Sorted by date Results 26 - 50 of 65
MADILL, Okla. (AP) — Severe weather blew through the South on Thursday after killing at least seven people in Oklahoma, Texas and Louisiana, including a worker at a factory hit by an apparent tornado, a man whose car was blown off the road and a man who went outside to grab a trash can and was swept away in a flood. More than 150,000 businesses and homes from Texas to Georgia were without power as the severe weather blew eastward, snapping utility lines as trees fell, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks utility reports. In Georgia, a s...
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Gov. Laura Kelly said Thursday that her goal is to start reopening the Kansas economy on May 3 but she may not be able to do it because the state is "nowhere near" having the supplies needed for adequate coronavirus testing. Kelly's comments came after hundreds of people protested around the Statehouse against a stay-at-home order from the Democratic governor set to expire May 3. Participants in similar protests across the country contended that such orders damage the economy and violate people's civil rights. Health and g...
NEW YORK (AP) — Unemployment in the U.S. is swelling to levels last seen during the Great Depression of the 1930s, with 1 in 6 American workers thrown out of a job by the coronavirus, according to new data released Thursday. In response to the deepening economic crisis, the House passed a nearly $500 billion spending package to help buckled businesses and hospitals. More than 4.4 million laid-off Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, the government reported. In all, roughly 26 million people — the population of the 10 big...
WASHINGTON (AP) — It's becoming a kind of daily ritual: President Donald Trump and a phalanx of doctors file into the White House briefing room each evening to discuss the coronavirus, producing a display of rhetorical contortions as the medical officials try to stay true to the science without crossing the president. The result can be a bewildering scene for Americans trying to understand how best to protect themselves from the virus. On Tuesday, for example, Dr. Deborah Birx aligned herself with Trump's positive comments about plans to r...
KENSINGTON, Maryland (AP) — The world has lost more than one quarter of its land-dwelling insects in the past 30 years, according to researchers whose big picture study of global bug decline paints a disturbing but more nuanced problem than earlier research. From bees and other pollinators crucial to the world's food supply to butterflies that beautify places, the bugs are disappearing at a rate of just under 1% a year, with lots of variation from place to place, according to a study in Thursday's journal Science. That's a tinier population dec...
BOSTON (AP) — The oldest brother of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Donald Reed Herring, has died from the coronavirus, the Massachusetts senator said Thursday. The former Democratic presidential candidate said her brother died Tuesday evening. He spent his career in the military after joining the U.S. Air Force at the age of 19 and was "charming and funny, a natural leader," Warren tweeted. "I'm grateful to the nurses and frontline staff who took care of him, but it's hard to know that there was no family to hold his hand or to say 'I love you' one m...
URBANA, Ill. (AP) — A former University of Illinois police officer has been charged with sexual assault, sexual abuse and intimidation for alleged attacks on four women in incidents that date back to June 2012, Champaign County authorities said Thursday. Jerald E. Sandage, 48, of LeRoy was arraigned on sexual assault, sexual abuse and intimidation in Champaign County Circuit Court. The charges are the latest filed against Sandage. He was charged in December with official misconduct for allegedly using police resources to look up personal i...
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The original cast members of "Parks and Recreation" are getting back to work for a coronavirus-related fundraising special. Amy Poehler, Rashida Jones, Aziz Ansari, Nick Offerman and Adam Scott are among the sitcom's stars to be featured in the half-hour special airing 8:30 p.m. EDT Thursday, April 30, on NBC. The story reflects the real-life crisis, with Poehler's Leslie Knope striving to stay in touch with her friends while observing social distancing. "Like a lot of other people, we were looking for ways to help and f...
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) Elizabeth Ransom, Pennsylvania State University; E. Melanie DuPuis, Pace University , and Michelle R. Worosz, Auburn University (THE CONVERSATION) Many Americans may be surprised and confused to see farmers dumping milk down the drain or letting vegetables rot in their fields. Why would they be destroying food at a time when grocery stores and food pantries struggle to keep pace with surging demand during the coronavirus pandemic? A...
The Philadelphia Eagles have selected Oklahoma quarterback Jalen Hurts in the second round of the NFL draft. After taking TCU wide receiver Jalen Reagor with the 21st overall pick in the first round, the Eagles made a stunning move Friday to get Hurts at No. 53. Carson Wentz, who signed a $137 million contract extension last season, is Philadelphia's starter and there's no quarterback controversy. Hurts transferred from Alabama to Oklahoma and became a Heisman Trophy finalist last year when he threw for 3,851 yards and 32 touchdowns. He'll prov...
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Even as the confirmed U.S. death toll from the coronavirus soared past 50,000, Georgia, Oklahoma and Alaska began loosening lockdown orders Friday on their pandemic-wounded businesses, despite warnings from health experts that the gradual steps toward normalcy might be happening too soon. Republican governors in Georgia and Oklahoma allowed salons, spas and barbershops to reopen, while Alaska opened the way for restaurants to resume dine-in service and retail shops and other businesses to open their doors, all with l...
The Dallas Cowboys addressed one of their biggest needs in the second round of the NFL draft Friday night, taking former Alabama cornerback Trevon Diggs with the 51st overall selection. The Cowboys pivoted away from defense in the first round when former Oklahoma receiver CeeDee Lamb was unexpectedly available with the 17th overall pick. Dallas lost its best cornerback in Byron Jones, who signed with Miami in free agency. Diggs, the younger brother of Buffalo Bills receiver Stefon Diggs, had three interceptions and tied for Alabama's team lead...
TULSA, Okla. (AP) — An online meeting of the Oklahoma State Board of Education was disrupted by an intruder or intruders posting racist and vulgar language that was visible to everyone watching. The incident Thursday was the first "zoombombing" of a public body in Oklahoma, the Tulsa World reported. Zoombombing is when people who are not part of a group break into a Zoom meeting to post images, memes or comments.. State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister said it's a risk public bodies are taking while trying to maintain openness and transparency i...
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Salons, spas and barbershops opened up in much of Oklahoma on Friday after the governor authorized it despite concerns from medical professionals and a steady increase in the number of COVID-19 deaths and confirmed cases in the state. Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt authorized such personal-care businesses to open earlier this week, citing an overall decline in the number of people being hospitalized for the illness. Those businesses have been told to adhere to social distancing standards, have employees wear masks and frequent...
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The League of Women Voters of Oklahoma and two voters at high risk of contracting the coronavirus are suing the state to make it easier for residents to cast absentee ballots by mail. The lawsuit filed Thursday with the Oklahoma Supreme Court seeks to allow voters to submit a signed statement under the penalty of perjury with their mail-in ballots, rather than requiring an affidavit signed by a notary public. The plaintiffs include an emergency room nurse in Oklahoma City and a 68-year-old cancer survivor with asthma who w...
MISSION, Kan. (AP) — State officials said Friday Kansas may be nearing or has already reached its peak in COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths, leaving the state to focus on the economic fallout of closing businesses to stem the spread. Kansas saw the number of deaths drop Friday from 112 to 111 after an investigation determined one of the previously counted fatalities was not related to the coronavirus. Positive cases increased by 295 to 2,777. But the increase comes as the state, whose testing rate had been among the lowest in the nation, w...
MISSION, Kan. (AP) — Republicans looking to protect their majority in the U.S. Senate have been unable to match the fundraising prowess of a party-switching Democratic state lawmaker in normally reliably red Kansas. It's unclear how much it matters that state Sen. Barbara Bollier raised $2.35 million during the first three months of 2020 given that the potential GOP frontrunner to replace retiring Republican Sen. Pat Roberts is prominent conservative Kris Kobach. While the more than $242,000 he raised for the quarter was a little more than a t...
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Topeka officials have announced plans to postpone a 3% pay reduction for all city staff to deal with plummeting city tax revenues in the wake of measures to slow the COVID-19 outbreak. The city said in a news release Friday that pay cuts will be reconsidered in June when actual sales tax receipts for March and April will be available. However, the city's governing body and City Manager Brent Trout are proceeding with a 6% salary reduction. That temporary cut begins with the pay period that starts May 2. The announcement t...
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Police in Wichita are investigating the shooting death of a 30-year-old man in the city's Delano neighborhood. The shooting happened just after 7 p.m. Thursday, police said in a Friday news release. Arriving officers found Blake Mayers, of Wichita, on the front porch of a home with a gunshot wound to his body. Police said Mayes was taken to a hospital, where he died. An initial investigation revealed a disturbance had occurred at the home involving Mayes and three other people before Mayes was shot, police said. No a...
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas colleges will soon get millions in federal money to help with the ripple effects from the coronavirus, but educators and experts say it's not nearly enough. The roughly $2 trillion CARES Act, meant as a life preserver for the national economy, added higher ed to the list of its beneficiaries. The government said half of the $13 billion for public and private universities must go to student grants. But the need is greater than that. Some students have lost the ability to pay hefty tuition bills — not to mention rent o...
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Working with infectious materials is nothing new for Robert DeLong. "Basically I'm a lab rat,'' said the Kansas State University professor, a researcher in veterinary medicine. Before landing on a college campus, he had worked in the biopharma industry on herpes and HIV vaccines, "so I had a fair amount of exposure," he said. But he had never imagined working in a lab where the work so immediately impacts the lives of thousands. DeLong, and his K-State colleague Mark Haub, answered the call from the Kansas Department of...
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — This is the way it is for now, an only child, 69, shouts to her aged mother from behind glass doors. On May 6, Doris Hockenberger is to turn 100. A birthday party was planned, but in this time of COVID-19, everything needs to change. "Can you hear me?" the daughter, Valerie Giedinghagen, says, her voice raised. She sits inside the alcove at the entrance of Lawrence Presbyterian Manor. Her mother, six years into a diagnosis of lymphoma and in hospice, sits across, inches from being knee-to-knee, but on the other side o...
GRAY, Maine (AP) — A fox that was attacking a Maine woman quickly found its goose was cooked when she wrestled into a pot meant for scalding chickens. Eliza Ruth Watson, 37, of Gray, tried to scare the fox away while she was gardening Thursday. Instead, the animal ran toward her, the Sun Journal reported. The fox bit Watson's hand, and she grabbed it by the neck to keep it from biting her again. After a struggle, she found a pot used to scald birds for plucking, shoved the fox in and closed the lid. She then called 911. An ambulance took W...
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah halted plans Friday to buy 200,000 treatments of malaria drugs that have been widely touted by President Donald Trump for treating the new coronavirus despite warnings from doctors. Republican Gov. Gary Herbert said the state's legal counsel is reviewing the circumstances around the planned $8 million purchase from local pharmacy Meds in Motion. A previous $800,000 purchase of hydroxychloroquine from the same company is also being probed. "I have some questions about how it came about," he said. "Bottom line is, w...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday warned doctors against prescribing a malaria drug touted by President Donald Trump for treating the new coronavirus except in hospitals and research studies. In an alert, regulators flagged reports of sometimes fatal heart side effects among coronavirus patients taking hydroxychloroquine or the related drug chloroquine. The decades-old drugs, also prescribed for lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, can cause a number of side effects, including heart rhythm problems, severely low b...
