Associated Press stories, Page 135
Texas officials face scrutiny over response to catastrophic and deadly flooding
KERRVILLE, Texas — Before heading to bed before the Fourth of July holiday, Christopher Flowers checked the weather while staying at a friend’s house along the Guadalupe River. Nothing in the forecast alarmed him. Hours later, he was rushing to safety: He woke up in darkness to electrical sockets popping...
Trump and GOP target ballots arriving after Election Day that delay counts and feed conspiracy fears
ATLANTA — President Donald Trump and other Republicans have long criticized states that take weeks to count their ballots after Election Day. This year has seen a flurry of activity to address it. Part of Trump’s executive order on elections, signed in March but held up by lawsuits, takes aim...
Pope Leo XIV resumes tradition and arrives in Castel Gandolfo for vacation to restore ‘body and spirit’
CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy — Pope Leo XIV arrived in the papal summer retreat of Castel Gandolfo on Sunday to start a six-week vacation, giving the hilltop town back its most illustrious resident after Pope Francis stayed away during his 12-year pontificate. Leo greeted well-wishers who lined the main road into...
Risk of further floods in Texas during desperate search for missing as death toll hits 82
KERRVILLE, Texas — With more rain on the way, the risk of life-threatening flooding was still high in central Texas on Monday even as crews search urgently for the missing following a holiday weekend deluge that killed at least 82 people, including children at summer camps. Officials said the death...
Tour de France: Philipsen wins first stage, Pogačar finishes safely
LILLE, France — Jasper Philipsen won the opening stage of the Tour de France in a sprint to the line, and defending champion Tadej Pogačar finished safely on Saturday. Pogačar is looking to win the showcase race for a fourth time on the back of great form this season. Stage...
Davis Thompson makes late birdie to break out of a logjam and lead John Deere
SILVIS, Ill. — Davis Thompson made a 10-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole Saturday to break out of a logjam that, at one point, featured 10 players tied for the lead, giving him a 4-under-par 67 on a much tougher golf course and a one-shot lead in the John...
Bobby Jenks, 2-time All-Star closer and World Series champion with the Chicago White Sox, dies at 44
CHICAGO — Bobby Jenks, a two-time All-Star closer and World Series champion with the Chicago White Sox, has died, the team announced Saturday. He was 44. The White Sox said Jenks died Friday in Sintra, Portugal, where he was being treated for adenocarcinoma, a form of stomach cancer. Jenks helped...
Flash floods like the one that swept through Texas are nation’s top storm-related killer
The monstrous, swift-moving flood that swept through the Hill Country of Texas on Friday, killing at least 32 people and leaving many more missing, was a flash flood, the nation’s top storm-related killer. Among those missing are girls attending a summer camp. Authorities said about 850 people had been rescued,...
Wimbledon: Jannik Sinner has dropped just 17 games so far. Krejcikova loses and Djokovic wins
LONDON — As well as Jannik Sinner is playing at Wimbledon, he doesn’t appear to need much in the way of help. Still, he got some Saturday when his opponent, Pedro Martinez, was dealing with a problematic shoulder and often put in first serves at so-so speeds. The No. 1-ranked...
U.S. completes deportation of 8 men to South Sudan
WASHINGTON — Eight men deported from the United States in May and held under guard for weeks at an American military base in the African nation of Djibouti while their legal challenges played out in court have reached the Trump administration’s intended destination, war-torn South Sudan, a country the State...
Alex Bowman looking for 2nd straight Cup Series win in Chicago
CHICAGO — Alex Bowman thinks he is moving in the right direction. With the NASCAR Cup Series back in Chicago on Sunday, it’s good timing for the Hendrick Motorsports driver. Bowman raced to a sorely needed victory in downtown Chicago a year ago, stopping an 80-race drought and securing a...
U.S. expands militarized zones to 1/3 of southern border, stirring controversy
COLUMBUS, N.M. — Orange no-entry signs posted by the U.S. military in English and Spanish dot the New Mexico desert, where a border wall cuts past onion fields and parched ranches with tufts of tall grass growing amidst wiry brush and yucca trees. The Army has posted thousands of the...
Trump kicks off a yearlong celebration of America’s 250th anniversary in Iowa
DES MOINES, Iowa — President Donald Trump turned a heartland festival for the United States’ upcoming 250th anniversary into a celebration of himself, basking in a crowd of supporters Thursday night shortly after Congress approved tax cut legislation that he championed. On the eve of the July 4th holiday, Trump...
Desperate search for two dozen missing girls from summer camp after Texas floods kill at least 24
KERRVILLE, Texas — Crews searched through the dark early Saturday for two dozen children from a girls’ camp and many others who were still missing after a wall of water rushed down a river in the Texas Hill Country during a powerful storm that killed at least 24 people. The...
Ghim holes out from fairway again at Deere for first 36-hole lead on PGA Tour
SILVIS, Ill. — Doug Ghim holed out from the fairway for eagle for the second straight day, sending him to a 3-under-par 68 and a one-shot lead Friday in the John Deere Classic, his first 36-hole lead in his six years on the PGA Tour. Defending champion Davis Thompson (63)...
24 dead in Texas floods; more than 20 children missing from summer camp
KERRVILLE, Texas — Months worth of heavy rain fell in a matter of hours on Texas Hill Country, leaving 24 people dead and many more unaccounted for Friday, including more than 20 girls attending a summer camp, as search teams conducted boat and helicopter rescues in fast-moving floodwaters. Desperate pleas...
Wimbledon: Another seed leaves when Keys is surprised by Siegemund. No. 1 Sabalenka beats RaducanuVideo
LONDON — This most unpredictable of Wimbledons delivered yet another surprise Friday when reigning Australian Open champion Madison Keys, the No. 6 seed, was a lopsided loser in the third round, eliminated 6-3, 6-3 by 104th-ranked Laura Siegemund of Germany. Keys’ exit left just one of the top six women...
Trump signs his tax and spending cut bill at the White House July 4 picnic
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed his package of tax breaks and spending cuts into law Friday after his cajoling produced almost unanimous Republican support in Congress for the domestic priority that could cement his second-term legacy. Flanked by Republican legislators and members of his Cabinet, Trump signed the multitrillion-dollar...
Judge blocks immigrants’ deportation to South Sudan one day after Supreme Court clears the way
A federal judge on Friday briefly halted deportations of eight immigrants to war-torn South Sudan, sending the case to another judge, in Boston, the day after the Supreme Court greenlighted their removal. District Judge Randolph Moss sent the case north from Washington after an extraordinary Fourth of July hearing on...
What to know about Fourth of July holiday origins and traditions
The Fourth of July is Americana at its core: parades and cookouts and cold beer and, of course, fireworks. Those pyrotechnics also make it an especially dangerous holiday, typically resulting in more than 10,000 trips to the emergency room. Yet fireworks remain at the center of Independence Day, a holiday...
Miki Sudo wins 11th women’s title in annual Nathan’s Famous hot dog eating contest
The Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July hot dog eating contest is back, and famed competitive eater Joey “Jaws” Chestnut is hoping for a comeback 17th win on Friday. The 41-year-old, from Westfield, Indiana, was not in last year’s event due to a contract dispute involving a deal he struck with...
Rural hospitals brace for financial hits or even closure under Republicans’ $1 trillion Medicaid cut
OMAHA, Neb. — Tyler Sherman, a nurse at a rural Nebraska hospital, is used to the area’s aging farmers delaying care until they end up in his emergency room. Now, with Congress planning around $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts over 10 years, he fears those farmers and the more than...
Democrats see Trump’s big bill as key to their comeback. It may not be so easy
WINDSOR HEIGHTS, Iowa — It is big and it is beautiful, President Donald Trump says. But for many Democratic leaders, the tax break and spending cut package passed by Trump’s Republican allies in Congress on Thursday represents the key to the Democratic Party’s resurgence. Even before the final vote, Democratic...
EPA puts on leave 139 employees who spoke out against policies under Trump
The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday put on administrative leave 139 employees who signed a “declaration of dissent” with its policies, accusing them of “unlawfully undermining” the Trump administration’s agenda. In a letter made public Monday, the employees wrote that the agency is no longer living up to its mission...
Mets add pitchers Paul Blackburn, Dedniel Núñez to long injured list
NEW YORK — Already running low on pitching, the New York Mets added starter Paul Blackburn and reliever Dedniel Núñez to a crowded injured list Thursday in their latest flurry of roster moves. Núñez has a right elbow sprain and could require Tommy John surgery for the second time in...
