HELENA, Mont. (AP) — The American Civil Liberties Union plans to spend $1.3 million on campaign advertising to educate Montana voters about where state Supreme Court candidates stand on abortion and other civil rights issues with a measure constitutionally protecting protect abortion access also on the ballot. The expenditure comes after Republicans tried unsuccessfully in […]

BALTIMORE (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department has widened its indictment of Russians in the so-called WhisperGate malware attacks aimed at destroying computer systems in Ukraine and 26 NATO allies including the United States. A superseding indictment announced Thursday names five Russian military intelligence officers in a conspiracy to demoralize the Ukrainian people on the […]

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Seattle woman pleaded guilty Thursday to attempting to bribe a Minnesota juror with a bag of $120,000 in cash in exchange for an acquittal in one of the country’s largest COVID-19-related fraud cases. Ladan Mohamed Ali, 31, dropped off a cash bribe in a plan that involved tracking a juror to […]

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — An Alaska judge struck down Wednesday a decades-old state law that restricted who could perform abortions in the state. The decision comes out of a 2019 lawsuit brought by Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawaii, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky, which challenged the law that says only a doctor licensed by the State Medical […]

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A former state employee who said he leaked information about the plans to build golf courses and hotels in Florida’s state parks has apparently been fired. But James Gaddis, who described himself as an “ethical whistleblower,” said he doesn’t regret making the public aware of the proposals, according to the Palm […]

Racial differences in how schools discipline students received new attention 10 years ago, during a national reckoning with racial injustice. A decade later, change has been slow to materialize. In many schools around the country, Black students have been more likely to receive punishments that remove them from the classroom, including suspensions, expulsions and being […]

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said Thursday he made “an honest mistake” in failing to correct a White House fellowship application 18 years ago when he wrote he had received a Bronze Star for his military service in Afghanistan though he never ended up receiving it, after the New York Times obtained […]

Citing free speech rights, a federal judge has temporarily blocked New York’s attorney general from taking enforcement action against certain pregnancy counseling centers for promoting what critics say is an unproven method to reverse medication abortions. U.S. District Judge John Sinatra Jr. in Buffalo issued a preliminary injunction against state Attorney General Letitia James and […]

Thousands of people live downstream from dams yet may not always realize the risks. As the climate changes, heavy rains from intense storms have put communities at greater jeopardy from flooding and placed the nation’s aging dams at greater risk of failing. That’s been evident recently as floodwaters from storms damaged or breached dams in […]

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Voters will get to decide in November whether they want to protect the right to an abortion in the constitution of Montana, which on Tuesday became the eighth state to put the issue before the electorate this fall. The Montana Secretary of State’s Office certified that the general election ballot will […]

PHOENIX (AP) — Voters in Arizona and Montana will be able to decide in November whether they want to protect the right to an abortion in their state constitutions. The Arizona Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that a 200-word summary that abortion advocates used to collect signatures for a ballot measure is valid, clearing the way […]

___ Associated Press writer Babar Dogar in Lahore, Pakistan, contributed to this report. — COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Republican vice presidential nominee U.S. Sen. JD Vance is preparing to dissolve the vestiges of a charitable effort he launched in Ohio after publication of his best-selling memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” the Trump-Vance campaign said. Vance formed two […]