SEQUOIA NATIONAL PARK — High in the evergreen canopy of General Sherman, the world’s largest tree, researchers searched for evidence of an emerging threat to giant sequoias: bark beetles. They descended the towering 2,200-year-old tree with good news on Tuesday. “The General Sherman tree is doing fine right now,” said...
Charlie Colin, Founding Member of Train, Dies at 58 After Slipping in Shower
BRUSSELS — Charlie Colin, bassist and founding member of the band Train, best known for their early-aughts hits like “Drops of Jupiter" and “Meet Virginia,” has died. He was 58. Colin’s sister Carolyn Stephens confirmed her brother's death to The Associated Press on Wednesday. He died after slipping and falling...
Cavaliers Fire Coach J.B. Bickerstaff Despite Making Second Round of Playoffs
CLEVELAND — J.B. Bickerstaff was fired as Cleveland's coach on Thursday despite leading the Cavaliers through a major rebuild, an injury-ravaged 2023-24 season and into the second round of the NBA playoffs. Bickerstaff's dismissal came one week after the Cavs were eliminated in five games by the Boston Celtics in...
Supreme Court Finds No Bias Against Black Voters in a South Carolina Congressional District
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court's conservative majority on Thursday preserved a Republican-held South Carolina congressional district, rejecting a lower-court ruling that said the district discriminated against Black voters. In dissent, liberal justices warned that the court was insulating states from claims of unconstitutional racial gerrymandering. In a 6-3 decision, the...
49ers Assistant Brandon Staley Looks for a Coaching ‘Reset’ After Firing by Chargers
SANTA CLARA — Brandon Staley's rise up the coaching ranks was meteoric, going from a Division III defensive coordinator to head coach in the NFL in a dizzying five-year span. Staley's stay at the top of the football coaching profession proved to be brief as he was fired before the...
Stock Market Today: AI Stocks Leap as Interest-Rate Worries Hold Back the Rest of Wall Street
NEW YORK — Technology stocks propelled by a blowout profit report from Nvidia are working against weakness elsewhere in the market on Thursday to keep U.S. stock indexes mixed. In the latest example of how good news for the economy isn't necessarily good for Wall Street, strong economic reports are...
Jewell Loyd Scores 32 Before Sellout of 18,343, Seattle Edges Caitlin Clark and Fever
SEATTLE — The decisive losses Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever endured to start the WNBA season were easier to handle than the last two setbacks that were decided by a total of six points. Jewell Loyd scored 21 of her 32 points in the first half, Sami Whitcomb scored...
White House Pushes Tech Industry to Shut Down Market for Sexually Abusive AI Deepfakes
President Joe Biden's administration is pushing the tech industry and financial institutions to shut down a growing market of abusive sexual images made with artificial intelligence technology. New generative AI tools have made it easy to transform someone's likeness into a sexually explicit AI deepfake and share those realistic images...
Russian Missiles Kill 7 in Ukraine’s Second-Largest City as Moscow’s Troops Press Offensive
KYIV, Ukraine — Russian missiles slammed into Ukraine’s second-largest city in the country's northeast and killed at least seven civilians early Thursday, officials said, as Kyiv’s army labored to hold off an intense cross-border offensive by the Kremlin’s larger and better-equipped forces. At least 20 people were wounded as S-300...
UCLA Police Chief Reassigned Following Criticism Over Handling of Campus Demonstrations
LOS ANGELES — The police chief at the University of California, Los Angeles, has been reassigned following criticism over his handling of recent campus demonstrations that included a mob attacking a pro-Palestinian encampment. Chief John Thomas was temporarily reassigned Tuesday “pending an examination of our security processes,” said Mary Osako,...