Sorted by date Results 26 - 50 of 132
FAIRBANK, Iowa (AP) — The state Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal from an energy company ordered to remove three wind turbines in northeast Iowa, handing another victory to a group of local residents fighting the project. Tuesday's decision leaves in place an order that Mason Wind and Optimum Renewables must take down the 445-foot (136-meter) turbines built in 2016 for an estimated $11 million, The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reported. Mason Wind was ordered to take down the turbines after property owners and city officials a...
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — An Oklahoma lawmaker's personal experience has led to a new law that prohibits covert use of a GPS tracker. The law signed Tuesday comes after Rep. Mark McBride, R-Moore, found a tracking device on his vehicle in December, The Oklahoman reported. It doesn't apply to auto dealers or lenders who have a buyer's consent to have a GPS tracker installed so the vehicle can be more easily repossessed if payments aren't made. McBride, who introduced the measure in January, has said he suspects the tracker was put there because the w...
COPPELL, Texas (AP) — Texas and nationwide retail gasoline prices are up this week and experts predict higher costs through Memorial Day. AAA Texas on Thursday reported prices at the pump statewide rose 2 an average cents to reach $2.60 per gallon. That's 39 cents more than a year ago. Retail gasoline prices across the U.S. rose 3 cents per gallon to average $2.82 per gallon. The association survey found San Antonio and Texarkana have the lowest gasoline prices in Texas this week at an average $2.51 per gallon. The highest retail gasoline p...
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Missouri Legislature has passed a bill to legalize industrial hemp. The measure to create a hemp-growing pilot program passed the House 133-6 Thursday. The Senate passed the bill 29-3 Wednesday. Hemp, which can be used as raw material for manufacturing, comes from the same plant as marijuana. But it contains very low levels of the psychoactive chemical known as THC. The bill would require people to get a permit from the Department of Agriculture to grow hemp. Backers argue that growing industrial hemp could h...
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas farmers are expected to bring in the smallest winter wheat harvest in nearly three decades this year amid an ongoing drought that has stunted wheat fields across the state, according to estimates released Thursday. Participants in the Wheat Quality Council's winter wheat tour this year said Kansas growers will likely harvest 243.3 million bushels this season. The estimates are based on conditions they observed while inspecting crops in 644 fields across the state over the three-day tour that began Tuesday. If the e...
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump added to speculation that North Korea may make a goodwill gesture before his planned summit with leader Kim Jong Un when he tweeted of a possible update soon on the status of three detained Americans. Here's a brief look at those U.S. citizens: ___ KIM DONG CHUL Kim, a South Korean-born U.S. citizen, has been held the longest. The former Virginia resident was sentenced in April 2016 to 10 years in prison with hard labor after being convicted of espionage. He reportedly ran a trade and h...
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Some health care officials worry a recent Texas Supreme Court ruling may have broader implications on how hospitals and health insurers negotiate billing rates. The state's high court voted last week in favor of Crystal Roberts, an uninsured woman who was billed more than $11,000 for an emergency room visit in 2015, the Dallas Morning News reported . The court ruled the North Cypress Medical Center must share its discounted rates with health insurers to prove Roberts' bill was "reasonable" compared to an insured p...
DANBURY, Conn. (AP) — Doctors at a Connecticut hospital say they removed a 132-pound tumor from a woman's abdomen, and she is expected to recover fully. The ovarian tumor was diagnosed after the 38-year-old woman reported rapid weight gain of about 10 pounds per week over a two-month period. The doctors at Danbury Hospital announced Thursday that the five-hour surgery was completed successfully after extensive planning by a team of 25 clinical specialists. The tumor was benign, but because it was sitting on a major blood vessel doctors say t...
SEATTLE (AP) — Bill Gates launched a new fight against systemic poverty in the U.S., with his private foundation on Thursday announcing millions of dollars toward initiatives ranging from data projects to funding for community activists. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation said it will spend $158 million combating American poverty over the next four years. It comes as the foundation moves deeper into U.S. issues after largely focusing on global health and development. Critics have long challenged Gates to do more to help the poor at home i...
ADEN, Yemen (AP) — The young mother stepped onto the scale for the doctor. Even with all her black robes on, she weighed only 84 pounds — 38 kilograms. Umm Mizrah is pregnant, but starving herself to feed her children. And her sacrifice may not be enough to save them. The doctor's office is covered with dozens of pictures of emaciated babies who have come through Al-Sadaqa Hospital in Aden, casualties of a three-year war in Yemen that has left millions of people on the edge of famine. Mothers like Umm Mizrah are often the only defense aga...
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) (THE CONVERSATION) Even armed with a Ph.D. in developmental psychology, I remember the frightening first moments after bringing my newborn daughter home from the hospital. I wasn’t sure what to do – and not at all confident that I was capable of being the parent she needed me to be. Every little decision about feeding and caring for this helpless human seemed momentous and fraught with anxiety. What if I don’t make it a full year...
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The number of deaths due to flu in Oklahoma this season has now surpassed 280. The Oklahoma Department of Health said Thursday that 283 people have died from the virus since the flu season began Sept. 1 — the most fatalities since the agency began tracking the illness in 2009. The previous record number of flu-related deaths was 130 recorded a year ago. In addition, a record number of more than 4,700 people have been hospitalized with flu-like symptoms so far this season. The department reports 198 of the deaths were peo...
DETROIT (AP) — Elon Musk's quirky behavior has long been chalked up to that of a misunderstood genius. But never have his actions caused so much angst on Wall Street. Investors have for years endured millions of dollars in short-term losses in hopes of a long-term payoff. They might have even been able to stomach the $8.3 million that Telsa Inc. burns through each day. But it was a conference call Wednesday night that left many wondering how much more they can take. Just after the electric car and solar panel company announced a record f...
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Twitter is advising all users to change their passwords. The company said Thursday that it recently discovered a bug that stored passwords in an internal log in an unprotected form. Twitter says there's no indication that there was a breach or that any of the passwords were misused. But as a precaution, Twitter recommends users consider changing the passwords they use to log onto Twitter. They should also change that password if they used it for any other services. The San Francisco company says it masks, or encrypts, p...
BOSTON (AP) — Robots can't yet bake a souffle or fold a burrito, but they can cook up vegetables and grains and spout them into a bowl — and are doing just that at a new fast casual restaurant in Boston. Seven autonomously swirling cooking pots — what the restaurant calls a "never-before-seen robotic kitchen" — hum behind the counter at Spyce, which opened Thursday in the city's downtown. Push a touch-screen menu to purchase a $7.50 meal called "Hearth." A blend of Brussels sprouts, quinoa, kale and sweet potatoes tumbles from hoppers and int...
BEIJING (AP) — Chinese and U.S. officials met face-to-face Thursday in an attempt to resolve a dispute over technology that has taken the world's two largest economies the closest they've ever come to a trade war. A high-powered U.S. delegation arrived in Beijing for talks with Chinese officials aimed at defusing the tensions, though analysts say they appear unlikely to yield a breakthrough given the two sides' intensifying rivalry in strategic technologies, where China lags behind the U.S. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is leading the...
DETROIT (AP) — Half a dozen teenage girls from Canada know exactly how to narrow the skills gap. Or at least how to get the process started. The Ontario-based Build a Dream Amazon Warriors were among the thousands of young people from nearly four-dozen countries competing recently for the biggest prize at the FIRST Championship in Detroit. The team members bill themselves as Canada's only all-female high school robotics team mentored and advised by women. "You know, nerds are the future. And here, nerds rule," said Yvonne Pilon, president a...
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Northern California detectives still trying to identify the infamous Zodiac Killer who targeted victims in the late 1960s and taunted investigators with letters say they hope to try the same DNA tracing technology recently used to arrest a suspect in another string of cold-case serial slayings — those blamed on the Golden State Killer. But first they have to get a better DNA profile. Several months ago, the Vallejo Police Department sent two letters written by the Zodiac Killer to a private lab in hopes of finding his DNA...
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The South Carolina Senate debated Thursday whether to ban nearly all abortions in the state, a surprise move suggested by a Democrat who has long fought abortion restrictions. Sen. Brad Hutto told Republicans if the bill passed he was going to give them what they wanted — the most direct way to challenge the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that overturned state bans on abortions. No other state would have such a broad abortion ban. "I've heard all along that y'all want a challenge to Roe v. Wade. This is a straight up...
NEW YORK (AP) — Storms and the tides are unearthing the long-hidden bones of Hart Island, creating eerie scenes of skulls, femurs and collarbones on this sliver of land where New York City's destitute dead have for 150 years been sent off to be unceremoniously buried and forgotten. After photos of exposed bones began turning up in news reports, forensic anthropologists from the city medical examiner's office went out last week and collected 174 human bones that they carefully cataloged, including six skulls, six jawbones, 31 leg bones and 16 p...
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) (THE CONVERSATION) The Food and Drug Administration recently announced its authorization that permits genetics testing company 23andMe to market a test for gene mutations associated with risk of breast and ovarian cancer. In response, 23andMe CEO Anne Wojcicki asserted that the test represents a “major milestone in consumer health empowerment.” Media articles following this announcement made it clear even if the test provides an...
HOLMDEL, N.J. (AP) — Police have charged a New Jersey school superintendent identified as the person who has been relieving himself on the grounds of a high school football field and track. Authorities say 42-year-old Thomas Tramaglini was caught Monday following an early morning run at Holmdel High School's athletic facilities. He faces charges of public defecation, lewdness and littering. Police say staff members were watching to see who was leaving human feces on the property on a regular basis. Tramaglini lives several miles from the s...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A celebrity jockstrap that's been the buzz of Alaska for nearly two weeks went on display Wednesday at one of the nation's last Blockbuster video stores in an effort to ramp up business. "I tell you, we're going to get a lot of traffic, is what I'm expecting," said Kevin Daymude, general manager of Blockbuster Alaska. He expects the store to get a lot of calls: "Did you get it in? Can we go see it?" he said. The jockstrap has a strange history since actor Russell Crowe wore it in the 2005 movie "Cinderella Man." It r...
NEW YORK (AP) — Rudy Giuliani, once known as "America's Mayor" and hailed for helping unite a wounded city after Sept. 11, has become the aggressive face of President Donald Trump's forceful new legal team. Giuliani, who is bonded with the president by a particular brand of New York bravado, has escalated Trump's attacks on the Department of Justice, pushed for strict limits on special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe and upended White House legal strategy. Giuliani and Trump cut out senior West Wing aides this week as they hashed out p...
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Oklahoma legislators approved a measure Thursday to grant legal protections to faith-based adoption agencies that cite their religious beliefs for not placing children in LGBT homes and Republicans in Kansas were pushing a similar measure. The Oklahoma House's 56-21 vote sent its measure to Republican Gov. Mary Fallin, who has not said whether she would sign it. It's similar to laws in at least five other states. In Kansas, negotiators for the state House and Senate drafted a new version of a bill that would prevent the stat...
