Associated Press stories, Page 2263
Schachmann wins Paris-Nice cycle race held amid coronavirus outbreak
VALDEBLORE-LA COLMIANE, France — German cyclist Maximilian Schachmann won the Paris-Nice race on Saturday in a rare case of a sporting event still going ahead amid the coronavirus pandemic. While France’s soccer and rugby leagues scrapped their matches indefinitely on a hectic Friday — amid cancellations around the world —...
RSVP ‘maybe’? Coronavirus puts wedding industry on edge
NEW YORK — Guests are jittery, travel is tangled, and soon-to-be brides and grooms are facing tough choices because of the coronavirus outbreak: postpone, cancel or forge ahead with their weddings? Uncertainty as virus cases grow in the U.S. and elsewhere has sent ripples through the wedding industry, from photographers...
Wuhan soccer team leaving Spain to escape virus
MADRID — The Chinese soccer team that was originally stuck in Spain because of the coronavirus outbreak is going back home to try to avoid its rapid spread in Europe. Wuhan Zall was expected to return to China on Saturday, nearly 1½ months after it arrived in Spain for preseason...
Coronavirus-related shutdowns bringing U.S. economy to grinding halt
AUSTIN, Texas — It took 15 minutes for the coronavirus to wreck Shelley Hutchings’ carefully calculated financial plans. Hutchings, a bartender and performer, had lined up gigs in advance of the South by Southwest film, music and technology festival, which draws hundreds of thousands of visitors to Austin each year....
U.S. Hispanic Catholics are future, but priest numbers dismal
PHOENIX — Maria Chavira, a senior administrator in the Diocese of Phoenix, says Spanish-speaking Catholic parishes in her area are “bursting at the seams” and celebrates the emergence of Hispanics as the largest ethnic component of the church nationwide. Throughout the Southwest, where the surge has been dramatic, Roman Catholic...
Medical marijuana bills challenge Bible Belt politics
FRANKFORT, Ky. — Facing a potentially historic vote on whether to legalize medical marijuana in Kentucky, Republican lawmaker John Schickel is conflicted. A retired law enforcement officer, Schickel once steadfastly opposed medical cannabis, but his stance has softened. Now he says he’s approaching the question with an open mind. “One...
On eve of Disneyland closure, fun trumps virus fear
ANAHEIM, Calif. — Thousands flocked to Disneyland on Friday for glimpses of Mickey and Minnie, a ride on “It’s a Small World” and a last trip to the Galaxy’s Edge before a historically long closure because of the new coronavirus. It was a rare rainy day in Southern California, and...
EU urges border health checks as virus case count mounts
BRUSSELS — The European Union urged member countries Friday to put health screening procedures in place at their borders to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus but said they must coordinate so people can still quickly get the medical care they need. With Italy reporting the most virus cases...
Lawyer: Man asleep when police fired on house, killing him
SILVER SPRING, Md. — A Maryland man was asleep in his bedroom when police opened fire from outside his house, killing him and wounding his girlfriend, an attorney for the 21-year-old man’s family said Friday. The Montgomery County Police Department said in a news release Friday that Duncan Socrates Lemp...
Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Wuorinen dies at 81
NEW YORK — Charles Wuorinen, winner of the 1970 Pulitzer Prize in Music and composer of the operas “Brokeback Mountain” and “Haroun and the Sea of Stories,” died from injuries suffered in a fall in September. He was 81. Wuorinen, who composed more than 270 works, died Wednesday at New...
NCAA grants extra year of eligibility to spring sports athletesVideo
The NCAA will extend the eligibility of athletes on spring sports teams one year to make up for the season lost to the new coronavirus. The decision comes after the NCAA announced Thursday that its winter and spring championships would be canceled as a precaution against the spread of the...
Death toll at least 21 as Egypt storms, flooding enter 2nd day
CAIRO — Thunderstorms and flooding around Egypt entered a second day Friday, interrupting daily life in much of the country, including the capital Cairo, as the death toll rose to 21, authorities said. Most of the victims were in rural areas and slums. At least six children died either from...
Census faces challenges as it aims to hire up to 500,000
ORLANDO, Fla. — The U.S. Census Bureau said it has reached its goal of recruiting more than 2.6 million applicants for the once-a-decade head count that launched for most of America this week — but it has been a bumpy road getting there. The nation’s abundance of jobs has complicated...
‘Not a wave, a tsunami’: Italy hospitals at coronavirus limit
ROME — Talk of a 400-bed field hospital in Milan’s fairgrounds. A team of Chinese experts and surplus ventilators arriving on a cargo plane. Doctors Without Borders, usually dispatched to the third world when disasters strike, working triage in Italy’s prosperous north. The coronavirus outbreak tearing through Italy has turned...
Police: Florida governor candidate in room where crystal meth found
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Former Florida Democratic candidate for governor Andrew Gillum is named in a police report Friday saying he was “inebriated” and initially unresponsive in a hotel room where authorities found baggies of suspected crystal methamphetamine. Gillum, the former Tallahassee mayor who ran for governor in 2018, is...
Pentagon reconsiders Microsoft contract after Amazon protest
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is reconsidering its awarding of a major cloud computing contract to Microsoft after rival tech giant Amazon protested what it called a flawed bidding process. U.S. government lawyers said in a court filing this week that the Defense Department “wishes to reconsider its award decision” and...
Bernie Sanders says lack of rallies ‘hurting’ his campaign
BURLINGTON, Vt. — Bernie Sanders acknowledged Friday that fears about the spread of coronavirus have damaged his ability to leverage large rallies into support at the polls, and suggested that future Democratic presidential primary voting should be delayed if health officials deem doing so appropriate. “We do more rallies than...
Biden virtual town hall marks new normal for campaigning
CHICAGO — Joe Biden is holding a town hall in Illinois from 800 miles away in Delaware. Bernie Sanders is staging daily news conferences from Vermont, instead of his usual rallies around the country with thousands of supporters. The global coronavirus pandemic has sent the 2020 presidential campaign into a...
No fans, no work: Arena workers caught in sports shutdown
MIAMI — David Edelman can usually be found at a Denver Nuggets basketball game or a Colorado Rapids soccer game. As an usher, he interacts with fans in a role he calls a staple of his life. But there are no Nuggets games for at least a month. No Rapids...
Trump declares coronavirus pandemic a national emergency
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump announced Friday that he is declaring the coronavirus pandemic a national emergency, as Washington struggles with providing Americans with relief and officials race to slow the spread of the outbreak. Speaking from the Rose Garden, Trump said, “I am officially declaring a national emergency.” He...
U.S. hospitals brace for ‘tremendous strain’ from new virus
U.S. hospitals are setting up circus-like triage tents, calling doctors out of retirement, guarding their supplies of face masks and making plans to cancel elective surgery as they brace for an expected onslaught of coronavirus patients. Depending on how bad the crisis gets, the sick could find themselves waiting on...
Gary Bettman: NHL players in isolation while season is on holdVideo
The NHL is telling its players and staff to stay away from the rink and self-isolate while hockey is on a hiatus of unknown length during the coronavirus pandemic. Commissioner Gary Bettman said Friday he was not aware of any player or league employee testing positive for the new coronavirus,...
Delta slashes flights by 40% as virus cripples global travel
Delta Air Lines will cut passenger-carrying capacity by 40% to deal with a nosedive in travel demand, and it is talking to the White House and Congress about assistance to get through a downturn caused by the new coronavirus. The 40% cut in capacity is the largest in Delta’s history,...
Trump preparing to invoke emergency powers over coronavirus
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is preparing to invoke emergency powers as the country struggles to contain the coronavirus outbreak, according to two people familiar with the planning who spoke on condition of anonymity. It was still unclear Friday, however, precisely what mechanism Trump would use to free up additional...
In Pennsylvania, school closures spread amid coronavirus outbreak
HARRISBURG — School closings began radiating farther from the Philadelphia area, with schools in at least 10 Pennsylvania counties closed Friday as the state mounted a sweeping social distancing measure aimed at slowing the spread of the COVID-19 outbreak. Meanwhile, the number of positive tests grew from 22 to 33,...
