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Police searching for Carlethia Russel who vanished after reporting child on side of Alabama interstate

HOOVER, Ala (AP) - Police in Alabama searched Friday for a 25-year-old woman who vanished after telling a family member that she was stopping to check on a child she saw walking on the side of an interstate highway. Hoover police say Carlethia "Carlee" Nichole Russell called 911 Thursday night and then a family member to say she saw a young child walking on the side of I-459. When officers

El Nino is threatening rice crops while grain supplies already are squeezed by the war in Ukraine

NEW DELHI (AP) - Warmer, drier weather because of an earlier than usual El Nino is expected to hamper rice production across Asia, hitting global food security in a world still reeling from the impacts of the war in Ukraine. An El Nino is a natural, temporary and occasional warming of part of the Pacific that shifts global weather patterns, and climate change is making them stronger. The National Oceanic

Justice Department to investigate jail conditions in Georgia’s most populous county

BY KATE BRUMBACK ATLANTA (AP) - The U.S. Department of Justice has opened a civil rights investigation into jail conditions in Georgia's most populous county, with officials citing violence, filthy conditions and excessive force by jail officers. Investigators will look at living conditions, access to medical and mental health care, use of excessive force by staff and conditions that may give rise to violence between people held in Fulton County's jails,

First over-the-counter birth control pill gets FDA approval

BY MATTHEW PERRONE WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal regulators on Thursday approved the nation's first over-the-counter birth control pill in a landmark decision that will soon allow American women and girls to obtain contraceptive medication as easily as they buy aspirin and eyedrops. The Food and Drug Administration cleared once-a-day Opill to be sold without a prescription, making it the first such medication to be moved out from behind the pharmacy counter.

$1.2M bail set for man charged with killing Tennessee surgeon remembered as skilled, beloved doctor

COLLIERVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - A man charged with killing a hand surgeon at a Tennessee clinic was being held on $1.2 million bail Thursday as those who knew the doctor remembered him as a skilled and beloved medical professional who cared for his patients. Larry Pickens, 29, told a judge Thursday that he could not afford the bail and wasn't sure if he could afford a lawyer, the Commercial Appeal

How America’s push for the atomic bomb spawned enduring radioactive waste problems in St. Louis

BY MICHAEL PHILLIS AND JIM SALTER ST. LOUIS (AP) - The federal government and companies responsible for nuclear bomb production and atomic waste storage sites in the St. Louis area in the mid-20th century were aware of health risks, spills, improperly stored contaminants and other problems but often ignored them, according to documents reviewed by The Associated Press. Decades later, even with much of the cleanup complete, the aftereffects haunt the

Black Lives Matter movement marks 10 years of activism and renews its call to defund the police

BY AARON MORRISON The Black Lives Matter movement hits a milestone on Thursday, marking 10 years since its 2013 founding in response to the acquittal of the man who fatally shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. Gunned down in a Florida gated community where his father lived in 2012, Martin was one of the earliest symbols of a movement that now wields influence in politics, law enforcement and broader conversations about racial progress

Louisiana judge tosses some charges against officers in deadly arrest of Black driver Ronald Greene

BY JIM MUSTIAN A state judge has thrown out obstruction of justice charges against two of the five Louisiana lawmen indicted in the fatal 2019 arrest of Ronald Greene, a death authorities initially blamed on a car crash before long suppressed body-camera video showed the white officers beating, stunning and dragging the Black motorist as he wailed, "I'm scared!" While the rulings this week marked a setback for the prosecution, the

Detroit-area officer charged with federal civil rights crime after punching Black man

WARREN, Mich. (AP) - A suburban Detroit police officer who punched a young Black man in the face and slammed his head to the ground was charged Monday with a federal civil rights crime. A criminal complaint against Matthew Rodriguez was unsealed in federal court ahead of an afternoon news conference by U.S. Attorney Dawn Ison. Jaquwan Smith, 19, was being processed at the Warren police station on June 13