ALEXANDER CITY, Ala. (AP) — The longtime pastor of the Auburn University football team has died after falling into the water on Lake Martin in central Alabama. The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency says the accident occurred Sunday evening. Officials say the Rev. Chette L. Williams fell into the water from his pontoon boat. The accident
Continue ReadingATHENS, N.Y. (AP) — Efforts to save an imperiled 150-year-old lighthouse in New York are getting a boost with federal officials announcing new funding to study ways to protect the structure. New York Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer says that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is funding a study on how to restore the Hudson-Athens
Continue ReadingAssociated Press The U.S. Census Bureau is changing how it counts international migration in its annual population estimates. Officials said Monday that the bureau will add a large share of humanitarian immigrants to its calculations to better reflect the influx of refugees to the United States this decade. The change will be incorporated into 2024
Continue ReadingHARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Connecticut has become the latest state to begin notifying its eligible citizens that some or all of their medical debt will soon be paid off, officials announced Monday. Nearly 23,000 residents with debt totaling $30 million will automatically be informed by mail beginning Dec. 23, state officials said. Connecticut has been
Continue ReadingAssociated Press BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Interpol says a crackdown on suspected illegal deforestation in South America has netted 26 arrests. The agency says the operation in mid-October relied on Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina sharing key information in what’s called the Tri-Border area. That included satellite imagery and intelligence on high-value targets, as well as
Continue ReadingMEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s anti-monopoly regulators have imposed special conditions for a period of 10 years on Walmart’s Mexico subsidiary for allegedly pressuring suppliers. The development on Monday follows a related $4.6 million fine handed down by the regulators, known as the Federal Competition Commission, for alleged monopolistic practices. Walmart de Mexico said last
Continue ReadingAssociated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — TikTok on Monday asked the Supreme Court to step in on an emergency basis to block the federal law that would ban the popular platform in the United States unless its China-based parent company agreed to sell it. Lawyers for the company and China-based ByteDance urged the justices to step
Continue ReadingAssociated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Former talk show host Carlos Watson was sentenced Monday to nearly 10 years in prison in a federal financial conspiracy case that cast his once-buzzy Ozy Media as an extreme of fake-it-’til-you-make-it startup culture. In one example, another Ozy executive impersonated a YouTube executive to hype Ozy to investment
Continue ReadingAssociated Press A former prison guard trainee has been sentenced to death for the 2019 execution-style killings of five women inside a Florida bank. Zephen Xaver appeared to gulp, but otherwise showed no emotion as Judge Angela Cowden pronounced the sentence Monday. The 27-year-old had pleaded guilty last year to the murders, but his attorneys
Continue ReadingPolice in Madison, Wisconsin, believe multiple factors prompted a 15-year-old student to open fire at a private Christian school, but they declined to share those Tuesday. The shooting Monday at Abundant Life Christian School in Wisconsin’s capital city was just days before winter break. A fellow student and a teacher were killed and six others
Continue ReadingSKOPJE, North Macedonia (AP) — Eight former senior officials in North Macedonia, including a former prime minister, are under investigation for alleged financial misconduct regarding gambling licences of a state lottery company approved under the previous government. Authorities did not name the officials but state-run television reported that they include former Dimitar Kovachevski – who
Continue ReadingDETROIT (AP) — Starting in September of 2027, all new passenger vehicles in the U.S. will have to sound a warning if rear-seat passengers don’t buckle up. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Monday that it has finalized the rule. It also requires longer warnings when front seat belts aren’t fastened. Front seat changes
Continue ReadingJENIN, West Bank (AP) — Palestinian security forces have launched a rare crackdown against local militant groups in the northern West Bank. They have sent in armored cars and are engaging in fierce gunbattles that have killed at least two people in the volatile area. The raid marks an unusual step for the Palestinian Authority.
Continue ReadingAssociated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The top U.N. official in Libya has announced a new initiative to overcome a three-year deadlock and move the divided oil-rich North Africa nation toward a national election. The U.N. deputy special envoy for Libya told the U.N. Security Council on Monday that the U.N. political mission in Libya
Continue ReadingAssociated Press SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — A Georgia judge has denied a former prosecutor’s legal motion to halt her upcoming trial on charges that she interfered with police investigating the 2020 killing of Ahmaud Arbery. A senior judge on Monday rejected former District Attorney Jackie Johnson’s argument that the Georgia attorney general’s office should be
Continue ReadingAssociated Press TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy has pardoned 33 people and commuted the sentences of three women, one of whom was supported by Kim Kardashian, in the first use of his clemency authority during his administration. The clemency comes after Murphy set up a special review board under an
Continue ReadingAssociated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — A California man was sentenced Monday to nearly 3 1/2 years in prison for running an extensive business that helped pregnant Chinese women travel to the United States to deliver babies who would automatically have American citizenship. U.S. authorities had sought a more than five-year prison term for Michael
Continue ReadingAssociated Press President-elect Donald Trump on Monday held a wide-ranging news conference in which he said he would preserve access to the polio vaccine but equivocated on other vaccines, pledged to look at bringing down the costs of pharmaceuticals and expressed doubts that his daughter-in-law might be Florida’s next senator. Trump held forth for over
Continue ReadingAssociated Press HMEIMIM, Syria (AP) — Russia’s intervention on behalf of former Syrian leader Bashar Assad once turned the tide of Syria’s civil war. But after Assad’s ouster, whether and how long that presence will last is an open question. Assad’s government signed a deal with Russia in 2017 that offered it a free lease
Continue ReadingAP Basketball Writer The WNBA will stage its first regular season game outside the U.S. when Atlanta and Seattle play in Vancouver on Aug. 15. The league has had two exhibition games in Canada, including one played by Seattle this past season. The Toronto Tempo will begin play in 2026 as the first international team
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