U.S./World category, Page 1215
Neo-Nazi group’s leader is black man who vows to dissolve it
One of the nation’s largest neo-Nazi groups appears to have an unlikely new leader: a black activist who has vowed to dismantle it. Court documents filed Thursday suggest James Hart Stern wants to use his new position as director and president of the National Socialist Movement to undermine the Detroit-based...
Evacuations lifted for flooded California wine country towns
GUERNEVILLE, Calif. — Jason Flint prepared for flooding in Northern California by putting his deli’s valuable equipment on pallets and milk crates stacked several feet above the ground. It wasn’t enough, as he found out Friday when he returned to Guerneville after two days of flooding in Sonoma County’s famed...
Ruined crops, salty soil: How rising seas are poisoning North Carolina’s farmland
MIDDLETOWN, N.C. - The salty patches were small, at first - scattered spots where soybeans wouldn’t grow, where grass withered and died, exposing expanses of bare, brown earth. But lately those barren patches have grown. On dry days, the salt precipitates out of the mud and the crystals make the...
U.S. Marine veteran built cocaine pipeline as Mexican drug kingpin, prosecutors say
SAN DIEGO — A U.S. Marine veteran who rose to power as a reputed Mexican drug kingpin has been named in a massive cocaine-trafficking indictment in San Diego. The investigation into Angel Dominguez Ramirez Jr.’s organization revealed “an unprecedented level of corruption within the Mexican government, local police departments, federal...
Ugh! Video shows giant tarantula preying on opossum
This is a thing nightmares are made of. A tarantula the size of a dinner plate dragging around a young mouse opossum. A morbid film and images of the encounter were captured by a team of University of Michigan researchers, who documented 15 rare and disturbing predator-prey interactions in the...
Arizona man accused of killing his service dog, dumping it in trash
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Police in the Phoenix suburb of Scottsdale say a man is accused of killing his 4-year-old golden retriever service dog at his home and dumping the dog’s body in a garbage can where it was found by family members. Police say in a statement that 29-year-old Jacob...
Ratatouille? Tourists in Boston grossed out when gull swallows rat in their video
A pair of British tourists got a revolting surprise while roaming the streets of Boston this week. They spotted a gull tugging at a dead rat on Salem Street in the city’s North End and started recording a video, shared by the Daily Mail. Much to their surprise, the gull...
Chaos erupts, 2 arrested during Texas execution
HUNTSVILLE, Texas — Chaos erupted outside Texas’ death chamber Thursday night when the son of the condemned inmate pounded on the chamber windows, shouted obscenities and threw fists after his father spoke his final words. Billie Wayne Coble, a Vietnam War veteran who killed his estranged wife’s parents and brother...
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee joins Democratic presidential field
SEATTLE — Washington Gov. Jay Inslee will seek the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, mixing calls for combating climate change and highlights of his liberal record with an aggressive critique of President Donald Trump. The 68-year-old governor is launching his bid Friday in Seattle, following recent visits to the first primary...
Walmart to make ‘every effort’ to keep disabled greeters
After more than a week of backlash, Walmart is pledging to make “every effort” to find other roles for disabled workers who’d accused the retailer of targeting them as it prepares to eliminate the “people greeter” job at 1,000 stores. Greg Foran, president and CEO of Walmart’s U.S. stores, said...
Ex-Vegas headliner faints at 20-year sentence in porn case
LAS VEGAS — A former Las Vegas illusion show headliner from Germany appeared to faint Thursday while being sentenced to 20 years in prison and fined more than $500,000 in a federal child pornography case. Jan Rouven Fuechtener, 40, stiffened and fell backward over his chair after Chief U.S. District...
Trump’s interior secretary misusing post to aid California water district, complaint says
WASHINGTON — Complaints are mounting against Acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt over allegations he used his position to help the interests of his former lobbying client, California’s powerful Westlands Water District. The nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center filed a complaint accusing Bernhardt of ethics violations by partaking in decisions directly related...
Ohio man who pleaded guilty in 4 slayings sentenced to death
IRONTON, Ohio — A man who pleaded guilty in the deadly Ohio shootings of four relatives, including a young boy, has been sentenced to the death penalty. A panel of three judges sentenced 24-year-old Arron Lawson on Thursday in the 2017 slayings near Ironton in southern Ohio’s Lawrence County. Prosecutors...
German town defends seizing family’s pet, selling it on eBay
BERLIN — Officials in Germany are defending their decision to seize an indebted family’s pet pug and sell it on eBay, saying the move was a last resort because authorities were unable to find anything else to take. The incident in the western town of Ahlen prompted criticism on social...
Colorado, Rocky Mountain highs bring in billions through recreation pot sales
Denver long ago laid title to being the Mile High City, but with more than $6 billion in retail sales of cannabis and cannabis-infused products in four years of legalized recreational marijuana in Colorado, the state’s capital city might now want to claim being at least a mile and half...
Judge won’t make Mongols biker gang surrender trademark logo
SANTA ANA, Calif. — A California federal judge has refused to order the Mongols motorcycle gang to forfeit its trademarked logo, delivering a blow to prosecutors. U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter said Thursday that such an order would have been unconstitutional. Mongols attorney Joe Yanny says the ruling...
Protesters in Ukraine call for president’s impeachment
KIEV, Ukraine — Hundreds of demonstrators marched across the Ukrainian capital Thursday calling for the impeachment of the country’s president over embezzlement claims. President Petro Poroshenko, who is seeking re-election in a March 31 vote, has come under fire over a media investigation that implicated one of his senior associates...
Moscow court orders prominent U.S. investor to remain in jail
MOSCOW — A Moscow court on Thursday rejected an appeal by a prominent U.S. foreign investment manager and ordered him to remain in jail for at least the next month-and-a-half in connection with an embezzlement probe. The Moscow City Court’s decision to keep Michael Calvey behind bars until April 13...
Trump accepts Kim’s ‘word’ he had no role in Otto Warmbier death
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Thursday he takes North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “at his word” that Kim was unaware of the alleged mistreatment of an American college student who died after being imprisoned there. Trump said in Vietnam that Kim “tells me he didn’t know about it,...
Arizona town bans phone use by drivers
FLORENCE, Ariz. — A town in central Arizona has banned the use of phones while driving beginning in March. The Casa Grande Dispatch reported Thursday that the Florence Town Council passed an ordinance on Feb. 19 prohibiting the use of “portable wireless communication devices” while behind the wheel. The ordinance...
DeVos to pitch federal tax credit for ‘educational freedom’
The Trump administration is proposing a federal tax credit for donations made to groups offering scholarships for private schools, apprenticeships or other educational programs. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is unveiling the plan Thursday, while legislation is being proposed by Republicans in the House and Senate. The proposal, called the Education...
U.S. economic growth just missed 3 percent mark in 2018
WASHINGTON — The U.S. economy slowed in the final three months of last year to an annual growth rate of 2.6 percent, the slowest pace since the beginning of 2018, as the government shutdown and other factors took a toll on growth. Economists believe growth has slowed even more in...
Hyundai, Kia recall over 500K vehicles as fire risk spreads
DETROIT — Hyundai and Kia have added more than a half-million vehicles to 3½-year string of U.S. recalls for engine failures and fires. Three recalls released Thursday by the government add new problems and vehicles to the Korean automakers’ list of safety woes, which have brought hundreds of complaints about...
Rescuers pass water, food to Indonesia mine buried
BOLAANG MONGONDOW, Indonesia — Rescuers have passed water and food to some of the dozens of people trapped in a collapsed Indonesian gold mine, an official said Thursday, calling the grueling rescue effort in a remote inaccessible location a race against time. The national disaster agency said 19 people had...
Ice castles turn farmland into winter wonderlandVideo
NORTH WOODSTOCK, N.H. — On a clear, frigid night in a courtyard made of walls of ice, Bruce McCafferty and his young son stand mesmerized, bathed in the pulsating rainbow light emanating from a series of stout ice formations. McCafferty and his son Dougie have come out to Ice Castles...
