U.S./World category, Page 1195
U.S. trade gap falls 15 percent to $51.1 billion in January
WASHINGTON — The U.S. trade deficit tumbled nearly 15 percent in January as imports fell and exports rose. Shipments of American goods to China skidded to the lowest level in more than eight years as the world’s two biggest economies remained locked in a trade war. The Commerce Department said...
Arby’s manager charged in death of threatening customer
TULSA, Okla. — Authorities say the manager of an Oklahoma Arby’s restaurant has been charged in the fatal shooting of a customer who she said threatened her. Tulsa County jail records show 25-year-old Deionna Young is being held without bond Tuesday on a first-degree murder charge. Records don’t list an...
U.S. shuts interior checkpoints to focus on Mexico border
LAS CRUCES, New Mexico — U.S. immigration authorities have temporarily closed highway checkpoints in New Mexico and much of West Texas, as they reassign agents and use the outposts to help process the growing numbers of Central Americans arriving at the Mexican border. The checkpoints, located up to 100 miles...
Search on for burial site of America’s first published poet
NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. — Anne Bradstreet was the North American continent’s first published poet, yet her legacy has largely been lost to time. Now, professors and students at Merrimack College in Massachusetts are trying to pinpoint her burial site while at the same restoring her legacy and what they say...
Heiress hoax scores woman celebrity treatment, and charges
NEW YORK — Anna Sorokin traveled in celebrity circles and tossed $100 tips — all the more reason to believe she was the German heiress she said she was. But behind the jet-set lifestyle and pricey threads, prosecutors say, was a fraudster who bilked friends, banks and hotels for a...
Trump buoyant at luncheon while Pelosi urges focus on policy
WASHINGTON — An exuberant President Donald Trump took a victory lap on Capitol Hill, emboldened by the end of the special counsel’s Russia probe, even as Democrats pressed insistently for Robert Mueller’s full report and Justice Department officials said more information could be released in “weeks, not months.” Trump strode...
Trump’s 2020 machine a far cry from fly-by-night 2016 effort
WASHINGTON — In 2016, President Donald Trump compared Hillary Clinton’s campaign to the lumbering federal bureaucracy. Now he’s building one of his own. From an office tower across the Potomac River from Washington, from the bowels of the Republican National Committee’s headquarters on Capitol Hill and from field offices across...
FAA to revamp aircraft construction oversight, official says
The Federal Aviation Administration plans to significantly revamp its oversight of airplane construction this summer after questions were raised about how it manages inspections done by the industry, according to testimony prepared for a Senate subcommittee hearing on Wednesday. The testimony by Calvin Scovel III, the Transportation Department’s inspector general...
Dismissal of Smollett case brings backlash, more questions
CHICAGO — Prosecutors still insist Jussie Smollett faked a racist, anti-gay attack on himself in the hopes that the attention would advance his acting career. The “Empire” star still says he was assaulted by two men late at night in downtown Chicago. But with little explanation, authorities on Tuesday abruptly...
Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 Max makes emergency landing in Florida
A Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 on its way to storage was forced to make an emergency landing Tuesday afternoon shortly after departing Orlando, Fla. Southwest Flight 8701 took off from Orlando International Airport at 2:50 p.m. and returned to the airport about 10 minutes later, after pilots reported...
Maker of OxyContin reaches $270M settlement in Oklahoma
OKLAHOMA CITY — The maker of OxyContin and the company’s controlling family agreed Tuesday to pay a groundbreaking $270 million to Oklahoma to settle allegations they helped create the nation’s deadly opioid crisis with their aggressive marketing of the powerful painkiller. It is the first settlement to come out of...
Kids get measles vaccine after New York county declares emergency
NEW YORK — Some parents who had resisted having their children vaccinated reluctantly brought them in for a measles shot Wednesday as a state of emergency took effect in a county in New York City’s northern suburbs. Rockland County enacted the emergency order Tuesday night to fight a measles outbreak...
House fails to override Trump veto of his border emergency
WASHINGTON — The Democratic-controlled House fell short Tuesday in its effort to override President Donald Trump’s first veto, handing him a victory in his effort to spend billions more for constructing barriers along the Southwest border than Congress has approved. Lawmakers voted 248-181 in favor of overturning his veto, mostly...
El Chapo seeks new trial, citing jury misconduct
NEW YORK — Defense attorneys asked a federal judge Tuesday to grant a new trial to the Mexican drug lord known as El Chapo, saying jurors improperly followed media coverage of the sensational drug conspiracy case. Joaquin Guzman’s defense team said in court filings that jurors repeatedly disregarded instructions to...
Suit-sizing issue causes NASA to nix 1st all-female spacewalk
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA has nixed the first all-female spacewalk over a spacesuit size issue. Astronaut Anne McClain was supposed to float out of the International Space Station this Friday with newly arrived Christina Koch. But McClain pulled herself from the lineup because there’s not enough time to get...
Jussie Smollett’s attorneys say all criminal charges dropped
CHICAGO — Attorneys for “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett said Tuesday that charges alleging he lied to police about a racist and homophobic attack have been dropped. Smollett attorneys Tina Glandian and Patricia Brown Holmes said in a statement that Smollett’s record “has been wiped clean.” Smollett was indicted on 16...
George H.W. Bush’s office set to close for final time
HOUSTON — Four months after the death of the former president, George H.W. Bush’s office in Houston is to close for the last time at 5 p.m. Friday. Bush Chief of Staff Jean Becker says “as one era ends, a new one is beginning.” In a statement issued Monday, Becker...
Ohio man on beer diet for Lent has lost 25 pounds
An Ohio man who is sustaining himself during Lent on a diet of beer is about halfway through his challenge and has dropped 25 pounds so far. Del Hall, who works at a brewery in Cincinnati and is Army veteran, has posted updates to social media throughout his beer fast....
50 years for man who raped neighbor, then offered yard work
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A 20-year-old convicted of raping his neighbor and then offering to do work around her house to make it up to her is being sent to prison for 50 years. Jurors in West Palm Beach found Timothy Walding guilty of sexual battery, false imprisonment and...
Baby boom: 9 labor unit nurses pregnant at Maine hospital
PORTLAND, Maine — Nine nurses who work in the labor and delivery unit at the largest hospital in Maine are expecting babies in the next few months. Maine Medical Center announced the bonanza of babies with a Facebook post on Monday featuring eight of the nine nurses and their respective...
Family owners of Panera, Einstein Bros. Bagels admit Nazi past
The German family whose holding company owns controlling stakes in companies such as Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Panera Bread, Pret a Manger and Einstein Bros. Bagels profited from the horrors of the Nazi regime, according to a report in a German newspaper. The tabloid Bild, one of Germany’s most popular papers,...
Trump says investigation abused him, led to ‘evil things’Video
WASHINGTON — House Democrats pressed the Justice Department to provide the full report from special counsel Robert Mueller even as Republicans gleefully called for them to “move on” from the Russia investigation. President Donald Trump accused those responsible for launching Mueller’s probe of “treasonous things against our country” and said...
House vote to stop Trump’s border wall plan likely to fail
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is nearing a victory over Democrats as the House tries overriding his first veto , a vote that seems certain to fail and would let stand his declaration of a national emergency at the Mexican border. Tuesday’s vote would keep the border emergency intact, which...
Flooding damage extensive in Midwest and more rain forecast
OMAHA, Neb. — Floodwaters are receding across most of the hard-hit Midwest, but there could be new problems if the forecast for significant rain later this week holds up. Already the flooding along the Missouri River and its tributaries has caused at least $3 billion damage and forced thousands from...
Coal plants emitted more than ever in 2018, putting Earth in ‘deep trouble’
Global energy experts released grim findings Monday, saying that not only are planet-warming carbon-dioxide emissions still increasing, but the world’s growing thirst for energy has led to higher emissions from coal-fired power plants than ever before. Energy demand around the world grew by 2.3 percent over the past year, marking...
