National News - The Morning Sun

FILE - A visitor sits on a bench to look artist Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg's "In America: Remember," a temporary art installation made up of white flags to commemorate Americans who have died of COVID-19, on the National Mall in Washington on Oct. 2, 2021. The number of U.S. deaths has dropped in 2022 after soaring for two years during the COVID-19 pandemic, but it still is much higher than the levels before the coronavirus hit. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)

US deaths fell this year, but not to pre-COVID levels

The number of U.S. deaths has dropped this year, but there are still more than there were before the coronavirus hit. Preliminary data — through the first 11 months of this year — indicates 2022 … more

By MIKE STOBBE | 12/14/22

Aaron Dean arrives at the 396th District Court for closing arguments on Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2022, in Fort Worth, Texas. Dean is accused of murder in the 2019 fatal shooting of Atatiana Jefferson. (Amanda McCoy/Star-Telegram via AP, Pool)

Jury starts deliberation in Texas officer’s murder trial

A jury began deliberations Wednesday in the murder case against a former Texas police officer charged with fatally shooting a Black woman through a rear window of her home in 2019. The Tarrant County … more

12/14/22

Law enforcement officials investigate the Motel 6 where two Bay St. Louis, Miss., police officers were killed in a shooting on Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2022. Officers encountered a female subject, who shot both officers before killing herself, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation said. (Justin Mitchell/The Sun Herald, via AP)

Police: 2 officers slain in Mississippi; shooter also dead

Authorities say two police officers in coastal Mississippi were shot and killed by a woman early Wednesday as they checked on a call at a motel. The Mississippi Department of Public Safety said the … more

12/14/22

In this photo provided by the Florida Keys News Bureau, Monroe County Sheriff's Office Colonel Lou Caputo, right, costumed as the Grinch, leans on the shoulder of Deputy Andrew Leird, left, as he uses a laser speed detector to check speeds of motorists traveling through a school zone on the Florida Keys Overseas Highway Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2022, in Marathon, Fla. For drivers slightly speeding through the area, Caputo offers them the choice between an onion or a traffic citation. (Andy Newman/Florida Keys News Bureau via AP)

Deputy dressed as Grinch gives onions to speeding drivers

Several motorists who were speeding through an elementary school zone on the Florida Keys Overseas Highway received an odorous onion as a reminder to slow down from a county sheriff’s deputy … more

12/14/22

FILE - This May 25, 2022, photo released by the Mississippi Department of Corrections shows Thomas Edwin Loden Jr., who is set to receive a lethal injection at the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman, Miss., on Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2022. He's been on death row since 2001, when he pleaded guilty to capital murder, rape and four counts of sexual battery against 16-year old Leesa Marie Gray.. (Mississippi Department of Corrections via AP, File)

Mississippi set to execute man for killing 16-year-old girl

A Mississippi man who pleaded guilty to raping and killing a 16-year-old girl is scheduled to be put to death. He would become the second inmate executed in Mississippi in 10 years. Thomas Edwin … more

By MICHAEL GOLDBERG | 12/14/22

FILE—Dr. Amos C. Brown, Jr., vice chair for the California Reparations Task Force, right, holds a copy of the book Songs of Slavery and Emancipation, as he and other members of the task force pose for photos at the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif., on June 16, 2022. California's committee to study reparations for African Americans will meet in Oakland Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2022, to discuss requirements for residents who may receive some form of compensation. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)

California reparations task force to talk eligibility

California's first-in-the-nation task force studying reparations for Black residents will discuss potential eligibility requirements and what form reparations could take at a two-day meeting that … more

By SOPHIE AUSTIN | 12/14/22

FILE - This November 2014, file photo provided by the U.S. National Park Service shows a mountain lion known as P-22, photographed in the Griffith Park area near downtown Los Angeles. A mountain lion that killed a Chihuahua while the little dog was being walked on leash in the Hollywood Hills earlier this month is the famed cougar P-22, the National Park Service confirmed Monday, Nov. 21, 2022. (U.S. National Park Service, via AP, File)

Exam finds famed LA mountain lion may have been hit by car

Wildlife experts say the famous Hollywood-roaming mountain lion known as P-22 is drastically underweight and probably was struck and hurt by a car. The experts gave the big cat a health exam amid … more

12/13/22

Sigourney Weaver, James Cameron float on in 'Way of Water'

James Cameron and Sigourney Weaver's long-running friendship and collaboration reaches an unlikely pinnacle in “Avatar: The Way of the Water.” Though Weaver co-starred in Cameron’s original … more

By JAKE COYLE | 12/13/22

This cover image released by Columbia Records Group shows "Renaissance" by Beyonce. (Columbia Records Group via AP)

AP's top albums 2022: 'Renaissance,' 'Motomami,' Bad Bunny

Beyonce's “Renaissance," Bad Bunny's “Un Verano Sin Ti," and Rosalía's “Motomami” were some of the biggest album drops of the year and are among the year's best albums, as determined by a … more

By The Associated Press | 12/13/22

FILE - Jackie Sandler, left, and her husband Adam Sandler appear at the Governors Awards on Nov. 19, 2022 in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)

Comedian and actor Adam Sandler to get 2023 Mark Twain Prize

The Mark Twain Prize for American Humor has gone to such luminaries as Richard Pryor, Carl Reiner, Whoopi Goldberg, Billy Crystal, George Carlin and Ellen DeGeneres. Next year, it’s going to Adam … more

By The Associated Press | 12/13/22

FILE - People watch lava from the Mauna Loa volcano Thursday, Dec. 1, 2022, near Hilo, Hawaii. U.S. scientists declared Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2022, that two active Hawaii volcanoes — one where lava destroyed hundreds of homes in 2018 and another where lava recently stalled before reaching a crucial Big Island highway — have stopped erupting. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)

Scientists declare 2 Hawaii volcanoes have stopped erupting

Scientists have declared on the same day that two active Hawaii volcanoes have stopped erupting. The U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said in a statement Tuesday that Kilauea … more

By JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER | 12/13/22

Mars rover captures 1st sound of dust devil on red planet

A NASA rover on Mars by chance had its microphone on when a whirling tower of red dust passed overhead last year and caught the sound. Scientists released the first-of-its-kind audio Tuesday. The … more

By MARCIA DUNN | 12/13/22

FILE - The stage appears before the start of the 75th annual Tony Awards on June 12, 2022 in New York. The 76th Annual Tony Awards will broadcast live from the United Palace in New York on Sunday, June 11, 2023. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File)

Mark your calendars, theater lovers: Tony Awards are June 11

The producers of the Tony Awards have set June 11 for the show that celebrates the best of Broadway and are setting it in a new location, more than a hundred blocks north of the theater district. The … more

By The Associated Press | 12/13/22

In this December 2022 photo provided by the Wisconsin Human Society, an injured bald eagle is examined and treated at the Wisconsin Humane Society Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Milwaukee, Wis. Police in Wisconsin are seeking tips to help them solve the case of the bald eagle that was shot and injured in Milwaukee County. (Angela Speed/Wisconsin Human Society via AP)

Police seeking tips on shooting of bald eagle in Wisconsin

Police in Wisconsin are seeking tips to help them solve the case of a bald eagle that was shot and injured. The adult male bird was found unable to fly Wednesday on private property in Franklin, a … more

12/13/22

Russian President Vladimir Putin listens to Russian Constitutional Court Chairman Valery Zorkin during their meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Monday, Dec. 12, 2022. (Mikhail Metzel, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Cornered in Ukraine, Putin spikes annual news conference

The Kremlin says that Russian President Vladimir Putin will not be holding his annual marathon news conference this fall. Observers have attributed the break in the long-held tradition to the … more

12/13/22

Most small SUVs flunk updated insurance industry crash tests

Most small SUVs flunked the latest frontal crash tests done by the insurance industry, but oddly enough, they’re just as safe as they were before. That’s because the Insurance Institute for … more

By TOM KRISHER | 12/13/22

FILE - This photo provided by the U.S. National Park Service shows a mountain lion known as P-22, photographed in November 2014 in the Griffith Park area near downtown Los Angeles. Southern California's most famous mountain lion, known for roaming across freeways and making a sprawling Los Angeles park his home, was captured Monday, Dec. 12, 2022, by wildlife officials who said they want to examine the big cat after he killed a dog that was being walked in the Hollywood Hills. (U.S. National Park Service, via AP, File)

Famed Hollywood mountain lion captured after killing dog

Wildlife officials say Southern California’s most famous mountain lion, P-22, has been captured in a Los Angeles neighborhood. The cougar will be given a health examination after he killed a dog … more

CHRISTOPHER WEBER | 12/12/22

In this 2012 image provided by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, a technician reviews an optic inside the preamplifier support structure at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif. Officials at the Department of Energy say on Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2022, there will be an announcement of a “major scientific breakthrough” on nuclear fusion. (Damien Jemison/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory via AP)

EXPLAINER: Why fusion could be a clean-energy breakthrough

The Department of Energy is planning an announcement for Tuesday about a “major scientific breakthrough” at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The laboratory is one of several sites … more

12/12/22

Karen Bass, left, is sworn in as mayor of Los Angeles by Vice President Kamala Harris, a longtime friend and former California attorney general, in Los Angeles, on Sunday, Dec. 11, 2022. Bass' stepdaughter, Yvette Lechuga, center, holds the Bible used in the swearing in. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

New LA mayor Bass declares homeless emergency as term begins

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has taken office making good on a pledge to declare an immediate state of emergency to grapple with the city’s out-of-control homeless crisis. Bass said the declaration … more

By MICHAEL R. BLOOD and CHRISTOPHER WEBER | 12/12/22

Can James Cameron and 'Avatar' wow again? Don't doubt it.

Thirteen years after the original “Avatar” and five years after production started on its sequel, “The Way of Water,” James Cameron is finally unveiling the long-awaited follow-up to the … more

By JAKE COYLE | 12/12/22