COLU @ CONCEPTS

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Hundreds of police officers in riot gear mobilized in downtown St. Louis after another day of peaceful protests over an ex-police officer’s acquittal in the death of a black man, making dozens of arrests amid reports of property damage and vandalism in the streets. Authorities made the arrests shortly before midnight, saying people had ignored orders to disperse after the peaceful protests. A judge ruled Friday that Jason Stockley, a 36-year-old who left the department and moved to Houston three years ago, was not guilty in the 2011 death of Anthony Lamar Smith. The ruling set off raucous protests throughout the weekend. Another peaceful demonstration was expected later Monday. On Sunday, hundreds of people marched through downtown streets, the posh Central West End, and the trendy Delmar Loop area of nearby University City. Protesters also marched through two shopping malls in a wealthy area of St. Louis County. The protest began at the police headquarters ...

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) — A strengthening Hurricane Maria swirled toward the eastern Caribbean early Monday, with forecasters warning it probably would be a major storm by the time it passed through the already battered Leeward Islands later in the day. Maria grew into a hurricane Sunday, and forecasters said it was expected to become much stronger over the next 48 hours following a path that would take it near many of the islands wrecked by Hurricane Irma and on to Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Hurricane warnings were posted for Guadeloupe, Dominica, St. Kitts, Nevis, Montserrat and Martinique. A tropical storm warning was issued for Antigua and Barbuda, Saba, St. Eustatius and St. Lucia. Other islands were warned to stay alert for changes in the storm. Hurricane watches were up in the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, the island shared by French St. Martin and Dutch St. Maarten, St. Barts and Anguilla. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said ...

LONDON (AP) — British police are still holding two suspects in custody over the London subway blast as commuters head to work Monday in the first morning rush hour since the attack. Authorities have reduced the terror threat level from “critical” to “severe,” indicating another attack is highly likely but no longer believed to be imminent. Police have asked the traveling public to be vigilant and to expect to see an increase in armed police. Meanwhile, closed-circuit television images, acquired by ITV News and broadcast Sunday, appeared to show a person walking with a Lidl shopping bag in the suburb of Sunbury before Friday morning’s attack at Parsons Green station that injured 30 people in southwest London. Images posted on social media following the attack appeared to show wires protruding from a flaming bucket contained in a Lidl bag on the floor of the train carriage. The bomb only partially exploded. Officials say the injuries would have been far worse if it had fully d...

NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump’s childhood home in New York had some new occupants over the weekend — refugees who shared their stories as a way to draw attention to the refugee crisis as the United Nations General Assembly convenes this week with Trump in attendance. The three-story Tudor-style home in Queens that Trump’s father, Fred, built in 1940 is now a rental available on Airbnb that anyone can stay in for $725 a night. It was auctioned off to an unidentified buyer in March for $2.14 million, its second time going up for auction. The international anti-poverty organization Oxfam rented it Saturday and invited four refugees to talk with journalists. The Republican president’s administration issued travel bans on people from six Muslim-majority countries and all refugees. After various court challenges, the Supreme Court last week allowed the restrictive policy on refugees to remain temporarily. The justices will hear arguments on the bans Oct. 10. “We wanted to...

NEW YORK (AP) — It was, not surprisingly, a night for politics, with everyone from host Stephen Colbert to Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda and Alec Baldwin getting in zingers about Donald Trump — all to be upstaged by Sean Spicer himself, in a controversial appearance that set social media afire. But Emmy night was not only about politics. It was also about diversity and new voices, with notable wins, among others, for Sterling K. Brown, the first black actor in nearly 20 years to win for lead actor in a drama; for Lena Waithe, the first black woman to win for comedy writing, and Donald Glover, the first black director to win the comedy award (and best actor, too.) Stories about women won big: “Big Little Lies,” ″The Handmaid’s Tale” and “Veep” won the top three categories. But there was a notable paucity of Latino and Asian winners. Some notable moments: YES, THAT WAS REALLY HIM Colbert had been hitting on Trump early and often in his opening monologue, but there were gasps of ge...

LONDON (AP) — Lady Gaga has postponed her world tour’s European leg until next year because of ongoing health problems. The six-week part of the Joanne World Tour was set to kick off in Barcelona on Sept. 21. Tour promoter Live Nation says that “Lady Gaga is suffering from severe physical pain that has impacted her ability to perform. She remains under the care of expert medical professionals who recommended the postponement.” Last week, the 31-year-old singer-songwriter pulled out of a performance in Brazil after being hospitalized with “severe physical pain.” Earlier this month, Lady Gaga postponed a Montreal concert. Lady Gaga said Monday on Instagram that’s she been honest about her “physical and mental health struggles” and has been “searching for years to get to the bottom of them.” Source: www.apnews.com 

ATLANTA (AP) — New season. New stadium. Same ol’ result. Matt Ryan and the Atlanta Falcons picked up where they left off against the Green Bay Packers, building a big halftime lead on the way to a dominating 34-23 victory Sunday night. The rematch of last season’s NFC championship game was essentially a repeat: Ryan threw for 252 yards and a touchdown, Devonta Freeman had a couple of scoring runs, and Desmond Trufant darted to the end zone off an attempted pass by Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers that was ruled a fumble. “We came out aggressive,” said Julio Jones, who had five catches for 108 yards. “We did a great job and got after them.” Back in January at the Georgia Dome, Atlanta earned a trip to the Super Bowl by racing to a 31-0 edge early in the third quarter on the way to  a 44-21 blowout  of the Packers. In the first regular-season NFL game at $1.5 billion Mercedes-Benz Stadium — and the first sporting event in which the facility’s camera lens-like roof ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate is poised to pass a defense policy bill that pumps $700 billion into the Pentagon budget, expands U.S. missile defenses in response to North Korea’s growing hostility and refuses to allow excess military bases to be closed. The legislation is expected to be approved on Monday by a wide margin in another burst of bipartisanship amid President Donald Trump’s push for cooperation with congressional Democrats. The 1,215-page measure defies a number of White House objections, but Trump hasn’t threatened to veto the measure. The bill helps him honor a pledge to boost military spending by tens of billions of dollars. Sen. John McCain, the Armed Services Committee chairman battling an aggressive type of brain cancer, has guided the bill toward passage over the last week as he railed against Washington gridlock and political gamesmanship. But McCain, R-Ariz., couldn’t quell disputes among his colleagues over several contentious amendments that so far have b...

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Former Malaysian strongman Mahathir Mohamad says the opposition alliance campaigning to topple the country’s corruption-tainted leader can win the next general elections and pull Malaysia back from a slide into kleptocracy. The energetic 92-year-old, Asia’s longest-serving leader before stepping down in 2003, has made a high-profile return to politics in a bid to oust his protege, Prime Minister Najib Razak, who has clung to power despite an epic corruption scandal that involved hundreds of millions of dollars passing through his bank accounts. Mahathir told The Associated Press in an interview that the disparate opposition coalition he has spearheaded to contest elections due by mid-2018 is tapping into anger at the corruption scandal and the rising cost of living. “Lots of people feel that Najib has destroyed much that has been built for this country,” he said. “People are calling our leader a crook. That is not something I would like to see...

NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump never won an Emmy, it’s true. But his presence was felt at this year’s television awards ceremony more than any actor, writer or producer. “Saturday Night Live,” for which Trump was an endless fount of comedy during his campaign and early presidency, had its best Emmys haul in the show’s 41-year history. “The Handmaid’s Tale,” the Hulu drama about an authoritarian society where some found disturbing echoes in real life, was the most-honored drama Sunday night. Then there was host Stephen Colbert’s string of one-liners about the man he considered the biggest television star of the past year, and former White House press secretary Sean Spicer’s jaw-dropping cameo in Colbert’s opening monologue. Trump is a past Emmy nominee, from his time as “Celebrity Apprentice” host. Colbert told the audience that the Emmys may be to blame for his presidency, because Trump might not have run if he’d won an Emmy. Then he got in a dig where he knew it wou...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The presidents of historically black colleges and universities are making their second visit to the White House this year amid strains with the Trump administration over promises unkept. An annual gathering in the nation’s capital for those schools has been reduced to a two-day summit, further aggravating college officials already frustrated with the White House’s slow pace on keeping its commitments. “Everyone’s uptight in this day and age with our current president and with what’s going on,” said Ty Couey, president of the National HBCU Alumni Associations. “Things are out of control.” Trump promised support for the schools during his presidential campaign and Black History Month meetings, when college presidents posed for pictures with the president in the White House. This time, Trump will not be at the White House to receive them: His schedule puts him in New York for the U.N. General Assembly. Advocates for the schools say there has been little to...

WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 1 million Americans are awaiting a hearing to see whether they qualify for disability benefits from Social Security, with the average wait of nearly two years — longer than some of them will live. All have been denied benefits at least once, as most applications are initially rejected. But in a system where the outcome of a case often depends on who decides it, most people who complete the appeals process will eventually win benefits. The numbers come from data compiled by the Social Security Administration. About 10.5 million people get disability benefits from Social Security. An additional 8 million get disability benefits from Supplemental Security Income, the disability program for poor people who don’t qualify for Social Security. The disability programs are much smaller than Social Security’s giant retirement program. Still, the agency paid out $197 billion in disability payments last year. Recipients won’t get rich as the average benefit i...

WASHINGTON (AP) — There must be an answer. Whatever is harming U.S. diplomats in Havana, it has eluded the doctors, scientists and intelligence analysts scouring for answers. Investigators have chased many theories, including a sonic attack, electromagnetic weapon or flawed spying device. Each explanation seems to fit parts of what’s happened, conflicting with others. The United States doesn’t even know what to call it. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson used the phrase “health attacks.” The State Department prefers “incidents.” Either way, suspicion has fallen on Cuba. But investigators also are examining whether a rogue faction of its security services, another country such as Russia, or some combination is to blame, more than a dozen U.S. officials familiar with the investigation told The Associated Press. Those officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to publicly discuss the investigation. The AP also talked to scientists, physicians, a...

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — When Harvard sophomore Seth Towns awoke in his riverside dorm room Wednesday morning, he had options. He could work out at the gym to prepare for the upcoming Ivy League basketball season. He could slog downstairs for another dining hall breakfast with his roommates. Or he could head over to Harvard Square to eat instead with civil rights activist Harry Edwards, sportscaster James Brown, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and philosopher Cornel West. Towns chose to stretch his mind instead of his muscles. “It’s the kind of thing you come to Harvard for,” the 6-foot-7 forward for the Crimson basketball team said. “Growing up, I would have never thought that I’d have these people to look up to and talk to. I’m just acting as a sponge, and taking it all in.” At a monthly event dubbed the “Breakfast Club,” tucked away in the private dining room of a Harvard Square hotel restaurant, Towns and senior Chris Egi joined coach Tommy Amaker this week to mingle with a few d...