By Kara Scannell, CNN (CNN) — Federal prosecutors allege Sen. Bob Menendez accepted race car tickets and other gifts from Qatar as part of a yearslong corruption scheme, with the Gulf nation joining Egypt as another foreign country the New Jersey Democrat is accused of helping while in office. Prosecutors allege in the superseding indictment
Continue ReadingBy RALPH D. RUSSO AP College Football Writer NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The four-team playoff changed college football. Not just the postseason and crowning of a national champion that finally could be called undisputed. College Football Playoff 1.0, which wraps up a 10-year run Monday night when No. 1 Michigan (14-0) faces No. 2 Washington
Continue ReadingBy TOM KRISHER AP Auto Writer DETROIT (AP) — Steep price cuts helped electric vehicle maker Tesla Inc. increase its fourth-quarter vehicle sales by almost 20% as EV sales growth slowed across the industry. The Austin, Texas, company said Tuesday that it sold 484,507 vehicles worldwide from October through December. That handily beat Wall Street
Continue ReadingBy Alex Marquardt and Natasha Bertrand, CNN (CNN) — The United States has quietly reached an agreement that extends its military presence at a sprawling base in Qatar for another 10 years, three US defense officials and another official familiar with the agreement told CNN. The deal, which has not been announced publicly, highlights Washington’s reliance on the tiny Gulf country that has
Continue ReadingBy MIKE CATALINI and CLAIRE SAVAGE Associated Press TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Some officials in suburbs and outlying cities near Chicago and New York are giving migrants arriving from the southern border a cold shoulder amid attempts to circumvent restrictions on dropping migrants in those two cities. The mayor of Edison, New Jersey, warned he
Continue ReadingBy JESSE BEDAYN Associated Press/Report for America DENVER (AP) — Gun rights groups have filed a federal lawsuit challenging Colorado’s ban on so-called ghost guns. Those are firearms without serial numbers that are difficult for law enforcement to trace and allow people to circumvent background checks. The challenge filed Monday is the latest of several
Continue ReadingBy Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN (CNN) — Former President Donald Trump has asked a Maine court to overturn the secretary of state’s decision to remove him from the 2024 primary ballot there because of his role in the January 6, 2021, US Capitol insurrection. Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat, announced her decision last week, saying
Continue ReadingBy JOHN ANTCZAK Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — California is beginning 2024 with a below-normal mountain snowpack a year after it had one of its best starts in decades, and officials said Tuesday that the weather whiplash has made the outcome of this winter uncertain. The water content of the statewide snowpack was 25%
Continue ReadingHONOLULU (AP) — Authorities in Hawaii say a man shot and wounded a woman, stole a car at gunpoint and was later killed in a shootout with police that left two officers wounded. Honolulu Police Chief Arthur “Joe” Logan told a news conference Monday that the suspect led police on a daylong chase across the
Continue ReadingBy DAVE COLLINS Associated Press HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel is suing a police investigator and the town of Greenwich, Connecticut, more than five years after his murder conviction was overturned. Skakel was found guilty in 2002 of the killing of Martha Moxley in their Greenwich neighborhood in 1975 when they were
Continue ReadingBy Devan Cole, CNN (CNN) — A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that the Biden administration can’t enforce guidance meant to protect abortion access in life-threatening or health-saving situations even where abortion is banned. The guidance from the US Department of Health and Human Services says that medical providers who are required to provide emergency care to pregnant patients regardless of their
Continue ReadingBy AJ Willingham, CNN (CNN) — Food and football are strong allies, but this year’s slate of college football bowl games took snacking to a horrifying new level with eucharistic self-sacrifice and showers of milky goo. It got especially weird at the Pop-Tarts Bowl in Orlando. After the Kansas State Wildcats beat the North Carolina
Continue ReadingALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Officials with New Mexico’s largest electric utility say a proposed multibillion-dollar merger with a U.S. subsidiary of global energy giant Iberdrola has been scuttled. Under the proposal, Avangrid would have acquired PNM Resources and its two utilities — Public Service Co. of New Mexico and Texas New Mexico Power. The all-cash
Continue ReadingBy LARRY NEUMEISTER and JOSHUA GOODMAN Associated Press New York (AP) — The brother of a powerful leftist senator in Colombia has pleaded guilty to federal narcotics charges. Álvaro Córdoba entered the plea Tuesday in Manhattan federal court. Prosecutors say he was arrested during a sting in which he offered to introduce U.S. drug informants
Continue ReadingWASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is asking the Supreme Court to allow Border Patrol agents to cut razor wire that Texas installed on the U.S.-Mexico border, while a lawsuit over the wire continues. The Justice Department filed an emergency appeal Tuesday, asking the justices to put on hold last month’s appellate ruling in favor
Continue ReadingBy BROOKE SCHULTZ Associated Press/Report for America Cherelle Parker has been sworn in as Philadelphia’s 100th mayor, becoming the first woman in that role. Parker too the oath of office Tuesday at a ceremony in Philadelphia on Tuesday. She succeeds term-limited Democratic Mayor Jim Kenney. Surrounded by family, friends, former mayors and current U.S. and
Continue ReadingBy Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN (CNN) — The Biden administration has asked the Supreme Court to allow the US Border Patrol to remove razor wire at the US-Mexico border – another escalation in the dispute between President Joe Biden and Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott over border policy. The dispute is over whether the Border Patrol has the legal authority to cut concertina wire
Continue ReadingBy MIKE CORDER Associated Press THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — South Africa has launched a case at the United Nations’ top court alleging that Israel’s military campaign in Gaza amounts to genocide. The filing and Israel’s decision to defend itself at the International Court of Justice set up a high-stakes showdown before a panel of
Continue ReadingBy STAN CHOE AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — A weak start to 2024 had Wall Street on Tuesday giving back a bit of its powerful gains from the year before. The S&P 500 slipped 27.00 points, or 0.6%, to 4,742.83 after coming into the year at the brink of its all-time high. The
Continue ReadingBy Cheri Mossburg and Brammhi Balarajan, CNN (CNN) — A rusty bomb covered in debris washed up on a California shore days after heavy surf pounded the coastline. On New Year’s Eve, the Santa Cruz County sheriff’s bomb squad headed out to inspect the bomb at Pajaro Dunes, located between Santa Cruz and Monterey. After
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