News

By STEVE KARNOWSKI and MIKE CATALINI Associated Press ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — At a time when book bans have soared to their highest levels in decades, a countertrend is emerging. Lawmakers in several Democratic-leaning states are now pursuing bans on book bans. The Washington and Maryland legislatures have already passed them this year, while

By SCOTT SONNER Associated Press RENO, Nev. (AP) — The Biden administration has taken a significant step in its expedited environmental review of what could become the third lithium mine in the U.S., amid anticipated legal challenges from conservationists over the threat they say it poses to an endangered Nevada wildflower. The Bureau of Land

By BRIAN MELLEY Associated Press The final letter that George Mallory wrote to his wife before he vanished on Mount Everest a century ago has been digitalized. The letter was published on Monday by Cambridge University. In it, he tried to ease her worries, though he said his chances of reaching the world’s highest peak

By ADAM BEAM Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California lawmakers on Monday rejected a proposal aimed at cracking down on how some of the nation’s largest utilities spend customers’ money. California’s investor-owned utilities can’t use money from customers to pay for things like advertising their brand or lobbying for legislation. Instead, they’re supposed to

NEW YORK (AP) — The baseball players’ association has asked a federal court to confirm an arbitrator’s decision denying an attempt by a baseball agent at Bad Bunny’s Rimas Sports firm to block the agent’s decertification by the union. The Major League Baseball Players Association has decertified agent William Arroyo and denied certification to Noah

By ELAINE KURTENBACH AP Business Writer A report by the American Chamber of Commerce in China says that simmering tensions between Beijing and Washington remain the top worry for U.S. companies operating in China. The survey of American companies said inconsistent and unclear policies and enforcement, rising labor costs and data security issues were other

By ANIRUDDHA GHOSAL Associated Press LONG AN, Vietnam (AP) — There is one thing that distinguishes 60-year-old Vo Van Van’s rice fields from a mosaic of thousands of other emerald fields across Long An province in southern Vietnam’s Mekong Delta: It isn’t entirely flooded. That and the giant drone, its wingspan similar to that of

CHICAGO (AP) — The Chicago Bears have scheduled a Wednesday news conference to announce plans for “a state-of-the-art, publicly owned enclosed stadium” on the city’s Museum Campus near Lake Michigan. The announcement Monday said the plans also call for additional green and open space with access to the lakefront. The team said last month it

By JAMIE STENGLE Associated Press DALLAS (AP) — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is dropping a request for a Seattle hospital to hand over records regarding gender-affirming treatment potentially given to children from Texas as part of a lawsuit settlement announced Monday. Seattle Children’s Hospital filed the lawsuit against Paxton’s office in December in response

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma City police are investigating the deaths of five people, including at least two children, inside a home on the city’s southwest side. Police Sgt. Gary Knight says someone called police Monday morning to report finding five bodies inside the home. Knight says all five were killed, but declined to elaborate

By REBECCA BOONE Associated Press BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A judge says defense attorneys for a man charged in the deaths of four University of Idaho students can resume phone surveys of potential jurors in the case. Bryan Kohberger faces murder charges in connection with the November 2022 stabbing deaths of Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle,

By JUAN A. LOZANO Associated Press HOUSTON (AP) — A legal battle over a lack of air conditioning in Texas prisons is bringing together advocates on the issue and one current inmate who says his health is being endangered by the state’s hot prisons. That inmate is the former mortician whose murder case inspired the

By ANITA SNOW Associated Press PHOENIX (AP) — An Arizona judge declared a mistrial Monday in the case of a rancher accused of fatally shooting a Mexican man on his property near the U.S.-Mexico border. The decision came after jurors failed to reach a unanimous decision after more than two full days of deliberation in

By SARAH RANKIN Associated Press NEW KENT, Va. (AP) — A Virginia prosecutor says a former longtime medical director of a Virginia hospital that serves vulnerable children used physical examinations as a “ruse” to sexually abuse two teenage patients. The prosecutor made the allegation in opening statements Monday in the trial of Daniel N. Davidow,