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By DEEPTI HAJELA FILE - #MuteRKelly supporters protest outside R. Kelly's studio, Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2019, in Chicago. Accusers and others demanding accountability for the R&B superstar over allegations that he was abusing young women and girls for decades say it took so long to get to a guilty verdict in part because his targets were Black. Kelly was convicted Monday, Sept. 27, 2021, in his sex trafficking trial. Those

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST, TERRY TANG and ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON Seraphine Warren poses for a photo in her home in Tooele, Utah, on Sept. 23, 2021, with a rug made by her aunt, Navajo rug weaver Ella Mae Begay. Begay, 62, disappeared in June, one of thousands of missing Indigenous women across the U.S. The extensive coverage of the Gabby Petito case is renewing calls to also shine a spotlight on

By BRYAN ANDERSON More than one-third of the 56,000 North Carolina government employees included in Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s executive order compelling them to get a COVID-19 shot or face weekly testing have not been fully vaccinated, according to new state data. Law enforcement officials are getting vaccinated at the lowest rates, though the state said it is still processing a large set of data from the Department of Public

By GARY D. ROBERTSON Legislation that would lead to new controls upon the nonprofit body governing North Carolina high school sports has been agreed to in principle, state officials said Thursday. But there’s still uncertainty, as all the details haven’t been worked out. House and Senate GOP members who have scrutinized the North Carolina High School Athletic Association have said changes are needed to address what they deem is the

In this photo provided by the Manny Pacquiao MediaComms, Senator Manny Pacquiao, left, raises his hands during a national convention of his PDP-Laban party in Quezon city, Philippines on Sunday Sept. 19, 2021. Philippine boxing icon and senator Manny Pacquiao says he will run for president in the 2022 elections. (Manny Pacquiao MediaComms via AP) Philippine boxing icon and senator Manny Pacquiao says he will run for president in the

By KATHY GANNON Women march to demand their rights under the Taliban rule during a demonstration near the former Women's Affairs Ministry building in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, Sept. 19, 2021. The interim mayor of Afghanistan’s capital said Sunday that many female city employees have been ordered to stay home by the country’s new Taliban rulers. (AP Photo) KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Female employees in the Kabul city government have been

By RYAN J. FOLEY Waterloo Police Chief Joel Fitzgerald speaks during an interview with The Associated Press, Tuesday, Sept. 7, 2021, in Waterloo, Iowa. Fitzgerald, the first Black police chief in Waterloo, is facing intense opposition from some current and former officers as he works with city leaders to reform the department, including the removal of its longtime insignia that resembles a Ku Klux Klan dragon. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall) The

Police officers violated civil rights law when they forced a blind man and his service dog to leave a mall and threatened to arrest him for trespassing if he didn’t, according to a lawsuit filed by a North Carolina advocacy group. “Civil rights are severely weakened when police departments treat blind shoppers as trespassers based on a store’s discriminatory desire to have them removed for using a guide dog,” said

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) — A man has been charged with murder in the 2012 beating death of a North Carolina college student, police said Thursday.  Chapel Hill police announced at a news conference on Thursday that Miguel Enrique Olivares, 28, of Durham was arrested in connection with the beating death of Faith Hedgepeth at her off-campus apartment, news outlets reported. Olivares is charged with first-degree murder and is being

By MARY CLARE JALONICK, WILL GRAVES and MICHAEL BALSAMO Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles told Congress in forceful testimony Wednesday that federal law enforcement and gymnastics officials turned a “blind eye” to USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar’s sexual abuse of her and hundreds of other women. United States gymnasts from left, Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney, Aly Raisman and Maggie Nichols, arrive to testify during a Senate Judiciary hearing about