenship. Mohsen Mahdawi, a

By BRUCE SHIPKOWSKI Associated Press CHATSWORTH, N.J. (AP) — A fast-moving wildfire engulfing part of New Jersey’s Pine Barrens has not resulted in any injuries, officials said Wednesday, though it’s expected to grow before forecast rain later this week. The fire in southern New Jersey’s Lacey and Ocean townships has grown to more than 20

By KATE BRUMBACK Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — Anjan Roy was studying with friends at Missouri State University when he got an email that turned his world upside down. His legal status as an international student had been terminated, and he was suddenly at risk for deportation. “I was in literal shock, like, what the

By HILLEL ITALIE AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — When Random House Publisher Andrew Ward met recently with staff editors to discuss potential book projects, conversation inevitably turned to current events and the Trump administration. “It seemed obvious that we needed to look back to the country’s core documents,” Ward said. “And that we

By PETER SMITH Associated Press As he does one day each month, the Rev. Robert Turner hit the road from his home in Baltimore last week and traveled — on foot — 43 miles (69 kilometers) to Washington. He arrived by evening on April 16 outside the White House, carrying a sign that called for

By VALERIE GONZALEZ and GISELA SALOMON Associated Press McALLEN, Texas (AP) — Hubert Montoya burst out laughing when the U.S. Department of Homeland Security emailed to say he should leave the country immediately or risk consequences of being deported. He is a U.S. citizen. “I just thought it was absurd,” the Austin, Texas, immigration attorney

By MICHAEL R. SISAK and JENNIFER PELTZ Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Harvey Weinstein ’s #MeToo retrial opened Wednesday, giving a new jury a fresh look at familiar rape and sexual assault allegations — plus a newly added claim from a former model. For the first time, prosecutors publicly identified Kaja Sokola and detailed

BARNEGAT TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) — A fast-moving wildfire burning in New Jersey on Tuesday forced thousands of people to evacuate and closed a stretch of a major highway. The Garden State Parkway, one of New Jersey’s busiest highways, was closed between Barnegat and Lacey townships, according to the New Jersey Fire Service. More than 1,300

By JUAN A. LOZANO and MICHAEL GRACZYK Associated Press HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — A Texas man convicted of fatally strangling and stabbing a young mother more than 20 years ago was executed Wednesday evening as the victim’s mother and other relatives looked on. Moises Sandoval Mendoza, 41, received a lethal injection at the state penitentiary

By JULIE CARR SMYTH Associated Press CINCINNATI (AP) — Cory Bowman was feeling inspired in January as he headed home after watching his half-brother, JD Vance, be inaugurated as vice president. The 36-year-old Bowman, who shares a father with Vance, was already active in the community, starting an evangelical church in Cincinnati’s West End and

By SOPHIA TAREEN Associated Press WAUKEGAN, Ill. (AP) — Survivors recounted the horror a gunman caused when he fired dozens of bullets at a 2022 Independence Day parade in suburban Chicago, detailing during a sentencing hearing for the man on Wednesday how they fled, hid inside businesses or treated the wounded packed into an emergency

By JONATHAN MATTISE and TRAVIS LOLLER Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The Tennessee Board of Parole on Tuesday recommended a pardon for country music star Jelly Roll, a Nashville native who has spoken openly about his criminal record and what it has taken to overcome it. The board’s action leaves the final decision on

By JOSH FUNK and HALLIE GOLDEN Associated Press A federal review of helicopter safety around some of the busiest U.S. airports, prompted by the deadly midair collision in January between a passenger jet and Army helicopter in Washington, D.C., revealed dangerous flying conditions at the Las Vegas airport. The Federal Aviation Administration said Tuesday the

By AMY TAXIN and JAIMIE DING Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jurors convicted a Southern California judge of second-degree murder on Tuesday for fatally shooting his wife while the couple argued and watched television at home. Orange County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Ferguson, 74, was on trial for the 2023 death of his wife

By REBECCA SANTANA Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The H-1B visa has long been a highly coveted employment visa for foreign citizens with specialized skills to live and work in the U.S., and recent requests from the Trump administration have put greater attention on the program. The requests for more information from people applying for