WASHINGTON (AP) — Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson is about to pick up his duties as chairman of a select committee to investigate the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection. As the longtime chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, the Democrat is familiar with being in a leadership role. But the Jan. 6 panel will be a new…
NEW YORK (AP) — Jackie Mason, a rabbi-turned-jokester whose feisty brand of standup comedy got laughs from nightclubs in the Catskills to West Coast talk shows and Broadway stages, has died. He was 93. Mason died Saturday in Manhattan, the celebrity lawyer Raoul Felder told The Associated Press. Mason started in show business as a…
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A California appeals court on Friday disqualified a private judge being used by Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt in their divorce case, handing Jolie a major victory. The 2nd District Court of Appeal agreed with Jolie that Judge John Ouderkirk didn’t sufficiently disclose business relationships with Pitt’s attorneys. The decision means…
A new poll shows that most Americans who haven’t been vaccinated against COVID-19 say they are unlikely to get the shots. Most of them also doubt they would work against the aggressive delta variant despite evidence they do. Those findings underscore the challenges facing public health officials as soaring infections in some states again threaten…
NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon is pushing landlords around the country to give its drivers the ability to unlock apartment building front doors whenever they need to leave packages in the lobby instead of the street. The service, called Amazon Key for Business, allows delivery workers to make their rounds faster since they don’t have…
TOKYO (AP) — The Tokyo Olympic organizing committee has fired the director of the opening ceremony because of a Holocaust joke he made during a comedy show in 1998. Organizing committee president Seiko Hashimoto says opening ceremony director Kentaro Kobayashi has been dismissed. He was accused of using a joke about the Holocaust in his…
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Wildfires in the U.S. West are creating hazy skies as far away as New York as the massive infernos spew smoke and ash into the air. Strong winds blew smoke east from California, Oregon, Montana and other states. The smoke on the U.S. East Coast was reminiscent of last fall when…
WASHINGTON (AP) — The bipartisan infrastructure deal senators brokered with President Joe Biden is hanging by a thread. Senators are struggling to reach a compromise over how to pay for nearly $1 trillion in public works spending. Tensions are rising as Republicans prepare to block Wednesday’s procedural vote with a filibuster, saying they need more…
VAN HORN, Texas (AP) — Jeff Bezos has made it into space, riding his own company’s rocket. It was Blue Origin’s first flight with people on board after 15 test flights. The Amazon founder blasted into space Tuesday with a hand-picked group that included his younger brother, an 18-year-old from the Netherlands and an 82-year-old…
VAN HORN, Texas (AP) — Jeff Bezos is about to soar on his space travel company’s first flight with people on board. The founder of Blue Origin as well as Amazon will become the second billionaire to ride his own rocket. He’ll blast off Tuesday morning from West Texas with his brother, an 18-year-old from…