U.S./World category, Page 1224
2nd arrest made in robbery that led to NYPD friendly fire death
NEW YORK — Police arrested a man Friday suspected of being the lookout during a robbery that led to the friendly fire death of a New York City police detective, an official briefed on the investigation told The Associated Press. The man was taken into custody in Queens hours after...
Vatican defrocks former U.S. cardinal Theodore McCarrick over sex abuse
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis has defrocked former U.S. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick after Vatican officials found him guilty of soliciting for sex while hearing Confession and sexual crimes against minors and adults, the Holy See said Saturday. The punishment for the once-powerful prelate, who had served as the archbishop of...
Alabama police officer shot, suspects die in subsequent fire
AUBURN, Ala. — An Alabama police officer who was shot multiple times after responding to reports of an armed robbery was recovering Saturday, while two suspects are believed to have died in a fire following a shootout. The incident began about 5:30 p.m. Friday, the Opelika-Auburn News reported. An Auburn...
Snow too thick to plow keeps skiers from California resorts
SAN FRANCISCO — Winter weather enveloping California’s mountains for a fourth straight day Friday kept skiers from hitting the slopes at the start of the Presidents Day holiday weekend, with snow so deep that plows could not tackle it and cities scrambled to find places to pile it. Several routes...
9/11 fund running out of money for those with illnesses
NEW YORK — The compensation fund for victims of 9/11 is running out of money and will cut future payments by 50 to 70 percent, officials announced Friday. September 11th Victim Compensation Fund special master Rupa Bhattacharyya said she was “painfully aware of the inequity of the situation” but stressed...
Gunman kills 5 people, wounds 5 police at Illinois business
AURORA, Ill. — An employee of a manufacturing company opened fire at its suburban Chicago plant Friday, killing five people and wounding five police officers before he was fatally shot, police said. Aurora, Illinois, Police Chief Kristen Ziman told a news conference that the gunman was 45-year-old Gary Martin and...
Black bear hitches a ride on dump truck
Hitchhiking is illegal on highways in North Carolina. So, clearly a black bear that hopped a ride on the back of a dump truck along Route 17 in Windsor, N.C., was in violation of said law. But who’s gonna bust him? The truck was taking garbage to a landfill in...
Police: 3 people found dead near railroad tracks in Columbus
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Police say the bodies of three people have been found near railroad tracks in Ohio’s capital city of Columbus. The Columbus Dispatch reports someone called 911 around 7:30 a.m. Friday to report finding the bodies. A dispatcher told the newspaper that officers found one person on the...
This bald eagle rescue story will melt your heart
An eagle was grounded but flies again thanks to volunteers at a northern Michigan wildlife rescue organization. A volunteer for the Empire, Mich.-based Wings of Wonder rescued a bald eagle Feb. 1 that was grounded on Lake Michigan with a nearly 8-inch ice ball frozen to its tail, according to...
Trump declares emergency to build border wall
President Donald Trump announced Friday that he will declare a national emergency to fulfill his pledge to construct a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump said he will use executive powers to bypass Congress, which approved far less money for his proposed wall than he had sought. He plans to...
U.S. adopts new rules for handling child bride petitions
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has announced new rules for scrutinizing requests to bring minor spouses to the United States. That word comes from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services — the agency that considers whether to approve such requests. The Associated Press reported last month that thousands of requests...
Main suspect in Sweden’s royal jewels heist confesses
COPENHAGEN, Denmark — The main suspect in the theft of royal funeral artifacts from a Swedish cathedral confessed Friday to stealing them after his DNA was found on the items that were pulled out last week from a garbage bin north of Stockholm. Swedish broadcaster SVT, reporting Friday from a...
Body found on island 26 years ago has been identified
NORWALK, Conn. — A body found on an island off Connecticut 26 years ago has finally been identified. The Hour reports that Norwalk police on Thursday announced that using fingerprints they have figured out the identity of the man discovered April 18, 1996, on city-owned Shea Island in Long Island...
Vice president Mike Pence makes his 1st visit to Auschwitz
WARSAW, Poland — U.S. Vice President Mike Pence is visiting the memorial site of Auschwitz along with the Polish president. It was the first visit for Pence, a conservative Christian, to the site where German forces murdered 1.1 million people, most of them Jews but also Poles, Roma and others,...
Top Vatican priest in Paris facing ‘sexual aggression’ probe
PARIS — A French judicial official says the Paris prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation into alleged “sexual aggression” by Catholic priest Luigi Ventura, the Apostolic Nuncio to France. Confirming a report published by Le Monde newspaper on Friday, the official said the investigation will be conducted by Paris police...
Former drama teacher charged with having sex with a student
WASHBURN, Mo. — A former Missouri drama teacher has been charged with having sex with a 16-year-old student at the high school. The Springfield News-Leader reports that 23-year-old Chelsie Leroy, of Washburn, was charged last week with four felonies, including two counts each of second-degree statutory rape and sexual contact...
Risk of flooding, mudslides remains after California storm
SAUSALITO, Calif. — Authorities warn that mudslides are still possible Friday even after a damaging storm moved through California, trapping people in floodwaters, triggering a debris flow that destroyed homes, and forcing residents to flee communities scorched by wildfires last year. The powerful system swept in from the Pacific Ocean...
Critics say EPA action plan on toxic ‘forever chemicals’ falls short
WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday announced what officials called a historic effort to rein in a class of long-lasting chemicals that pose serious health risks to millions of Americans. But environmental groups and residents of contaminated communities said that the agency’s “action plan” is short on action,...
Trump administration sued over shift in asylum policy
SAN FRANCISCO — The Trump administration’s policy of returning asylum seekers to Mexico while their cases wind through immigration courts violates U.S. law by putting the migrants in danger and depriving them of the ability to prepare their cases, a lawsuit filed Thursday by civil liberties groups claims. The lawsuit...
Coal-fired power plant set to close, despite Trump support
FRANKFORT, Ky. — A federal utility board voted Thursday to close a coal-fired power plant in Kentucky, rejecting pleas from President Donald Trump and U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and handing the coal industry a defeat in its backyard. The Tennessee Valley Authority voted to retire the remaining coal-fired...
Montana women sue border patrol over racial profiling claims
HELENA, Mont. — Two Montana women questioned by a U.S. border agent who overheard them speaking Spanish in a convenience store sued U.S. Customs and Border Protection on Thursday, saying the agent illegally detained them without reason. The agent held Ana Suda and Martha Hernandez for 40 minutes in a...
$1.5B Mega Millions lottery jackpot still unclaimed
If you still have a Mega Millions ticket from October and you bought it in South Carolina, maybe check it again. There’s a $1.537 billion jackpot still waiting to be claimed. No one has come forward yet and time is running out as the price must be claimed within 180...
Court: Attorney who created fake child porn must pay $300K
CLEVELAND — An Ohio attorney has been ordered to pay $300,000 to two women whose photos from when they were young girls were manipulated to create fake child pornography used by the attorney in court cases. Cleveland.com reports a federal appeal court in Cincinnati ruled Wednesday that a bankruptcy judge’s...
‘Atmospheric river’ dumps more rain and snow across the West
LOS ANGELES — A storm fueled by a plume of moisture stretching over the Pacific Ocean almost to Hawaii dumped rain on California Thursday, boosting the threat of debris flows from saturated slopes and flooding from rising creeks and rivers. The storm made stronger by the phenomenon called an atmospheric...
Ex-FBI official: Justice Department discussed removing Trump from office
WASHINGTON — Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe said in an interview aired Thursday that he worried that investigations into President Donald Trump’s ties to Russia and possible obstruction of justice would be shut down after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey. According to CBS, which conducted the interview, McCabe...
