LOS ANGELES—Adult film star Ron Jeremy pleaded not guilty Monday to 20 additional rape and other sexual assault charges involving 12 more women and a teenage girl in attacks dating back to 2004, bringing the number of his alleged victims to 17. In June, Jeremy, 67, entered a not guilty plea in response to allegations that he raped three women and sexually assaulted another in separate attacks going back to 2014. The District Attorney's Office amended the complaint Monday against the defendant—whose real name is Ronald Jeremy Hyatt—to include a total of eight...

By Ryan Pearson   LOS ANGELES (AP)—First Chadwick Boseman slipped on the cleats of Jackie Robinson, then the Godfather of Soul's dancing shoes, portraying both Black American icons with a searing intensity that commanded respect. When the former playwright suited up as Black Panther, he brought cool intellectual gravitas to the Marvel superhero whose “Wakanda forever!” salute reverberated worldwide. As his Hollywood career boomed, though, Boseman was privately undergoing “countless surgeries and chemotherapy” to battle colon cancer, his...

By Jonathan Landrum, Jr.   LOS ANGELES (AP)—Kobe Bryant. Rep. John Lewis. And now, Chadwick Boseman. So far, 2020 has been marred with bad news and tragedy with the deaths of several popular Black icons including Bryant, Lewis and recently Boseman, who died Friday. All three were viewed as leaders in their respective fields of sports, politics and film—places where people, particularly in the Black community, have often looked for inspiration during a year of racial tension and protests against the police brutality of unarmed Black people. But for many, the...

By Darlene Superville and Deb Reichmann   WASHINGTON (AP)—Public health experts expressed concern Friday about President Donald Trump's largely mask-free, socially un-distanced Republican convention event on the White House lawn, saying some of his 1,500 guests may have inadvertently brought and spread the coronavirus to others. “There almost certainly were individuals there who were infected with COVID-19 but don't know it,” said Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency physician and public health professor at George Washington University.. “I worry...

By Matthew Perrone   WASHINGTON (AP)—Speed and accuracy are key features when screening for coronavirus. Quidel Corp. is one of a handful of U.S. companies authorized to sell a rapid test for COVID-19, yielding results in about 15 minutes. The test is run on a small machine that is used in clinics and doctor offices. Unlike some other quick tests, U.S. regulators have ruled that Quidel's test is nearly as accurate as older tests that take hours to run in a laboratory, known as the PCR test. The Associated Press spoke with Quidel's CEO Douglas Bryant about...

By David Bauder   NEW YORK (AP)—The star of “Veep” brought some bite to her role at the Democrats' virtual convention. Actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus, the celebrity host for the convention's final night Thursday, took some pointed shots at President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence. “I'm proud to be a nasty, nasty woman,” said the 11-time Emmy winner. Promotion of the “30330” text address for information on Biden's campaign provided fodder for two jokes at Trump's expense. She said 30330...

By Kristin M Hall   NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP)—Tourists are flocking to Nashville to see a new mural of Dolly Parton that celebrates her position on Black Lives Matter. Mural artist Kim Radford had already decided to paint the mural of the country music icon on the side of a local music club called The 5 Spot, which was made famous for being one of the many filming locations for the TV show “Nashville.” But as she was finishing the mural, Radford saw an article from Billboard in which Parton said she supported the Black Lives Matter movement, saying...

By Alana Durkin Richer   BOSTON (AP)—Apologizing publicly for the first time for crimes their lawyers insisted for months they didn't commit, “Full House” star Lori Loughlin and her fashion designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli, were sentenced to prison Friday for using their wealth and privilege to cheat their daughters' way into the college of their choice. The two-month prison sentence for Loughlin and five-month term for Giannulli bring to a close the legal saga for the highest-profile parents ensnared in the college admissions bribery...

By Ellen Knickmeyer, Cathy Bussewitz and John Flesher   Thousands of oil and gas operations, government facilities and other sites won permission to stop monitoring for hazardous emissions or otherwise bypass rules intended to protect health and the environment because of the coronavirus outbreak, The Associated Press has found. The result: approval for less environmental monitoring at some Texas refineries and at an army depot dismantling warheads armed with nerve gas in Kentucky, manure piling up and the mass disposal of livestock carcasses at farms in Iowa and...

By Marilynn Marchione   HONG KONG—University of Hong Kong scientists claim to have the first evidence of someone being reinfected with the virus that causes COVID-19. Genetic tests revealed that a 33-year-old man returning to Hong Kong from a trip to Spain in mid-August had a different strain of the coronavirus than the one he’d previously been infected with in March, said Dr. Kelvin Kai-Wang To, the microbiologist who led the work. The man had mild symptoms the first time and none the second time; his more recent infection was detected through screening...