Stories by Associated Press

The Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday that it plans to weaken limits on some so-called forever chemicals in drinking water that were finalized last year, while maintaining standards for two common ones.

Hasan Piker, who has 2.8 million followers on Twitch, recounted his experience online Monday saying he was questioned for hours a day earlier despite being born in the U.S. and enrolled in Global Entry, a federal program allowing low-risk passengers to travel through customs and passport control quickly.

Pete Rose and Shoeless Joe Jackson were reinstated by baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred on Tuesday, making both eligible for the sport’s Hall of Fame after their careers were tarnished by sports gambling scandals.

Democrat Pritzker, who has been one of the more vocal critics of Trump’s second administration, signed the order last week, saying he wanted to protect “dignity, privacy, and the freedom to live without fear of surveillance or discrimination.”

The Qatari government said a final decision hadn’t been made. Still, Trump defended the idea — what would amount to a president accepting an astonishingly valuable gift from a foreign government — as a fiscally smart move for the country.

Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan is joining NBC Sports as a special contributor to its NBA coverage when the 2025-26 season begins.

Stakeholders in the construction industry are closely following a lawsuit filed by Chicago Women in Trades, an organization founded in 1981 to help women enter the skilled trades. Other similar groups said they were considering litigation.

Leo received a standing ovation as he entered the Vatican auditorium for his first meeting with representatives of the general public. The 69-year-old Augustinian missionary, elected in a 24-hour conclave last week, called for journalists to use words for peace, to reject war and to give voice to the voiceless.

In the breathless day since Pope Leo XIV’s election as the first American pontiff, the memes, doctored images and tongue-in-cheek references have piled up deeper than Chicago’s pizza and more loaded than its hot dog, seemingly irresistible to comics and commoners alike.

Elected on Thursday, Robert Prevost is the first pope from the United States in the history of the Catholic Church. And Prevost’s brother, John, said the Chicago-born missionary cheered for the White Sox.

President Donald Trump asserted that children will be fine having two dolls — perhaps three or five — instead of 30 if U.S. import taxes increase consumer prices.

A Wisconsin man charged with crimes for a school shooting committed by his daughter is the latest U.S. parent taken to court for violence caused by a child.

The Chicago Sky All-Star set records before her season got cut short by an injury and helped the league soar to new heights in popularity after she and the Indiana Fever’s Caitlin Clark took their rivalry from the college ranks to the pros.

Speakers blasted songs including “Born in the U.S.A.” and “American Pie” as six cardinal electors from the United States gathered in Rome on Friday to share their thoughts on the election of the first U.S.-born pope, Cardinal Robert Prevost.

Pope Leo XIV spoke off-the-cuff in English in the Sistine Chapel to the cardinals who elected him to follow in the footsteps of Pope Francis, who put a commitment to social justice at the core of his papacy. He acknowledged the great responsibility they had placed on him before delivering a brief but dense homily on the need to joyfully spread Christianity.

White smoke poured from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel and the great bells of St. Peter’s Basilica tolled Thursday after cardinals elected the 267th pope to lead the Catholic Church on the second day of their conclave.

A new government study provides the most complete picture yet of early-onset cancers, finding that the largest increases are in breast, colorectal, kidney and uterine cancers.

Bill Gates says he will donate 99% of his remaining tech fortune to the Gates Foundation, which will now close in 2045, earlier than previously planned. Today, that would be worth an estimated $107 billion.

Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was meeting last week with representatives from a teachers union when things quickly devolved. Before long, Fetterman began repeating himself, shouting and questioning why “everybody is mad at me."

Casey Means has no government experience and dropped out of her surgical residency program, saying she became disillusioned with traditional medicine. She founded a health tech company and makes money from dietary supplements, creams, teas and other products sponsored on her social media accounts.

With all the pomp, drama and solemnity that the Catholic Church can muster, 133 cardinals on Wednesday began the secretive, centuries-old ritual to elect a successor to Pope Francis.

They don’t have a vote in the pope’s election, but nearly 900 superiors of the world’s female Catholic orders met in Rome on Monday to chart a course forward, a few miles from where cardinals will gather in a conclave to choose a successor to Pope Francis.

Travelers who aren’t Real ID compliant by the upcoming deadline this week will still be able to fly but should be prepared for extra scrutiny, the head of Homeland Security said Tuesday.

The United States is the home country for 10 of the 133 cardinals eligible to vote for the next pope. That’s more than any nation except Italy, home to 17 of the electors who will gather Wednesday for the Vatican conclave to choose the successor to Pope Francis.

Two cases were identified in Missouri, and one each in Florida, Illinois, South Dakota, Utah and Wisconsin, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

The prison was closed in 1963 due to crumbling infrastructure and the high costs of repairing and supplying the island facility, because everything from fuel to food had to be brought by boat.