SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — For the second time in less than a week, a 21-year-old man used a gun purchased legally in the United States to massacre people simply working or visiting a business. The mass shootings in Colorado and Georgia are giving new urgency to state efforts to enact gun ...

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — One prospective juror's voice quivered as she told attorneys during jury selection that she feared for her family's safety if chosen for the panel that will decide the fate of a white former police officer charged with killing George Floyd. When the judge excused her, the ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A year after COVID-19 upended life for millions of Americans, there are troubling signs that the coronavirus may have also slowed progress against another deadly health threat: smoking. Fewer smokers called quit-smoking hotlines last year and some smoked more, contributing ...

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York is poised to join a growing number of states that have legalized marijuana after state lawmakers reached a deal to allow sales of the drug for recreational use. The agreement reached Saturday would expand the state's existing medical marijuana program and set up ...

LANSFORD, Penn. (AP) — Ava Lerario lived in a home marked by both love and chaos, even before the walls of the pandemic started closing in on her fractured family. Sandwiched between two brothers, the 9-year-old was her father's princess, and she loved to snuggle up with her mom to read. She ...

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The coin trading world has a new gold standard, after the only known 1822 half eagle $5 piece in private hands sold at auction in Las Vegas for $8.4 million, experts said Friday. Douglas Mudd, curator and director of the Edward C. Rochette Money Museum in Colorado Springs, ...

ATLANTA (AP) — The sweeping rewrite of Georgia's election rules represents the first big set of changes since former President Donald Trump's repeated, baseless claims of fraud following his presidential loss to Joe Biden. Georgia has been at the center of that storm. Trump zeroed in on his ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is including rivals Vladimir Putin of Russia and Xi Jinping of China among the invitees to the first big climate talks of his administration, an event the U.S. hopes will help shape, speed up and deepen global efforts to cut climate-wrecking fossil fuel ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Mike Pence led the coronavirus task force only to be constantly overruled by the White House. Al Gore's efforts to "reinvent government" were largely forgotten during the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Dan Quayle's revamping of space policy never got much notice to begin ...

Deadly tornadoes roared through Alabama on Thursday, toppling trees, demolishing homes and knocking out power to thousands, part of a broad swath of violent weather sweeping across the Deep South. At least five fatalities and an unknown number of injuries were reported. All of the deaths ...

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas officials on Thursday raised the death toll from February's winter storm and blackouts to at least 111 people — nearly doubling the state's initial tally following one of the worst power outages in U.S. history. The frigid weather also was blamed for dozens of ...

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp drew protests Thursday as he signed into law a sweeping Republican-sponsored overhaul of state elections that includes new restrictions on voting by mail and greater legislative control over how elections are run. Democrats and voting rights groups say ...

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Thursday signed a law banning transgender women and girls from competing in school sports teams consistent with their gender identity, making the state the second to approve such a restriction so far this year. The Republican governor ...

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A newly installed fence surrounded a Los Angeles park Thursday after a late-night confrontation between police and vocal demonstrators who oppose the city's effort to remove a large homeless encampment and perform what officials say are necessary repairs to the ...

DALLAS (AP) — Congress is looking into last month's massive and deadly power outages across Texas and questioning officials who oversee the state's energy industry and electric grid. A House Energy subcommittee hearing Wednesday provided little new insight into the crisis, however, and often ...

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Wyoming lawmakers rejected a measure that would have required candidates to win a majority of votes in primary elections to avoid runoffs — a change endorsed by Donald Trump Jr. in his campaign to undermine Republican U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney. The state Senate defeated ...

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — The impeachment investigation into New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is expanding to examine whether the governor unlawfully used his office to provide his family members with special access to scarce coronavirus tests a year ago, a state lawmaker said Thursday. The office of ...

There will come a day — maybe even a day in the next few months — when Americans wake up, emerge from their homes, cast away their masks and resume their lives. On that day, the Great Coronavirus Pandemic of 2020-21 will be over. Ridiculous, right? A consummation devoutly to be wished, but ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of people seeking unemployment benefits fell sharply last week to 684,000, the fewest since the pandemic erupted a year ago and a sign that the economy is improving. Thursday's report from the Labor Department showed that jobless claims fell from 781,000 the week ...

BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — One victim of the Colorado supermarket shooting was leaving after fixing a coffee machine. Another worked at the store but was only there because he stopped in to shop during his time off. A third was a police officer who was first to answer the 911 calls. Some died ...