Sorted by date Results 26 - 50 of 97
NEW YORK (AP) — It took bloodshed in Charlottesville to get tech companies to do what civil rights groups have been calling for for years: take a firmer stand against accounts used to promote hate and violence. In the wake of the deadly clash at a white-nationalist rally last weekend in Virginia, major companies such as Google, Facebook and PayPal are banishing a growing cadre of extremist groups and individuals for violating service terms. What took so long? For one thing, tech companies have long seen themselves as bastions of free e...
LONDON (AP) — Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, who was shot by a Taliban gunman for speaking out for girls' rights to an education, has been accepted by the University of Oxford. The 20-year-old activist shared word of her acceptance on Twitter and included the screenshot of her "Congratulations" notice. She plans to major in philosophy, politics and economics, the favored degree of many of Britain's top leaders. "So excited to go to Oxford!!" she tweeted Thursday. Yousafzai will study at Lady Margaret Hall, an Oxford college whose n...
DENVER (AP) — Researchers say they have found a new clue into the mysterious exodus of ancient cliff-dwelling people from the Mesa Verde area of Colorado more than 700 years ago: DNA from the bones of domesticated turkeys. The DNA shows the Mesa Verde people raised turkeys that had telltale similarities to turkeys kept by ancient people in the Rio Grande Valley of northern New Mexico — and that those birds became more common in New Mexico about the same time the Mesa Verde people were leaving their cliff dwellings, according to a paper pub...
BRUSSELS (AP) — The International Criminal court ruled Thursday that a Muslim radical found guilty of destroying World Heritage cultural sites in the Malian city of Timbuktu must pay 2.7 million euros ($3.2 million) in reparations. The court in the Netherlands found that Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi had intentionally directed attacks against nine mausoleums and a mosque door in 2012, and ordered him to pay for damage to the buildings, economic losses and moral harm to victims — primarily the people of Timbuktu, who depend on tourism. At previous hea...
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The Oklahoma City school board will consider a resolution that could lead to a lawsuit against the leaders of Oklahoma's Legislature over school funding. School Superintendent Aurora Lora and board member Mark Mann said Thursday the resolution will be presented to the board next week. A draft of the resolution says it authorizes school attorneys to interview law firms to pursue a lawsuit against House Speaker Charles McCall and Senate President Pro Tem Mike Schulz for alleged failure to adequately fund public education. M...
CASPER, Wyo. (AP) — A sign outside the Salt Creek Museum in the town of Midwest tells you the Salt Creek Oil Field was once the largest oil producer in the world. Another proclaims the first lighted football game in 1925. Small towns and camps once dotted the field where workers lived and raised their families. Altogether, the communities once rivaled the current population of Casper. Midwest and Edgerton are all that remain, with residents who number in the hundreds. The Salt Creek Museum remains, too, and tells the history of the community a...
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — One is a special recipe designed to appease even the most snobby of craft beer drinkers. The other is billed as a mellow ale with hints of caramel and the breezy aroma of New Mexico's high desert. Officials at New Mexico's two largest public universities are unveiling custom-made brews just ahead of their first round of fundraisers as the fall sports season kicks off. New Mexico State and the University of New Mexico are now among the handful of U.S. colleges and universities to have licensing agreements for branded b...
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A new monthly report shows drought conditions continue to burden the rural economy in parts of 10 Plains and Western states. The overall Rural Mainstreet Index for the region rose slightly in August to 42.2 from July's abysmally low 40.7. The index ranges between 0 and 100, with any number under 50 indicating a shrinking economy. Creighton University economist Ernie Goss, who oversees the survey, says nearly 58 percent of bankers reported in August's survey that drought conditions were having a negative effect on a...
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Suicides spiked at a California women's prison after officials failed to properly prepare for the transfer of 400 of the state's most dangerous female inmates to the facility, the state auditor said Thursday. In a report published Thursday, the auditor also found flaws in suicide prevention plans at all four women's prisons. Women comprise 4 percent of California's prison population but accounted for 11 percent of suicides from 2012 to 2016. "The ongoing nature of many of the problems we identified at the four prisons we r...
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration has approved a new medicine for use against a rare, rapidly progressing blood cancer after other treatments have failed. The agency approved Pfizer Inc.'s Besponsa for patients with a type of advanced acute lymphoblastic leukemia. By then, life expectancy is low. "These patients have few treatments available and today's approval provides a new, targeted treatment option," Dr. Richard Pazdur, the FDA's director for cancer drugs, said in a statement. This year an estimated 5,970 Americans w...
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee sheriff and judge violated the constitutional rights of jail inmates by promising to reduce their sentences if they underwent birth control procedures, an ex-inmate says in a federal lawsuit. Christel Ward was among the misdemeanor-level White County Jail inmates who took the deal, according to the lawsuit. She said Thursday that she still has the unwanted birth control device in her arm that authorities injected in her. "I want this out of my arm, and I'm still not allowed to get it out until I pay," Ward s...
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — An attorney for a man accused of attempting to detonate what he believed was an explosives-laden van outside an Oklahoma City bank wants a hearing to determine whether he is competent to be tried on a federal charge. The request was filed Thursday, one day after the family of 23-year-old Jerry Drake Varnell released a statement saying Varnell is a paranoid schizophrenic who has experienced "schizophrenic delusional episodes." The motion filed by defense attorney Terri Coulter says Varnell has been hospitalized repeatedly s...
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — EpiPen maker Mylan has finalized a $465 million government agreement settling allegations it overbilled Medicaid for its emergency allergy injectors for a decade — charges brought after rival Sanofi filed a whistleblower lawsuit and tipped off the government. It's the second settlement with the Department of Justice that Mylan has made since 2009 for allegedly overcharging the government for its medicines. A prominent senator and a watchdog group both criticized the latest settlement for being far smaller than the amo...
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — University of New Mexico officials say they will be making fencing around a parking structure taller in response to four attempted suicides at the school's parking garages in 2016. Parking and Transportation Director Barbara Morck tells KOB-TV (http://bit.ly/2x85lKI ) the additional fencing will be placed at the top of the Cornell parking garage where students and staff saw a women jump off a year ago. The student survived the fall, but was badly injured. The university will add 3 to 4 feet (roughly 1 meter) in h...
FARMINGTON, N.M. (AP) — Farmington officials say a resident of the northwestern New Mexico city has died of the West Nile virus, making him the first human fatality of the mosquito-borne disease in the state this year. Officials say it's not known how the 61-year-old man contracted the virus and the city says it has an aggressive mosquito control program that includes treatment of standing water and weekly spraying at night. The state Department of Health says people over age 50 have an increased risk of having serious consequences from i...
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — An SUV crashed after all four occupants overdosed on heroin in North Carolina. The same day, a man in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, grabbed the steering wheel after his grandson lost consciousness while driving. Police in the city of 30,000 responded to 11 other overdose reports that day, including a woman who crashed her car just before a highway entrance. The next day in Cleveland, a rescue squad found an unconscious 43-year-old man who had driven off the road and hit a pole. An overdose antidote brought him back around, p...
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Health officials say more than a half-dozen cases of West Nile virus have been reported in Oklahoma so far this year. The Oklahoma Department of Health says the cases have been confirmed in Cleveland, Muskogee, Oklahoma and Tulsa counties. According to health officials, most people are infected with the virus from June through September, with the number of infections peaking in mid-August. The illness is transmitted to people by infected mosquitoes. Health officials say the best way to prevent the disease is to avoid m...
NEW YORK (AP) — If you learned your DNA made you more susceptible to getting a disease, wouldn't you work to stay healthy? You'd quit smoking, eat better, ramp up your exercise, or do whatever else it took to improve your odds of avoiding maladies like obesity, diabetes, heart disease or cancer, right? The scientific evidence says: Don't bet on it. DNA testing for disease risk has recently expanded in the U.S. The company 23andMe recently started selling the nation's first approved direct-to-consumer DNA tests that evaluate the buyer's genetic...
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Apple is donating $2 million to two human rights groups as part of CEO Tim Cook's pledge to help lead the fight against the hate that fueled the violence in Virginia during a white-nationalist rally last weekend. Cook made the commitment late Wednesday in an internal memo obtained by The Associated Press. Cook also told Apple employees in the memo that he strongly disagrees with President Donald Trump's attempts to draw comparisons between the actions of the white nationalists and protesters opposing them. Cook believes e...
BRICK, N.J. (AP) — The lawyer for a woman accused of exploiting a glitch on a home improvement chain's website to get thousands of dollars' worth of items for free says she is just good at spotting deals. Romela Velazquez's attorney, Jef Henninger, said in a statement to NJ.com (http://bit.ly/2wksImU ) that she has learned to spot good deals Ocean County prosecutors say Velazquez and her husband, Kimy, tried to get about $258,068 worth of unpaid merchandise but received only about $13,000 worth. They say the couple sold the items on Facebook f...
NEW YORK (AP) — Major companies such as Google, Facebook and PayPal are banishing a growing cadre of extremist groups and individuals in the wake of the deadly clash at a white-nationalist rally last weekend in Virginia. Civil rights advocates welcomed the moves, but say more needs to be done — and more should have been done earlier. Here is a look at some of the technology services that have banned hate groups or have otherwise come out against white supremacists and their supporters: ___ AIRBNB Ahead of the rally, the housing booking ser...
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) (THE CONVERSATION) On August 21, a total solar eclipse will be visible across parts of the United States. As the Earth and moon sweep through space in their annual journey around the sun, the three bodies align in such a way that the Earth passes into the shadow of the moon. Observers then witness a sun that is gradually covered and uncovered by the moon’s disk – a spectacular celestial event. But until astronomers were able to exp...
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Two Louisiana scientists have a three-year grant to study two viral diseases that are spread by midges and cause bleeding in deer and cattle. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture is providing $490,000 to Lane Foil and Claudia Husseneder of the LSU AgCenter. They'll study bluetongue virus and epizootic (EP-ih-zoh-AH-tik) hemorrhagic (HEM-ohr-AJ-ik) disease. Both often kill deer but are less dangerous to cattle. Foil says both "can cause devastating losses in captive deer h...
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A constipated 49-year-old lowland gorilla at the Topeka Zoo in Kansas is recovering after having surgery. The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that zoo Director Brendan Wiley says the procedure that Tiffany underwent Wednesday went "really well." A significant amount of stool was found in her colon and was flushed out. Wiley says the best-case scenario is that she will bounce back. If issues continue, test results will be reviewed to determine how to treat her constipation. The zoo said staff reported on Friday that the g...
EL DORADO, Kan. (AP) — Workers at Kansas state prisons will get pay hikes in the wake of inmate disturbances that have drawn public attention to staff shortages at the facilities, Gov. Sam Brownback announced Thursday. Uniformed officers across the state would receive about a 5 percent raise. Officers at El Dorado Correctional Facility will see raises of about 10 percent. The increase would kick in later this month if the employees' union agrees. The move would boost pay from $13.95 to $14.66 per hour statewide, and to $15.74 per hour at El D...
