Georgia jail fails to let out inmates who are due for release and met bail, citing crashed database

JONESBORO, Ga. (AP) - The jail in a suburban Atlanta county held inmates for days who were due for release because a state database had crashed, preventing jailers from being able to check whether a person was wanted in another jurisdiction. Officials in Clayton County said they stopped releasing inmates, including those who had been bailed out, because they didn't want to release someone who might be wanted elsewhere for

Legal experts question judge’s order telling Southwest lawyers to get religious-liberty training

BY DAVID KOENIG A federal judge has set off a debate among legal scholars by ordering lawyers for Southwest Airlines to undergo "religious-liberty training" by a conservative Christian legal group. Critics say that if the judge believes such training is necessary, he should have found a less polarizing group to conduct it. U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr made the decision after ruling that Southwest was in contempt of court for defying

Russia’s currency hits the lowest level since the early weeks of the war in Ukraine

LONDON (AP) - The Russian ruble has reached its lowest value since the early weeks of the war in Ukraine as Moscow increases military spending and Western sanctions weigh on its energy exports. On Monday, the Russian currency passed 101 rubles to the dollar, continuing a more than 25% decline in its value since the beginning of the year and hitting the lowest level in almost 17 months. President Vladimir

A central Kansas police force sparked a firestorm by raiding a newspaper and the publisher’s home

BY JOHN HANNA AND MARGERY A. BECK MARION, Kan. (AP) - A small central Kansas police department is facing a torrent of criticism for raiding a local newspaper's office and the home of its owner and publisher, seizing computers and cellphones, and, in the publisher's view, stressing his 98-year-old mother enough to cause her weekend death. Several press freedom watchdogs condemned the Marion Police Department's actions as a blatant violation of

How hip-hop went from being shunned by big business to multimillion-dollar collabs

NEW YORK (AP) - The signs of hip-hop's influence are everywhere - from Pharrell Williams becoming Louis Vuitton's men's creative director to billion-dollar brands like Dr. Dre's Beats headphones and retail mainstays like Diddy's Sean John and Jay-Z's Rocawear. It didn't start out that way. The music genre germinated 50 years ago as an escape from the poverty and violence of New York City's most distressed borough, the Bronx, where

Millions scramble to afford energy bills amid heat waves, but federal program to help falls short

BY JESSE BEDAYN Bobbie Boyd is in a losing battle against near triple-digit temperatures in northwest Arkansas. Her window air conditioner runs nonstop and the ballooning electric bill carves about $240 out of her $882-a-month fixed income. So the 57-year-old cuts other necessities. Boyd eats one meal a day so her 15-year-old grandson, who she's raising alone, can have two. She stopped paying car insurance and skips medical appointments. "The rent

COVID-19 hospitalizations in the US are on the rise again, but not like before

BY CARLA K. JOHNSON Here we go again: COVID-19 hospital admissions have inched upward in the United States since early July in a small-scale echo of the three previous summers. With an updated vaccine still months away, this summer bump in new hospitalizations might be concerning, but the number of patients is far lower than before. A look at what we know: HOW BAD IS THE SPIKE? For the week ending

UNC is appealing to the NCAA for immediate eligibility for transfer WR Devontez Walker

BY AARON BEARD North Carolina coach Mack Brown said Tuesday the school is appealing to the NCAA for immediate eligibility for transfer Devontez Walker, the Tar Heels' presumed No. 1 receiver whose status is in question weeks before the opener. The NCAA denied the waiver for Walker to play immediately after his transfer from Kent State, where he played two seasons. NCAA rules generally allow players to transfer freely once, but

5 white nationalists sue Seattle man for allegedly leaking their identities

SEATTLE (AP) - Five people affiliated with white nationalist hate group Patriot Front are suing a Seattle-area man who they say infiltrated the group and disclosed their identities online, leading them to lose their jobs and face harassment. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for Western Washington, The Seattle Times reported on Tuesday. The suit accuses David Capito, 37, also known as Vyacheslav Arkhangelskiy, of using a false

Special counsel got a search warrant for Twitter to turn over info on Trump’s account, documents say

BY ALANNA DURKIN RICHER Special counsel Jack Smith's team obtained a search warrant in January for records related to former President Donald Trump's Twitter account, and a judge levied a $350,000 fine on the company for missing the deadline to comply, according to court documents released Wednesday. The new details were included in a ruling from the federal appeals court in Washington over a legal battle surrounding the warrant that has