Associated Press stories, Page 1022
Reports: Minor leaguers reach 5-year labor deal with MLB
NEW YORK — Baseball minor leaguers reached a historic initial collective bargaining agreement with Major League Baseball on Wednesday, according to multiple reports. As part of the five-year deal, MLB agreed during the contract not to reduce minor league affiliates from the current 120. The sides reached the deal two...
West Virginia bans marriage for children age 15 or younger
CHARLESTON — West Virginia will no longer allow children under 16 to marry, after the governor signed a compromise bill Wednesday. The law signed by Republican Gov. Jim Justice continues allowing children ages 16 and 17 to get married with restrictions. Under the new law, those minors must get parental...
Idaho law could criminalize helping minors get abortions
Idaho lawmakers are considering making it illegal for an adult to help a minor procure an abortion without parental consent. The measure would create a new crime of “abortion trafficking,” barring adults from obtaining abortion pills for a minor and “recruiting, harboring, or transporting the pregnant minor.” To sidestep violating...
Florida Gov. DeSantis’ board says Disney stripped them of power
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Board members picked by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to oversee the governance of Walt Disney World said Wednesday that their Disney-controlled predecessors pulled a fast one on them by passing restrictive covenants that strip the new board of many of its powers. The current supervisors...
Temple hires Penn State assistant Adam Fisher to replace Aaron McKie
PHILADELPHIA — Temple named Penn State assistant Adam Fisher just its fifth coach since 1973 on Wednesday. Fisher’s goal will be to turn around a program that hasn’t made the NCAA Tournament since 2019. Fisher replaces Aaron McKie, who was transferred out of the coaching job earlier this month after...
Crews work to recover 3 barges that got loose on Ohio RiverVideo
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Crews were working Wednesday to remove three remaining barges that got loose on the Ohio River, including one carrying methanol. A total of 10 barges got loose early Tuesday on the river near Louisville, the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet said. Most were recovered, but the U.S...
Tennessee man gets 25 years in roadside killing of Butler County native
NASHVILLE — The man who shot and killed a Tennessee nurse as she was driving to work two years ago was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Wednesday, according to the Nashville district attorney’s office. In January, a jury found Devaunte Hill guilty of murder in the death of...
Fetterman expected back to Senate in April
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman will return to the Senate in April, two months after the freshman Democrat sought inpatient treatment for clinical depression, a person close to Fetterman said Wednesday. The person, who was not authorized to discuss Fetterman’s plans and spoke on condition of anonymity, said...
GOP lawmakers override veto of transgender bill in Kentucky
FRANKFORT, Ky. — Republican lawmakers in Kentucky on Wednesday swept aside the Democratic governor’s veto of a bill regulating some of the most personal aspects of life for transgender young people — from banning access to gender-affirming health care to restricting the bathrooms they can use. The votes to override...
Congress to consider new no-fly list for unruly passengers
U.S. Senate and House members proposed a new no-fly list for unruly passengers on Wednesday, an idea that was pushed by airline unions but failed to gain traction last year. The legislation would let the Transportation Security Administration ban people convicted or fined for assaulting or interfering with airline crew...
Starbucks’ CEO Howard Schultz defends union stance before SenateVideo
Longtime Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz insisted the coffee chain hasn’t broken labor laws and is willing to bargain with unionized workers during an often testy, two-hour appearance before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. But he also was firm in his stance that the Seattle coffee giant already...
Ohio lawmakers OK rail safety rules after train derailment
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Rail safety measures proposed after the February train derailment and toxic chemical burn in East Palestine are closer to becoming law in Ohio, as part of a nearly $13.5 billion transportation budget that cleared the Legislature on Wednesday. A compromise budget plan that chiefly funds work on...
Congress approves measure to toss Biden’s water protections
WASHINGTON — Congress on Wednesday approved a resolution to overturn the Biden administration’s protections for the nation’s waterways that Republicans have criticized as a burden on business, advancing a measure that President Joe Biden has promised to veto. Republicans have targeted the Biden administration’s protections for thousands of small streams,...
Mel King, who helped ease Boston’s racial strife, dies at 94
BOSTON — Longtime Boston civil rights activist Mel King, whose 1983 campaign for mayor helped the city begin to repair some of the racial divisions sparked during the school busing crisis, has died. He was 94. King served in the state Legislature for nearly a decade before becoming the first...
Trump grand jury poised to take pre-planned hiatus from case
NEW YORK — The Manhattan grand jury investigating hush money paid on Donald Trump’s behalf is scheduled to consider other matters next week before taking a previously scheduled two-week hiatus, a person familiar with the matter said Wednesday. That means a vote on whether or not to indict the former...
Pope to be hospitalized for days with respiratory infection
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis was hospitalized with a respiratory infection Wednesday after experiencing difficulty breathing in recent days and will remain in the Rome hospital for several days of treatment, the Vatican said. The 86-year-old pope, who had part of one lung removed as a young man, doesn’t have...
China threatens to retaliate if McCarthy meets Taiwan leader
BEIJING — China threatened retaliation on Wednesday if U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy meets with Taiwan’s president during her upcoming trip through Los Angeles. President Tsai Ing-wen left Taiwan on Wednesday afternoon on a tour of the island’s diplomatic allies in the Americas which she framed as a chance to...
Nashville Predators’ McDonagh remembers shooting victims
BOSTON — When the Nashville Predators’ team flight took off for Boston, defenseman Ryan McDonagh wasn’t aboard. He stayed home Monday, to be with his three young daughters in the shaken community. A day after a fatal grade school shooting in Nashville left six dead, including three children, McDonagh caught...
U.S. to play Mexico in Nations League semis on June 15
MIAMI — The defending champion United States will play Mexico in the semifinals of the CONCACAF Nations League on June 15 at Las Vegas. The winner advances to the final against Canada or Panama on June 18, also in Las Vegas, the regional governing body said Wednesday. The semifinal match...
Duke’s Dariq Whitehead entering NBA draft after one season
DURHAM, N.C. — Duke freshman Dariq Whitehead is entering the NBA draft. The 6-foot-7 wing announced his decision Wednesday. He averaged 8.3 points and shot a team-best 42.4% from 3-point range in 28 games. Whitehead missed the first four games while recovering from an offseason foot injury, then missed another...
A versatile spring vegetable for holiday meals: Asparagus
What better ingredient for a spring holiday meal than a seasonal food favorite like asparagus? It’s at the top of my can’t-wait-for-spring vegetable list. Asparagus can be steamed, boiled, stir-fried, roasted, baked, grilled, or broiled. Pretty much any way you can cook a vegetable. It is harvested from February to...
What did players learn about MLB’s new rules this spring?Video
PHOENIX — It was the defining moment of the recently finished World Baseball Classic Japan’s star pitcher Shohei Ohtani vs. United States slugger Mike Trout. Ninth inning. Two outs. One-run game. Team USA pitcher Merrill Kelly said the storybook scene was just as dramatic for the players in the dugout...
Probe of Pa. chocolate factory blast focuses on gas pipeline
Federal safety officials are investigating the role of a natural gas pipeline in a fatal blast at a Pennsylvania chocolate factory, the National Transportation Safety Board announced Tuesday. Friday’s powerful explosion at R.M. Palmer Co. killed seven people, sent 10 to the hospital and damaged several other buildings in West...
FDA approves over-the-counter Narcan; here’s what it means
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved selling naloxone without a prescription, setting the overdose-reversing drug on course to become the first opioid treatment drug to be sold over the counter. It’s a move that some advocates have long sought as a way to improve access to a...
Russia stops sharing missile test info with U.S., opens drills
MOSCOW — A senior Russian diplomat said Wednesday that Moscow will no longer inform the U.S. about its missile tests, an announcement that came as the Russian military deployed mobile launchers in Siberia in a show of the country’s massive nuclear capability amid the fighting in Ukraine. Russian Deputy Foreign...
