ATLANTA—Federal authorities have released an update on the investigation into fires at the BioLab chemical plant near Atlanta that produced a toxic chemical cloud and forced nearby residents to shelter in place. The fires broke out Sept. 29 at the BioLab plant in Conyers, sending a huge plume of orange and black smoke into the […]

Fred Harris, a former U.S. senator from Oklahoma, presidential hopeful and populist who championed Democratic Party reforms in the 1960s, died Saturday. He was 94. Harris’s wife, Margaret Elliston, confirmed his death to The Associated Press. It was not immediately clear where he died, but he had lived in New Mexico since 1976 and was […]

WINDSOR, Calif.—Forecasters through the United States issued warnings that another round of winter weather could complicate travel leading up to the Thanksgiving holiday, while California and Washington state continue to recover from storm damage and power outages. In California, where a person was found dead in a vehicle submerged in floodwaters on Saturday, authorities braced […]

The recently retired Andy Murray is going to team up with longtime rival Novak Djokovic as his coach, they both announced Saturday, with plans to prepare for—and work together through—the Australian Open in January. It was a stunning bit of news as tennis moves toward its offseason, a pairing of two of the most successful […]

WINDSOR, Calif.—The United States was reeling from snow and rain on Saturday with a second round of bad weather threatening to disrupt holiday travel ahead of Thanksgiving. A person was found dead in a vehicle submerged in floodwaters in California, which braced for more precipitation while still grappling with flooding and small landslides from a […]

NEW YORK—The holiday season really kicks off when the massive helium balloons start floating through New York. The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade—two years away from its 100th birthday—this year will feature 17 giant character balloons, 22 floats, 15 novelty and heritage inflatables, 11 marching bands, 700 clowns, 10 performance groups and more stars than can […]

WASHINGTON—Long before the ancient Maya built temples, their predecessors were already altering the landscape of Central America’s Yucatan peninsula. Using drones and Google Earth imagery, archaeologists have discovered a 4,000-year-old network of earthen canals in what’s now Belize. The findings were published Friday in Science Advances. “The aerial imagery was crucial to identify this really […]

NEW YORK—Jonathan Majors’s former girlfriend has dropped her assault and defamation lawsuit against the once-rising Hollywood star after reaching a settlement. Lawyers for Majors and Grace Jabbari agreed to dismiss the case with prejudice, according to a joint filing in Manhattan federal court Thursday. Jabbari’s lawyer said Friday that the suit was “favorably settled” but […]

MEMPHIS, Tenn.—A Tennessee man who helped two hired killers after they gunned down rapper Young Dolph at a Memphis bakery will not serve time in prison under a sentence of six years’ probation, a judge ruled Friday. Jermarcus Johnson, 27, pleaded guilty in June 2023 to three counts of serving as an accessory after the […]

At least 19 people in Minnesota have been sickened by E. coli poisoning tied to a national recall of more than 167,000 pounds of potentially tainted ground beef, federal health officials said. Detroit-based Wolverine Packing Co. recalled the meat this week after Minnesota state agriculture officials reported multiple illnesses and found that a sample of […]

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J.—The Daniel Jones era in New York is over. The Giants quarterback was granted his release on Friday by the team just days after the franchise said it was benching him in favor of third-stringer Tommy DeVito. “Daniel came to see me this morning and asked if we would release him,” Giants president […]

HEALDSBURG, Calif.—Heavy rain from a major storm prompted evacuations from communities near a Northern California river that forecasters said could breach its banks Friday, as the system continued to dump heavy snow in mountainous areas where some ski resorts opened for the season. The storm arrived in the Pacific Northwest earlier this week, killing two […]

KYIV, Ukraine—NATO and Ukraine will hold emergency talks Tuesday after Russia attacked a central city with an experimental, hypersonic ballistic missile that escalated the nearly 33-month-old war. The conflict is “entering a decisive phase,” Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Friday, and “taking on very dramatic dimensions.” Ukraine’s parliament canceled a session as security was […]

ANNAPOLIS, Md.—Peter Frank has paddled from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in June to the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland this month in his 1982 Sawyer Loon decked canoe, but he’s still got a long way to go. The 23-year-old is about a quarter of the way on his planned journey of roughly 6,000 miles to complete the […]

MELBOURNE, Australia—The only emperor penguin known to have swum from Antarctica to Australia was released at sea 20 days after he waddled ashore on a popular tourist beach, officials said Friday. The adult male was found on Nov. 1 on Ocean Beach sand dunes in the town of Denmark in temperate southwest Australia—about 2,200 miles […]

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—The owners of a Colorado funeral home who let nearly 190 bodies decay in a room-temperature building and gave grieving families fake ashes pleaded guilty on Friday to corpse abuse. Jon and Carie Hallford, who own the Return to Nature Funeral Home, began storing bodies in a decrepit building near Colorado Springs as […]

FRANKFORT, Ky.—A former Kentucky sheriff was indicted Thursday in the slaying of a judge who was gunned down in his courthouse chambers two months ago, shocking a tiny Appalachian community. Shawn “Mickey” Stines was indicted on one count of murder of a public official by a Letcher County grand jury, prosecutors said. Stines was sheriff […]

BANGKOK—Two Australian teenagers and a British woman died from suspected methanol poisoning after drinking tainted alcohol in Laos. An American man and two Danes also died, though their exact causes of death have not been released. A New Zealander also has been sickened. The U.S. State Department issued a warning to travelers to be “alert […]

Former Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell, who took over the office to become the second female governor in state history after her predecessor resigned amid a corruption scandal, has died. She was 78. Rell died Wednesday at a Florida hospital following a brief illness, her family said in a statement Thursday morning. Rell, a Republican […]

NEW YORK—New York City police are searching for a man accused of stealing a gold-plated rose from a Manhattan church memorial honoring the victims of 9/11. The metal flower had served as the centerpiece of a memorial at the Church of St. Francis of Assisi, whose long-time pastor, Father Mychal Judge, was crushed by falling […]