Associated Press stories, Page 2688
Saints redeemed secondary confident vs. high-powered Rams
METAIRIE, La. — Marshon Lattimore and the Saints’ secondary no longer look — or sound — haunted by the “Minnesota Miracle” touchdown pass that stunningly ended their playoffs one year ago. “We don’t panic. We don’t do none of that,” Lattimore said. “We adjust well.” Lattimore backed that up with...
Jurors convict man in Temple University student slaying
PHILADELPHIA — A man was convicted of murder and sentenced to life without possibility of parole Thursday in the slaying of a 22-year-old Temple University student. Jurors convicted Joshua Hupperterz of first-degree murder and possession of an instrument of crime in the death of Jenna Burleigh. He earlier pleaded guilty...
Patriots try to overcome road woes in AFC championship game
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The Patriots are going on the road again in the playoffs, a place that hasn’t always been kind to them during the Tom Brady era. New England was unbeatable at home this season, going 8-0 during the regular season and rolling past the Los Angeles Chargers in...
Tom Marino resigning from Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation for private-sector job
HARRISBURG — Tom Marino, a five-term Republican congressman who helped steer Donald Trump’s successful presidential campaign in Pennsylvania, said Thursday that he is resigning just days into a new term. In a statement, Marino said his last day will be Jan. 23 and that he is taking a job in...
Upper St. Clair native Vincent Trocheck nears return for Florida Panthers
CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. — The Florida Panthers desperately need a boost, and Vincent Trocheck has pronounced himself ready to provide one. Barely eight weeks removed from surgery to repair the right ankle he fractured by crashing into the boards during a game at Ottawa, Trocheck took part in a full...
Judge acquits 3 Chicago officers of Laquan McDonald cover-up
CHICAGO — A judge on Thursday acquitted three Chicago police officers of trying to cover up the 2014 police shooting of Laquan McDonald to protect the white officer seen pulling the trigger on dashcam video that showed the black teen getting hit with 16 bullets. In rejecting the prosecution’s entire...
Watchdog: Thousands more children taken from their families than previously disclosed
WASHINGTON — It seems likely that thousands more migrant children were split from their families than the Trump administration has acknowledged, in part because officials were stepping up family separations long before the border policy that prompted international outrage last spring, a government watchdog said Thursday. It’s unclear just how...
Trump denies Pelosi aircraft for planned trip abroad
WASHINGTON — It took President Donald Trump one day to flex his executive power back at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, denying her an aircraft for a planned trip abroad in apparent response to her attempt to delay his State of Union address amid their government shutdown clash. The nation’s two...
Asteroids are smacking Earth twice as often as before
WASHINGTON — Giant rocks from space are falling from the sky more than they used to, but don’t worry. For the past 290 million years, large asteroids have been crashing into Earth more than twice as often as they did in the previous 700 million years, according to a new...
California storm moving out after battering state for 3 days
SAN FRANCISCO — The storm that pummeled much of California for three days began moving east Thursday after causing at least six deaths, forcing wildfire victims threatened by floods to flee their homes and plunging nearly 300,000 utility customers into darkness. The winter storm is forecast to drop heavy rain,...
Britain’s Prince Philip, queen’s husband, in car accident
LONDON — Buckingham Palace says the 97-year-old husband of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip, has been in a car accident but wasn’t injured. The palace said the two-vehicle accident happened Thursday afternoon near Sandringham Estate, the queen’s country retreat in eastern England. The Norfolk Constabulary says officers responded to...
Study of Leonardo’s 1st landscape finds he had 2nd thoughts
ROME — The first-ever scientific study of the oldest known drawing by Leonardo da Vinci has found that he added details to an earlier sketch of a countryside landscape, said the Uffizi Galleries, whose collections include the fragile work. The Galleries said the 1473 “Landscape Drawing for Santa Maria della...
Netflix has no plans to cut ‘Bird Box’ scene despite outcry
NEW YORK — Netflix’s post-apocalyptic survival film “Bird Box” is drawing criticism for using footage of a real fiery train disaster but the streaming giant has no plans to remove it. The footage concerns a 2013 tragedy in the Quebec town of Lac-Megantic when an unattended train carrying crude oil...
Fans buy Melissa Gilbert’s ‘Little House on the Prairie’ memorabilia
GENOA TOWNSHIP, Mich. — More than 200 items belonging to “Little House on the Prairie” star Melissa Gilbert and her husband, Emmy-winning actor Timothy Busfield, have been purchased in an estate sale in Michigan. Items sold in the American Eagle Auction & Appraisal Co. online auction this month included a...
Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Mary Oliver dies at 83
NEW YORK — Mary Oliver, the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet whose rapturous odes to nature and animal life brought her critical acclaim and popular affection, has died. She was 83. Bill Reichblum, Oliver’s literary executor, said she died Thursday at her home in Hobe Sound, Florida. The cause of death was...
CDC sees possible link between opioids and birth defect
NEW YORK — Health officials are looking into a possible link between prescription opioids and a horrific birth defect. Babies born with the defect have their intestines hanging outside the stomach, due to a hole in the abdominal wall. Surgery is often needed to fix it. Roughly 1,800 such cases...
LA teachers, district to resume negotiations amid strike
LOS ANGELES — Teachers walked rainy picket lines Thursday at Los Angeles schools for a fourth day ahead of a new round of contract negotiations that a union leader said is unlikely to quickly end the walkout. “After 21 months of negotiations I think it would be an unrealistic expectation...
Nissan to cut up to 700 contract workers in Mississippi
JACKSON, Miss. — Nissan Motor Co. says it’s cutting up to 700 contract workers at its Mississippi assembly plant, citing slow sales for Titan pickup trucks and vans. The company employs 6,400 employees and contractors in Canton, Miss. The move follows Nissan’s December announcement that it’s cutting 1,000 jobs at...
Police: 2 killed in shooting at IHOP in Alabama
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — An employee and a customer at an IHOP restaurant in northern Alabama were killed in a Wednesday night shooting that also injured another employee. Huntsville Police Lt. Michael Johnson told news outlets the shooting happened shortly before 10 p.m. Wednesday after a male customer argued with a...
Police: 3 suspects identified in Pa. Walmart arsons; 3 hurt
HANOVER — Police say they have identified three suspects in a pair of arsons at a Walmart store in central Pennsylvania that injured three people. West Manheim Township police say two fires were set inside the South Hanover store during store hours Tuesday night. Three Walmart employees reported smoke inhalation...
U.S.-led coalition airstrikes pound IS areas in eastern Syria
BEIRUT — Syrian activists are reporting intense airstrikes on the last area held by the Islamic State group in the country’s east where the extremists’ control has been shrinking over the past weeks. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Thursday the airstrikes hit the 5.8 square miles controlled...
9 dead in car bombing at police academy in Colombia capital
BOTOGA, Colombia — At least nine people were killed and dozens more injured in a car bombing at a police academy in Colombia’s capital on Thursday, recalling the high-profile attacks associated with bloodiest chapters of the country’s drug-fueled guerrilla conlfict. The scene outside the General Santander police academy in southern...
Police: Trucker in deadly Indiana bus crash was removing jacket
Indiana State Police say the driver of a truck that rear-ended a school bus in December, killing one student, was removing a jacket and a sweatshirt just before the collision. A crash report released Wednesday says the truck driver was traveling behind the bus Dec. 5 when he “pulled the...
Remains of Monongahela airman who died in WWII identified
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Military authorities have announced the identification of remains of a Pennsylvania airman and two other servicemen who died in Europe during World War II. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency said Thursday that 19-year-old Air Forces Sgt. Vernon L. Hamilton of Monongahela was accounted for last month. On...
Sweden charges man in royal jewels heist
COPENHAGEN, Denmark — A man was charged Thursday with stealing 65 million kronor — $7.2 million — worth of Swedish royal treasure including a jeweled crown from a cathedral where they were on display. The two crowns and an orb used for the funerals of King Karl IX and Queen...
