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 MARIA SHERMAN NEW YORK (AP) — For many, the name Selena Quintanilla-Pérez is the stuff of mythology. The Queen of Tejano broke barriers for women in Latin music genres of all kinds; it’s easy to see the through line between her contributions…
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…
By SAFURA SYED/Verite News A decade of court oversight of special education services in New Orleans public schools, the result of a legal settlement, will most likely cease by the end of the year, the judge presiding over the legal settlement…
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…
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday to get rid of tariffs on a broad swath of commodities, including beef, coffee and tropical fruits. It’s part of a response to pressure from consumers who complain prices…
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 SEUNG MIN KIM and MICHELLE L. PRICE WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s not an official state visit, but the White House is preparing to host Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman next week with the pomp and circumstance that is typical of one.…
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 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…
NEW YORK (AP) — A man with a gun was killed in a shootout with police in New York City after he pointed his weapon at a man in an apartment building elevator and a deli worker and threatened to…
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…