MATT SEDENSKY

National writer

Sedensky is a national writer for The Associated Press.

Chicago Sun Times newspaper front page showing Pope Leo XIV is seen on a newspaper rack at a store, Friday, May 9, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Melina Walling)

‘DA POPE!’ Leo XIV’s Chicago roots unleash spate of holy humor

A Chicago-born cardinal walks into a conclave. The rest of the joke tells itself. In the breathless day since Pope Leo XIV’s election as the first American pontiff, the memes, doctored images and tongue-in-cheek references have piled up deeper than Chicago’s pizza and more loaded than its hot dog.

Michael Montgomery poses at his home in Huntington Woods, Mich., Friday, April 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Market turmoil has many afraid to check retirement savings

As President Donald Trump’s trade war has injected turmoil in financial markets, many retired and near-retired Americans are anxiously looking on, worried about outliving their savings or having to put off entries on their bucket lists.

Elon Musk speaks during an event with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office at the White House, Feb. 11, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

DOGE trumpets unemployment fraud that the government already found years ago

Elon Musk’s federal cost-cutting team is touting its latest finding: Hundreds of millions of dollars in allegedly fraudulent unemployment claims.

Kit Kats from Japan are displayed for sale at Economy Candy in New York's Lower East Side, Friday, April 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Trump’s tariffs hit a sour note in landmark NYC emporium of sweets

The biggest-ticket implications of President Donald Trump’s tariff blitz understandably gain the most attention. But small-dollar items are affected too, and so are the families selling them.

Demonstrators gather outside of the Edward A. Garmatz United States District Courthouse in Baltimore, on Friday, March 14, 2025, before a hearing regarding the Department of Government Efficiency's access to Social Security data. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Social Security in-person identity checks opposed by advocates and retirees alike

The Social Security Administration’s plan to require in-person identity checks for millions of new and existing recipients has drawn ire from lawmakers, advocacy groups and program recipients who are concerned that the government is placing barriers in front of people seeking to access their benefit

This photo provided by Kristin Jenn shows her in her National Park Service ranger uniform in Denali National Park and Preserve in Alaska in October 2024, while she was a seasonal worker for the NPS. (Kristin Jenn via AP)

Thrust into unemployment, axed federal workers face relatives who celebrate their firing

Scrambling to replace their health insurance and to find new work, some fired federal workers are running into another unexpected unpleasantry: Relatives cheering their job loss.

Pedestrians walk past the E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)

Judge rejects immediately restoring AP’s access to White House but urges government to reconsider

A federal judge has refused to immediately order the White House to restore The Associated Press’ access to presidential events, saying the news organization had not shown it had suffered irreparable harm in the matter.

Eric Anderson, a biological science technician for the National Parks Service, who was fired last week poses for a photo Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Fired federal workers hunt for new jobs but struggle to replace their old ones

Job searches can be tough for anyone, but some of the federal workers flooding the market after widespread layoffs are finding it particularly tough. Park ranger? Nuclear submarine engineer? Diplomat?

Darren Cobb poses for a photo at his home Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Consumer watchdog agency called ‘vicious’ by Trump seen as a ‘hero’ to many it aided

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is in the crosshairs of a White House that has halted its work, closed its headquarters and fired dozens of its workers.

Firefighters work from a deck as the Palisades Fire burns a beachfront property Jan. 8, 2025, in Malibu, Calif. (AP Photo/Etienne Laurent)

Relief, 21st-century style: As wildfires burn, GoFundMe becomes a repository of harrowing stories

As California’s massive wildfires burn, thousands of GoFundMe campaigns for victims have become an outlet for onlookers transfixed by the blazes and eager to do something to help.

Avanish Kumar, approaches a man living on the street to offer transporting him to the Saint Hardyal Educational and Orphans Welfare Society, or SHEOWS, a home for the aged and unwanted, , April 11, 2024, in New Delhi, India. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

As India grows older, a secret shame emerges: Elders abandoned by their children(final)

They were found in gutters, on streets, in bushes. They were boarded on trains, deserted in hospitals, dumped at temples.

Avanish Kumar, approaches a man living on the street to offer transporting him to the Saint Hardyal Educational and Orphans Welfare Society, or SHEOWS, a home for the aged and unwanted, Thursday, April 11, 2024, in New Delhi, India. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

As India ages, a secret shame emerges: Elders abandoned by their children

In its traditions, religious tenets and laws, India has cemented the belief that it is a child’s duty to care for his aging parents.

Eli Trujillo poses inside his barbershop in Cheyenne, Wyo., Thursday, July 18, 2024. Trujillo, 87, says he doesn’t work as many hours or cut hair as fast as he once did but isn’t one to judge whether President Joe Biden should continue to seek re-election. (AP Photo/Mead Gruver)

Too old to work? Some Americans on the job late in life bristle at calls for Biden to step aside

Debate about President Joe Biden’s fitness for another term is resonating with other older Americans who, like him, want to stay on the job. Many older adults are wary of seeing a peer shoved aside because of his age.

FILE - Michael Voris, founder of Church Militant, speaks during a rally outside of the Baltimore hotel where the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops are holding its Fall General Assembly meeting, Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2021, in Baltimore. Voris, of a far-right, unofficial Catholic media group, has resigned for an unspecified violation of the organization's morality clause, the group said in a statement Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2023. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)

Founder of far-right Catholic site resigns over breach of its morality clause, group says

The founder of a far-right, unofficial Catholic media group has resigned for an unspecified violation of the organization’s morality clause, the group said in a statement. Michael Voris stepped down as president of St.

Sandy Phillips and her husband, Lonnie, sit for a portrait at her friend’s home in Lone Tree, Colo., Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2023, behind a photo of her daughter, Jessica Ghawi, who was killed in the 2012 mass shooting at an Aurora, Colo., movie theater. Suffering through their own personal loss after the mass shooting, the couple set out to help other parents like them, traveling to shooting sites around the country. The trip continued for a decade. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

In the shadow of loss, a mother’s long search for happiness

After losing her daughter in a shooting at a Colorado movie theater in 2012, Sandy Phillips was determined to help others grieving as deeply as she was.

FILE - Bret Harte Retirement Inn residents make their way down to the dining room for lunch, May 6, 2020, in Grass Valley, Calif. The federal government will, for the first time, dictate staffing levels at nursing homes, the Biden administration said Friday, Sept. 1, 2023, responding to systemic problems bared by mass COVID deaths. (Elias Funez/The Union via AP, File)

US will regulate nursing home staffing for first time, but proposal lower than many advocates hoped

An association that lobbies for health care facilities says President Joe Biden’s decision to require nursing homes to comply with federal rules on staffing levels will cost them billions of dollars.

This Aug. 9, 2023 photo taken by his stepfather Mike Eilers and provided by Mike Cicchino shows Mike Cicchino, left, and his wife Andreza, right, hugs Mike's mother Susan Ramos as they were reunited at shelter in Maui, Hawaii. (Mike Cicchino via AP)

They were alone in a fight to survive. Maui residents had moments to make life-or-death choices

As the Maui wildfire approached, residents of Lahaina had moments to make decisions that would determine whether they lived or died.

This Aug. 9, 2023 photo taken by his stepfather Mike Eilers and provided by Mike Cicchino shows Mike Cicchino, left, and his wife Andreza, right, hugs Mike's mother Susan Ramos as they were reunited at shelter in Maui, Hawaii. (Mike Cicchino via AP)

As flames swallowed Maui, survivors made harrowing escapes

Harrowing stories of survival are spreading from those who fled Maui’s voracious fires. At least 55 people have been killed in the blazes; thousands of others are telling of narrow escapes.

NYC seniors find lighter side of pandemic in comedy class

Their city is under siege, their age group at particular risk and their lives increasingly isolated. But every week, a group of older New Yorkers is finding a lot to laugh about in a senior center’s comedy class.

Reinhard Bonnke, preacher who drew millions, dies at 79

The Rev. Reinhard Bonnke, a Pentecostal preacher whose massive revivals drew millions across Africa, has died at the age of 79. Bonnke’s ministry, Orlando, Florida-based Christ for All Nations says the pastor died December 7.

Conservatives want to bypass usual way to amend Constitution

Quietly, some conservatives have been working to get state legislatures to convene a Constitutional convention _ a process that has never been used to pass amendments without involving Congress.

Synagogue attack shatters safety of longtime Jewish enclave

Residents of Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood took pride in the community’s long tradition of being welcoming and accepting.

Women slain in Border Patrol case endured trying lives

Relatives of four women who police say were killed by a Border Patrol supervisor lived lives of hardship but were optimistic for happier days ahead. Dreams of fame or merely to get off the streets were ended by bullets to their heads.

A surprising bullying battleground: Senior centers

A lawsuit in Illinois is shedding light on the problem of bullying among senior citizens. A 70-year-old lesbian says she was assaulted, spit on and repeatedly called homophobic slurs after she moved into a senior complex.

Linguists search for words in parsing Trump’s oratory

A new era of White House oratory is underway, chock full of asides, bravado and simple superlatives.

After health care bill’s withdrawal, elation and anger

Some Americans breathed a sigh of relief and others are having their patience tested as the long-running debate on health care goes even longer.

AP-NORC Poll: Political divide over American identity

A new survey shows 7 in 10 people saying the U.S. is losing its American identity. The survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research says people are also divided over what it means to be an American.

After off-mark polls, some question value of ‘big data’

For Americans who’ve grown accustomed to spot-on political prognostication, the off-mark performance of pollsters ahead of Election Day has been jarring.

AP-NORC Poll: Regardless of vote, Americans see division

Whoever wins the presidency, many believe the U.S. will end up more divided, though Hillary Clinton is seen as far more unifying than Donald Trump, a new poll shows.

As killings persist, New Orleans parade says ‘Stop Violence’