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National News

Credit Suisse deal averted crisis, Swiss central bank says

GENEVA (AP) — The Swiss central bank hiked its key interest rate Thursday and declared that a government-orchestrated takeover of troubled Credit Suisse by rival bank UBS ended the financial turmoil. In a statement, the Swiss National Bank said it is providing large amounts of support for ...

Book ban attempts hit record high in 2022, library org says

NEW YORK (AP) — Attempted book bans and restrictions at school and public libraries continue to surge, setting a record in 2022, according to a new report from the American Library Association released Thursday. More than 1,200 challenges were compiled by the association in 2022, nearly ...

TikTok CEO faces off with Congress over security fears

WASHINGTON (AP) — The CEO of TikTok made a rare public appearance Thursday before a U.S. Congressional committee, where he faced a grilling on data security and user safety while he makes his own case for why the hugely popular video-sharing app shouldn't be banned. Shou Zi Chew's testimony ...

Starbucks workers protest before annual shareholder meeting

SEATTLE (AP) — Starbucks workers and labor activists rallied outside the company's Seattle headquarters Wednesday to protest what they describe as union-busting efforts by executives. Organizers said employees also walked off the job at more than 100 stores in 40 U.S. cities, though the ...

Ex-women’s prison warden gets 6 years for inmate sex abuse

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — The former warden of an abuse-plagued federal women's prison in the San Francisco Bay Area was sentenced Wednesday to nearly six years in prison for sexually abusing incarcerated women. A judge sentenced Ray J. Garcia to 70 months in prison for sexually abusing three ...

Arrest made in fire at planned Wyoming abortion clinic

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — A woman was arrested on charges of setting fire to a building in Wyoming that was being renovated to house the state's only full-service abortion clinic, authorities said Wednesday, hours after a judge temporarily blocked a ban on abortion that went into effect a few ...

New Hawaii law expands abortion access, protects providers

HONOLULU (AP) — Hawaii's governor on Wednesday signed legislation expanding access to abortion and putting into law recent executive orders protecting local health care providers from prosecution by out-of-state authorities. State Sen. Joy San Buenaventura, a Democrat, told a bill-signing ...

Police: 6 dead after work-zone crash on Baltimore Beltway

WOODLAWN, Md. (AP) — Six people were killed when a passenger vehicle pulled into a work zone along the Baltimore beltway and struck construction workers there, Maryland State Police said Wednesday. Troopers responded to the work zone on northbound Interstate 695 at Security Boulevard in the ...

New Hampshire House tables parental rights bill

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — The latest effort to codify parental rights in state law failed in the New Hampshire House on Wednesday, but the issue is far from settled. Many states with Republican-controlled legislatures have enacted "parents bill of rights" or similar measures fueled by some ...

Police: Boy shoots 2 administrators at Denver high school

DENVER (AP) — A 17-year-old student shot and wounded two school administrators at a Denver high school Wednesday morning, after a handgun was found during a daily search of the boy that was being conducted because of behavioral issues, authorities said. Suspect Austin Lyle remained at large ...

Slovakia offered US helicopters for giving jets to Ukraine

\ BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) — The United States has offered Slovakia 12 new military helicopters as compensation for the MiG-29 fighter jets the European country is giving to Ukraine, Slovakia's defense minister said Wednesday. Under the offer, Slovakia would pay $340 million for the Bell ...

Deputies: Alabama player drove 141 mph to evade traffic stop

BONIFAY, Fla. (AP) — Suspended Alabama freshman defensive back Tony Mitchell drove over 141 mph (227 kph) while trying to evade deputies before his arrest on drug charges in the Florida Panhandle last week, authorities said. Mitchell and another man, who was a passenger in Mitchell's car, ...

Credit Suisse customers feel mix of anger, relief after sale

GENEVA (AP) — Fury at top Credit Suisse managers. Lament over damage to Switzerland's image as a stable, reliable banking center. Relief that authorities stepped in to help protect deposits, but worry about keeping cash invested in a bank that failed to manage its own money adequately. On ...

Arkansas restricts school bathroom use by transgender people

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Tuesday signed a law prohibiting transgender people at public schools from using the restroom that matches their gender identity, the first of several states expected to enact such bans this year amid a flood of bills nationwide ...

Marcos defends US military presence, which China opposes

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Wednesday defended his decision to allow a larger United States military presence in the country as vital to territorial defense despite China's fierce opposition and warning that it would "drag the Philippines into the abyss of ...

Fed facing a blurrier outlook as it meets to weigh rate hike

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve is grappling with a hazier economic picture clouded by turmoil in the banking industry and still-high inflation just as it meets to decide whether to keep raising interest rates or declare a pause. Yet the Fed will not only have to decide whether to ...

Kansas could soon approve ‘born alive’ abortion bill

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas proposal based on the disputed idea that providers leave newborns to die after unsuccessful abortions is nearing legislative approval, as Republicans pursue limited anti-abortion measures following a decisive statewide vote last year protecting abortion ...

Teen held in Texas school shooting that left 1 dead, 1 hurt

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — A 15-year-old arrested in a fatal shooting outside a Dallas-area high school will remain in custody following a Tuesday detention hearing, the boy's lawyer said. The Monday shooting on a high school campus in the suburb of Arlington left one student dead from a ...

States cranking out even more tax cuts amid cash surpluses

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Just six months after passing what was billed as the largest tax cut in Missouri history, the Republican-led state House voted Tuesday for an even bigger income tax cut that could return over $1 billion annually to individuals, corporations and retirees. The ...

Paid family and medical leave in play at Minnesota Capitol

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Supporters of creating a paid family and medical leave system in Minnesota rallied at the state Capitol on Tuesday and lobbied their lawmakers to try to push the plan over the finish line. "You know that anywhere else in the developed world, paid family and medical ...