AUSTIN, Texas — A plan in one of Texas’ largest counties to use dozens fewer polling locations than in previous years is drawing protests from Democrats who say the reductions could create confusion in the November midterm elections. The proposal, set for a vote Tuesday, would reduce the number of polling locations across booming Tarrant…

US plans to sanction another bank this week in effort to clamp down on Iran transactions, Bessent tells AP

ASHEVILLE, N.C. — President Donald Trump’s administration plans to impose sanctions on another bank this week as it intensified efforts to economically isolate Iran, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told The Associated Press on Sunday. “This is going to be financial violence if we have to,” Bessent said in the interview. “We are showing people…

MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif. — Volunteers carried out a more than 15-hour operation to rescue a man who got off route in the Sierra Nevada and was stranded on a small ledge, the Mono County Sheriff Search and Rescue Team said. A four-person team carried out the rescue last weekend near Mammoth Lakes, California, in a…

A South Carolina police officer died and a second was injured in a “gunfight” Saturday in a park that followed a call about a domestic dispute, Columbia police Chief W.H. “Skip” Holbrook said. The suspect, a 33-year-old man with a lengthy criminal record, also died, Holbrook said at a news conference in the capital city….

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Citing the importance of the First Amendment, a federal judge in California says the U.S. government is unconstitutionally silencing critics of Israel’s war in Gaza and others as part of the Trump administration ‘s quest to deport noncitizens who it says disrupted college campuses while expressing their views. Judge Noël Wise,…

PHOENIX — On the outskirts of Phoenix, a small town with a huge reliance on the Colorado River has capped growth, revived old wells and struck water deals. But Cave Creek Mayor Robert Morris can’t shake the real possibility that it’s not enough to keep the desert community of about 5,000 people afloat well into…

BOSTON — BOSTON (AP) — Climate change has been the backdrop to Charles Hughes’ entire life, from kindergarten lessons about disappearing habitats to wildfire smoke billowing through the air he breathed while growing up in Colorado. But now that he’s a college student in Massachusetts, he said global warming is rarely a top issue. “Honestly,…

Officials struggled for years to curb high-speed crashes along a residential corridor cutting through Albuquerque, New Mexico, but simply punishing the lead-footed drivers didn’t seem to work. What ultimately did was rewarding the law-abiding ones with fewer red lights. The solution, which the city credits for a dramatic drop in crashes and injuries along one…

PLYMOUTH, Mass. — Jurors in the closely watched Lindsay Clancy trial began deliberating this week — but had not reached a verdict by the end of the day Friday. They have a lot to consider. Over the past five weeks, the jury heard testimony from doctors, first responders, relatives and even Clancy’s former husband. It…