NEW YORK (AP) — Frederick Wiseman, the celebrated director of “Titicut Follies” and dozens of other documentaries whose in-depth, unadorned movies comprised a unique and revelatory history of American institutions, died Monday at age 96. The death was announced in a joint statement from his family and from his production company, Zipporah Films. Additional details were not immediately available. “He will be deeply missed by his family, friends, colleagues, and the countless filmmakers...

DALLAS (AP) — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton will be in an unfamiliar setting Monday night: heading his first campaign rally since the Republican announced his candidacy for the U. S. Senate 10 months ago. Paxton's scheduled appearance is part of his stepped-up campaign to unseat four-term Republican Sen. John Cornyn and add a MAGA devotee to the Senate, a bid that has set up one of this year's most contentious GOP primaries. Until Monday, Paxton waged a lower-wattage campaign, spent and...

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — It is Carnival season in New Orleans. That means gazillions of green, gold and purple Mardi Gras beads. Once made of glass and cherished by parade spectators who were lucky enough to catch them, today cheap plastic beaded necklaces from overseas are tossed from floats by the handful. Spectators sometimes pile dozens around their necks, but many are trashed or left on the ground. A few years ago after heavy flooding, the city found more than 46 tons of them clogging its The...