February 18, 2021 12:32 pm
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) – Former longtime Sen. Bob Dole has announced that he has been diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. Dole, who is 97, said in a short statement that he was diagnosed recently and would begin treatment on Monday. He said: “While I certainly have some hurdles ahead, I also know that I join millions of Americans who face significant health challenges of their own.” Dole, a Republican, represented Kansas in Congress for almost 36 years, serving twice as majority leader. He resigned from the Senate in 1996 when he became the Republican presidential nominee. He lost to incumbent President Bill Clinton. (Photo: CNN)
February 18, 2021 4:25 am
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) – A NASA rover has landed on Mars in an epic quest to bring back rocks that could answer whether life ever existed on the red planet. The space agency says the six-wheeled Perseverance hurtled through the thin, orange atmosphere and settled onto the surface Thursday in the mission’s riskiest maneuver yet. Mars has long been a deathtrap for incoming spacecraft. Perseverance will collect geological samples that will be brought back to Earth in about a decade to be analyzed for signs of ancient microscopic life.
February 18, 2021 4:18 am
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) – New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo faces mounting challenges to his leadership on the coronavirus pandemic as state lawmakers threaten to strip him of the power to issue emergency orders and federal investigators scrutinize his administration’s handling of nursing home data. The U.S. Justice Department has been examining the governor’s coronavirus task force and trying to determine whether the state intentionally manipulated data regarding deaths in nursing homes. That’s according to two people familiar with the matter who weren’t authorized to discuss the investigation and spoke to The AP on condition of anonymity. A spokesperson for the governor said the administration was cooperating with the investigation.
February 18, 2021 4:17 am
(AP) – A new report finds that life expectancy in the United States dropped a staggering one year during the first half of 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic caused its first wave of deaths. Minorities suffered the biggest impact, with Black people losing nearly three years and Hispanics, nearly two years. The estimates were released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Health officials say the nation has not seen such a big decline since World War II. They expect the trend to worsen once numbers for the full year are available.
February 18, 2021 4:16 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – White House officials say Joe Biden will use his first big presidential moment on the global stage at Friday’s Group of Seven meeting to announce that the U.S. will soon begin releasing $4 billion for an international effort to bolster the purchase and distribution of coronavirus vaccine for poor nations. Former President Donald Trump declined to participate in the COVAX initiative because of its ties to the World Health Organization. Trump had accused the Geneva-based health organization of covering up China’s missteps in handling the virus. The meeting of the G-7 is being held virtually.
February 18, 2021 4:16 am
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – Anger over Texas’ power grid failing in the face of a record winter freeze is mounting. Nearly 1.9 million customers in the energy capital of the U.S. woke up Wednesday still without power. The outages follow unusually heavy snowfall and single-digit temperatures in Texas, creating a surge in demand for electricity to warm up homes. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday called for an investigation of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates the state’s power grid. Officials offered no timetable for when power might be restored throughout the state.
February 17, 2021 12:32 pm
PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) – Rush Limbaugh, the talk radio host who became the voice of American conservatism, has died. His death Wednesday at the age of 70 was announced on his website. With his three-hour weekday radio show broadcast on nearly 600 stations across the U.S., and a massive audience of millions hanging on his every word, Limbaugh’s rants shaped the national political conversation, swaying the opinions of average Republicans and the direction of the party. Donald Trump awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.
February 17, 2021 4:23 am
NEW YORK (AP) – Former President Donald Trump faces more legal trouble now that his impeachment trial is over. A Democratic congressman filed a lawsuit Tuesday accusing Trump of conspiring with far-right extremists in the Capitol riot, and the attorney general of Washington, D.C., is weighing charges over the riot as well. He faces ongoing scrutiny from prosecutors over investigations into election interference in 2016 and 2020 as well as his business dealings in New York. And judges have refused to throw out defamation lawsuits from two women who accuse him of sexual assault. Trump has called all of the allegations baseless.
February 17, 2021 4:19 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Former President Donald Trump has issued a blistering statement denouncing the top Republican in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, as a “political hack” who will make sure the party “will not win again.” The statement on Tuesday, released by Trump’s political action committee, was the most caustic sign yet of deepening political divisions within the GOP. The attack follows McConnell’s speech over the weekend that Trump was responsible for the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. But McConnell said that only after he joined other Republicans in voting against the former president’s conviction during a Senate impeachment trial that accused Trump of inciting the mob.
February 17, 2021 4:18 am
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) – A Republican-backed bill that would likely ban almost all abortions in South Carolina is headed for a crucial vote, having already passed its toughest hurdle last month. The House has the “South Carolina Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act” on its calendar for debate Wednesday. If the House approves the bill without changes, it will go to the governor’s desk. Gov. Henry McMaster has promised to sign it into law as soon as he gets it. Groups against the ban will likely sue immediately, keeping the law from going into effect. About a dozen other states have passed similar laws and all are tied up in the court.
