Snow, rain slam California as Michigan suffers without power

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Heavy snow and rain pounded California and other parts of the West on Friday in the nation's latest winter storm, while tens of thousands of people in Michigan suffered in freezing temperatures days after one of the worst ice storms in decades caused widespread power outages.

Days of winter storms blacked out nearly 1 million homes and businesses from coast to coast, closed major roads, caused pileups on highways and snarled air travel. More than 460 flights were canceled and more than 7,400 were delayed Friday across the U.S., according to FlightAware.com.

In California, the National Weather Service warned of cold, snowy and rainy weather lasting through Saturday and issued flash flood warnings through 10 p.m. Friday for Los Angeles, its suburbs and a portion of Ventura County, a region that is home to about 6 million people.

Cellphones buzzed Friday afternoon with an emergency alert that warned: “This is a dangerous and life-threatening situation. Do not attempt to travel unless you are fleeing an area subject to flooding.”

Some places in the flash flood warning zone could see up to 10 inches (23 centimeters) of rain, the weather service said.

___

The AP Interview: Biden ready to run, US first lady says

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — U.S. first lady Jill Biden gave one of the clearest indications yet that President Joe Biden will run for a second term, telling The Associated Press in an exclusive interview on Friday that there's “pretty much” nothing left to do but figure out the time and place for the announcement.

Although Biden has long said that it's his intention to seek reelection, he has yet to make it official, and he's struggled to dispel questions about whether he's too old to continue serving as president. Biden would be 86 at the end of a second term.

“How many times does he have to say it for you to believe it?” the first lady said in Nairobi, the second and final stop of her five-day trip to Africa.

She added, “He says he’s not done. He’s not finished what he’s started. And that’s what’s important.”

Granddaughter Naomi Biden, who is on the trip, cheered the first lady's comments after the interview.

___

Key US inflation measure surges at fastest rate since June

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge rose last month at its fastest pace since June, an alarming sign that price pressures remain entrenched in the U.S. economy and could lead the Fed to keep raising interest rates well into this year.

Friday’s report from the Commerce Department showed that consumer prices rose 0.6% from December to January, up sharply from a 0.2% increase from November to December. On a year-over-year basis, prices rose 5.4%, up from a 5.3% annual increase in December.

Excluding volatile food and energy prices, so-called core inflation rose 0.6% from December, up from a 0.4% rise the previous month. And compared with a year earlier, core inflation was up 4.7% in January, versus a 4.6% year-over-year uptick in December.

The report also showed that consumer spending rose 1.8% last month from December after falling the previous month.

January's price data exceeded forecasters' expectations, confounding hopes that inflation was steadily decelerating and that the Fed could relent on its campaign of rate hikes. It follows other recent data that also suggested that the economy remains gripped by inflation despite the Fed's strenuous efforts to tame it.

___

As Ukraine marks year of war, leader vows to secure victory

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s leader pledged Friday to push for victory in 2023 as he and other Ukrainians marked the somber anniversary of the Russian invasion that upended their lives and Europe's security.

It was Ukraine's "longest day," President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, but the country's dogged resistance a year on has proven that "every tomorrow is worth fighting for.”

On a day of commemorations, reflection and tears, the Ukrainian president's defiant tone captured the national mood of resilience in the face of Europe’s biggest and deadliest war since World War II. Zelenskyy, who has himself become a symbol of Ukraine's refusal to bow to Moscow, said Ukrainians proved themselves to be invincible during "a year of pain, sorrow, faith and unity.”

“We have been standing for exactly one year,” Zelenskyy said. Feb. 24, 2022, he said, was "the longest day of our lives. The hardest day of our modern history. We woke up early and haven’t fallen asleep since.”

Ukrainians wept at memorials for their tens of thousands of dead — a toll growing inexorably as fighting rages in eastern Ukraine in particular. Although Friday marked the anniversary of the full-scale invasion, combat between Russian-backed forces and Ukrainian troops has raged in the country’s east since 2014. New video from there shot with a drone for The Associated Press showed how the town of Marinka has been razed, along with others.

___

Young gymnast among 3 killed in shootings near Orlando

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — At age 9, T'yonna Major excelled at her school work and in gymnastics, shown flexing her arms after competitions with newly won medals around her neck in photos her proud dad posted on social media.

“She was a light to everyone that knew her,” the girl's father, Tokiyo Major, posted on the fundraising site GoFundMe, where he has asked for donations to help pay for his daughter's funeral. “She was everything to us.”

T'yonna was killed Wednesday when a gunman barged into her home outside Orlando and shot the third-grader and her mother, who survived the attack. The Orange County sheriff said the same assailant killed two other people in the Pine Hills area — a TV journalist shot in a vehicle outside and a 38-year-old woman slain hours earlier in the same neighborhood.

Sheriff John Mina said the victims appear to have been killed at random.

Grieving families and friends of the victims are still trying to come to terms with the bloody rampage. A least two vigils in their memory were planned Friday evening.

___

Feds seek to limit telehealth prescriptions for some drugs

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration moved Friday to require patients see a doctor in person before getting attention deficit disorder medication or addictive painkillers, toughening access to the drugs against the backdrop of a deepening opioid crisis.

The proposal could overhaul the way millions of Americans get some prescriptions after three years of relying on telehealth for doctor’s appointments by computer or phone during the pandemic.

The Drug Enforcement Administration said late Friday it plans to reinstate once longstanding federal requirements for powerful drugs that were waived once COVID-19 hit, enabling doctors to write millions of prescriptions for drugs such as OxyContin or Adderall without ever meeting patients in person.

Patients will need to see a doctor in person at least once to get an initial prescription for drugs that the federal government says have the the most potential to be abused — Vicodin, OxyContin, Adderall and Ritalin, for example. Refills could be prescribed over telehealth appointments.

The agency will also clamp down on how doctors can prescribe other, less addictive drugs to patients they've never physically met. Substances like codeine, taken to alleviate pain or coughing, Xanax, used to treat anxiety, Ambien, a sleep aid, and buprenorphine, a narcotic used to treat opioid addiction, can be prescribed over telehealth for an initial 30-day dose. Patients would need to see a doctor at least once in person to get a refill.

___

Prosecutor: Alex Murdaugh 'fuzzy' about new details of case

Disgraced South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh faced intense questioning about his movements the night his wife and son were killed as the prosecutor challenged inconsistencies in his memory Friday at his double murder trial.

A day after revealing for the first time that he was at the kennels where his wife and son were shot shortly before they died, Murdaugh returned to the stand in his own defense. During cross-examination, prosecutor Creighton Waters grilled Murdaugh about what he repeatedly called the once-prominent lawyer's “new story” about what happened at the kennels on the evening June 7, 2021.

Waters asked Murdaugh if he meant what he told the jury Thursday — that he tried to help police find the killers.

“Other than lying to them about going to the kennels, I was cooperative in every aspect of this investigation," Murdaugh said.

“Very cooperative except maybe the most important fact of all, that you were at the murder scene with the victims just minutes before they died," Waters replied.

___

Flotsam found off New York may be from famous SS Savannah

NEW YORK (AP) — A chunk of weather-beaten flotsam that washed up on a New York shoreline after Tropical Storm Ian last fall has piqued the interest of experts who say it is likely part of the SS Savannah, which ran aground and broke apart in 1821, two years after it became the first vessel to cross the Atlantic Ocean partly under steam power.

The roughly 13-foot (4-meter) square piece of wreckage was spotted in October off Fire Island, a barrier island that hugs Long Island's southern shore, and is now in the custody of the Fire Island Lighthouse Preservation Society. It will work with National Park Service officials to identify the wreckage and put it on public display.

“It was pretty thrilling to find it,” said Betsy DeMaria, a museum technician at the park service's Fire Island National Seashore. “We definitely are going to have some subject matter experts take a look at it and help us get a better view of what we have here.”

It may be difficult to identify the wreckage with 100% certainty, but park service officials said the Savannah is a top contender among Fire Island’s known shipwrecks.

Explorers have searched for the Savannah for over two centuries but have not found anything they could definitively link to the famous ship. The newly discovered wreckage, though, “very well could be” a piece of the historic shipwreck, said Ira Breskin, a senior lecturer at the State University of New York Maritime College in the Bronx. “It makes perfect sense.”

___

LIV Golf, PGA Tour spar over testimony from Saudi officials

A federal judge declined Friday to postpone the trial date in LIV Golf's antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour, even while conceding that might be inevitable if LIV owner Saudi Arabia appeals a ruling that officials with its sovereign wealth fund be required to testify.

Friday's case management hearing in the Northern District of California capped off a flurry of filings in the last week over the PGA Tour alleging the Public Investment Fund and its governor, Yasir al-Rumayyan, were more than just investors in the rival league.

Saudi Arabia's PIF holds some $600 billion in oil profits and other assets, making it one of the largest sovereign wealth funds in the world. The PIF owns 93% of LIV Golf, according to court documents.

U.S. Magistrate Susan van Keulen ruled last week that the PIF and al-Rumayyan were not exempt from providing testimony and documents under the Foreign Service Immunity Act because of an exception for commercial activity.

Saudi Arabia, through its attorney, filed a separate letter with U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman on Thursday, arguing that the magistrate's order has “broad implications for Saudi Arabia beyond the instant case” and that it would file a friend-of-court appeal.

___

St. Louis Zoo bear has second brief escape from enclosure

ST. LOUIS (AP) — St. Louis Zoo officials say they are working to find a way to keep an Andean bear named Ben inside his enclosure after he escaped Thursday for the second time this month.

The bear was outside for less than an hour and was found only about 100 feet away from his habitat, zoo officials said in a statement. The 4-year-old bear, who weighs about 300 pounds, was tranquilized and returned to the enclosure.

Visitors and zoo staff were kept inside zoo buildings during Ben's escapade.

The bear escaped on Feb. 7 by tearing apart clips that were attached stainless steel mesh to the frame of the enclosure's door. He did not wander far and was outside for about 90 minutes before being returned.

In response, the zoo added stainless steel clips with 450 pounds of tensile strength to the mesh. But Ben managed to snap those clips Thursday.

News from © The Associated Press, 2023