LOS ANGELES (AP) — The total acres burned in California this year surpassed 1 million as spiking temperatures Tuesday added to the challenges facing firefighters struggling to contain a stubborn blaze in the mountains northeast of Los Angeles that flared up over the weekend. Evacuation orders were expanded again Monday for remote communities northeast of
Continue ReadingAssociated Press ROME (AP) — Pope Francis is asking forgiveness for a host of sins on the eve of the next phase of his big reform project. Francis led top cardinals in apologizing for everything from the destruction of the planet to the discrimination of women on Tuesday. The penitential liturgy in St. Peter’s Basilica
Continue ReadingAssociated Press SEA GIRT, N.J. (AP) — The federal government has given a key approval to an offshore wind farm in New Jersey. The decision comes even as residents in the coastal town where its power cable would come ashore worry that it could go through underground toxic waste. The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy
Continue ReadingBy Dakin Andone and Dianne Gallagher, CNN (CNN) — To Cory Vaillancourt, the only scene comparable to the one unfolding in western North Carolina after Hurricane Helene is a war zone. Nearly two years ago, the Smoky Mountain News politics editor reported from a southern Ukrainian city shortly after its liberation from Russian control. “The
Continue ReadingCNN By Dakin Andone and Dianne Gallagher, CNN (CNN) — To Cory Vaillancourt, the only scene comparable to the one unfolding in western North Carolina after Hurricane Helene is a war zone. Nearly two years ago, the Smoky Mountain News politics editor reported from a southern Ukrainian city shortly after its liberation from Russian control.
Continue ReadingCHICAGO (AP) — Police have arrested a 15-year-old in Iowa in the fatal shooting of a mail carrier in Chicago over the summer. Chicago police said in a news release Tuesday that their officers and U.S. marshals arrested the teen the day before in Cedar Rapids on a murder warrant and that he was extradited
Continue ReadingAssociated Press ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia’s corrections department says a new federal report on state prison conditions reflects a “fundamental misunderstanding” of the challenges of running a prison system. The U.S. Justice Department says Georgia’s prison systems are ‘deliberately indifferent’ to unchecked deadly violence, widespread drug use, extortion and sexual abuse at state lockups. The
Continue ReadingAssociated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris will tour damage caused by Helene in Georgia and North Carolina, as the devastating and deadly storm has also roiled the political calendar just over a month from Election Day. Harris will visit Georgia on Wednesday and will survey damage in North Carolina in the coming
Continue ReadingAssociated Press Kate McKinnon came up with the idea for “The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science,” about 10 years ago but didn’t begin writing in earnest until she left “Saturday Night Live” in May 2022. The novel for middle-grade readers, is inspired by McKinnon’s own childhood where she was
Continue ReadingHANOVER, N.H. (AP) — Dartmouth College is announcing a new center named for its winningest football coach on what would have been his 68th birthday. Buddy Teevens, known nationally for his efforts to make football safer, died in September 2023 of injuries he had sustained in a bicycle accident six months earlier. Dartmouth President Sian
Continue ReadingAssociated Press CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Lawrence “Larry” Laughlin, a calm, kind and quick-witted journalist whose 38-year career included two decades as the northern New England bureau chief for The Associated Press, has died. He was 75. Laughlin died Monday of Parkinson’s disease. He lived in Concord, New Hampshire. He was a native of Taunton,
Continue ReadingCHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — The two major-party nominees for West Virginia governor have agreed to participate in a debate. The debate between Democrat Steve Williams and Republican Patrick Morrisey will be broadcast by West Virginia network MetroNews on Oct. 29. Morrisey defeated five other candidates in the May 14 primary. Williams had no Democratic primary
Continue ReadingAssociated Press ALMA, Ark. (AP) — An Arkansas man who died in prison decades ago has been identified as a suspect in the disappearance of a 6-year-old girl who went missing in 1995. Alma Police Chief Jeff Pointer on Tuesday said police have identified Billy Jack Lincks as a suspect in the abduction of Morgan
Continue ReadingANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — State prosecutors will not file criminal charges against a police officer in Alaska who fatally shot a 16-year-old girl holding a knife, concluding the officer’s use of deadly force was legally justified. The report Monday from the state Office of Special Prosecutions determined Anchorage Police Officer Alexander Roman “reasonably believed” he
Continue ReadingAssociated Press BATH, Maine (AP) — A woman who lost her husband and son in Maine’s deadliest shooting is seeking the gunman’s health and military records through the probate process. A judge on Tuesday granted Cynthia Young’s petition to become a special administrator of the gunman’s estate to get the records for herself, others who
Continue ReadingAssociated Press PARAMARIBO, Suriname (AP) — Officials say that France’s TotalEnergies and U.S. hydrocarbon company APA Corp. plan to invest $10 billion to extract oil off the coast of Suriname in a historic investment for the South American country. The first oil is expected by mid-2028, with an anticipated production of 220,000 barrels per day,
Continue ReadingAssociated Press CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Three parents and a grandparent say their rights were violated when they were barred from a New Hampshire school’s grounds for wearing wristbands in protest of a transgender girl playing in a girls soccer game. The lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Concord followed a Sept. 17
Continue ReadingAssociated Press The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation announced Tuesday its 2024 class of fellows, often known as recipients of the “genius grant.” The 22 fellows will each receive a grant of $800,000 over five years to spend however they want. They were selected from nominations in a yearslong process that solicits input
Continue ReadingAssociated Press The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation announced Tuesday its 2024 class of fellows, often known as recipients of the “genius grant.” The 22 fellows will each receive a grant of $800,000 over five years to spend however they want. They were selected from nominations in a yearslong process that solicits input
Continue ReadingAssociated Press NEW YORK (AP) — The 2024 class of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation fellows includes more writers, artists and storytellers than in years past, though the so-called “genius grants” list also includes multiple scientists. The interdisciplinary awards announced Tuesday come with a $800,000 grant over five years that the 22
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