U.S. News

MADERA, Calif. (AP) — Seven farmworkers traveling in a van and the driver of a pickup truck were killed Friday in a head-on crash in a farming area in central California, police said. The crash at 6:15 a.m. left the van almost completely crumpled among blooming almond trees near the town of Madera, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) outside Fresno, …

LEWISTON, Maine (AP) — The head of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives says he fears that a drumbeat of mass shootings and other gun violence across the United States could make Americans numb to the bloodshed, fostering apathy to finding solutions rather than galvanizing communities to act. Director Steve Dettelbach’s comments to The Associated Press came …

BALDWYN, Miss. (AP) — Two National Guard members died after a helicopter crashed Friday afternoon during a training flight in northeast Mississippi, officials said. The aircraft went down in a wooded area near Baldwyn, Prentiss County Sheriff Randy Tolar told WTVA-TV. The site is about 115 miles (185 kilometers) southeast of Memphis, Tennessee. The helicopter was AH-64 Apache “flying a …

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia lawmakers are revisiting a nearly decade-old fight over whether the state needs to protect religious rights from being trampled by state and local governments in a measure opponents say would provide a legal shield for people and groups to discriminate against LGBTQ+ people in the name of religion. That religious protection bill resurfaced Thursday eight years …

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Two Navy SEALs drowned last month while trying to board a vessel that was intercepted by U.S. naval forces in the Arabian Sea. On Thursday, federal prosecutors unsealed a criminal complaint against four foreign nationals they say were transporting suspected Iranian-made missile components on the vessel. The four sailors were later taken to Virginia where they …

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — The New Hampshire House on Thursday narrowly rejected creating a process by which people could voluntarily prohibit themselves from buying guns. Three other states — Utah, Virginia and Washington — already allow people to voluntarily waive their rights to own firearms and add themselves to the federal database of prohibited purchasers, said Rep. David Meuse, a …

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky lawmakers on Thursday started advancing an ambitious measure aimed at stimulating cutting-edge research while promoting teamwork among the state’s public universities. The Senate Education Committee quickly advanced the bill that would create a framework for cross-campus projects pairing up researchers at various schools. The measure is sponsored by Republican Senate President Robert Stivers and is …

ANAHUAC, Texas (AP) — A Black high school student’s monthslong punishment by his Texas school district for refusing to change his hairstyle does not violate a new state law that prohibits race-based hair discrimination, a judge ruled on Thursday. Darryl George, 18, has not been in his regular Houston-area high school classes since Aug. 31 because the district, Barbers Hill, …

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Almost a year after state lawmakers passed a law giving Florida’s governor control over Walt Disney World’s governing district, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday called the takeover a success, despite an exodus of workers, ongoing litigation and scandal surrounding one of his appointees. DeSantis made a victory lap of sorts during a news conference at Disney …

FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) — A fire that killed a Missouri mother and four children was intentionally set by the mother, police said. St. Louis County police announced late Wednesday that a preliminary investigation ruled that the deaths of Bernadine “Birdie” Pruessner, her twin 9-year-old daughters Ivy and Lillie Pruessner, and her children 5-year-old Jackson Spader and 2-year-old Millie Spader was …