Sorted by date Results 26 - 50 of 64
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — The publisher of a family-owned Missouri newspaper has resigned after publishing a racist syndicated cartoon depicting a black man stealing a white woman's purse while hailing funding cuts to police. Bill Miller Sr. on Thursday told The Associated Press he has stepped down as publisher of the Washington Missourian but is still the paper's owner. The newspaper's co-owners, his daughters, resigned Wednesday in protest. The cartoon published Wednesday shows the white woman asking for someone to call 911, but the masked b...
Broken branches, like this one in front of Lincoln Elementary School were the results of gale-force winds Tuesday. Gusts up to 74 mph were recorded in Woods County, the highest in the state....
About two dozen people turned out for the public hearing on the City of Alva budget for FY20-21. At least half of the audience members were city employees. All council members were present for the meeting. After calling the meeting to order, Mayor Kelly Parker turned to Interim Business Manager Angelica Brady to explain the budget proposal. Budget Revenue Brady said a major change in the budget structure is how the city allocates sales tax revenue. The change was initiated by the city’s auditing firm. In the past, the sales tax income was all p...
It was the sort of miracle cure that the board of a rural Oklahoma hospital on the verge of closure had dreamed about: A newly formed management company promised access to wealthy investors eager to infuse millions of dollars. The company, Alliance Health Southwest Oklahoma, secured an up to $1 million annual contract in July 2017 to manage the Mangum Regional Medical Center after agreeing to provide all necessary financial resources until the 18-bed hospital brought in enough money from patient services to pay its own bills. But about a month...
According to the Oklahoma Mesonet, Woods County registered the highest wind gusts in the state Tuesday with 74 mph at the May Ranch location near the border with Kansas. Alva reached peak wind gusts of 70 mph while Waynoka recorded 66 mph. The high winds carried blowing dust and plenty of debris. Several tree limbs were down. About a mile south of Hopeton, a truck pulling a trailer with a pontoon boat was blown around with the trailer overturning and the boat ending up in the middle of the...
Members of the Woods County Industrial Development Authority (WCIDA) met for a brief meeting last Tuesday morning – the first gathering in months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Chairman Rick Cunningham and members Stan Kline, Randy McMurphy and Connor Martin were without the presence of Richard Ryerson, but with a quorum, the group called the meeting to order. New Woods County Economic Development Committee (WCEDC) Director Neal Williams, who recently took the place of Sonja Willams, was also in attendance. First up on the list was the a...
AUSTIN, Texas – Daschal Johnson, of the Northwestern Oklahoma State University baseball team, was named to the 2020 CoSIDA Academic All-America Division II baseball third-team, as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). Johnson is a graduate senior from Lewisville, Texas, majoring in health and sports science. He was the only student-athlete from the Great American Conference represented and the lone graduate student recognized on any of the three Academic All-America teams. Johnson; was honored after r...
BENTON, Ky. (AP) — A Kentucky teen who pleaded guilty to killing two schoolmates in 2018 has been ordered to serve two life sentences. Gabriel Ross Parker was sentenced via teleconference by Marshall County Circuit Judge James Jameson on Friday afternoon. Parker will also receive 70 years in prison for 14 counts of assault and will be eligible for parole in 20 years, WPSD-TV reported. Parker was 15 when he fired a handgun into a crowd of students before classes started at Marshall County High School on Jan. 23, 2018. Parker was arrested at t...
MILWAUKEE (AP) — An attorney who spat on a high school student during an anti-racism rally and march in a Milwaukee suburb has been charged with a hate crime. Lawyer Stephanie Rapkin, who is white, showed up at the protest last Saturday in Shorewood and parked her car in the street, blocking the march. When protesters approached her to urge her to move her car, video shows Rapkin spitting on a black teen, Eric Lucas, a junior at Shorewood High School. The 17-year-old helped organize and lead the march. The Milwaukee County District A...
BAGHDAD (AP) — The United States and Iraq launched much-anticipated strategic talks Thursday that are to span the gamut of their bilateral relations, with Washington prioritizing the issue of the future of its forces in the country while Baghdad is expected to focus on the nation's dire economic crisis. The talks, which began with an initial meeting in the afternoon with participants tuning in online because of the coronavirus measures, are expected to drag out over several months. They come against the backdrop of soaring tensions following t...
ATLANTA (AP) — First-time poll worker Kirubel Behailu thought he'd become more familiar with Georgia's new voting machines at a quiet election site during Tuesday's primary. Instead, he found himself scrambling to sanitize equipment, clear jams in a ballot scanner and run back voter cards during a 15-hour marathon at an Atlanta church inundated with frustrated citizens. "I broke a sweat throughout the day. I logged at least 10,000 steps. It was kind of overwhelming," said Behailu, one of several poll workers who shared their experiences with T...
SEATTLE (AP) — A U.S. judge has ordered Seattle police to temporarily stop using tear gas, pepper spray and flash-bang devices to break up peaceful protests, a victory Friday for groups who say authorities overreacted to recent demonstrations over police brutality and racial injustice. U.S. District Judge Richard Jones issued the two-week order after a Black Lives Matter group sued the Seattle Police Department this week to halt the violent tactics it has used to break up largely peaceful protests in recent days. Officers used tear gas, p...
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico health officials are offering coronavirus testing for utility workers as part of a statewide effort to keep essential workers in various fields safe and healthy. Friday's announcement by the state Department of Health covers those workers who ensure the continued operation of critical infrastructure such as electrical, water and wastewater systems. The special testing hours being set aside for utility workers also is meant to help the state with identifying, isolating and tracing new cases of COVID-19. State o...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden's search for a running mate is entering a second round of vetting for a dwindling list of potential vice presidential nominees, with several black women in strong contention. Democrats with knowledge of the process said Biden's search committee has narrowed the choices to as few as six serious contenders after initial interviews. Among the group still in contention: Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Kamala Harris of California, as well as Susan Rice, who served as President Barack Obama's national s...
OKLAHOMA CITY — Health officials in Oklahoma say a spike in coronavirus cases in the Tulsa area is linked to indoor events and are warning people attending such events to take health safety precautions. The Tulsa Health Department's warning Friday comes a week before President Donald Trump is scheduled to hold a campaign rally at the BOK Center in Tulsa, which has a listed seating capacity of 19,199. Department spokesperson Leanne Stephens says an undetermined number of the latest coronavirus cases were linked to two recent indoor g...
Washington (AP) — The Trump administration Friday finalized a regulation that overturns Obama-era protections for transgender people against sex discrimination in health care. The policy shift, long-sought by the president's religious and socially conservative supporters, defines gender as a person's biological sex. The Obama regulation defined gender as a person's internal sense of being male, female, neither or a combination. LGBTQ groups say explicit protections are needed for people seeking sex-reassignment treatment, and even for t...
(RNS) — Each Sunday, Larry Little and his wife, Mary, get ready for church. They dress casually, fill two tumblers with water, climb into their golf cart and drive two miles to The Grove, a grassy field next to their church. There they find a parking place, turn off the engine and settle in for a live service in front of a Jumbotron and a stage. The Littles, who live in a retirement community called The Villages, about an hour's drive northwest of Orlando, Florida, are among the lucky few. Since mid-March, when state shutdowns forced c...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Building ramparts of secrecy around a $600 billion-plus coronavirus aid program for small businesses, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has moved from delay to denial in refusing outright to disclose the recipients of taxpayer-funded loans. Mnuchin told Congress at a hearing this week that the names of loan recipients and the amounts are "proprietary information." While he claimed the information is confidential, ethics advocates and some lawmakers see the move as an attempt to dodge accountability for how the money is s...
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Utah and Oregon put any further reopening of their economies on hold amid a spike in coronavirus cases, but there was no turning back Friday in such states as Texas, Arkansas and Arizona despite flashing warning signs there, too. One by one, states are weighing the health risks from the virus against the economic damage from the stay-at-home orders that have thrown millions out of work over the past three months. And many governors are coming down on the side of jobs, even though an Associated Press analysis this week f...
SEATTLE (AP) — For nearly a week, people opposing police brutality and racial injustice have turned a Seattle neighborhood into ground zero for their protests, creating a carnival-like atmosphere with speakers and drum circles near a largely abandoned police station. While protesters say it shows how people can manage without police intervention, it's drawn scorn from President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly threatened to "go in" to stop the "anarchists" he says have taken over the liberal city after officers withdrew to ease tensions. W...
TEXARKANA, Texas (AP) — A 36-year-old man with apparent ties to a loose movement of right-wing extremists has been indicted in Texas on charges including the attempted capital murder of a peace officer. Aaron Swenson was arrested in April by police in Texarkana, Texas, and accused of threatening to ambush and kill a police officer in a Facebook Live video. He was wearing a ballistic vest when officers took him into custody, and they found two loaded pistols and a shotgun in his car, according to a police report. Swenson's Facebook page included...
The outbreak of the coronavirus has dealt a shock to the global economy with unprecedented speed. Following are developments Friday related to the national and global response, the work place and the spread of the virus. ________________________ EARNINGS RESULTS: — Party City's first-quarter sales fell 19% as it dealt with temporary store closures. Its North American online sales dropped 15.4%. However, when adjusted for curbside pickup and delivery and buy online/pick up in store, the figure declined 6.9%. CEO Brad Weston said Friday that t...
NEW YORK (AP) — Take the stairs, not the elevator, down from your hotel room. Encourage people to bring their own food and drinks to your cookout. Use hand sanitizer after banking at an ATM. Call ahead to restaurants and nail salons to make sure staff are wearing face coverings. And no high-fives — or even elbow bumps — at the gym. These are some of the tips in long-awaited guidance from U.S. health officials about how to reduce risk of coronavirus infection for Americans who are attempting some semblance of normal life. The Centers for Disease...
Earth's temperature spiked to tie a record high for May, U.S. meteorologists reported Friday. Last month the global average temperature was 60.3 degrees (15.7 degrees Celsius), tying 2016 for the hottest May in 141 years of record keeping, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. That's 1.7 degrees (nearly 1 degree Celsius) higher than the 20th century average for Earth. Temperature on land set a heat record, while ocean temperatures ranked second. Parts of Africa, Asia, western Europe, South and Central America had...
AUSTIN, Texas — Daily coronavirus hospitalizations in Texas have reached a new high for a third time in four days as state officials continue to loosen restrictions on public activities. Health officials said Friday that 2,166 patients were in Texas hospitals with COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus. That is 13 more than the previous high reached Wednesday. Nineteen more COVID-19 deaths also were reported Friday, bringing the state's overall toll to 1,939. Officials said almost 2,100 new coronavirus infections had been confirmed, b...
