News

By KEVIN McGILL Associated Press NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The countdown to Mardi Gras has begun in New Orleans. Saturday marks the arrival of Carnival season and a group known as the Phunny Phorty Phellows kicks things off with a festive streetcar ride. Meanwhile, a walking club in the old French Quarter will mark the

By ROBERT JABLON The Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — Underwater dump sites off the Los Angeles coast contain World War II-era munitions including anti-submarine weapons and smoke devices, marine researchers announced Friday. A survey of the known offshore sites in April managed to identify munitions by using high-definition video that covered a limited portion

LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) — Texas Tech says basketball player Pop Isaacs is in good standing after a report of a civil lawsuit accusing the team’s leading scorer of sexual assault of a minor. ESPN has obtained a copy of a lawsuit accusing Isaacs of assaulting the 17-year-old girl when the Red Raiders were playing in

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — An Alaska Airlines flight made an emergency landing in Oregon after a window and a chunk of its fuselage reportedly blew out in mid-air. A passenger sent KATU-TV a photo showing a gaping hole in the side of the airplane next to passenger seats on Friday. It was not immediately clear

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press Transport safety officials are searching for the voice recorder from a Japan Airlines airliner that caught fire after a collision with a coast guard plane. They hope the recorder will containe crucial information to determine the cause of the clash at Tokyo’s Haneda airport. Heavy machinery on Saturday cleared debris

By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. agency promoting equality for women says violations of the U.N. Code of Conduct by a mid-level manager, who reportedly supported pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli posts on social media, are being dealt with internally. UN Women said Friday the result will not be made public.

By AUDREY McAVOY Associated Press HONOLULU (AP) — The Federal Emergency Management Agency says over the next month it plans to dramatically increase long-term housing units hosting Lahaina households displaced by last year’s deadly wildfires on the Hawaiian island of Maui. The agency said Friday it expects households living under long-term leases directly funded by

By LOLITA C. BALDOR Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has been hospitalized since Monday, due to complications following a minor elective medical procedure. That’s according to Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary. It was the department’s first acknowledgement that Austin had been admitted to Walter Reed National

By HIRO KOMAE, AYAKA MCGILL and YURI KAGEYAMA Associated Press WAJIMA, Japan (AP) — The death toll from a major quake in western Japan has reached 100, even as rescue workers fought aftershocks to carefully pull people from the rubble. Deaths had reached 98 earlier Saturday, but two more deaths were reported in Anamizu. A

By MORGAN LEE Associated Press SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Leading New Mexico lawmakers are recommending a 5.9% increase in general fund spending for the coming fiscal year amid a windfall in oil-related income. Announcing the proposal Friday, legislators are sounding a cautionary note on the future of the state’s petroleum bonanza with plans to

By MARK SHERMAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is allowing Idaho to enforce its strict abortion ban, even in medical emergencies, while a legal fight continues. The justices on Friday said they would hear arguments in the case in April and put on hold a lower court ruling that had blocked the

DALLAS (AP) — Boeing wants an exemption from federal safety standards for an anti-icing system on its new, smaller version of the 737 Max airliner. Without a permanent fix, pilots of current Max jets are being told to limit use of an anti-icing system in dry but cold weather. Otherwise, inlets around the engines could

By The Associated Press Millions of people across the eastern U.S. are preparing for a wintry mix of precipitation as a potent storm system looks to bring snow, freezing rain and ice to the region. The system is expected to reach North Carolina by Saturday morning and then track along the northeastern coastline throughout the

By HIRO KOMAE, AYAKA MCGILL and YURI KAGEYAMA Associated Press WAJIMA, Japan (AP) — A woman was pulled carefully from the rubble 72 hours after a 7.6 magnitude quake rattled Ishikawa Prefecture. Deaths climbed to 98 people, and more than 200 people were missing after a series of powerful quakes rattled Japan’s western coast and