U.S./World category, Page 1123
Should we resurrect the American chestnut tree with genetic engineering?
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — The wild chestnuts around this leafy college town used to grow in such great numbers that locals collected the nuts by the bushel and shipped them off to New York City for a small fortune. These days, though, it can be hard to find a single tree...
Trump aide Kellyanne Conway asks reporter, ‘What’s your ethnicity?’Video
NEW YORK — White House adviser Kellyanne Conway says she meant no disrespect in asking a reporter to reveal his ethnicity. Her question came during an informal press gathering Tuesday when reporter Andrew Feinberg asked her about President Trump’s tweets regarding freshmen Democratic congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley...
Too-tall toupee tips police to cocaine smuggler
A man’s toupee looked just a little too big for his head as he landed in Barcelona. Airport officers took the Colombian man aside for a second security screening and found half a kilo of cocaine on his head, reports Reuters. Police said the 65-year-old man arrived on a plane...
Video: Divers spot jellyfish bigger than human off Britain’s coastVideo
Divers have encountered a shockingly large jellyfish in the waters off of Britain. Biologist and broadcaster Lizzie Daly was diving in the Atlantic Ocean near Cornwall with cameraman Dan Abbott when they found a barrel jellyfish that appears to be larger than Daly. The pair shared photos and video on...
Fossil found in 1980s in Texas declared new genus, species
BIG BEND NATIONAL PARK, Texas — Experts say fossil remains discovered in the 1980s at the Big Bend National Park in southwest Texas have been identified as a new genus and species of duckbilled dinosaur. The Journal of Systematic Paleontology announced the classification of the Aquilarhinus palimentus last week. It...
Sen. Bob Casey to host live-stream hearing on robocall fraud targeting seniors
Delaware County Sheriff Jerry Sanders knows all too well how sophisticated robocallers and phone scammers are becoming. This spring, con artists began “spoofing” the sheriff’s office phone number to try to scam local residents. U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Scranton and the ranking member of the Senate’s Special Committee on Aging,...
3 dead, 4 missing in float plane crash in Canada
ST JOHN’s, Newfoundland — At least three people died and a search is under way for four others missing after a float plane crashed into a lake in the Eastern Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Air Saguenay President Jean Tremblay said Tuesday the de Havilland DHC-2 Beaver was carrying...
Calif. camper chased by man with knife glad to be back with family
BISHOP, Calif. — A woman missing for three days after disappearing from a remote campground in California’s White Mountains on Tuesday described a man she says chased her with a knife as a burley, bald “big guy” with tanned skin. Sheryl Powell, of Huntington Beach, California, detailed what it was...
Trump abortion rule prompts exit at family planning program
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration’s ban on taxpayer-funded family planning clinics referring women for abortions prompted a major provider in Maine to announce Tuesday it is dropping out of the program after nearly 50 years. Others may follow. “It is objectionable that the federal government is so arrogant as to...
Gas worker’s body recovered after California house explosion
MURRIETA, Calif. — Authorities have recovered the body of a Southern California Gas Co. worker killed in an explosion and fire that destroyed a house and damaged others in the city of Murrieta. Deputy Fire Chief David Lantzer says the utility worker’s body was removed Monday night, hours after the...
Tick removed from Kentucky man’s eye
PRESTONSBURG, Ky. — A Kentucky man who went to the doctor with an irritated eye got the unsavory news that it contained a tick. WYMT-TV reports an optometrist used tweezers to remove the tick from Chris Prater’s eye. Prater works for an electric company and had left a job site...
Blackface scandal dampens Virginia governor’s fundraising
RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam is struggling to raise big money in a key election year after a blackface scandal nearly ended his political career. New campaign finance reports filed Monday show the Democratic governor raised slightly more than $300,000 between April and June. That’s far below the...
Apollo 11 astronaut returns to launch pad 50 years later
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins returned Tuesday to the exact spot where he and two other astronauts flew to the moon 50 years ago. At NASA’s invitation, Michael Collins spent the golden anniversary at Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A in Florida. He marked the precise...
NYPD cop won’t be charged in Eric Garner chokehold death
WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors won’t bring civil rights charges against a New York City police officer in the 2014 chokehold death of Eric Garner, a person familiar with the matter said Tuesday. The decision not to bring charges against Officer Daniel Pantaleo comes a day before the statute of limitations...
Nebraska woman arrested, fined for climbing Mount Rushmore
RAPID CITY, S.D. — A Nebraska woman has been fined $1,000 for climbing the Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota. Authorities say Alexandria Incontro scaled the massive granite sculpture Friday with bare feet and no rope, making it to about 15 feet (4.5 meters) from the top. The Rapid...
Florida expert captures elusive alligator at Chicago lagoon
CHICAGO — The alligator had a good run as day after day the people hunting for him in a Chicago lagoon came up empty, but in the end he was no match for an expert the city shipped in from Florida. The male gator, nicknamed ‘Chance the Snapper,’ was first...
GOP: U.S. land agency is moving West, closer to its territory
DENVER — Some Westerners have long complained the U.S. government is an absentee landlord, managing vast tracts of public lands in their states from the nation’s capital instead of closer to the properties themselves. GOP lawmakers say that may change soon. The Bureau of Land Management has decided to move...
Judge recommends $14M award to neo-Nazi trolling victim
HELENA, Mont. — The publisher of a neo-Nazi website should have to pay the victim of an internet trolling campaign over $14 million and remove all posts that encouraged his readers to contact the Montana real estate agent, a magistrate judge recommended Monday. U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeremiah Lynch called The...
Trump moves to eliminate nearly all asylum claims at U.S. southern border
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration moved Monday to in effect end asylum for the vast majority of migrants who arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border, an enormous shift in policy that could block hundreds of thousands of people from seeking protection in the U.S. — and is certain to draw legal...
GAO: EPA skirted procedures in overhaul of science boards
WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency skirted some of its usual procedures and ethics rules when it overhauled key agency advisory boards, slashing the numbers of academic scientists on the panels and appointing more industry figures, the Government Accountability Office said Monday. Senate Democrats had asked for the GAO probe....
Kellyanne Conway ignores subpoena, ditches House testimony on alleged ethics violationsVideo
Top Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway ignored a subpoena Monday and ditched House testimony on allegations that she repeatedly violated federal ethics law, prompting calls for her to be held in contempt. White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham issued a statement after it became clear Conway wasn’t showing up for the...
Man charged in Utah college student’s death appears in courtVideo
SALT LAKE CITY — A tech worker charged in the death of a Utah college student made his first court appearance Monday as friends of the slain woman held hands in the front row. Ayoola A. Ajayi appeared by video from jail alongside a court-appointed attorney during a quick hearing...
Mama bear charges Great Smoky Mountains visitor who got near her cubsVideo
Luckily, a Darwin Award was not given out this weekend in the Great Smoky Mountains. A visitor to the national park inexplicably confronted a mother bear and three cubs and was able to scurry away unscathed on Saturday. As the unidentified man ignored advice from other visitors in a parking...
Man attacked in Ohio courtroom brawl last week sentenced to lifeVideo
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — A man whose sentencing was postponed when he was attacked in an Ohio courtroom last week is headed to prison. A judge on Monday sentenced Dale Williams to 23 years to life in the killing of a Youngstown woman. His hearing was interrupted on Thursday when authorities...
New York boy, 3, dies after falling into restaurant grease trap
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — A 3-year-old boy has died after falling into an underground grease collection tank behind an upstate New York fast-food restaurant. Rochester Police Investigator Frank Camp says the boy fell through a plastic cover into the grease trap behind a Tim Hortons restaurant around 11 a.m. Monday. Witnesses...
