AP National News

By COLLIN BINKLEY Associated Press On one side is Harvard, the nation’s oldest and wealthiest university, with a brand so powerful that its name is synonymous with prestige. On the other side is the Trump administration, determined to go farther than any other White House to reshape American higher education. Both sides are digging in

By JOSH FUNK AP Business Writer OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Rancher Brett Kenzy hopes President Donald Trump’s tariffs will make imported beef expensive enough that Americans will turn to cattle raised at home for all their hamburgers and steaks. That might raise prices enough to give Kenzy and others the incentive they need to expand

By DEVNA BOSE/Associated Press and BENJAMIN THORP/Side Effects Public Media AURORA, Ill. (AP) — At her mother’s home in Illinois, Tracy Balhan flips through photos of her dad, Bill Speer. In one picture, he’s smiling in front of a bucket of sweating beers and wearing a blue T-shirt that reads, “Pops. The man. The myth.

WRENTHAM, Mass. (AP) — Charges have been dropped against two Rhode Island men in connection with the death of a fan following an altercation at a New England Patriots game in 2023. Justin Mitchell and John Vieira had pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor charges of assault and battery and disorderly conduct. They were accused of

By GIOVANNA DELL’ORTO Associated Press DORAL, Fla. (AP) — A clandestine opposition movement remains active in Nicaragua, but options for restoring democracy in the Central American country are dwindling, former presidential challenger and political prisoner Félix Maradiaga told The Associated Press from his forced exile in the United States. “The options are increasingly limited because

By TASSANEE VEJPONGSA and JOHN SEEWER Associated Press BETHLEHEM, Pa. (AP) — Love them or hate them, those marshmallow Peeps that come in blindingly bright colors and an array of flavors are inescapable around the Easter holiday. Millions are made daily in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, by Just Born Quality Confections, a family-owned candy manufacturer that also

By MARYCLAIRE DALE Associated Press Lawyers for the driver charged with killing NHL hockey player Johnny Gaudreau and his brother, Matthew, are expected to argue in court Tuesday that the brothers contributed to the fatal crash by cycling while impaired. According to the defense, the Gaudreaus had blood-alcohol levels of .129 or above, higher than

By JENNIFER PELTZ and MICHAEL R. SISAK Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — As jury selection started on Tuesday in Harvey Weinstein’s New York City rape retrial, some prospective jurors made clear they couldn’t be fair in judging the one-time Hollywood mogul-turned-#MeToo pariah. Mark Axelowitz, an actor who plays a Manhattan prosecutor in the new

By GEOFF MULVIHILL Associated Press Fewer people crossed state lines to obtain abortions in 2024 than a year earlier, a new survey has found. The Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights, estimates in a report released Tuesday that the overall number of clinician-provided abortions in states where it’s legal rose by less

By MARK SCOLFORO Associated Press HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A man accused of setting fire to Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s mansion over the weekend had struggled with mental illness, twice being treated at a psychiatric hospital, as his life unraveled dramatically in the past few years, his brother said Tuesday. Cody Balmer, 38, had been

NEW YORK (AP) — Federal aviation regulators issued an emergency order Monday grounding the helicopter tour company involved in a deadly New York crash after learning it had fired its operations director minutes after he had agreed to suspend flights during the investigation. The Federal Aviation Administration said it suspected the firing was retaliation for

BEL AIR, Md. (AP) — A fugitive from El Salvador was convicted Monday in the 2023 slaying of a Maryland woman who was attacked while exercising on a popular hiking trail northeast of Baltimore. Prosecutors alleged that Victor Martinez-Hernandez, 24, was carrying out a planned attack when he grabbed Rachel Morin off the trail, bashed

By MICHAEL R. SISAK Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Five years after Harvey Weinstein was convicted of rape and hauled to jail in handcuffs, the former movie mogul returns to a Manhattan courthouse Tuesday for a new trial covering the very same allegations — plus one that hasn’t been tried before. It isn’t double

By LISA BAUMANN Associated Press The Federal Emergency Management Agency has denied Washington state’s request for emergency relief funds to help repair an estimated $34 million in damage from a deadly bomb cyclone storm system in November, according to Gov. Bob Ferguson. Ferguson said in a news release on Monday that the state’s January application

By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and ERIC TUCKER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has charged a man with vandalizing a Tesla dealership in New Mexico and setting fire to the headquarters of the state Republican Party, according to court records unsealed Monday. A criminal complaint charges Jamison R. Wagner, 40, with federal arson

By PATRICK WHITTLE and HOLLY RAMER Associated Press A Palestinian man who led protests against the war in Gaza as a student at Columbia University was arrested Monday at a Vermont immigration office where he expected to be interviewed about finalizing his U.S. citizenship, his attorneys said. Mohsen Mahdawi, a legal permanent resident who has

By MICHAEL CASEY Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — The federal government says it’s freezing more than $2.2 billion in grants and $60 million in contracts to Harvard University, after the institution said it would defy the Trump administration’s demands to limit activism on campus. The hold on Harvard’s funding marks the seventh time President Donald

By TARA COPP and LOLITA C. BALDOR Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A long sliver of federal land along the U.S.-Mexico border that President Donald Trump is turning over to the Department of Defense would be controlled by the Army as part of a base, which could allow troops to detain any trespassers, including migrants,

By JAKE OFFENHARTZ Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — When they boarded a small plane bound for upstate New York this past weekend, the six passengers — a pair of close-knit siblings, their parents and partners — were on the cusp of a new chapter in a family life already replete with personal and professional

The Associated Press The crash of a small plane in New York over the weekend killed all six on board — a physician couple and their accomplished children and partners — during a family trip to the Catskills. It’s the latest in a series of aviation disasters at a time of heightened scrutiny of aircraft

By STEVE KARNOWSKI Associated Press MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A man was arrested near UnitedHealthcare’s headquarters in Minnesota after threatening violence, months after the company’s CEO was killed, authorities said Monday. The man was spotted around 11 a.m. in a parking lot outside of the UnitedHealthcare corporate campus in the Minneapolis suburb of Minnetonka. City spokesman

By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer Despite a court order, a reporter and photographer from The Associated Press were barred from an Oval Office news conference on Monday with President Donald Trump and his counterpart from El Salvador, Nayib Bukele. Last week’s federal court decision forbidding the Trump administration from punishing the AP for refusing

By MARK SCOLFORO and MARC LEVY Associated Press HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A man who allegedly scaled an iron security fence in the middle of the night, eluded police and set fire to the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion was denied bail Monday as he faced charges including attempted homicide, terrorism and arson. Cody Balmer spoke with

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (AP) — The search has been suspended for five people missing after a boat capsized during a “failed suspected smuggling venture” off of Florida’s Atlantic Coast, the U.S. Coast Guard said Monday. On Sunday, Coast Guard crews rescued four people from the ocean some 29 miles (25 nautical miles) off of

By CLAIRE RUSH and GARY FIELDS Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Community celebrations being planned to commemorate the nation’s 250th anniversary next year are at risk of being significantly scaled back or canceled because of federal funding cuts under President Donald Trump’s administration, according to multiple state humanities councils across the country. The councils have

By MARC LEVY and MARK SCOLFORO Associated Press HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A man is facing charges after authorities say he broke into the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion in the middle of the night, set a fire that left significant damage and forced Gov. Josh Shapiro, his family and guests to evacuate the building during the

By COLLEEN SLEVIN Associated Press DENVER (AP) — A former Colorado sheriff’s deputy convicted of killing a 22-year-old man in distress who called 911 for help was sentenced Monday to three years in prison, the maximum sentence, by a judge who said the shooting was about power. Andrew Buen was convicted in February of criminally

By LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — A jury was selected Monday to hear a retrial of Sarah Palin’s claims that The New York Times libeled her in an editorial eight years ago. Opening statements were scheduled for Tuesday as the onetime Republican vice presidential candidate and ex-governor of Alaska gets another chance

By SOPHIE BATES Associated Press KOKOMO, Miss. (AP) — Myrtle, a cherished pet tortoise, has been reunited with its family in Mississippi weeks after disappearing during a deadly tornado outbreak in March. “He’s been through a lot,” said Myrtle’s grateful owner, Tiffany Emanuel. “I know that he knows just as much as I do that

By JAKE OFFENHARTZ Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — The Federal Aviation Administration said Sunday that the helicopter tour company whose sightseeing chopper broke apart in flight and crashed in New York, killing the pilot and a family of five visitors from Spain, is shutting down operations immediately. The FAA, in a statement posted on