Stories by Associated Press

To faculty, new protest rules threaten freedom of speech — and the freedom to think, both central to university life. This semester, some of the most visible demonstrations have involved professors speaking up for the right to protest itself.

TreeHouse Foods Inc., of Oak Brook, Illinois, said the updated recall includes all products made at a factory in Ontario, Canada, and sold at stores including Albertson’s, Aldi, Dollar General, Kroger, Publix, Target, Walmart and others. 

The presidential race in North Carolina is playing out in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene and alongside a governor's race in which the Trump-endorsed GOP nominee, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, has seen his campaign collapse amid multiple controversies, potentially splintering GOP unity.

Thelma Mothershed Wair worked in the East St. Louis, Illinois, school system for 10 years as a home economics teacher and for 18 years as a counselor for elementary career education before retiring in 1994. 

The State Board of Elections said Friday that a record 353,166 people cast ballots at more than 400 early voting sites statewide on Thursday, compared to 348,599 on the first day in October 2020.

Michigan is one of three “blue wall” states that, along with Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, will help decide the election, and the diverse voting blocs are key to winning the state.

Former NFL quarterback Jay Cutler was arrested and charged with driving under the influence and possession of a handgun after a minor collision on Thursday.

The Harris-Walz plan includes a focus on improving rural health care, such as plans to recruit 10,000 new health care professionals in rural and tribal areas through scholarships, loan forgiveness and new grant programs, as well as economic and agricultural policy priorities. 

Most mainstream economists say Trump’s policy proposals wouldn’t vanquish inflation. They’d make it worse. They warn that his plans to impose huge tariffs on imported goods, deport millions of migrant workers and demand a voice in the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policies would likely send prices surging.

Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, was pressed on his communication with the Russian president during a wide-ranging — and sometimes contentious — interview with Bloomberg editor-in-chief John Micklethwait at the Economic Club of Chicago.

A movement of expression with origins in Mexican American and Chicano communities, lowriding is an aspect of Latino history in the U.S. in which people show their pride, honor family and uplift culture. But misrepresentation of the culture in entertainment and media has often associated the lowriding’s “low and slow” motto with gang culture.

The company said Tuesday that about 500 stores will close in the current fiscal year and should immediately support earnings and free cash flow. Walgreens didn’t say where the store closings would take place.

Ruth Chepngetich became the first woman to break 2:10 in the marathon. She also won the Chicago Marathon in 2021 and 2022 and finished runner-up last year.

Tens of millions of older Americans will see an increase in benefits this January when a new cost-of-living adjustment is added to Social Security payments.

Zachary Allen Kam, 24, of Chicago, was arrested in Illinois on assault charges and was expected to make his initial court appearance later Thursday. Kam is at least the third person charged with crimes related to a July 24 demonstration at Columbus Circle, in front of Washington's Union Station.

Consumer prices rose just 2.4% in September from a year earlier, down from 2.5% in August, and the smallest annual rise since February 2021. Measured from month to month, prices increased 0.2% from August to September, the Labor Department reported Thursday, the same as in the previous month.

Three scientists who discovered powerful techniques to predict and even design novel proteins — the building blocks of life — were awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry on Wednesday. 

“We have to recognize there’s a limit” and perhaps reassess assumptions about when people should retire and how much money they’ll need to live out their lives, said S. Jay Olshansky, a University of Illinois-Chicago researcher.

The Grammy Award-winning R&B singer, born Robert Sylvester Kelly, was found guilty in 2022 of three charges of producing child sexual abuse images and three charges of enticement of minors for sex.

Around 43 million Americans have student loan debt, amounting to $1.5 trillion. If you have student loans, here’s what you need to know.

The Welcome Corps, which launched last year, pairs groups of Americans with newly arrived refugees. So far, the resettlement program has connected 3,500 sponsors with 1,800 refugees, and many more want to help: 100,000 people have applied to become sponsors.

Only a fraction of the Great Lakes’ bottom has been mapped, and those low-resolution charts were completed decades ago, according to the Great Lakes Observing System, a nonprofit that manages data from a network of lake observers and makes it easily accessible.

Republican JD Vance and Democrat Tim Walz will meet Tuesday in the lone vice presidential debate of the 2024 election, bringing together undercards who have spent two months going after each other.

Iran launched at least 180 missiles into Israel on Tuesday, the latest in a series of escalating attacks in a yearslong conflict between Israel and Iran and its Arab allies that threatens to push the Middle East closer toward a regionwide war.

John Amos played James Evans Sr. on “Good Times,” which featured one of television’s first Black two-parent families. Produced by Norman Lear and co-created by actor Mike Evans, who co-starred on “All in the Family” and “The Jeffersons,” it ran from 1974-79 on CBS.

With Helene’s death toll nearing 150, searchers fanned out across the region, using helicopters to get past washed-out bridges and hiking through wilderness to reach isolated homes.