Associated Press stories, Page 2699
5 things to know about U.S.-Chinese trade negotiations
BEIJING — The United States and China have held their first face-to-face trade talks since Presidents Trump and Xi Jinping agreed Dec. 1 to postpone further tariff increases in the trade war between the world’s two biggest economies. The meetings are the start of what economists say are likely to...
Florida felons rejoice after regaining their right to vote
ORLANDO — The normally humdrum bureaucracy of registering to vote brought tears to the eyes of some Floridians on Tuesday when most felons regained their right to vote under a state constitutional amendment. “I’ll be a human being again. I’ll be an American citizen again,” Robert Eckford said, choking up...
U.S. stocks keep rising as investors hope for trade progress
NEW YORK — U.S. stocks are higher Tuesday as industrial and internet companies rise, and the S&P 500 index is on track for its first three-day winning streak since November. The latest round of trade talks between the U.S. and China ended without word of progress, but with no evident...
U.S. medical marketing reaches $30 billion, drug ads top surge
Ads for prescription drugs appeared 5 million times in just one year, capping a recent surge in U.S. medical marketing, a new analysis found. The advertisements for various medicines showed up on TV, newspapers, online sites and elsewhere in 2016. Their numbers soared over 20 years as part of broad...
London’s Heathrow briefly halts flights due to drone report
LONDON — London’s Heathrow Airport briefly halted departing flights on Tuesday after a reported drone sighting — a development that came just three weeks after multiple reports of drone sightings caused travel chaos at nearby Gatwick Airport. The suspension of takeoffs from Heathrow, one of the world’s busiest airports, was...
Sears gets another reprieve from liquidation
NEW YORK — Sears is getting another reprieve from liquidation after its chairman and largest shareholder revised his bid to save the iconic brand. The Hoffman Estates, Illinois-based retailer says it has accepted Eddie Lampert’s bid through an affiliate of his ESL hedge fund that could keep 425 stores open...
Missing Michigan cat found 2 months later in Florida
DETROIT — A cat who went missing from suburban Detroit for two months turned up more than 1,000 miles away in Florida. Dearborn resident Judy Sanborn was shocked when she received a call in December from BluePearl pet hospital in Tampa, The Detroit Free Press reported . Staff told her...
‘Bathroom bill’ fallout: Netflix ‘OBX’ set in Outer Banks to film in South Carolina
WILMINGTON, N.C. — The lingering fallout from North Carolina’s controversial “bathroom bill” may force a new Netflix series about the state’s Outer Banks to film in South Carolina. Show creator Jonas Pate tells The StarNews of Wilmington that Netflix has picked up “OBX,” with filming slated to begin this spring....
Truck driver in Humboldt Broncos crash that killed 16 pleads guilty
MELFORT, Saskatchewan — The driver whose transport truck crashed into a hockey team bus in Canada, killing 16 people, pleaded guilty Tuesday to all charges against him. Thirteen others were injured when Jaskirat Singh Sidhu’s truck loaded with peat moss collided with the Humboldt Broncos hockey team bus in rural...
Samuel Snipes, lawyer for 1st blacks in Levittown, Pa. dies
MORRISVILLE, Pa. — A lawyer who held off an angry mob while representing the first black family to move into the all-white development of Levittown, Pennsylvania, has died. Samuel Snipes was 99. His family says Snipes died Dec. 31 at his family farm in Morrisville, Pennsylvania. In 1957, Snipes represented...
Alaska guide pleads guilty to herding grizzly bears toward clients
NOME, Alaska — A master hunting guide from Alaska had his license revoked for life after pleading guilty to using employees on snowmobiles to herd grizzly bears toward clients. Alaska State Troopers say in a statement that Brian Simpson of Fairbanks was charged in 2017 with two counts of “aiding...
Fact check: Do ex-presidents actually support Trump’s border wall?
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s recent claim that his predecessors endorsed his idea of a wall at the Mexican border got no support from the ex-presidents’ club. Trump stated in a Rose Garden news conference Friday: “This should have been done by all of the presidents that preceded me. And...
Winter storm blasts Europe; 13 dead amid heavy snow, gusts
BERLIN — Deadly winter weather blasted Europe for yet another day Tuesday, trapping hundreds of people in Alpine regions, whipping up high winds that caused flight delays and cancellations and raising the risks of more deadly avalanches in the mountains. At least 13 people have been killed in weather-related accidents...
U.S. job openings fell in November to still-strong 6.9 million
WASHINGTON — U.S. job openings fell in November from the previous month, but the number of available positions remained healthy. Job openings slipped 3.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted 6.9 million, the Labor Department said Tuesday. That is the fewest openings in five months, but still 16 percent higher than...
Tom Hanks to present SAG’s lifetime award to Alan Alda
NEW YORK — One of America’s sweethearts hands the torch to another when Tom Hanks presents Alan Alda with a lifetime achievement award at the upcoming Screen Actors Guild Award ceremony. The 82-year-old Alda, a Golden Globe- and Emmy-winner, will become the 55th recipient of the annual award given to...
Russian lawyer who met Trump Jr. charged in unrelated case
NEW YORK — A Russian lawyer who became a focal point of the investigation into whether there was collusion between Russians and President Donald Trump’s election campaign was charged with obstruction of justice Tuesday in an unrelated case in New York. Natalya Veselnitskaya was accused in an indictment of submitting...
Florida woman accused of fatally beating husband with a cane
PACE, Fla. — Investigators say an 86-year-old Florida woman fatally beat her 89-year-old husband with a walking cane. Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Officials say Ramona Maxine Lund is charged with murder and is being held in the jail’s infirmary on $250,000 bond as authorities work together to evaluate whether she...
Networks to air Pelosi, Schumer rebuttal to Trump
NEW YORK — Television networks airing President Donald Trump’s Oval Office speech on his proposed border wall and the partial government shutdown have also committed to airing the Democratic response to the president. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer say they will make the case themselves....
Clemson is No. 1 for 3rd time in AP poll; ‘Bama 2, Ohio St 3
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Clemson finished No. 1 in The Associated Press poll for the third time after routing Alabama in the national championship game. The Tigers received all 61 first-place votes. The Crimson Tide, which was trying to become just the third team to go wire-to-wire as the No....
DA: Girl made video of dad coaching her to lie about assault
A terrified 13-year-old girl secretly recorded video of her father coaching her to lie about having been physically assaulted by him — and managed to slip the evidence to prosecutors on the eve of his trial in Pennsylvania, authorities said Tuesday. The videos show Deyon Taylor, 56, instructing his daughter...
Russian church head: Smartphones could precede Antichrist
MOSCOW — The head of the Russian Orthodox Church says the data-gathering capacity of devices such as smartphones risks bringing humanity closer to the arrival of the Antichrist. In an interview shown Monday on state TV, Patriarch Kirill said the church does not oppose technological progress but is concerned that...
The reality on the border: How much will a wall really help?
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump says there is a security crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border that can be addressed only by spending $5.7 billion on a wall. Democrats have flatly refused to agree to the funding. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the wall an “immorality.” Trump will address the nation...
Europe’s top rights court to hear Belgian euthanasia case
LONDON — Europe’s top human rights court has agreed to hear a case being brought against Belgium by a man whose mother was euthanized in 2012 for depression, the second case that implicates one of Belgium’s leading euthanasia doctors. In a statement Tuesday, lawyers for Tom Mortier said they brought...
Eyeing 2020, Kamala Harris addresses prosecutorial past in memoir
WASHINGTON — As she nears a decision on whether to seek the presidency, Sen. Kamala Harris is taking on what could be a hurdle in a Democratic primary: her past as a prosecutor. In her memoir published Tuesday, the California Democrat describes herself as a “progressive prosecutor” and says it’s...
What to know ahead of Trump’s prime-time address on border wall
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump will argue to the nation Tuesday night that a “crisis” at the U.S.-Mexico border requires the long and invulnerable wall he’s demanding before ending a partial government shutdown that has hundreds of thousands of federal workers fearing missed paychecks on Friday. Here is some of...
