AP Top News at 3:56 p.m. EDT

The Latest: NY summer camp cancels 1st week amid manhunt

PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. (AP) — The latest on the hunt for two inmates who escaped from a maximum-security prison (all times local): ___

Obama health care law survives second Supreme Court fight

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court sent a clear message Thursday that President Barack Obama's health care overhaul is here to stay, rejecting a major challenge that would have imperiled the landmark law and health insurance for millions of Americans. Whether you call it the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare, or in the words of a dissenting justice, SCOTUScare, Obama's signature domestic achievement is, as the president himself put it, "reality."

Hundreds attend 1st funeral for church shooting victims

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Police officers stood guard and checked bags as hundreds of people filed into a church Thursday for the first funeral for victims of the massacre at a historic black church. The increased security comes amid a heated debate over the Confederate flag and other symbols of the Confederacy around the South and elsewhere. A monument to former Confederate President Jefferson Davis had the phrase "Black Lives Matter" spray-painted on it Thursday in Richmond, Virginia, the latest of several monuments to be defaced around the country.

Arrested prison guard denies knowing of inmates' escape plot

PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. (AP) — A prison guard charged in connection with the escape of two killers admitted providing them with tools, paint, frozen hamburger and even access to a catwalk electrical box, but claims he never knew they planned to bust out, authorities say. As the search for the convicts entered its 20th day, Gene Palmer, 57, awaited arraignment Thursday on charges of promoting prison contraband, tampering with physical evidence and official misconduct. He was released from jail on $25,000 bail after his arrest Wednesday night.

AP sources: Christie to announce presidential run on Tuesday

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is joining the 2016 presidential race and will make an official announcement Tuesday at his old high school, two people familiar with his plans told The Associated Press. The Republican leader of a Democratic stronghold has been laying the groundwork for a White House run for months. In 2012, he decided against seeking the GOP nomination and challenging President Barack Obama.

Islamic State militants attack 2 cities in northern Syria

BEIRUT (AP) — After weeks of setbacks, militants from the Islamic State group launched swift counteroffensives Thursday on predominantly Kurdish areas of northern Syria, killing and wounding dozens and setting off car bombs, activists and officials said. The two-pronged attack on the northeastern city of Hassakeh and the border town of Kobani came two days after an Islamic State spokesman acknowledged that the group might lose some battles but would not be defeated. The spokesman, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, had urged militants to strike back at their foes during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and "shake the ground beneath them."

Conservatives to the rescue: Obama's health care, trade wins

WASHINGTON (AP) — Cracking the often-lamented partisanship of Washington, a Republican-led Congress and a conservative Supreme Court chief justice delivered back-to-back victories for President Barack Obama's ambitious trade and health care initiatives. The Supreme Court, in an opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts, upheld a key provision of the Affordable Care Act on Thursday, thus salvaging Obama's top domestic policy achievement. A day earlier, Republican leaders helped maneuver legislation that gives Obama greater power to negotiate international trade deals, and rescued a key item of his second-term agenda.

Amid new engagements, US tags Cuba, Iran as rights abusers

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States on Thursday tagged Iran and Cuba as serial human rights abusers even as the Obama administration accelerates attempts to improve relations with both countries. Days before the resumption of nuclear talks with Tehran and weeks before the expected reopening of embassies in Washington and Havana, the State Department castigated Iran and Cuba, along with many other nations, as violators of basic freedoms in 2014 in its annual human rights reports.

Watchdog blames IRS incompetence for lost tea party emails

WASHINGTON (AP) — Investigators are blaming two IRS workers at a computer center in West Virginia for erasing thousands of emails related to the tax agency's tea party scandal, impeding congressional investigations into the treatment of conservative political groups. The workers might be incompetent, a lead investigator said Thursday, but there is no evidence they were part of a criminal conspiracy to destroy evidence.

Judge blocks Kansas' ban on 2nd-trimester abortion procedure

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas judge on Thursday blocked the state's first-in-the-nation ban on an abortion procedure that opponents describe as dismembering a fetus, concluding that it would likely present too big an obstacle for women seeking to end their pregnancies. Shawnee County District Court Judge Larry Hendricks ruled in a lawsuit filed this month by the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights. The center, representing two Kansas abortion providers, argued that the law would force women to undergo riskier procedures or forgo abortions.