Associated Press stories, Page 2480
Police patrol Rome’s Spanish Steps to enforce sitting ban
ROME — Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn perched there without a care in the 1953 film “Roman Holiday.” But the Spanish Steps in Rome are no longer a place for sitting. Enforcing an ordinance that took effect last month, police officers patrolled the famed stone staircase Wednesday to tell locals...
Ex-dean with oversight of Larry Nassar gets 1 year in jail
LANSING, Mich. — A former Michigan State University dean with oversight of now-imprisoned sports doctor Larry Nassar was ordered Wednesday to serve up to a year in jail after being convicted of neglect of duty and misconduct in office that stemmed from claims he sexually harassed students. William Strampel learned...
Berlin to tighten rules for electric scooter users
BERLIN — Berlin plans to stop electric scooters from being left haphazardly on sidewalks and other anti-social behavior that’s drawn the ire of residents in the German capital since the vehicles were made legal two months ago. City transport officials said Wednesday after a meeting with scooter providers that they’ll...
Germany seizes 1.5 tons of cocaine, 2nd big haul in weeks
BERLIN — Customs officials in Hamburg have found 1.65 tons of cocaine on a container ship that arrived from Brazil, soon after Germany’s biggest-ever single seizure of the drug. The port city’s customs office said Wednesday the new shipment was found last week in a container of tobacco cartons loaded...
Trump faces protests as he visits Dayton, El Paso
DAYTON, Ohio — Protesters greeted President Donald Trump’s arrival in Dayton Wednesday, blaming his incendiary rhetoric for inflaming political and racial tensions in the country, as he visited survivors of last weekend’s mass shootings and saluted first responders. The president and first lady Melania Trump began their visit at the...
Immigration raids under way at Mississippi food plants
MORTON, Miss. — U.S. immigration officials have launched raids at several Mississippi food processing plants. A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official said Wednesday that search warrants were executed at seven locations across the state targeting several companies. They include the Morton plant of poultry producer Koch Foods Inc., which...
Cambodian rescued after 4 days wedged in mountain rock
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — A Cambodian man who became wedged between rocks while collecting bat droppings for sale has been rescued after being trapped for almost four days. Police said Sum Bora slipped Sunday while trying to retrieve his flashlight, which he had accidentally dropped in the small rocky hollow....
El Paso, with deep Mexican American past, rallies amid painVideo
EL PASO, Texas — The massacre that killed 22 people at a Walmart in El Paso struck a city that has long been the cradle of Mexican American culture and immigration and suffered through bloody episodes of racial violence in the past. The white gunman apparently wrote an anti-Hispanic rant...
Dayton, site of latest mass shooting, warily awaits Trump
DAYTON, Ohio — Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley’s stricken community will have a visitor Wednesday in President Donald Trump, who in the wake of two mass shootings over the weekend has made calls for unity on the heels of his divisive political talk. White House officials said Trump’s visits to Texas...
Services set for Nick Cumer, grad student killed in Ohio
LORETTO — Services are set for a Pennsylvania graduate student killed in a shooting rampage in an Ohio nightclub district. Nicholas Cumer was a graduate student in the master of cancer care program at Saint Francis University in Loretto, Pa. The 25-year-old was in Dayton as part of his internship...
Bipartisan ‘red flag’ gun laws plan has support in Congress
WASHINGTON — Despite frequent mass shootings, Congress has proved to be unable to pass substantial gun violence legislation, largely because of resistance from Republicans. But a bipartisan proposal by Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., is gaining momentum following weekend mass shootings in Texas and Ohio that left...
Some skeptical as Trump prepares to visit sites of shootings
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is bringing a message aimed at national unity and healing to the sites of the mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton. But the words he offers for a divided America will be complicated by his own incendiary, anti-immigrant rhetoric that mirrors language linked to...
Browns RB Nick Chubb poised for breakout season
BEREA, Ohio — Nick Chubb skipped the parties in college. Not his style. He was reserved and quiet at Georgia, keeping to himself or working out in the Bulldogs’ weight room. The soft-spoken kid from historic Chubbtown was courteous and driven off the field, tough and powerful on it. Browns...
Walgreens to shut 200 U.S. stores as part of cost-cutting plan
NEW YORK — Pharmacy chain Walgreens plans to close 200 stores in the United States as it seeks to cut costs. The company said in a regulatory filing Tuesday the closings are part of its previously announced plan to trim costs by $1.5 billion in a few years. In May,...
North Korea’s Kim: Missile test ‘adequate warning’
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea said Wednesday leader Kim Jong Un supervised a live-fire demonstration of newly-developed short-range ballistic missiles he said were intended to send an “adequate warning” to the United States and South Korea over their joint military exercises. The announcement by Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News...
Authorities: Montana man assaulted boy who kept hat on during anthem
SUPERIOR, Mont. — A man is facing an assault charge after Montana authorities say someone saw him throw a 13-year-old boy to the ground because the teenager didn’t remove his hat when the national anthem was played at a rodeo. The boy was taken to a hospital in Spokane, Wash.,...
Dartmouth settles sexual misconduct lawsuit for $14M
CONCORD, N.H. — Dartmouth College announced Tuesday that it has settled a contentious federal lawsuit with nine women who sued the school over allegations that it ignored years of harassment and assault by former psychology department professors. In a statement Tuesday, both sides say the settlement includes $14 million for...
As UK-EU relations cool, battle looms to stop no-deal Brexit
LONDON — In Brussels and London, one question is growing louder: Can Boris Johnson be stopped? Britain’s prime minister says the U.K. is leaving the European Union in less than 90 days, either with a divorce deal, or — it seems increasingly likely — without one. With Britain and the...
U.S. stocks notch solid gains as China stabilizes currency
Stocks closed broadly higher Tuesday as Wall Street regained its footing a day after the market had its biggest decline in a year. The bounce pushed the Dow Jones Industrial Average more than 300 points higher and snapped a six-day losing streak for the market, though the benchmark S&P 500...
Boom in overdose-reversing drug is tied to fewer drug deaths
NEW YORK — Prescriptions of the overdose-reversing drug naloxone are soaring, and experts say that could be a reason overdose deaths have stopped rising for the first time in nearly three decades. The number of naloxone prescriptions dispensed by U.S. retail pharmacies doubled from 2017 to last year, rising from...
Trump, Republican party sue over California tax return law
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Trump campaign and Republican Party sued California on Tuesday over a new law requiring presidential candidates to release their tax returns to run in the state’s primary, legislation that was aimed at prying loose President Trump’s returns. California’s law is “a naked political attack against the...
Bills running back LeSean McCoy using his doubters as motivationVideo
PITTSFORD, N.Y. — Question LeSean McCoy all you want for having lost a step now that he’s on the wrong side of 30 and coming off his least productive season. The Buffalo Bills running back says he won’t hold it against anyone when proving them wrong. Insisting he’s still “The...
Top Trump economic adviser Kudlow sees ‘no signs’ of recession amid trade war
WASHINGTON — Lawrence Kudlow, President Trump’s chief economic adviser, predicted Tuesday that “calmer heads” will prevail in an escalating trade confrontation between the U.S. and China even as he offered few concrete signposts for progress. The former CNBC analyst’s comments come as U.S. and global markets are slumping over worries...
Trump’s tariffs could blot out positive economic story
WASHINGTON — Just last week, solid economic numbers appeared to be helping President Trump’s reelection prospects. The United States had achieved its longest economic expansion. Stock prices were climbing. Job gains were steady. Consumers had scaled up spending. Growth was sturdy enough to presage a second term for a conventional...
‘Target list’ prompts domestic terrorism case in Gilroy
LOS ANGELES — The discovery of a “target list” containing religious institutions, courthouses and other sites compiled by the gunman in a mass shooting at a California food festival has prompted the FBI to open a domestic terrorism case. Shooter Santino William Legan, 19, appeared to be interested in conflicting...

