AP National News

By THOMAS BEAUMONT Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin appellate court denied the state Democratic attorney general’s request to stop billionaire Elon Musk from handing over $1 million checks to two voters at a rally planned for Sunday, just two days before a closely contested Supreme Court election. The denial Saturday by the

By MELINA WALLING and RODNEY MUHUMUZA Associated Press KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — In Uganda’s Mbale district, famous for its production of arabica coffee, a plague of plastic bags locally known as buveera is creeping beyond the city. It’s a problem that has long littered the landscape in Kampala, the capital, where buveera are woven into

A U.S. passenger flight preparing to leave the nation’s capital and an incoming military jet received instructions to divert and prevent a possible collision, officials said. Delta Air Lines Flight 2983 was cleared for takeoff at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Friday around 3:15 p.m., the same time four U.S. Air Force T-38 Talon

By KATHY McCORMACK and RODRIQUE NGOWI Associated Press CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Parker Tirrell, 16, enjoys her art classes, scrolling on TikTok and working at her new job at a pet store. But most of all, the transgender teen loves playing soccer. Until last year, that wasn’t a problem. “I was just living my life

By MARC LEVY Associated Press HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — With the promise of newer, cheaper nuclear power on the horizon, U.S. states are vying to position themselves to build and supply the industry’s next generation as policymakers consider expanding subsidies and paving over regulatory obstacles. Advanced reactor designs from competing firms are filling up the

NEW YORK (AP) — Columbia University’s interim president Katrina Armstrong has resigned, returning to her post running the New York school’s medical center. Armstrong’s return to her former job as CEO of Columbia University’s Irving Medical Center comes days after Columbia agreed to a host of policy changes demanded by the Trump administration as a

By CLAIRE RUSH Associated Press PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — An Oregon judge issued a preliminary injunction Friday blocking the city at the heart of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on homeless encampments from enforcing its camping rules unless it meets certain conditions, as part of a lawsuit filed by advocates. Under the decision by Josephine

By MICHAEL R. SISAK Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — The Voice of America can’t be silenced just yet. A federal judge on Friday halted the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the eight-decade-old U.S. government-funded international news service, calling the move a “classic case of arbitrary and capricious decision making.” Judge James Paul Oetken blocked

By BRIAN WITTE Associated Press ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — The U.S. Naval Academy will no longer consider race, ethnicity or sex as a factor for admission to the service institution, a response to an executive order by President Donald Trump, according to federal court documents made public Friday. The change in policy was made in

By TAMMY WEBBER Associated Press In North Carolina, wildfires stoked by unusually dry air and debris from last year’s Hurricane Helene are burning out of control. In Florida, there are dozens of blazes, including one that scorched about 42 square miles in Miami-Dade County. And they continue to burn in Oklahoma, where four people have

By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer President Donald Trump’s FCC commissioner said Friday he’s opening an investigation into the Walt Disney Co. and its ABC television network to see whether they are “promoting invidious forms of DEI discrimination.” FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr announced the probe in a letter to Disney CEO Robert Iger on Friday.

By KIM CHANDLER AND SAFIYAH RIDDLE Associated Press TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — An Iranian doctoral student at the University of Alabama was arrested by immigration agents at his apartment in the middle of the night, even though his lawyer said he was allowed to stay in the country and — unlike some students targeted for

By ADRIAN SAINZ Associated Press MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A jury from outside of Memphis will be seated in the state court trial of three former police officers charged with second-degree murder in the beating death of Tyre Nichols after a traffic stop in 2023, a judge ruled Friday. Shelby County Judge James Jones Jr.

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