A woman who has been central to R. Kelly’s legal troubles for more than two decades has testified that the R&B singer had sex with her “hundreds” of times before she turned 18 years old, starting when she was just 15.
Deshaun Watson has reached a settlement with the NFL and will serve an 11-game unpaid suspension and pay a $5 million fine rather than risk missing his first season as quarterback of the Cleveland Browns following accusations of sexual misconduct. Watson was accused of sexually harassing and…
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has met the U.N. chief and Turkey’s leader in Lviv near Ukraine’s border with Poland. Thursday's talks focused on the recent deal to resume Ukraine’s grain exports, the volatile situation at a Russian-occupied nuclear power plant and efforts to help en…
A top executive at former President Donald Trump’s family business has pleaded guilty to evading taxes. The deal could potentially make him a star witness against the company at a trial this fall. Longtime Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg admitted at a court hearing Thursday that he …
A woman who has been central to R. Kelly’s legal troubles for more than two decades has testified that the R&B singer had sex with her “hundreds” of times before she turned 18 years old, starting when she was just 15. Jane — the pseudonym for the 37-year-old woman at Kelly’s trial on chi…
A federal judge is ordering Starbucks to reinstate seven employees in Memphis, Tennessee, who were fired earlier this year after leading an effort to unionize their store. In a decision issued Thursday, U.S. District Judge Sheryl Lipman agreed with the National Labor Relations Board, which h…
A top Justice Department prosecutor says the investigation into whether former President Donald Trump illegally stored classified records at his Florida estate and potentially violated the Espionage Act is still “in its early stages.” The revelation by Jay Bratt, a top national security pros…
A federal judge is ordering Starbucks to reinstate seven employees in Memphis, Tennessee, who were fired earlier this year after leading an effort to unionize their store. In a decision issued Thursday, U.S. District Judge Sheryl Lipman agreed with the National Labor Relations Board, which had asked the court to intervene in May. Lipman’s decision requires Starbucks to offer reinstatement to the employees within five days. The case has been among the most closely watched in the unionization effort at Starbucks. More than 220 U.S. Starbucks stores, including the Memphis store, have voted to unionize. Starbucks opposes the unionization effort.
A top Justice Department prosecutor says the investigation into whether former President Donald Trump illegally stored classified records at his Florida estate and potentially violated the Espionage Act is still “in its early stages.” The revelation by Jay Bratt, a top national security prosecutor, was the clearest indication yet that the Justice Department is directly scrutinizing Trump’s conduct and is forging forward in its criminal investigation after the FBI seized classified and top secret information during a search at Mar-a-Lago last week. A federal judge is weighing whether to make public the affidavit supporting the warrant that allowed FBI agents to carry out the search.
Creem, which once billed itself as “America’s only rock ‘n’ roll magazine,” is attempting a comeback after more than 30 years. J.J. Kramer, the son of the original founder, is behind the effort. Kramer was 4 years old when his father died. The original Creem was a monthly publication and folded in 1999. The new version will be a glossy magazine that publishes quarterly and will be available only to people who pay $79 for a subscription. The comeback is happening at a time when both the magazine world and the music industry are far different than during Creem's heyday in the 1970s.
Kentucky’s Supreme Court is keeping the state’s near-total abortion ban in effect. The high court says the state's ban will remain in place while it reviews arguments by abortion clinics challenging the state law. It was the latest legal setback for the two remaining abortion clinics in Kentucky — both in Louisville. Abortion rights have been reinstated and then revoked again by judges in Kentucky since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June. The Supreme Court agreed to take the case and set a schedule for the submission of briefs and for arguments before the justices.
When bestselling author JD Vance founded “Our Ohio Renewal” a day after the 2016 presidential election, he promoted the charity as a vehicle for helping solve the scourge of opioid addiction he’d lamented in his memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy.” But Vance shuttered the nonprofit last year and closed its foundation in May, shortly after he clinched the Republican nomination for Senate in Ohio. An Associated Press review finds that the charity’s most notable accomplishment — sending an addiction specialist to Ohio’s Appalachian region for a yearlong residency — was tainted by ties among the doctor, the institute that employed her and Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of OxyContin. Vance’s campaign says the nonprofit is on temporary hold during Vance’s Senate run.
CNN says it has canceled its weekly program on the media, ‘Reliable Sources,’ and host Brian Stelter will be leaving the network. The show, which predated Stelter's arrival from The New York Times, will have its last telecast on Sunday. Under new president Chris Licht, CNN has been looking to cut costs but also to put a less opinionated product on the air. Stelter has written a book on Fox News Channel and been critical of that network on the air. There's no immediate word on what will happen to the “Reliable Sources” newsletter that summed up each day's media news.
Renewable energy incentives in the climate bill signed by President Joe Biden are expected to drastically reduce overall U.S. emissions. But some analysts say the legislation will also boost oil and gas companies, offsetting at least some of the emissions reductions. The legislation mandates several oil and gas lease sales. It also locks renewables and fossil fuel together for 10 years. So if the Biden administration wants solar and wind, it must first offer new oil and gas leases. Economists project the measure could result in more planet-warming carbon dioxide from U.S.-produced oil and gas by 2030, even as more of that fuel gets exported.
The Mississippi Department of Human Services is hiring a different law firm to try to recover millions of dollars in welfare money that was misspent in the state’s largest public corruption case in decades. The state Personnel Board on Thursday approved a contract for the department to hire the Jones Walker firm, which has about 370 attorneys in multiple states. This comes weeks after Department of Human Services leaders chose not to renew a contract with Brad Pigott. He was the U.S. attorney for southern Mississippi when Democrat Bill Clinton was president. In May, Pigott sued former NFL quarterback Brett Favre and and others to try to recover misspent welfare money.
Missouri's Republican and Democratic U.S. Senate nominees are divided over policies backed by President Joe Biden as they begin their campaigns with a visit to the Missouri State Fair. Republican Attorney General Eric Schmitt and Democrat Trudy Busch Valentine met for the first time at the Governor’s Ham Breakfast on Thursday. Independent candidate John Wood did not attend. Valentine supports legislation Biden signed that caps out-of-pocket prescription drug costs at $2,000 for Medicare recipients. The law also includes the biggest U.S. investment ever to fight climate change. Schmitt says the law will increase inflation and hurt agriculture.
President Joe Biden insists he intends to seek reelection in 2024. A series of legislative and policy wins have lately made it easier to believe him — or at least have temporarily quieted questions on the topic. That’s a departure from mere weeks ago, when some top Democrats were struggling with questions about whether the oldest president in American history trying for four more years in office would help or hurt his party. Biden himself insists there’s clamor for him to run despite polling and poor approval ratings suggesting the opposite. But, for a few weeks this summer, the president and Democrats seem to have some political breathing room.
Prosecutors have rested their case against two men on trial for a second time in an alleged plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020. The jury heard seven days of testimony before prosecutors finished Thursday in federal court in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Adam Fox and Barry Croft Jr. are on trial on conspiracy charges. A jury in April couldn’t reach a unanimous verdict but acquitted two other men. One of the last government witnesses was an FBI agent who was working undercover. Tim Bates says he got inside the group when talk turned to obtaining an explosive to destroy a bridge near Whitmer’s vacation home in Elk Rapids, Michigan. The defense argues that the government entrapped Fox and Croft.
U.S. regulators have issued a warning letter to the maker of illegal nicotine gummies. The Food and Drug Administration says the gummies pose a growing risk to teenagers and younger children. In its warning Thursday, the FDA said the fruit-flavored gummies from Florida manufacturer VPR Brands could cause nicotine poisoning or even death if eaten by small children. Regulators also cited recent research suggesting nicotine candies and lozenges are becoming more popular among high school students. The warning comes as the FDA is under pressure to crack down on electronic cigarettes and other products containing laboratory-made nicotine.
Authorities in North Carolina have charged a man with murder in the fatal shooting of a sheriff’s deputy last week. Wake County Sheriff Gerald Baker said Arturo Marin-Sotelo was charged Thursday in the Aug. 11 killing of Wake County Deputy Ned Byrd. Lt. Walter Adams said the investigation is ongoing and additional arrests are expected. He urged anyone with information about the shooting to call the sheriff’s office. Byrd was a K-9 officer who had been with the sheriff’s office for 13 years. Baker said last week that Byrd was killed after stopping along a dark stretch of road late at night.
Estonia’s foreign minister has defended his country’s decision to bar Russian tourists, saying they are shirking their “moral responsibility” to stand up to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime and its “genocidal war” in Ukraine. The small Baltic country, which shares a 300-kilometer (190-mile) border with Russia, stopped issuing tourist visas to Russians months ago. As of Thursday, it no longer accepts those visas previously issued. Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu told The Associated Press that Estonia wants “to close down our borders to Russian citizens, except humanitarian cases.” He said "Russian citizens are not welcome in Europe. Their country is committing a genocidal war against an innocent people.”
Democratic Secretary of State Steve Hobbs and nonpartisan Pierce County Auditor Julie Anderson met for their first debate ahead of the November election. The agreed on many things, ranging from voter outreach to fighting against cyber attacks and misinformation campaign but had areas of sharp disagreement as well. One are in particular was the the role party labels play in a role like secretary of state, which oversees the elections run by the state's 39 county auditors. Anderson says partisanship has no place in the office. Hobbs argued that previous secretaries of states were able to work in a bipartisan way and that he will follow suit.
Affiliate
Content by Brand Ave. Studios. The annual Amazon Prime Day is here and will offer discounts on many of your favorite things.
Content by Brand Ave. Studios. The annual Amazon Prime Day is coming July 12 and 13, and per usual will offer discounts on many of your favorite things.
Content by Brand Ave. Studios. The annual Amazon Prime Day is coming July 12 and 13, and per usual will offer discounts on many of your favorite things.
Content by Brand Ave. Studios. The annual Amazon Prime Day is coming July 12 and 13, and per usual will offer discounts on many of your favorite things.
Stocks wavered on Wall Street in another round of choppy trading that has mostly held back major indexes following a weekslong run of gains. The S&P 500 rose 0.1% in afternoon trading Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell and the Nasdaq rose. Technology companies gained ground. Cisco Systems rose after turning in stronger-than-expected quarterly results. Energy companies also gained ground along with rising crude oil prices. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 2.87%. The U.S. government reported that slightly fewer Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week as the labor market remains strong.
A federal indictment accuses current and former Kentucky State Police troopers of using excessive force during an arrest and conspiring to cover it up. A statement Wednesday from U.S. Attorney Carlton S. Shier says a grand jury in London indicted Kentucky State Troopers Jeremy Elliotte and Michael L. Howell and former Trooper Derrek Lovett. The indictment alleges that Elliotte and Lovett assaulted and injured a victim without justification and that they along with Howell conspired to conceal the force and the circumstances under which they used it. An attorney listed for Howell did not immediately return a message seeking comment. It wasn’t clear if the others have attorneys.
Sri Lanka’s central bank chief says he's hopeful the crisis-ridden island nation can reach a preliminary agreement that could lead to a bailout package with the International Monetary Fund when officials from the financial institution visit Sri Lanka later this month. The Indian Ocean country is facing its worst economic crisis and has been negotiating with the IMF while government leaders in Colombo have said Sri Lanka is effectively bankrupt. Nandalal Weerasinghe, the governor of Sri Lanka’s central bank, said Thursday he hoped IMF officials and Sri Lanka’s government could “finalize and reach a staff-level agreement” on the policy package during their meetings.
Israel has raided the offices of several Palestinian advocacy groups it had previously designated as terrorist organizations. Troops sealed entrances and left notices Thursday declaring them closed. Israel's military said it closed seven institutions and seized their property. Israel had previously outlawed the groups, claiming they have ties to the militant Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The groups deny the accusation. Rights defenders have described Israel’s moves against the groups as part of a decades-long crackdown on political activists in the occupied territories. European countries continue to support the groups, citing a lack of evidence for the Israeli claims, and Western diplomats visited one office in a show of support after the raids.
The MTV Video Music Awards later this month will have not one emcee but three, with rap stars LL Cool J, Nicki Minaj and Jack Harlow all set to anchor the ceremony. They’ll introduce and present the famous Moonmen trophies alongside performers including Lizzo, Anitta, BLACKPINK, J Balvin, Måneskin, Kane Brown, Marshmello with Khalid, and Panic! At The Disco on Aug. 28 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. Harlow, Lil Nas X and Kendrick Lamar have seven nominations. Harlow, Lil Nas X, Drake, Bad Bunny, Ed Sheeran, Harry Styles and Lizzo will compete for artist of the year. Styles and Doja Cat received the second-most nominations with six.
An Arizona judge has ruled that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints may not use the state's “clergy-penitent privilege” to refuse to answer questions or turn over documents in a child sex-abuse case. Clergy in Arizona and many other states are required to report information about child sexual abuse or neglect to authorities. But there's an exception if they learn of the abuse through spiritual confessions. Judge Laura Cardinal said the late Paul Adams waived his right to keep his confessions secret when he posted videos of himself sexually abusing his two daughters on the Internet and boasted of the abuse on social media.
The world's smallest and most endangered sea turtle has hatched in Louisiana's wilds for the first known time in 75 years. Louisiana agencies say crews monitoring the Chandeleur Islands to help design a restoration project found tracks of females going to and from nests, and of hatchlings leaving nests. A news release from the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority and the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries included photos of two hatchlings crawling toward and swimming in the water. The statement says threatened loggerhead sea turtles also are nesting on the islands. It says loggerhead nests found on Grand Isle in 2015 were the first confirmed sea turtle nests in Louisiana in more than 30 years.
“She-Hulk” director Kat Coiro looks to Rob Reiner's choices particularly in the 1980's when it comes to choosing what projects she wants to make. In the 80s, Reiner bounced between films such as “When Harry Met Sally,” “Stand By Me" and “The Princess Bride." Like Reiner, Coiro says she wants to change things up in her career so she's always learning. Besides taking on the Marvel Cinematic Universe with “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law” for Disney+, Coiro is planning to direct a buddy comedy action movie with Nick Jonas and Glen Powell and a 1990′s-style mystery thriller based on the Liane Moriarty book “The Husband’s Secret.”