Family Literacy Festival

Carl Lentz, the ousted pastor of Hillsong New York City, has landed on staff at Transformation Church. It is a predominantly Black, nondenominational megachurch in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that is led by pastor, author and popular YouTuber Michael Todd. Transformation is a juggernaut in a town replete with megachurches. The church has confirmed that Lentz, who was fired from Hillsong in 2020 when an extramarital affair came to light, has joined its staff. Lentz, 44, was once labeled a “hypepriest” by GQ Magazine for his fashionable attire and ministry to NBA players and celebrities such as Justin Bieber. He has been mostly silent since his firing.

A funeral will be held this weekend for former Democratic U.S. Rep. Nick Galifianakis, who represented central North Carolina for several years before two unsuccessful Senate bids. An obituary from a funeral home said Galifianakis died on Monday at age 94. A family spokesman told a newspaper that Galifianakis died at a Raleigh retirement community. He served in the General Assembly and in Congress for over a decade. He unseated the Democratic incumbent in the 1972 Democratic primary but lost to archconservative Jesse Helms in the general election. Galifianakis also lost in the 1974 U.S. Senate primary to then-Attorney General Robert Morgan.

Mississippi's Republican-led Senate has voted against confirming longtime educator Robert P. Taylor as state superintendent of education, angering some lawmakers. Some Black Democrats say they believe the rejection Wednesday was at least partly because Taylor is Black and because he wrote years ago about Mississippi's racist history. Taylor graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi in 1990. His comments about race came in a 2020 article on the university's Center for Black Studies website. The state education board had announced Taylor as their unanimous choice for superintendent. Taylor told The Associated Press he's disappointed but respects the process. He said senators in the past have confirmed all previous nominees for state superintendent.

North Carolina residents can now buy a handgun without getting a permit from a local sheriff. The Republican-controlled state House on Wednesday overrode the Democratic governor’s veto. It’s the legislature’s first veto override since 2018. The GOP-led Senate already voted that way Tuesday. The bill scraps the longstanding requirement that sheriffs perform character evaluations and criminal history checks of pistol applicants. Bill supporters say the sheriff screening process is no longer necessary in light of updates to the national background check system. But Gov. Roy Cooper and other opponents say the repeal allows a greater number of dangerous people to obtain weapons through private sales.

Russia’s security service has arrested an American reporter for The Wall Street Journal on espionage charges. It's the first time a U.S. correspondent has been detained on spying accusations since the Cold War. The newspaper denied the allegations and demanded his release. Thirty-one-year-old Evan Gershkovich was detained in Yekaterinburg, Russia’s fourth-largest city, about 1,670 kilometers (1,035 miles) east of Moscow. Russia’s Federal Security Service accused him of trying to obtain classified information. Known by the acronym FSB, the service is the top domestic security agency and main successor to the Soviet-era KGB.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A bill that would criminalize helping minors obtain an abortion without parental consent won final passage in Idaho's legislature on Thursday and is headed to the desk of Republican Gov. Brad Little.

A trove of FBI documents made public this week offers a new view into high-stakes gambler Stephen Paddock’s mindset before he carried out the deadliest mass shooting in modern America. Sixty people were killed and hundreds more were wounded in the shooting on Oct. 1, 2017, on the Las Vegas Strip. A fellow gambler told the FBI that Paddock was very upset about how the casinos in Las Vegas had been treating him in recent years despite his high-roller status. The unidentified gambler says he believes the stress could’ve easily caused Paddock to snap. Paddock was a video poker player who relied on gambling as his main source of income. Las Vegas police dismissed the importance of the documents, saying speculation on a motive causes more harm to victims, survivors and their families.

Authorities have released 911 recordings that capture the terror inside a Nashville elementary school during a mass shooting this week. Callers are heard pleading for help in hushed voices while sirens, crying and gunfire can be heard in the background. Police on Thursday released recordings of three emergency calls made during Monday’s attack at The Covenant School, in which three children and three adults were killed. In one, a man tells the dispatcher that he saw a man dressed in camoflauge firing an “assault rifle” through the door. Authorities say police shot and killed the assailant. Meanwhile, hundreds of people protested Thursday for stricter gun controls at the state Capitol.