Associated Press stories, Page 262
Wyndham Clark handles a stressful test at Bay Hill to lead by 2Video
ORLANDO, Fla. — Wyndham Clark handled a stressful day at Bay Hill by eliminating as much trouble as possible. Two late birdies as the wind finally waned carried him to a 5-under-par 67 and a two-shot lead Thursday in the Arnold Palmer Invitational. It was clear from the start Bay...
1st national analysis finds America’s butterflies disappearing at ‘catastrophic’ rateVideo
WASHINGTON — America’s butterflies are disappearing because of insecticides, climate change and habitat loss, with the number of the winged beauties down 22% since 2000, a new study finds. The first countrywide systematic analysis of butterfly abundance found that the number of butterflies in the Lower 48 states has been...
New Mexico adult dies with measles, though cause of death isn’t yet confirmed
An adult who was infected with measles has died in New Mexico, state health officials announced Thursday, though the virus has not been confirmed as the cause. The person who died was unvaccinated and did not seek medical care, a state health department spokesperson said in a statement. The person’s...
SpaceX’s latest Starship test flight ends with another explosionVideo
Nearly two months after an explosion sent flaming debris raining down on the Turks and Caicos, SpaceX launched another mammoth Starship rocket on Thursday, but lost contact minutes into the test flight as the spacecraft came tumbling down and broke apart. This time, wreckage from the latest explosion was seen...
Walgreens agrees to be acquired by private equity firm for almost $10 billion
NEW YORK — Walgreens Boots Alliance says it has agreed to be acquired by private equity firm Sycamore Partners as the struggling retailer looks to turn itself around after years of losing money. Walgreens said Thursday that Sycamore will pay $11.45 per share, giving the deal an equity value just...
Adnan Syed to remain free after judge decides on time served for his murder sentence in ‘Serial’ case
BALTIMORE — Adnan Syed, whose case amassed a worldwide following of “Serial” podcast listeners, will remain free — even though his murder conviction still stands, a Baltimore judge ruled on Thursday. Judge Jennifer Schiffer agreed to reduce Syed’s sentence to time served under a relatively new state law that provides...
Jaguars agree to trade WR Christian Kirk to Texans for 2026 7th-round pickVideo
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Jacksonville Jaguars found a trade partner — a division rival, no less — for receiver Christian Kirk before officially releasing him. The Jaguars agreed to trade Kirk to AFC South opponent Houston on Thursday for a seventh-round draft pick in 2026, according to multiple reports. The...
CIA lays off some recently hired officers as Trump shakes up intelligence community
WASHINGTON — The Central Intelligence Agency will fire an unreleased number of junior officers as President Donald Trump’s efforts to downsize and reshape the federal government reverberate through America’s intelligence community. The agency will review personnel hired within the past two years, an agency spokesperson said Thursday, and those officers...
Elon Musk tells Republican lawmakers he’s not to blame for federal firingsVideo
WASHINGTON — It’s not his fault. Billionaire Elon Musk is telling Republican lawmakers that he is not to blame for the firings of thousands of federal workers, including veterans, as pushes to downsize the government. Instead, he said in private talks this week that those decisions are left to the...
Devils get Dumoulin, Panthers add Sturm and Golden Knights reacquire Smith as NHL trades pile upVideo
The banged up New Jersey Devils wasted no time filling an area of need ahead of the NHL trade deadline, the defending champion Florida Panthers made an under-the-radar move that could pave the way for another deep playoff run and the Vegas Golden Knights brought back a member of their...
Browns restructure Watson’s contract to get under the salary cap, AP source saysVideo
Deshaun Watson’s contract has been reworked again by the Cleveland Browns as the team looks to clear salary cap space with the new league year less than a week away. A person with knowledge of the move told the Associated Press on Thursday that the latest restructuring of the quarterback’s...
Federal judge reinstates labor board member fired by President Trump
WASHINGTON — A federal judge agreed Thursday to reinstate a board member whom President Donald Trump removed from an independent labor agency. National Labor Relations Board member Gwynne Wilcox sued Trump after he fired her and the agency’s general counsel, Jennifer Abruzzo, on Jan. 27. U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell...
Private lunar lander may have fallen over while touching down near the moon’s south poleVideo
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A privately owned lunar lander touched down on the moon with a drill, drone and rovers for NASA and other customers Thursday, but quickly ran into trouble and may have fallen over. Intuitive Machines said it was uncertain whether its Athena lander was upright near the...
Medical plane’s voice recorder likely wasn’t working for years before Philadelphia crash
PHILADELPHIA — The cockpit voice recorder was not working on a medical transport plane that killed seven people when it plummeted into a Philadelphia neighborhood in January and likely had not been functional for several years, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a preliminary report Thursday. The NTSB also...
Trudeau expects trade war between Canada and U.S. for the ‘foreseeable future’
TORONTO — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday he welcomed indications that the U.S. would delay substantial tariffs on Canadian products for a month, but said Canada’s retaliatory tariffs would remain in place for now. U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday that he has postponed 25% tariffs on most goods...
Without U.S. intelligence, Ukraine will struggle to strike targets inside Russia
KYIV, Ukraine — The U.S. decision to stop sharing military intelligence with Ukraine hobbles its ability to strike and defend against the Russian army, and increases the pressure on it to accept a peace deal being pushed by the Trump administration. Earlier in the week, the U.S. suspended weapons shipments...
Trump changes course and delays some tariffs on Mexico, Canada
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday postponed 25% tariffs on many imports from Mexico and some imports from Canada for a month amid widespread fears of the economic fallout from a broader trade war. The White House insists its tariffs are about stopping the smuggling of fentanyl, but the...
Going, going, gone? One-of-a-kind card featuring Pirates star Paul Skenes heading to auction
Paul Skenes has been in the major leagues for less than a year. A piece of the Pittsburgh Pirates ace — well, OK, a piece of the jersey that Skenes donned during his first start last May — could be ready to join some elite company. A one-of-a-kind autographed baseball...
Second federal judge extends block preventing the Trump administration from freezing funding
BOSTON — A second federal judge on Thursday extended a block barring the Trump administration from freezing grants and loans potentially totaling trillions of dollars. U.S. District Court Judge John McConnell in Rhode Island granted the preliminary injunction in the lawsuit filed by nearly two dozen Democratic states after a...
The number of Americans filing for jobless benefits falls as labor market remains sturdy
Applications for U.S. jobless benefits fell last week as the labor market remains sturdy ahead of an expected purge of federal government employees. The number of Americans filing for jobless benefits fell by 21,000 to 221,000 for the week ending March 1, the Labor Department said Thursday. That’s significantly fewer...
Federal judge blocks NIH funding cuts to medical research, including at CMU
A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from drastically cutting medical research funding that many scientists say will endanger patients and cost jobs. The new National Institutes of Health policy would strip research groups of hundreds of millions of dollars to cover so-called indirect expenses of studying Alzheimer’s, cancer,...
Ancient humans made tools from animal bones 1.5 million years ago
WASHINGTON — Early humans were regularly using animal bones to make cutting tools 1.5 million years ago. A newly discovered cache of 27 carved and sharpened bones from elephants and hippos found in Tanzania’s Olduvai Gorge site pushes back the date for ancient bone tool use by around 1 million...
Mortgage rates have declined but could stay at a level that makes it tough to afford a home
LOS ANGELES — Mortgage rates have been mostly declining in recent weeks, helping encourage prospective home shoppers just as the spring homebuying season gets going. But the same factors that have pulled mortgage rates to their lowest level since December — signs that the U.S. economy is slowing and uncertainty...
The U.S. penny costs nearly 4 cents to make. But for 1 sector of souvenir sellers, it’s a living
NEW YORK — President Donald Trump talks of big change in his second term of office. But he’s not forgetting small change, either. Trump ordered the Treasury Department to stop making pennies with a Feb. 10 sentence on his social media account that followed years of conservatives pointing out that...
Hamas brushes off Trump’s threat and says it will only free hostages in return for lasting truce
CAIRO — The Hamas militant group on Thursday brushed off President Donald Trump’s latest threat and reiterated that it will only free the remaining Israeli hostages in exchange for a lasting ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. Hamas accused Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of trying to back out...
