U.S./World category, Page 1010
U.S. scientists: Earth just had its hottest January in recorded historyVideo
Last month was the hottest January since scientists began keeping temperature records in 1880, scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Thursday. Global land and ocean temperatures exceeded all temperatures recorded in the past 141 years of data at 2.05 degrees above the 20th century average. Of the...
Brrrr! Arctic front brings dangerous wind chills to Midwest
MINNEAPOLIS — Students stayed home from school Thursday and several businesses were closed in parts of the upper Midwest as arctic air pushed wind chill readings to dangerously low temperatures. A wind chill warning was in effect for northeastern North Dakota and northern Minnesota, with wind chill readings plunging to...
In win for Amazon, judge freezes work on Pentagon contract
NEW YORK — A federal judge on Thursday ordered a temporary halt of Microsoft’s work on a $10 billion military cloud contract, a win for Amazon, which sued the U.S. government last year for awarding the contract to its rival. Amazon’s lawsuit, filed in November, alleged that President Donald Trump’s...
Los Angeles County moves to dismiss 66,000 marijuana convictions
LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey on Thursday announced the dismissal of 66,000 marijuana convictions in the county, a move to undo decades of drug enforcement that disproportionately targeted people of color years after California voters legalized weed. The top prosecutor this week filed a motion...
New Jersey teacher investigated for telling students to act as slaves
TOMS RIVER, N.J. — A New Jersey school district is investigating a teacher’s history lesson that had students pretend to be slaves, officials said. According to social media posts by a student in the class, 8th-grade social studies teacher Lawrence Cuneo forced Toms River Intermediate School students to act as...
Virus cases surge after China revises way count is tallied
BEIJING — China reported a surge in deaths and infections from a new virus Thursday after changing the way the count is tallied, further clouding an epidemic that has stirred fear as it spread to more than two dozen countries. The spike came after two days in which the number...
Court halts Pentagon work with Microsoft on cloud contract
NEW YORK — A federal court has ordered the Pentagon to temporarily halt work with Microsoft on a $10 billion military cloud contract that Amazon was initially favored to win. Amazon subsequently sued, alleging that President Donald Trump’s bias against the company hurt its chances to win the project. Amazon...
Amsterdam bans tour groups from sex workers’ windows
AMSTERDAM — The local government in Amsterdam has banned guided tours that take groups past the famed windows in the city’s red-light district where visitors watch semi-naked sex workers pose. The move announced Thursday is the city government’s latest attempt to address over-tourism and to clean up and to protect...
Longest-serving federal judge, named by LBJ, retires at 98
NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York City who was nominated by President Lyndon Johnson and who contributed to the landmark case that struck down racial segregation in public schools is retiring at age 98. U.S. District Judge Jack Weinstein was known for favoring lenient sentences and rehabilitation....
Fiery train derailment in Kentucky spills ethanol into river
PIKEVILLE, Ky. — A fiery train derailment Thursday morning in eastern Kentucky trapped two crew members and caused a chemical leak into a river, authorities said. Two crew members of the CSX train were initially trapped before getting out and a flammable liquid was leaking into a river, said Charles...
U.K. Treasury chief quits as Johnson shakes up Cabinet
LONDON — U.K. Treasury chief Sajid Javid unexpectedly resigned on Thursday after resisting a reduction in his power, as Prime Minister Boris Johnson sought to tighten his grip on the government with a Cabinet shake-up. Javid had been widely expected to keep his job — the second most powerful in...
Part of the ceiling collapses at Atlanta airport restaurant
ATLANTA — Part of a restaurant ceiling collapsed inside Atlanta’s airport, and one person asked to be treated by emergency crews, airport officials said. The collapse happened shortly before 8 a.m. Thursday in Concourse A, one of the closest concourses to the main domestic terminal, the airport said in a...
Flooding forces Alabama school system to shut downVideo
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — An Alabama school system called off classes Thursday because flooding affected its public water supply, and officials asked residents to conserve water. Hartselle schools canceled for the day because water from a rising creek flooded a water pumping station, the Morgan County Sheriff’s Office said in a...
Tampon tax break faces resistance in Tennessee
NASHVILLE — A proposal to include feminine hygiene products during Tennessee’s annual sales-tax holiday faced resistance this week from lawmakers concerned about the lack of limit on on such purchases. The legislation is the latest evolution of a push to eliminate the so-called “tampon tax” on items such as tampons...
‘Canned’ lions still on offer at U.S. trophy hunting conventionVideo
WASHINGTON — An undercover video recorded by animal welfare activists shows vendors at a recent trophy-hunting convention promoting trips to shoot captive-bred lions in Africa, despite past public assurances by the event’s organizers that so-called canned hunts wouldn’t be sold. Investigators for the Humane Society of the United States captured...
Lawmakers want Ivanka Trump’s women’s program to become law
WASHINGTON — Two senators — one Republican and one Democrat — are leading a legislative effort to have a global women’s initiative spearheaded by President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka written into law. Sens. Lindsey Graham, R.-S.C., and Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., are behind the effort, the senior White House adviser announced...
2 officers injured, suspect dead in Baltimore shootingVideo
BALTIMORE — Two law enforcement officers with a fugitive task force were injured and a suspect died in a shooting Wednesday in Baltimore, the U.S. Marshals Service said. One officer was injured in the leg and the other in the stomach, U.S. Marshals Service spokesman David Lutz said in an...
Jury finds Mar-a-Lago intruder not guilty of trespassingVideo
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A Florida jury acquitted a Chinese woman Wednesday of trespassing at President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort after she testified she didn’t understand a security guard who told her to leave. However, jurors did find Jing Lu, 56, guilty of resisting a police officer without violence...
Scientists discover mysterious outer space radio waves that repeat every 16 days
Something, somewhere, about a half-billion light-years away in space, is sending out mysterious radio signals that form a set pattern. Fast radio bursts (FRB) are rare but not unheard of, according to CNN, but they normally are emitted once by whatever the source. When they do repeat, it’s in short...
Coronavirus has many U.S. firms waiting for products to ship
NEW YORK — When the factory in China that makes Romy Taormina’s anti-nausea wristbands closed for the Lunar New Year in late January, she expected production to resume by early this month. But many factories across China are still closed to try to limit the spread of the coronavirus, leaving...
Pope avoids question of married priests in Amazon document
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis declined Wednesday to approve the ordination of married men to address a shortage of priests in the Amazon, sidestepping a fraught issue that has dominated debate in the Catholic Church and even involved retired Pope Benedict XVI. Francis, in an eagerly awaited document, did not...
Record-setting astronaut feels good after near year in space
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA’s new record-setting astronaut said Wednesday that aside from sore muscles and trouble with balance, she’s readjusting well to gravity after nearly 11 months in space. Christina Koch met with reporters in Houston six days after returning to Earth from the International Space Station. Her 328-day...
Embattled Boy Scouts seek to boost support for abuse victims
NEW YORK — Facing a possible bankruptcy resulting from sex-abuse litigation, the Boy Scouts of America issued a new apology Tuesday to survivors of abuse and announced plans for expanded services to support them. The Boy Scouts are teaming up in a five-year partnership with 1in6, a national nonprofit that...
Private funeral held for Kobe Bryant, daughter Gianna
NBA legend Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna Bryant have been laid to rest. The Los Angeles Lakers icon and his daughter were reportedly buried Friday in a private funeral in Los Angeles, according to Entertainment Tonight. Kobe and Gianna died in a Jan. 26 helicopter crash in Calabasas with...
Even before Iowa fiasco, caucuses were on their way out
WASHINGTON — It didn’t take the high-profile disaster that was last week’s Iowa caucus for state political parties to move away from the party-run presidential preference system. Even before the Iowa debacle, caucuses were on their way out across the country. Ten states that hosted caucuses in 2016 — Alaska,...
