Stories by Associated Press

The federal government has fined Sinclair Broadcasting Corp. $48 million, largely because of actions the TV broadcaster took in its failed attempt to acquire smaller rival Tribune Media.

Public transit systems nationwide are grappling with a new reality — drastically plummeting ridership and revenue caused by a stealthy virus that’s also sickening and killing transit workers.

The death of Greg Zanis, announced by his daughter, Susie Zanis, and confirmed by the mayor of the community where Zanis lived, was expected after a recent announcement that he had been diagnosed with bladder cancer and did not have long to live.

Pushing to reopen the economy, President Donald Trump insists that states can gradually lift lockdowns and still protect people from the coronavirus pandemic, even as he’s also suggesting U.S. deaths could reach 100,000. 

The world’s largest hornet, a 2-inch killer dubbed the “Murder Hornet” with an appetite for honey bees, has been found in Washington state, where entomologists were making plans to wipe it out.

Italy started stirring Monday, with millions of people allowed to return to work as Europe's longest coronavirus lockdown started to ease, while the U.S. took halting steps to lift some restrictions even as tens of thousands of new cases were reported every day.

The lawsuits say students should pay lower rates for the portion of the term that was offered online, arguing that the quality of instruction is far below the classroom experience. Colleges, though, reject the idea that refunds are in order. 

The Migration Policy Institute found that 20% of the U.S. workers in vulnerable industries facing layoffs are immigrants, even though they only make up 17% of the civilian workforce. 

With coronavirus restrictions dragging on, interest in bird-watching has soared as bored Americans notice a fascinating world just outside their windows. 

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, a mask adorning one of the iconic lion statues near the Michigan Avenue entrance to the Art Institute disappeared about 24 hours after it was applied.

Farmers, growers and operators of open-air markets are heading into one of their busiest times of year while facing the added challenge of the coronavirus.

The FDA said in a statement that Gilead Science’s intravenous drug would be specifically indicated for hospitalized patients with “severe disease,” such as those experiencing breathing problems requiring supplemental oxygen or ventilators.

The race is more methodical marathon that mad dash to the finish — though the victor can win at the line by a turtleneck rather than a nose — and is just one more offbeat sport that has had a moment during the coronavirus pandemic.

The nation’s top infectious disease expert said Thursday that new cases of the coronavirus are a certainty as states begin to roll back restrictions. 

The layoffs amount to 1 in 6 American workers and encompass more people than the entire population of Texas, or more people than live in the New York and Chicago metropolitan areas combined.

Sixty-eight percent of Americans say they highly trust the information that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is providing about the virus, 66% trust their doctor or health care provider, and 52% said the same about their state or local government, according to a recent poll.

A biotech company says its experimental drug has proved effective against the new coronavirus in a major U.S. government study that put it to a strict test.

From Cape Cod to California, festivals are being nixed, businesses in tourist havens are looking at empty reservation books, and people who have been cooped up through a dismal spring are worrying summer will bring just more of the same.

The Trump administration is reviewing proposed new guidelines for how restaurants, schools, churches and businesses can safely reopen as states look to gradually lift their coronavirus restrictions.

The film, described as “an intimate look into the life of former first lady Michelle Obama” chronicles her 34-city book tour in 2018-2019 for her best-selling memoir “Becoming.” 

The new coronavirus doesn’t care about a blue uniform or a shiny badge. Police, firefighters, paramedics and corrections officers are just a 911 call away from contracting COVID-19 and spreading it.

Days after he publicly mused that scientists should explore the injection of toxic disinfectants as a potential virus cure, President Donald Trump has now rejected the utility of his daily task force briefings.

The U.S. Census Bureau needs more time to wrap up the once-a-decade count because of the coronavirus, opening the possibility of delays in drawing new legislative districts that could help determine what political party is in power.

The world has lost more than one quarter of its land-dwelling insects in the past 30 years, according to researchers whose big picture study of global bug decline paints a disturbing but more nuanced problem than earlier research.

States including Georgia, Oklahoma and Alaska have begun loosening lockdown orders on their pandemic-wounded businesses, even as the confirmed U.S. death toll from the coronavirus soared past 50,000 and health experts warned that such steps might be coming too soon.

With no real plan to reopen Capitol Hill any time soon, the coronavirus shutdown poses an existential crisis that’s pushing Congress ever so reluctantly toward the 21st century option of remote legislating from home.