AP National News

By MICHAEL PHILLIS Associated Press In pain so bad he couldn’t stand, Chris Meek was rushed to the hospital with a life-threatening ruptured gallbladder. When he emerged from surgery, he learned he had kidney cancer that thankfully hadn’t yet spread. Meek, a social studies teacher in Wilmington, North Carolina, was 47 at the time. But

By JACK BROOK and CLAUDIA LAUER Associated Press A deaf mother trying to escape her abusive husband came to a domestic violence shelter seeking help, but she couldn’t communicate fluently with American Sign Language. Shelter workers contacted Activating Change, a group that provides sign language interpreters who are trained to help people experiencing trauma. Over

By KATHY McCORMACK Associated Press A federal appeals court has paused a judge’s order to bring a Turkish Tufts University student from a Louisiana immigration detention center back to New England this week so it can consider an emergency motion filed by the government. The U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, based in New York,

By SEAN MURPHY and MARK SHERMAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Catholic Church in Oklahoma wants taxpayers to fund an online charter school that “is faithful to the teachings of Jesus Christ.” The Supreme Court could well approve. St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School would be the nation’s first religious charter school. A

By TERRY TANG Associated Press During his adolescence, William Fong’s entire world was contained in San Francisco. But in 1967, over a decade into the Vietnam War, he was drafted. At age 20, he left his home in the city’s Chinatown neighborhood for basic training, and then found himself in Asia for the first time.

By FERNANDA FIGUEROA Associated Press The only Black, all-female unit to serve in Europe during World War II, commonly known as the Six Triple Eight, will be presented Tuesday with the Congressional Gold Medal, following a long-running campaign to recognize its efforts. The 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion was credited with solving a growing mail

By JOHN O’CONNOR Associated Press CHATHAM, Ill. (AP) — A car smashed through a building Monday afternoon, killing four young people and injuring several others during an after-school program in a small city outside of Springfield, Illinois, police said. Officers responded at about 3:20 p.m. to calls about a vehicle ramming through the building, fatally

By JAIMIE DING Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — More than 50,000 Los Angeles county workers began a two-day strike Monday evening, closing libraries and disrupting administrative operations across the nation’s most populous county. The two-day strike was initiated in response to failed negotiations with the county for a new contract after the last one

By KIMBERLEE KRUESI Associated Press The Trump administration on Monday announced federal officials are launching investigations into Harvard University and the Harvard Law Review, saying authorities have received reports of race-based discrimination “permeating the operations” of the journal. The investigations come as Harvard fights a freeze on $2.2 billion in federal grants the Trump administration

By MARCIA DUNN AP Aerospace Writer CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Amazon’s first batch of internet satellites rocketed into orbit Monday, the latest entry in the mega constellation market currently dominated by SpaceX’s thousands of Starlinks. The United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket carried up 27 of Amazon’s Project Kuiper satellites, named after the frigid

By JACK BROOK and SARA CLINE Associated Press/Report for America NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A Louisiana man who has spent nearly three decades on death row has had his conviction overturned by a district judge following a review of forensic analysis that the inmate’s legal team argued was based on “junk science.” Jimmie Duncan was

By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH Associated Press A woman pleaded not guilty Monday to fatally stabbing a Kansas City, Missouri, paramedic as she was being taken to a hospital in an ambulance. Shanetta Bossell, 39, was arrested Sunday after trying to drive off in the ambulance as others were tending to paramedic Graham Hoffman’s chest wound, according

By LAURAN NEERGAARD and MATTHEW PERRONE Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration’s effort to impose new requirements on Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine — the nation’s only traditional protein-based option for the coronavirus — is sowing uncertainty about updates to other vaccines, too. Novavax said Monday that the Food and Drug Administration was asking the

By STEVE KARNOWSKI Associated Press MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The upper Midwest braced Monday for severe thunderstorms with the potential for strong tornadoes. The National Weather Service said the highest risks — a 4 on a scale of 1 to 5 — were in portions of southern Minnesota, including the Minneapolis area, northern Iowa and western

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A disability-rights case at the Supreme Court grew unusually heated on Monday, including accusations of lying and references to one side’s position being a potential “five-alarm fire.” The appeal comes from a teenage girl with a rare form of epilepsy whose family says some courts have made

By MIKE CATALINI Associated Press TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Members of New Jersey’s Supreme Court sounded skeptical at times Monday about the effort of a Catholic diocese to stop the state from empaneling a grand jury to investigate clergy sexual abuse allegations. The high court is considering the state attorney general’s appeal of lower court

By ADRIAN SAINZ and TRAVIS LOLLER Associated Press MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A historic Black church in downtown Memphis that was the organizing point for Martin Luther King Jr.’s final campaign in 1968 caught fire early Monday morning and suffered significant damage. “The inside is a total loss, but we’re still somewhat hopeful that some

By JACQUES BILLEAUD and MORGAN LEE Associated Press SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — The main cause of Gene Hackman’s death was heart disease, but he was also in the advanced stages of Alzheimer’s disease and likely had not eaten for a long time, according to a new autopsy report. The report documents the 95-year-old actor’s

By MICHAEL CASEY and PATRICK WHITTLE Associated Press The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected a double jeopardy appeal filed by Karen Read, who’s on trial for the second time on charges she killed her Boston police officer boyfriend in 2022. A mistrial was declared last year after jurors said they were at an impasse.

By ERIC TUCKER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Another federal judge in Washington has expressed skepticism about the legality of a Trump administration executive order targeting a prominent law firm, saying he was concerned that the clear purpose of the edict was punishment. U.S. District Judge John Bates had already temporarily halted President Donald Trump’s

By MORIAH BALINGIT AP Education Writer HOUSTON (AP) — Since her birth 10 years ago, Mackenzie Holmes has rarely called one place home for long. There was the house in Houston owned by her grandmother, Crystal Holmes. Then, after Holmes lost her Southwest Airlines job and the house, there was the trio of apartments in

By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Michael Romano spent more than 17 years at the Justice Department, eventually becoming a supervisor on the team that would prosecute more than 1,500 people charged in the attack on the U.S. Capitol. The moment he watched the largest investigation in department history get wiped away

By CHRIS MEGERIAN and CALVIN WOODWARD Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The weeks since President Donald Trump returned to office have been a whirlwind of activity to show Americans that his administration is relentlessly pursuing his promises. With a compliant Republican-controlled Congress, Trump has had a free hand to begin overhauling the federal government and

CLEARWATER, Fla. (AP) — A recreational boat crashed into a ferry transporting 45 people on the final day of a sand-sculpting festival in Florida, killing one person and injuring at least 10 others, officials said. The crash late Sunday in calm waters off Clearwater on the western Florida coast set off an emergency response due

By JAKE OFFENHARTZ Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — A Brooklyn woman said she feared for her life as she was chased, kicked, spit at and pelted with objects by a mob of Orthodox Jewish men who mistook her as a participant in a protest against Israel’s far-right security minister. The assault, recorded by a

By ADRIAN SAINZ Associated Press MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Three former Memphis police officers were frustrated, angry and full of adrenaline when they fatally beat Tyre Nichols after he ran away from a traffic stop in 2023, a prosecutor said Monday during opening arguments in their trial on second-degree murder charges. Prosecutor Paul Hagerman showed

By ISABELLA VOLMERT Associated Press GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — Jurors considering second-degree murder charges against a former Michigan police officer repeatedly watched videos Monday showing the officer struggling with and then shooting a Black man, Patrick Lyoya, whose death three years ago sparked weeks of protest and outrage. The trial of Christopher Schurr, who

By KATE PAYNE Associated Press/Report for America TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Scrutiny of a welfare program that is the signature initiative of Casey DeSantis, Florida’s first lady, is threatening to undermine a potential run to succeed her husband as governor, as well as his own presidential ambitions. Lawmakers in Gov. Ron DeSantis’ own party have

EVANS, Ga. (AP) — One Georgia deputy was killed and a second was shot in the face after a motor home driver they had pulled over opened fire, law enforcement officials said Sunday. The driver of the motor home also died in the incident. James Blake Montgomery was pulled over Saturday evening on Interstate 20

By NICHOLAS RICCARDI Associated Press President Donald Trump made clear Sunday that he would not follow his predecessor’s practice of recognizing Indigenous Peoples Day alongside Columbus Day in October, accusing Democrats of denigrating the explorer’s legacy as he pressed his campaign to restore what he argues are traditional American icons. Democrat Joe Biden was the