AP National News

AP Entertainment Writer PARIS (AP) — If given the chance, Pharrell Williams would reintroduce arts competition into the Olympics, reviving a tradition that’s been missing for nearly 80 years. Williams is aiming to reinstate arts competitions back on the world’s biggest sports stage, believing he can start raising awareness through his star-studded Louis Vuitton event

TOKYO (AP) — Heavy rain has hit northern Japan, triggering floods and landslides, disrupting transportation systems and sending hundreds of residents to take shelter at safer grounds. The Japan Meteorological Agency Thursday issued emergency warnings of heavy rain for several municipalities in the Yamagata and Akita prefecture, where warm and humid air was flowing.  According

LOS ANGELES (AP) — After 80 years, a World War II sergeant killed in Germany has returned home to California. On Thursday, community members lined the roads to honor U.S. Army Air Force Tech. Sgt. Donald V. Banta as he was brought from Ontario International Airport to a burial home in Riverside, California. Banta, 21,

Associated Press JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A walrus calf seemingly left behind by her herd near Alaska’s northernmost city is alert and “sassy” as she receives care at a nonprofit wildlife response center hundreds of miles away following her recent rescue, a center spokesperson said Thursday. Alaska SeaLife Center spokesperson Kaiti Grant said the nearly

Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, a longtime leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, and Joaquín Guzmán López, a son of another infamous cartel leader, were arrested by U.S. authorities in Texas on Thursday, the U.S. Justice Department said. A leader of the powerful Sinaloa cartel for decades alongside Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán,

Associated Press SEATTLE (AP) — Ending an eight-year legal battle, chemical giant Monsanto has agreed to a $160-million settlement with Seattle for its part in polluting the Lower Duwamish River with toxins that posed a threat to humans, fish and wildlife. Seattle City Attorney Ann Davison says she is glad the company will contribute to

Associated Press DOVER, Del. (AP) — A forensic review commissioned by the state Department of Elections has uncovered improprieties in the campaign finances of Delaware’s lieutenant governor, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for governor. The report was obtained by The Associated Press on Thursday. It found Bethany Hall-Long and her husband had received payments

Associated Press BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The U.S. government will invest $240 million in salmon and steelhead hatcheries in the Pacific Northwest to boost declining fish populations and support the treaty-protected fishing rights of Native American tribes, officials announced Thursday. The departments of Commerce and the Interior said there will be an initial $54 million

Associated Press NORWICH, Conn. (AP) — Veteran diplomat Martin S. Indyk, an author and leader at prominent U.S. think tanks who devoted years to finding a path toward peace in the Middle East, died Thursday. He was 73. His wife, Gahl Hodges Burt, confirmed in a phone call that he died from complications of esophageal

Associated Press LAS VEGAS (AP) — Judith Monarrez crumpled onto her kitchen floor and wept when the news arrived in an email: Gizmo, her pet dog missing for nine years, had been found alive. Monarrez was 28 and living with her parents in 2015 when Gizmo, then 2 years old, slipped past a faulty gate

Associated Press LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A court filing shows that the signatures collected by volunteers for an Arkansas abortion-rights measure would fall short of the number needed to qualify for the ballot if they’re the only ones counted. The Arkansas secretary of state’s office on Thursday said it determined 87,675 of the signatures

Associated Press ST. LOUIS (AP) — A man who was on the verge of walking out of prison this week after a judge found evidence of his “actual innocence” and overturned his murder conviction now faces a fresh legal hurdle. The person blocking Christopher Dunn’s freedom is Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey. He is fresh

Associated Press SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah’s Supreme Court has overturned the death sentence for a man convicted in the murder of a woman to stop her from testifying against him in a rape case. Justices said Douglas Lovell had ineffective attorneys at his 2015 sentencing hearing. They upheld his conviction and sent the

DETROIT (AP) — Workers have linked the U.S. and Canadian sides of the new Gordie Howe International Bridge spanning the Detroit River. The Detroit News reports the workers finished connecting southwest Detroit and northwest Windsor on Wednesday. The bridge will provide another link between one of the busiest commercial points on the U.S-Canadian border when