JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi is violating the U.S. Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment by permanently stripping voting rights from people convicted of some felonies, a federal appeals court panel ruled in a split decision Friday.Two judges on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel ordered the Mississippi secretary of state to
NEW YORK (AP) — Veteran character actor Mark Margolis, who had a breakout role as a mobster in “Scarface” and became best known for playing vindictive former drug kingpin Hector Salamanca in TV’s “Breaking Bad” and then in the prequel “Better Call Saul,” has died at age 83.The actor died on Thursday at Mount Sinai
In a crushing blow to the Pac-12, the Big Ten has cleared the way for Oregon and Washington to apply for membership and join the conference, four people with familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press on Friday.The Ducks and Huskies still must officially apply for membership and the Big Ten presidents, who met
For years in gymnastics, the phrase “the twisties” was usually uttered in hushed tones, as if saying the slang term for an athlete’s sudden loss of air awareness during a routine would only deepen the problem.“It’s almost like a mythical kind of thing,” longtime Oklahoma men’s gymnastics coach Mark Williams said. “When someone says ‘the
LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Pope Francis led an estimated 800,000 people in a meditation on the scourges of violence, poverty and intolerance Friday at World Youth Day, as the Portuguese government weighed in on an incident of intolerance directed at LGBTQ+ pilgrims attending the big Catholic youth festival. Lisbon’s central Eduardo VII park was packed
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee man who tried to enter a Jewish school with a gun fired shots at a construction worker there and later pointed his weapon at police before an officer wounded him on a residential street, authorities said Friday.Joel Bowman, 33, went to Margolin Hebrew Academy-Feinstone Yeshiva of the South school
GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina congresswoman injured in a serious automobile accident this week is recovering at home from a broken sternum and bone in her foot, her office said Friday.Democratic U.S. Rep. Kathy Manning and a staff member who was driving her Thursday morning to an event in her district in north-central
MIAMI (AP) — The first time the College Board bumped up against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s efforts to inject conservative ideals into education standards, it ultimately revamped the Advanced Placement course for African American studies, watering down curriculum on slavery reparations and the Black Lives Matter movement – and a nationwide backlash ensued.Now, faced with
PARKLAND, Fla. (AP) — Nine members of Congress toured the blood-stained and bullet-pocked halls at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Friday, shortly before ballistics technicians reenact the massacre that left 14 students and three staff members dead.Few have been inside the three-story building since the Valentine’s Day 2018 shooting. The structure looms over the
BANJA LUKA, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — Serbia will ignore U.S. sanctions recently imposed on top Bosnian Serb officials for undermining a 1995 peace agreement that ended a war that left more than 100,000 dead and millions homeless, the Serbian president said Friday.Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said that the sanctioned ethnic Serb officials from neighboring Bosnia will
