Associated Press stories, Page 2308
Dee Ford goes from Chiefs AFC title-game goat to 49ers stalwartVideo
MIAMI — Dee Ford’s blunder cost Kansas City a trip to the Super Bowl a year ago. Now Ford has another chance to deny the Chiefs a championship when he faces them with the San Francisco 49ers. Ford’s five-year tenure in Kansas City came to a disappointing finish last season...
Elizabeth Banks honored with parade, roast at HarvardVideo
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Actor and director Elizabeth Banks was honored Friday as Woman of the Year by Harvard University’s famed Hasty Pudding theater troupe with a parade and a celebratory roast. The “Hunger Games” star rolled through through Harvard Square in the back of a black convertible as students dressed...
Virus rattles Chinese communities, canceling new year events
ALHAMBRA, Calif. — The rapid spread of a new virus from China has cast a pall across Chinese American communities, with people staying inside whenever possible, wearing medical masks when they must go out and canceling some celebrations for Lunar New Year, China’s biggest holiday. Those actions became the new...
Arkansas city agrees to tests of evidence on executed inmate
JACKSONVILLE, Ark. — A central Arkansas city council voted Friday to allow new tests on fingerprints and DNA evidence relating to the case of a man the state put to death in 2017. The Jacksonville City Council voted to allow the tests that Ledell Lee’s family contends could exonerate Lee...
Billionaire Bloomberg floods Democratic primary with cash
DES MOINES, Iowa — Billionaire Michael Bloomberg spent roughly $180 million in the month after his late entry into the Democratic presidential primary, a staggering sum that’s drastically more than all other leading contenders spent during much of the past year combined. Since his late entry into the race in...
Roberts says he won’t break a tie in Trump impeachment trial
WASHINGTON — Chief Justice John Roberts was never going to be vote No. 51. Roberts said Friday that he had no intention of breaking a tie in President Donald Trump’s Senate impeachment trial, dispelling something of a mystery that had hung over the proceedings. The statement from Roberts came before...
Chiefs coach Andy Reid needs Super Bowl win to silence criticsVideo
MIAMI — Andy Reid has won more games than any coach without a Super Bowl title, so people question whether he can win the big one. The knock against Reid throughout his 21-year coaching career has been his inability to win a championship. He was 1-4 in conference title games...
Chiefs’ Tyreek Hill relishes Super Bowl run after ruinous offseasonVideo
MIAMI — Just over six months ago, Tyreek Hill was uncertain whether he ever would play another game in the NFL. He had become the object of scorn among many Kansas City Chiefs fans when audio surfaced early last year in which his then-fiancee accused him of hurting their 3-year-old...
Trump curbs immigrants from 6 nations in election-year push
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration announced Friday that it was restricting immigrants from six additional countries that officials said failed to meet minimum security standards, as part of an election-year push to further clamp down immigration. Officials said immigrants from Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Eritrea, Nigeria, Sudan and Tanzania will face new...
Woman says Weinstein yelled, ‘You owe me!’ before raping her
NEW YORK — A key accuser in Harvey Weinstein’s trial testified Friday that he raped her twice, once bellowing, “You owe me!” as he dragged her into a bedroom. The first time, the heavyset Hollywood tycoon trapped her in a New York hotel room in March 2013, angrily ordered her...
Senate rejects witnesses in Trump trial, ensuring acquittal
WASHINGTON — The Senate rejected the idea of witnesses in President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial late Friday, all but ensuring his eventual acquittal. But senators considered pushing off final voting on his fate to next week. The vote on allowing new witnesses was defeated 51-49 on a near party-line vote....
Stocks sink on fears virus outbreak will dent the economy
Stocks fell sharply on Wall Street Friday as fears spread through the markets that a virus outbreak emanating from China will dent global growth. The Dow Jones Industrial Average skidded more than 600 points and the S&P 500 index erased its gains for January. Technology companies, which do a lot...
U.S. workers’ compensation growth slowed a bit in 2019
WASHINGTON — Americans’ pay and benefits rose at a solid pace last year, but at a slower rate than in 2018, the Labor Department said Friday. Total salaries and benefits such as health insurance rose 2.7% in 2019, according to the government’s employment cost index, down from 2.9% in the...
Amazon is big … really, really big; workforce hits 500K
NEW YORK — Need more proof that Amazon is big? It came this week. Amazon’s U.S. workforce topped 500,000 for the first time, up 43% from the year before and more than triple what it was five years ago, the company said Friday. It gained 150,000 workers last year, more...
U.S. workers’ compensation growth slowed a bit in 2019
WASHINGTON — Americans’ pay and benefits rose at a solid pace last year, but at a slower rate than in 2018, the Labor Department said Friday. Total salaries and benefits such as health insurance rose 2.7% in 2019, according to the government’s employment cost index, down from 2.9% in the...
Online political ads: cheap, efficient and ripe for misuse
Older men in Arkansas might see a close-up photo of President Trump pumping his fist in the air, along with a message asking them to donate $30 to his campaign for a Super Bowl commercial. Middle-aged women in California might see a photo of Trump pointing to a crowd, with...
Amazon is big … really, really big; workforce hits 500K
NEW YORK — Need more proof that Amazon is big? It came this week. Amazon’s U.S. workforce topped 500,000 for the first time, up 43% from the year before and more than triple what it was five years ago, the company said Friday. It gained 150,000 workers last year, more...
Trump curbs immigration for 6 nations in election-year push
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration announced Friday that it was curbing legal immigration from six additional countries that officials said did not meet security standards, as part of an election-year push to further restrict immigration. Officials said immigrants from Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Eritrea, Nigeria, Sudan and Tanzania will face new restrictions...
Trump shifts to authorize wider U.S. military use of landmines
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Friday canceled an Obama-era prohibition on the use of anti-personnel landmines outside of the Korean peninsula. A White House statement said the new U.S. policy authorizes military commanders, “in exceptional circumstances,” to use landmines designed to reduce unintended harm to civilians. President Barack Obama...
As forests burn around the world, drinking water is at risk
Fabric curtains stretch across the huge Warragamba Dam to trap ash and sediment expected to wash off wildfire-scorched slopes and into the reservoir that holds 80% of untreated drinking water for the Greater Sydney area. In Australia’s national capital of Canberra, where a state of emergency was declared on Friday...
Delta, American and United suspend flights between U.S., China
NEW YORK — Delta Air Lines and American Airlines said Friday they will suspend all flights between the U.S. and China, making them the first U.S.-based airlines to do so and joining several international carriers that have stopped flying to China as the coronavirus outbreak continues to spread. United Airlines...
U.S. quarantines American evacuees from China in California
LOS ANGELES — U.S. health officials Friday issued a quarantine order for all 195 American evacuees from China. The evacuees will spend two weeks at a military base in California. They were flown on a charter flight earlier this week from Wuhan, the Chinese city at the center of the...
Pennsylvania on track to expand overtime pay eligibility
HARRISBURG — Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration is on the brink of making Pennsylvania one of a handful of states to expand eligibility for overtime pay beyond federal thresholds, winning a final vote Friday from a state regulatory board. The Independent Regulatory Review Commission voted 3-2 to approve a regulation that...
Former FBI translator gets probation for doctored transcript
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A former FBI translator was sentenced to probation Friday after he admitted doctoring transcripts when his own voice came up on intercepts of phone calls placed by a terrorism suspect. Abdirizak Wehelie of Burke, Virginia, also received a $1,000 fine at his sentencing hearing in U.S. District...
Atari plans to open video game-themed resorts in 8 U.S. cities
LAS VEGAS — Atari, the arcade game company that ushered in the gaming revolution in the 1980s, is opening eight video game-themed hotels across the United States, including ones in Las Vegas and Phoenix. The company said this week it will break ground on its first hotel later this year...
