Ingested Articles

Paris Hilton returned to Salt Lake City for a ceremonial bill signing for a law that regulates treatment centers for troubled teens in Utah. The legislation for facilities that treat teens with behavioral and mental health issues gained final approval in the Legislature about a month after Hilton gave emotional testimony in support of the bill. Gov. Spencer Cox signed the bill last month but held a ceremonial signing with Hilton on Tuesday. The new law will require more government oversight of youth residential treatment centers and documentation for when they use restraints. It will also prohibit treatment centers from using sedation or mechanical restraints without prior authorization.

Rory McIlroy visited Tiger Woods recently and got a look at Woods' trophy case. He was astounded that it had only 15 trophies, all of them from the majors. The hardware from Woods' dozens of other wins from around the world was absent. It was clear Woods only cared about four weeks out of the year. Only one week matters to McIlroy at the moment. He needs to win the Masters this week to become only the sixth player to complete the career Grand Slam. Defending champion Dustin Johnson is trying to join his own elite group. Only three other players have won the Masters in consecutive years.

The State Department says the Biden administration is consulting with allies about a joint approach to China and its human rights record, including how to handle the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics. The department initially suggested Tuesday that an Olympic boycott to protest China's rights abuses was among the possibilities but a senior official said later that a boycott has not yet been discussed. Human rights groups are protesting China's hosting of the Games, which are set to start in February 2022. They have urged a diplomatic or straight-up boycott of the event to call attention to alleged Chinese abuses against Uyghurs, Tibetans and residents of Hong Kong.

Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos is endorsing President Joe Biden’s focus on building up the country’s infrastructure and says the company even supports a corporate tax rate hike to help pay for it. Bezos’ statement was posted on the company’s website. It’s notable because it comes after Biden singled out the company for criticism about how much it pays in federal taxes when he recently unveiled his $2.3 trillion infrastructure proposal. Biden has proposed hiking the U.S. corporate tax rate to 28% from 21% to help pay for his proposal, an idea Republican leaders are panning as harmful to economic growth.

Gov. Gavin Newsom is setting a hopeful date for things to start getting back to a pre-pandemic normal in California. He says the nation's most populated state will lift most coronavirus restrictions on businesses and workplaces June 15 as long as enough people continue to be vaccinated and hospitalization rates stay low. Officials said Tuesday that they hope enough people will be vaccinated by mid-June to allow for many activities to resume. The Democratic governor says a statewide mask mandate will stay in place, while states nationwide have lifted those and other health restrictions. California has had some of the nation’s strictest pandemic rules.

The All-Star Game will be played at hitter-friendly Coors Field this year. Major League Baseball officially announced the new venue Tuesday after pulling the Midsummer Classic from Atlanta over objections to sweeping changes to Georgia’s voting laws. Coors Field last hosted the All-Star Game in 1998. MLB decided to move the July 13 game from Atlanta in response to Georgia voting rules that Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed into law March 25. Critics have condemned the changes as being too restrictive. Colorado has a Democratic governor in Jared Polis and a Democratic-controlled legislature.

Even an NCAA championship matchup between the two widely acknowledged as the best men's college basketball teams in the country couldn't set the television world afire. Monday's game reached an audience of 16.92 million. That's down nearly 14 percent from the 2019 championship between Virginia and Texas Tech. The 2020 NCAA basketball tourney was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. Considering the way most television ratings are sinking, the basketball championship wasn't half bad: Viewership for this winter's NCAA football championship game was down 27 percent. This year's thrilling semifinal between Gonzaga and UCLA reached nearly 15 million people.

A mandatory evacuation order near a leaking Florida wastewater reservoir that affected more than 300 homes and additional businesses has been lifted. Officials said with Tuesday's announcement that the situation is under control. More than two dozen pumps have been deployed, along with other equipment. That has eased fears that the reservoir from an old phospate fertilizer plant would burst through its earthen walls and cause widespread flooding in Manatee County, just south of Tampa. The reservoir initially held about 480 million gallons of contaminated water. But much of it has been drained away once the leak was discovered. Florida lawmakers are considering spending $200 million on a permanent cleanup.

WASHINGTON (AP) — With the Senate split 50-50, leaders of the Democratic majority are looking for ways to advance their priorities and President Joe Biden's agenda around the typical 60-vote threshold needed to overcome a filibuster by opponents. This week,…

The first woman to accuse Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson of sexual assault and harassment in a lawsuit has spoken publicly, alleging she was terrorized by her encounter with the NFL player and he needs to be held accountable for his actions. Ashley Solis said during a news conference Tuesday that she was assaulted when she tried to give Watson a massage in March 2020. The Associated Press usually does not name victims of sexual assault, but Solis has chosen to publicly identify herself.  Solis says she's seeking justice for herself and other victims. Watson has been accused of sexual assault or harassment in lawsuits filed by 22 women.  Watson's attorney has called the allegations “meritless.” 

Bryson DeChambeau let his bravado get the best of him the last time he was at Augusta National. He lost a ball, barely made the cut and finished a whopping 18 strokes behind Masters champion Dustin Johnson. As with all things DeChambeau, he chalks it up as merely another valuable learning experience in the constant quest for perfection. DeChambeau knows a 400-yard drive won't do him much good if he winds up in a spot on those notorious Augusta greens where birdie is out of the question. But that doesn't mean he has any intention of backing off.

Scott Drew uttered the far-fetched idea of Baylor being national champion when he was introduced as coach nearly 18 years ago. It was oh-so-reachable when guards Jared Butler, MaCio Teague and Davion Mitchell started playing together with the Bears. They all stayed another season and capped it off with the Bears' first national title. None of them are expected to remain next season. But Baylor should return half of its primary eight-man rotation of regulars. The program also has some standout freshman guards and its highest-ranked recruiting class ever.

Key lawmakers said Tuesday they're concerned they've been kept in the dark about what suspected Russian hackers stole from the federal government and they pressed Biden administration officials for more details about the scope of what's known as the SolarWinds…

Augusta National is blazing with the colors of spring as the Masters is back in April. One color is missing: the red shirt. Tiger Woods in his traditional Sunday attire has become an indelible part of the Masters over the last 25 years. Woods is home recovering from career-threatening leg injuries from his car crash in Los Angeles. He has missed the Masters three other times since 2014. But there's something about this absence that leaves a hollow feeling. No one is sure whether he'll contend or even play again at the major he's won five times.

With a powerful new tool, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has fresh options for advancing President Joe Biden’s priorities over Republican obstruction in the 50-50 split Senate. Though Republicans still pledge to do all they can to halt Biden’s agenda, the parliamentarian’s opinion this week is a potential game-changer. It unleashes multiple options for Democrats to advance certain parts of Biden’s agenda with a 51-vote threshold, rather than the 60 votes typically needed. The White House said Tuesday that Biden remains intent on winning some support from Republicans. But it's clear that the partisan polarization in Washington has led to a new era in legislating. 

Native American leaders in New Mexico say they see U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland as a “formidable guardian” and steward of their interests. The Laguna Pueblo woman is the first-ever Native American cabinet secretary. On Tuesday, she made her first official trip to her home state, where she met with tribal officials, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation. The round-table discussion highlighted federal coronavirus relief while underscoring the significance of Haaland’s confirmation. Tribal leaders told the group their prayers were answered when Haaland was chosen to head the Interior Department, which has broad authority over Native Americans. 

Brooks Koepka is swinging the club fine, a good sign going into the Masters. Getting to the ball for those swings is the problem. Less than a month removed from a March 16 surgery following a fall that left him with a dislocated right kneecap and damaged ligament, Koepka is at Augusta National. The course isn’t exactly flat and definitely isn’t one of the easier walks in golf. Koepka has been to the Masters five previous times, making the cut in each. The four-time major champion finished tied for second in 2019 and tied for seventh in November.

An NCAA official says the governing body may consider using a single site for later rounds of men’s college basketball tournaments following a successful run in Indianapolis. Senior vice president of basketball Dan Gavitt told reporters Tuesday that it was unlikely to occur before 2027 or that all 68 teams would play at one site. But if schools and coaches are interested, Gavitt says the model could work for future regional games and the Final Four.

Nearly half of new coronavirus infections nationwide are in just five states — a situation that is putting pressure on the federal government to consider changing how it distributes vaccines by sending more doses to hot spots. New York, Michigan, Florida, Pennsylvania and New Jersey together reported 44% of the nation’s new COVID-19 infections. That's nearly 197,500 new cases in the latest available seven-day period. Total U.S. infections during the same week numbered more than 452,000, according to state health agency data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Psychology experts offer several suggestions for talking to friends and family who believe conspiracy theories about COVID-19. Instead of lecturing or mocking, listen and ask them why they believe what they believe. Stay calm and remember that many people won't change their minds no matter what you say. Instead, focus on shared interests to help the believer focus on personal connections. If the person won't drop it, ask to change the subject. Experts say the pandemic has been stressful for everyone, and that many people believe COVID-19 conspiracy theories because it makes them feel more secure during a frightening time.

A controversial new election law may help Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp rebuild his relationship with a broad swath of Republicans as he prepares to run for a second term next year. The governor was narrowly elected in 2018 as a strong conservative and staunch ally of then-President Donald Trump. But Kemp’s refusal to bow to pressure from Trump to find a way to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 victory in the state left many of the former president’s allies eager to exact revenge. That means the election bill could be one of Kemp’s last hopes to rekindle a bond with Republicans who remain fiercely loyal to Trump and will be a critical force in next year’s GOP primary.