Author: Associated Press

By  AAMER MADHANI WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Monday he will sell F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia as he praised the kingdom for its strong partnership with the United States. The announcement came on the eve of Saudi Crown…

By  MATTHEW DALY WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency announced Monday it is redefining the scope of the nation’s bedrock clean water law to limit the wetlands it covers, building on a Supreme Court decision two years ago that removed…

By  JULIE WATSON Hundreds of National Guard troops deployed to Chicago and Portland, Oregon, are being sent home, and those who will remain will continue to stay off the streets amid court battles over their domestic mission by the Trump administration, a defense…

By  EDITH M. LEDERER UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council on Monday approved a U.S. plan for Gaza that authorizes an international stabilization force to provide security in the devastated territory and envisions a possible future path to an independent Palestinian state. Russia,…

By  SUSAN HAIGH The U.S. Postal Service can’t fix its finances through cuts alone, Postmaster General David Steiner said Friday. Steiner said the 250-year-old agency needs to expand its revenue base to restore prominence in the nation’s delivery network. It also should capitalize on its…

By  STEPHEN GROVES, MATT BROWN and JOEY CAPPELLETTI WASHINGTON (AP) — The House is heading towards a vote on a bill to force the Justice Department to release the case files it has collected on the late financier Jeffrey Epstein, pushing past a monthslong effort…

By  CURT ANDERSON Former NFL star wide receiver Antonio Brown could face up to 30 years in prison if convicted of attempted murder because a firearm was allegedly used, a prosecutor said Monday. Brown appeared via video at a brief arraignment hearing in…

By  JOSH BOAK WASHINGTON (AP) — More people are falling behind on paying their bills to keep on the lights and heat their homes, according to a new analysis of consumer data — a warning sign for the U.S. economy and another…

By  KIM CHANDLER MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey on Monday urged the board that oversees Alabama Public Television to delay any decision on severing ties with PBS until it has studied Alabamians’ opinions on the matter and developed…

By  KEVIN FREKING and CHRIS MEGERIAN WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said House Republicans should vote to release the files in the Jeffrey Epstein case, a startling reversal after previously fighting the proposal as a growing number of those in his own…

By  RIO YAMAT and JOSH FUNK The Federal Aviation Administration said Sunday it is lifting all restrictions on commercial flights that were imposed at 40 major airports during the country’s longest government shutdown. Airlines can resume their regular flight schedules beginning Monday at 6 a.m. EST,…

By  ED WHITE DETROIT (AP) — The state of Michigan is giving up ownership of a rare relic from the famous Edmund Fitzgerald shipwreck, just weeks after it strangely obtained it through a settlement in a lawsuit that was completely unrelated to…

By  CHARLOTTE GRAHAM-MCLAY WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — There are easier ways to cross an ocean, but few are as slick or stylish as the remora’s whale-surfing joyride. Scientists tracking humpbacks off the coast of Australia have captured rare footage that shows clutches of the…

By  DEE-ANN DURBIN Doritos and Cheetos are getting a makeover. PepsiCo said Thursday it’s launching toned-down versions of its bright orange snacks that won’t have any artificial colors or flavors. Doritos and Cheetos Simply NKD will hit store shelves on Dec.…

By  JONATHAN J. COOPER and DARLENE SUPERVILLE WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House Historical Association has reclaimed a series of sketches by American painter and illustrator Norman Rockwell with a whopping winning bid of $5.8 million at auction on Friday. The four 1940s-era sketches titled “So You…

By  HALLIE GOLDEN The first major blast of wintry weather in the U.S. this week brought snow, frigid temperatures and in some places something a little more magical: Frost flowers. Made of thin ribbons of ice that extend out in intricate…

By  JOE REEDY COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Lots of kids who grow up in Ohio dream of scoring a touchdown in front of 100,000 Buckeyes fans at Ohio Stadium. While many dream of celebrating in the end zone, a smaller group…

By  STEPHEN McGRATH What is thought to be the world’s largest-known spider’s web, housing tens of thousands of arachnids, has been discovered in a cave on the Albanian-Greek border. After researchers published their findings of two different spider species peacefully cohabiting in…

By  RODRIQUE NGOWI and PATRICK WHITTLE BOSTON (AP) — It wasn’t a croc — there really was an alligator on the loose in Boston. And the story of the city’s slithering saurian appears to have a happy ending. The small alligator, spotted along…

By  SAFIYAH RIDDLE It was a foggy October afternoon on the central California coast when the Marine Mammal Center got a call on their public hotline: there were distressed cries coming from the frigid waters in Morro Bay. The center’s experts…

By  MARCIA DUNN CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Blue Origin launched its huge New Glenn rocket Thursday with a pair of NASA spacecraft destined for Mars. It was only the second flight of the rocket that Jeff Bezos’ company and NASA are counting on…

By  GLENN GAMBOA NASHVILLE (AP) — In a life filled with milestones, Irving Locker celebrated a new, unexpected one last week: He became a published songwriter. One day before his 101st birthday, “If Freedom Was Free” was released by Big Machine Label Group…

By  STAN CHOE NEW YORK (AP) — An early swoon shook the U.S. stock market on Friday, as Nvidia, bitcoin, gold and other high flyers swung on an increasingly antsy Wall Street, but it quickly calmed. After starting the day with a sharp drop…

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Officials and community leaders opposing a pending federal immigration crackdown in North Carolina’s largest city characterized it Friday as an invasion, and urged Charlotte residents to protest peacefully and record agents’ actions from a distance. “We are living…

By  RIO YAMAT and JOSH FUNK The Federal Aviation Administration said Friday it plans to roll back some of the restrictions on commercial flights it implemented at 40 major U.S. airports during the shutdown. The agency says the current mandatory 6% flight cuts…

By  MICHAEL R. SISAK and JESSE BEDAYN NEW YORK (AP) — Acceding to President Donald Trump’s demands, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Friday that she has ordered a top federal prosecutor to investigate sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s ties to Trump political foes, including former…

By  MIKE CATALINI and HAVEN DALEY OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — College football coach John Beam, who was featured in the Netflix series “Last Chance U”, has died after being shot on campus, the Oakland Police Department said Friday, and a suspect has been…

By  GEOFF MULVIHILL NEW YORK (AP) — A federal bankruptcy court judge on Friday said he will approve OxyContin-maker Purdue Pharma’s latest deal to settle thousands of lawsuits over the toll of opioids that includes some money for thousands of victims…

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — U.S. Sen. John Fetterman had what his office says was a “ventricular fibrillation flare-up” that caused him to feel light-headed and fall during an early morning walk Thursday. Fetterman was doing well and hospitalized in Pittsburgh,…

By  ANNE D’INNOCENZIO NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart CEO Doug McMillon, who turned America’s largest retailer into a tech-powered giant and spearheaded a period of robust sales growth since becoming chief executive in 2014, plans to retire early next year, the company…

By  JESSE BEDAYN By the time Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting prostitution from an underage girl, he had established an enormous network of wealthy and influential friends. Emails made public this week show the crime did little to diminish the…

By  STAN CHOE NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. stock market tumbled Thursday to one of its worst days since its springtime sell-off, as Nvidia and other AI superstar stocks kept dropping on worries their prices shot too high. Also hurting the market were questions…

By  WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS NEW YORK (AP) — AT&T has reached a combined $177 million settlement over two data breaches. And impacted consumers have a little over a month left to file a claim for their chunk of the money. Several lawsuits emerged…

WASHINGTON (AP) — First lady Melania Trump is spearheading a new initiative aimed at improving career and education opportunities for children raised in foster care. Her husband, President Donald Trump, signed an executive order Thursday that creates a “Fostering the Future” program that…

By  DEEPTI HAJELA NEW YORK (AP) — The longest government shutdown in U.S. history is over — on paper, at least. But the American public isn’t done with it yet: Getting everything back up and running doesn’t happen all at once. The disruption…

By  ALLEN G. BREED and ERIK VERDUZCO CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — The latest city bracing for the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown is Charlotte, North Carolina, which could see an influx of federal agents as early as this weekend, a county sheriff said Thursday. Mecklenburg County…

By  ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and MICHAEL R. BLOOD LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Justice Department on Thursday sued to block new congressional district boundaries approved by California voters last week, joining a court battle that could help determine which party wins control of the U.S.…

By  GEOFF MULVIHILL and DAVID A. LIEB With the longest U.S. government shutdown over, state officials said Thursday that they are working quickly to get full SNAP food benefits to millions of people, though it still could take up to a week for some…

By  JESSE BEDAYN and SAFIYAH RIDDLE A House committee released thousands of documents related to Jefferey Epstein on Wednesday, many of them emails the convicted sex offender sent to his rich or influential friends, or to reporters, over many years. Democrats on the House Oversight…

By  STAN CHOE NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks drifted around their records in a mixed day of trading Wednesday. The S&P 500 added 0.1% and neared its all-time high set a couple weeks ago. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 327 points,…

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A judge on Wednesday denied a request by the Rose Bowl Operating Co. and the City of Pasadena for a temporary restraining order in their bid to keep UCLA football games at the Rose Bowl. Los…

By  SOPHIA TAREEN CHICAGO (AP) — Hundreds of people who have been arrested and detained in the Chicago area during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown could soon be released on bond while they await immigration hearings, a federal judge signaled Wednesday. During a…

By  BRUCE SCHREINER and DYLAN LOVAN LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A grandfather and his young granddaughter. An electrician with two young children. A woman standing in line at a scrap metal business. They were among the 14 people who died in the fiery crash of…

By  CHRISTOPHER RUGABER WASHINGTON (AP) — Two Federal Reserve officials expressed opposition Wednesday to another interest rate cut at the central bank’s next meeting in December, further muddying the outlook for the Fed’s next steps. The remarks by Susan Collins, president of the…