Sorted by date Results 51 - 75 of 165
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Forest Service has spent more than $2 billion battling forest fires around the country — a new record as wildfires blacken the American West in one of the nation's worst fire seasons. Wildfires have ravaged the West this summer with 64 large fires burning across 10 states as of Thursday, including 21 fires in Montana and 18 in Oregon. In all, 48,607 wildfires have burned nearly 13,000 square miles (33,586 square kilometers) in forests so choked with trees that they are at "powder keg levels," as one Forest Service eco...
TIPTON, Ind. (AP) — Authorities say an accidental milk spill at a food processing business ended up turning a central Indiana creek white. The Kokomo Tribune reports the change in the hue of Cicero Creek in Tipton was noticed on Tuesday and investigators determined that no more than 300 gallons (1,100 liters) of milk spilled from the Park 100 Foods plant. State environmental officials indicate the spill wasn't dangerous. Crews used hay bales to help contain the milk and a cleanup company removed about 14,000 gallons (53,000 liters) of a w...
EL PASO, Texas (AP) — The Bracero Program, a World War II-era agreement that allows Mexican immigrants to work in the U.S. as guest workers, is the subject of an upcoming summit. The National Trust for Historic Preservation and the University of Texas at El Paso are hosting next week the Bracero History Summit aimed at bringing together experts, scholars, and community members to study the project. Organizers say Bracero History Summit attendees will have a rare opportunity to examine the roots and ongoing influence of the Bracero Program. T...
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A psychiatrist was stabbed to death in an alley behind his holistic practice in Kansas and a man identified as one of his patients has been arrested in the killing, police said Thursday. Achutha Reddy, 57, was killed in the attack Wednesday evening at the Holistic Psychiatry Services clinic in Wichita. Police Lt. Todd Ojile said the suspect in custody was Reddy's client, but that authorities do not know what prompted the attack. Police said the suspect and Reddy had been seen entering the clinic together earlier in the day....
TULSA, Okla. (AP) — The Tulsa City Council has denied the Emergency Medical Services Authority's request to raise its rates to help cover its defense in a federal kickbacks lawsuit. The authority's board of trustees voted in August to increase their emergency transport from $1,300 to $1,700. The board needed the City Council's approval for the hike to take effect. On Wednesday, the council voted against the increased rates. In making their decision, councilors described having distrust in the agency's management, the Tulsa World reported. Jan S...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Average premiums for individually purchased health insurance will grow around 15 percent next year, largely because of marketplace nervousness over whether President Donald Trump will block federal subsidies to insurers, Congress' nonpartisan fiscal analyst projected Thursday. The Congressional Budget Office estimate comes as Trump has repeatedly threatened to halt the payments in his drive to dismember President Barack Obama's health care law. The agency said 2018 premiums will grow "largely because of short-term market u...
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri legislative budgeters on Thursday questioned why and how Gov. Eric Greitens' administration found money for a new program to fight prescription drug misuse amid strained state finances and without first asking lawmakers. House Budget Committee members during a Jefferson City hearing complained that Greitens never received approval to spend the roughly $470,000 it's estimated to cost to run the program this fiscal year. Greitens in July announced the program to analyze prescription and dispensing data to c...
FULTON, Mo. (AP) — A medical examiner has an autopsy on the death of a developmentally disabled Missouri man whose body was found in April encased in concrete. The Fulton Sun reports Fulton Police Chief Steve Myers said Thursday the autopsy on 31-year-old Carl DeBrodie was received within the last week. DeBrodie was reported missing April 17 from the Second Chance Homes for the developmentally disabled in Fulton. His body was found April 24 encased in concrete in a container inside a storage area. Investigators determined he had been missing f...
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A government agency survey says the percentage of Arkansas residents with health care insurance is on the rise, putting the state above the national average. The number of uninsured residents dropped last year by almost 46,000 to nearly 231,800, according to the survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. The state ranked 25th in the percentage of residents with coverage last year, an improvement from 2015 when the state ranked 30th, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported. "Those are strong numbers for the state, and a...
BOSTON (AP) — Scientists who discovered that old men really do have big ears, that playing the didgeridoo helps relieve sleep apnea and that handling crocodiles can influence gambling decisions are among this year's recipients of the Ig Nobel, the prize for absurd scientific achievement. The 27th annual awards were announced Thursday at Harvard University. The ceremony featured a traditional barrage of paper airplanes, a world premiere opera and real Nobel laureates handing out the 10 prizes. "It's a strange honor to have, but I am thrilled," D...
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A proposed policy change for Little Rock's airport would ban medical marijuana use for all airport employees even if they qualify to use it. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports that the proposed change at Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport comes in response to the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Amendment. The amendment passed in November allows doctors to recommend marijuana for patients suffering from specific medical conditions. If passed, airport employees wouldn't be allowed to use marijuana under the a...
NEW YORK (AP) — Police released bodycam footage Thursday showing the tense buildup to the fatal shooting of a man holding a knife and what turned out to be a fake gun, though the cameras didn't capture a clear picture of the moment when officers opened fire. It was the first fatal police encounter recorded on the devices since officers began wearing them this year. Police were called to the Bronx home of 31-year-old Miguel Richards on Sept. 6 after his landlord reported he hadn't seen him for days. The videos, shot by cameras worn by four o...
ATLANTA (AP) — The city of Atlanta tested a self-driving vehicle on one of its busiest streets Thursday. The test on North Avenue in the city's bustling Midtown area meant that Atlanta has become one of the largest urban areas to test autonomous vehicles, joining Sao Paulo and Shanghai. Here's a look at some of the key aspects of the test and the issues involved: THE TEST: The test was aimed at showing how an autonomous vehicle would navigate in real-world traffic. On Thursday, a Tesla vehicle made multiple trips along an approximately 1...
NEW YORK (AP) — Credit agency Equifax traced the theft of sensitive information about 143 million Americans to a software flaw that could have been fixed well before the burglary occurred, further undermining its credibility as the guardian of personal data that can easily be used for identity theft. Equifax identified a weakness in an open-source software package called Apache Struts as the technological crack that allowed hackers to heist Social Security numbers, birthdates, addresses and full legal names from a massive database maintained p...
BEIJING (AP) — Regulators have ordered Chinese bitcoin exchanges to close, two business newspapers reported Thursday, after uncertainty about the digital currency's future in China caused its price to plunge. Regulators in Shanghai, the country's financial center, gave verbal instructions to exchange operators to shut down, China Business News and 21st Century Economic Report said on their websites. They gave no other details. Bitcoin's value tumbled 15 percent Thursday to about $3,300. The famously volatile currency has shed about a third o...
NEW YORK (AP) — Apple fans who froze their credit after the Equifax data breach may end up with another hassle on their hands if they try to get one of the new iPhones that can cost more than $1,000. People who rushed to lock down their credit and want to make any other big purchases may find the same inconveniences. Since Equifax disclosed that 143 million Americans had their Social Security numbers and other personal data hacked, experts have encouraged people who may affected to put in place what's known as a credit freeze. That locks d...
NEW YORK (AP) — Worries rippled through the consumer market for antivirus software after the U.S. government banned federal agencies from using Kaspersky Lab software on Wednesday. Best Buy and Office Depot said they will no longer sell software made by the Russian company, although one security researcher said most consumers don't need to be alarmed. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security cited concerns about possible ties between unnamed Kaspersky officials and the Kremlin and Russian intelligence services. The department also noted that R...
NEW YORK (AP) — When watching sports in virtual reality, it's best to remind yourself that TV wasn't born in a day. Early television was mostly radio with pictures. It took years — even decades — for producers to figure out the right camera angles, graphics and instant replays to deliver. Sports is going through a similar transformation. VR holds the promise of putting fans right in the middle of the sporting action — on the 50-yard line, say, or in a ringside seat, or standing behind the catcher as the umpire calls strikes. But today's VR spor...
MENLO PARK, Calif. (AP) — Google faces a new lawsuit accusing it of gender-based pay discrimination. A lawyer representing three female former Google employees is seeking class action status for the claim. The suit, filed Thursday in San Francisco Superior Court, follows a federal labor investigation that made a preliminary finding of systemic pay discrimination among the 21,000 employees at Google's headquarters in Mountain View, California. The initial stages of the review found women earned less than men in nearly every job classification. G...
NEW YORK (AP) — It's natural to get the phone-upgrade itch when the likes of Apple, Samsung and others keep coming out with newer models. And sometimes your old phone is just kaput. But what do you do with a serviceable but outdated gadget? Rather than relegate an old phone to a desk drawer, consider reusing, recycling or reselling it. Of course, there's also the option to donate. Here's a guide for figuring out what you might do with last year's model (or even older ones). __ DONATE TO CHARITY Several charities accept old phones as a d...
MOSCOW (AP) — A spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin says Russia regrets a decision by the U.S. government to ban federal agencies from using Kaspersky Labs software. Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Thursday the U.S. move "cast a shadow over the image of our American colleagues as reliable partners" and was designed to cripple Kaspersky's competitive advantage on the international market. The U.S. cited concerns about Kaspersky's ties to Russian intelligence services as the reason for the ban, which was announced Wednesday. The a...
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Asia Pacific business leaders are working on recommendations to protect migrant workers from modern day slavery and to ensure companies' supply sources are free from such unethical employment, according to Australia's ambassador for people smuggling and human trafficking. One idea might be to create a regional website that rates employment recruiters — something already being done in Vietnam, Andrew Goledzinowski said. Another idea could be to designate a common telephone number as a regional hotline, similar to wha...
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Samsung Electronics Co. said Thursday it will invest 75 million euro ($89 million) in TTTech, a Vienna, Austria-based company that makes autonomous driving technologies and safety controls for Audi cars and others, stepping up its push into autonomous driving technology. The new autonomous driving investment comes after the South Korean company completed its acquisition of Harman, which makes car navigation systems and technology for cars to communicate with each other and infrastructure. Samsung also announced that i...
WILLCOX, Ariz. (AP) — Wildlife conservationists have released new video footage showing what is believed to be one of three jaguars to be seen in the United States in the past few years. The Center for Biological Diversity released the video taken this summer on Thursday, saying the big cat was the same one first seen on camera in November 2016. The video also shows a black bear, deer, mountain lion, coati and black bear cub passing through. Conservationists think the recent sightings are evidence that the jaguar is returning to the U.S. T...
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — For more than a decade, NASA's Cassini spacecraft at Saturn took "a magnifying glass" to the enchanting planet, its moons and rings. Cassini revealed wet, exotic worlds that might harbor life: the moons Enceladus and Titan. It unveiled moonlets embedded in the rings. It also gave us front-row seats to Saturn's changing seasons and a storm so vast that it encircled the planet. "We've had an incredible 13-year journey around Saturn, returning data like a giant firehose, just flooding us with data," project scientist L...
