DALLAS (AP) — Wayne LaPierre, the embattled leader of the National Rifle Association, said Wednesday that he put the powerful gun-rights group into bankruptcy without first informing most of its board members and top officials. LaPierre took the witness stand in the NRA's high-stakes ...

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Democratic Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam announced Thursday that he is backing Terry McAuliffe in the race to succeed him, handing his predecessor one of the contest's most coveted endorsements. Northam, who under Virginia law cannot seek a consecutive term in office, said ...

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Ebele Azikiwe was in the sixth grade last year when February came and it was time to learn about Black history again. She was, by then, familiar with the curriculum: Rosa Parks, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and a discussion on slavery. Just like the year before, she ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — After an unprecedented push to test and track COVID-19, public health workers are grappling with a worrisome side effect: a collapse in screening for sexually transmitted diseases that have been on the rise for years. Testing for diseases like chlamydia and gonorrhea ...

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Rep. Alcee Hastings, the fiercely liberal longtime Florida congressman who was dogged throughout his tenure by an impeachment that ended his fast-rising judicial career, died Tuesday. He was 84. Hastings' death was confirmed by his chief of staff, Lale M. ...

As Derek Chauvin's defense attorney attempted to shift blame from the former Minneapolis police officer in George Floyd's death, he questioned paramedics on delays in their efforts to resuscitate Floyd. But one paramedic told jurors that he thought Floyd was already dead when he checked for a ...

CHICAGO (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday urged Chicago union members to share their experience receiving a COVID-19 vaccine and act as "role models" for family and friends who may be reluctant even as Illinois prepares to open access to all adults. Harris visited a vaccination ...

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — At Walt Disney World, the smiles won't have to be hidden for much longer. Starting Thursday, visitors to the theme park resort will be able to remove their masks temporarily for outdoor photos, the company said on its website. The change tweaks a requirement that all ...

NEW YORK (AP) — One of the few copies of the comic book that introduced Superman to the world has sold for a super-sized, record-setting price. The issue of Action Comics #1 went for $3.25 million in a private sale, ComicConnect.com, an online auction and consignment company, announced ...

CHICAGO (AP) — A 21-month-old boy was shot in the head Tuesday morning while riding in a car on Chicago's famed Lake Shore Drive just hours after seven people were shot and wounded in a fight a few miles away, in what is shaping up to be one of the most violent years for the city in memory, ...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — America's founding fathers got a reprieve Tuesday in San Francisco, when the city's scandal-plagued school board formally suspended a plan to rename 44 schools as part of a racial reckoning that critics said went too far. The city's Board of Education, which convened on ...

Most children with a serious inflammatory illness linked to the coronavirus had initial COVID-19 infections with no symptoms or only mild ones, new U.S. research shows. The unusual post-infection condition tends to be milder in kids who were sicker with COVID-19, although more than half of ...

The Education Department on Tuesday moved forward with plans to revise federal rules around campus sexual assault, paving the way for an overhaul of a polarizing Trump-era policy that President Joe Biden has vowed to reverse. In a letter to the nation's colleges and schools, the department ...

Conspiracy theories about COVID-19 are causing real-world problems by discouraging some people from getting vaccinated, wearing masks or following other guidelines. Some bizarre theories about the virus have prompted believers to burn 5G cell towers, shut down vaccination clinics or even ingest ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — With a powerful new tool, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has fresh options for potentially advancing President Joe Biden's infrastructure package and other priorities past Republican obstruction in the 50-50 split Senate. Republicans still pledge to do all they can to ...

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The auction of a series of sketches purportedly drawn by an artist at the Japanese internment camp at Manzanar was canceled Tuesday after groups protested it was offensive and immoral to profit off the misery of incarcerated people. The auction was halted by eBay hours ...

CLEMSON, S.C. (AP) — On the sloping side of a cemetery on the campus of Clemson University, dozens of small white flags with pink ribbons have replaced the beer cans that once littered a hill where football fans held tailgate parties outside Memorial Stadium. The flags are a recent addition, ...

Nearly half of new coronavirus infections nationwide are in just five states — a situation that is putting pressure on the federal government to consider changing how it distributes vaccines by sending more doses to hot spots. New York, Michigan, Florida, Pennsylvania and New Jersey together ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden said he's bumping up his deadline by two weeks for states to make all adults in the U.S. eligible for coronavirus vaccines. But even as he expressed optimism about the pace of vaccinations, he warned Americans that the nation is not yet out of the woods ...

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — After enduring 40-knot winds and freezing sea spray, jostled health care providers arrived wet and cold on two Maine islands in the North Atlantic late last month to conduct coronavirus vaccinations. As they came ashore on Little Cranberry Island, population 65, ...