National News - The Morning Sun

This photo provided by Dalvin Gadson shows Gadson, right, with his attorney, Harry Daniels, April 29, 2024, in Denver. The city of Colorado Springs, Colo., agreed on Tuesday, May 14, to pay $2.1 million to settle a lawsuit brought by Gadson, who was punched and kicked by police during a traffic stop in 2022. (Dalvin Gadson via AP)

Colorado city agrees to settle police beating lawsuit for $2.1 million

The city of Colorado Springs has agreed to pay $2.1 million to settle a federal lawsuit brought by a Black man who was punched and kicked by police during a traffic stop in 2022. City councilors … more

By COLLEEN SLEVIN | 5/14/24

FILE - This artist depiction shows Massachusetts Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira, right, appearing in U.S. District Court in Boston, April 14, 2023. The Massachusetts Air National Guard member who pleaded guilty to federal crimes for leaking highly classified military documents appeared at a hearing Tuesday, May 14, 2024, on whether he should face a military trial on additional charges. (Margaret Small via AP, File)

Military hearing officer deciding whether to recommend court-martial for Pentagon leaker

A military hearing officer is deciding whether to recommend a court-martial for Massachusetts Air National Guard member Jack Teixeira, who pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges for leaking … more

By HOLLY RAMER | 5/14/24

This giant gas planet is as fluffy and puffy as cotton candy

Astronomers say a planet that's bigger than Jupiter is surprisingly as fluffy and light as cotton candy. An international team reported Tuesday that the planet has an exceedingly low density for its … more

By MARCIA DUNN | 5/14/24

This undated photo shows 6-month-old Nyla Brooke Haywood, a baby girl born Nov. 17, 2023, at Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox, Illinois. Nyla was born at just 22 weeks weighing 1 pound and 1 ounce, making her what’s known as a “micropreemie.” She left Silver Cross Hospital on Monday weighing a healthy 10 pounds, and was taken home by her first-time parents, NaKeya and Cory Haywood of Joliet, Illinois. (NaKeya Haywood via AP)

`Micropreemie' baby who weighed just over 1 pound at birth goes home from Illinois hospital

A baby girl who weighed just over one pound when she was born prematurely has beaten the odds and gone home with her parents after six months at a Chicago area hospital. Nyla Brooke Haywood left a … more

5/14/24

This composite radio and optical image provided by researchers in May 2024 shows IRAS 23077, center, a planet-forming disk, and several surrounding stars. The star at the center of IRAS 23077 is not visible because its light is blocked by its surrounding disk, which is viewed from the side. The diameter of this colossal disk is roughly 3,300 times the distance between Earth and the sun, with enough gas and dust to form super-sized planets in far-flung orbits, the U.S. and German researchers reported in May 2024. (Radio: SAO/ASIAA/SMA/K. Monsch et al; Optical: Pan-STARRS via AP)

Astronomers find the biggest known batch of planet ingredients swirling around young star

Astronomers have discovered what they believe is the biggest known batch of planet-making ingredients in the cosmos. The colossal disk of gas and dust is swirling around a young star 1,000 … more

By MARCIA DUNN | 5/14/24

Chicago mayor's bumpy first year tests progressive credentials, puzzling some supporters

Onetime union organizer Brandon Johnson took office as Chicago’s mayor a year ago promising “bold” action as one of the country’s most progressive leaders. But a look at his bumpy first year … more

By SOPHIA TAREEN | 5/14/24

FILE - A woman watches the sun set on a hot day, Aug. 20, 2023, in Kansas City, Mo. A new study on Tuesday, May 14, 2024, finds that the broiling summer of 2023 was the hottest in the Northern Hemisphere in more than 2,000 years. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)

Hot history: Tree rings show that last northern summer was the warmest since year 1

A new study finds that the broiling summer of 2023 was the hottest in the Northern Hemisphere in more than 2,000 years. When the temperatures spiked last year, numerous weather agencies said it was … more

By SETH BORENSTEIN | 5/14/24

FILE - Students protesting against the war in Gaza, and passersby walking through Harvard Yard, are seen at an encampment at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., on April 25, 2024. Participants at the Harvard encampment protesting the war between Israel and Hamas announced they were voluntarily ending their occupation of Harvard Yard. The student protest group said in a statement that the encampment “outlasted its utility with respect to our demands,” and interim Harvard University President Alan Garber agreed to pursue a meeting between those involved in the protest and university officials. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)

Harvard students end protest as university agrees to discuss Middle East conflict

Anti-war protesters have taken down their tents in Harvard Yard after the university agreed to meet to discuss their demands. The student protest group calling themselves Harvard Out of Occupied … more

5/14/24

FILE - Boxes of the drug mifepristone sit on a shelf at the West Alabama Women's Center in Tuscaloosa, Ala., on March 16, 2022. A new survey puts a number to how often medical providers in states with laws that seek to protect them from prosecution are prescribing abortion pills to women in states with abortion bans or limits on prescribing the bills by telehealth. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed, File)

Survey finds 8,000 women a month got abortion pills despite their states' bans or restrictions

A new survey says medical providers were prescribing abortion pills to about 8,000 women a month in states with abortion bans or bans on telehealth abortions by the end of 2023. The abortion-rights … more

By LAURA UNGAR and GEOFF MULVIHILL | 5/14/24

FILE - The University of Maine's first prototype of an offshore wind turbine is seen in this Sept. 20, 2013 file photo, near Castine Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, files)

New industry readies for launch as researchers hone offshore wind turbines that float

Researchers around the world are racing to create large wind turbines and floating platforms as upcoming lease auctions bring offshore wind closer to reality. Floating turbines are the only way for … more

By DAVID SHARP and JENNIFER McDERMOTT | 5/14/24

Instructor Dave Rose, right, watches as fellow instructor Enrico Solomon, top, demonstrates the basics of ground control on a student during an Arrest & Control Instructor course in Sacramento, Calif., on Thursday, Jan.18, 2024. Law enforcement officers from various agencies attend the class where they receive instruction on basic techniques of arrest and control that they to take back to their agencies to pass along to fellow officers. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

Takeaways from AP investigation into police training on the risks of handcuffing someone facedown

Police across the United States have been warned for decades that the common tactic of handcuffing someone facedown could turn deadly. An Associated Press investigation has found that what some … more

By MARTHA BELLISLE | 5/14/24

Instructor Dave Rose demonstrates a prone handcuffing position on a student during an Arrest & Control Instructor course in Sacramento, Calif., on Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024. Rose has trained generations of officers that prone restraint is safe. His pupils are instructors who take his training back to their departments. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

Risks of handcuffing someone facedown long known; people die when police training fails to keep up

For decades, police across the United States have been warned that the common tactic of handcuffing someone facedown could turn deadly if officers pin them on the ground with too much pressure or for … more

By MARTHA BELLISLE | 5/14/24

A demonstrator wears a national flag as she argues with the police that blocked the road towards the Parliament building during an opposition protest against "the Russian law" in the center of Tbilisi, Georgia, on Monday, May 13, 2024. Daily protests are continuing against a proposed bill that critics say would stifle media freedom and obstruct the country's bid to join the European Union. (AP Photo/Shakh Aivazov)

Georgian parliament holds 3rd and final reading of divisive bill on foreign influence

Georgia’s parliament has begun the third and final reading of a divisive bill that sparked weeks of mass protests, with critics seeing it as a threat to democratic freedoms and the country’s … more

5/14/24

FILE - Russian President Vladimir Putin, center, talks with Russian Chief of General Staff Gen. Valery Gerasimov, left, and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu after a meeting with military leaders in Moscow, Russia, on Dec. 19, 2023. The Kremlin says Russia's President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree appointing Sergei Shoigu as secretary of Russia's national security council, replacing Nikolai Patrushev. The appointment Sunday comes after Putin proposed to appoint Andrei Belousov as the country's defense minister instead of Shoigu, who has served in the post for years. (Mikhail Klimentyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)

Russia arrests another senior Defense Ministry official in bribery charges amid broader shake-up

Russian authorities have arrested another senior Defense Ministry official on the charges of bribery, a move that comes after President Vladimir Putin replaced the defense minister in a Cabinet … more

By The Associated Press | 5/14/24

Displaced Palestinians arrive in central Gaza after fleeing from the southern Gaza city of Rafah in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, on Thursday, May 9, 2024. Palestinians on Wednesday, May 15, 2024, will mark the 76th year of their mass expulsion from what is now Israel. It’s an event that is at the core of their national struggle, but in many ways pales in comparison to the calamity now unfolding in Gaza. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

The Latest | More than half a million people flee fighting in Rafah and northern Gaza, UN says

The United Nations says more than half a million Palestinians have been displaced in recent days by escalating Israeli military operations in both southern and northern Gaza. Aid workers are … more

By The Associated Press | 5/14/24

FILE - Interpreter Ippei Mizuhara listens during a baseball news conference at Dodger Stadium, Thursday, Dec. 14, 2023, in Los Angeles. Mizuhara, the former interpreter for Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani, is expected to plead not guilty Tuesday, May 14, 2024, to bank and tax fraud, a formality ahead of a deal he has negotiated with federal prosecutors in a sports betting case. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)

Ippei Mizuhara, ex-interpreter for MLB star Shohei Ohtani, likely to plead not guilty as a formality

The former interpreter for Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani is likely to plead not guilty as a formality in a sports betting case. Prosecutors allege Ippei Mizuhara stole nearly $17 million … more

By STEFANIE DAZIO | 5/14/24

FILE - Mississippi Republican Gov. Tate Reeves is surrounded by legislative supporters after signing a bill to ban transgender athletes from competing on girls' or women's sports teams on March 11, 2021, at the state Capitol in Jackson, Miss. On Monday, April 29, 2024, Mississippi House and Senate negotiators quietly killed two bills that would have further restricted recognition of transgender people by limiting which bathrooms they could use in public buildings and by specifying that "there are only two sexes, and every individual is either male or female." (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)

Mississippi governor signs law restricting transgender people's use of bathrooms and locker rooms

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves has signed a new law regulating transgender people’s use of bathrooms, locker rooms and dormitories in public education buildings. Mississippi becomes at least the 12th … more

By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS | 5/13/24

FILE - A U.S. Park Police officer inspects a security barrier for damage in Lafayette Square park near the White House, May 23, 2023, in Washington. A Missouri man pleaded guilty Monday, May 13, 2024, to crashing a rented truck into White House barriers last year. Sai Varshith Kandula drove a large U-Haul truck onto a sidewalk, sending pedestrians running for safety, before ramming it into metal bollard barriers that prevent vehicles from entering Lafayette Square. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

Nazi flag-bearing man who crashed a truck into barriers near the White House pleads guilty to felony

A Missouri man who crashed a rental truck into White House barriers and showed a Nazi flag before his arrest last year has pleaded guilty to damaging government property. Court records show that … more

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN | 5/13/24

The collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge rests on the container ship Dali, Sunday, May 12, 2024, in Baltimore, as seen from Riviera Beach, Md. An effort to remove sections of the collapsed bridge resting on the Dali was postponed on Sunday. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Controlled demolition at Baltimore bridge collapse site on track

Crews are on track to conduct a controlled demolition of the largest remaining steel span of the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. The demolition was postponed Sunday afternoon because … more

By LEA SKENE | 5/13/24

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu is driven along Red Square in an Aurus car during the Victory Day military parade in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, May 9, 2024, marking the 79th anniversary of the end of World War II. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

A Kremlin shake-up of Russia's Defense Ministry comes at a key moment in the Ukraine war

Over the weekend, President Vladimir Putin replaced Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu — the longest serving member of his Cabinet at 11 1/2 years — in a rare Kremlin shake-up that came even as a … more

By The Associated Press | 5/13/24