U.S./World category, Page 555
Mike Lindell sues to recover cellphone seized by FBI agents
MINNEAPOLIS — MyPillow chief executive Mike Lindell has sued the Department of Justice and the FBI, demanding the return of a cellphone agents seized from him outside a fast food restaurant in southern Minnesota last week, apparently as part of an investigation into an alleged scheme to breach voting system...
Virginia Thomas agrees to interview with Jan. 6 panel
WASHINGTON — Conservative activist Virginia Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, has agreed to participate in a voluntary interview with the House panel investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection, her lawyer said Wednesday. Attorney Mark Paoletta said Thomas is “eager to answer the committee’s questions to clear up...
Trump docs probe: Court lifts hold on Mar-a-Lago records
WASHINGTON — In a stark repudiation of Donald Trump’s legal arguments, a federal appeals court on Wednesday permitted the Justice Department to resume its use of classified records seized from the former president’s Florida estate as part of its ongoing criminal investigation. The ruling from a three-judge panel of the...
Russian separatists release 10, including 2 US veterans
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Two U.S. military veterans who disappeared three months ago while fighting Russia with Ukrainian forces were among 10 prisoners, including five British nationals, released by Russian-backed separatists after talks involving Saudi Arabia, relatives and government officials said Wednesday. Alex Drueke, 40, and Andy Huynh, 27, went missing...
Man pleads guilty to dousing ‘Bewitched’ statue in red paint
SALEM, Mass. — A man will be sentenced to 18 months of probation after pleading guilty to vandalizing the “Bewitched” statue by dousing the Salem, Massachusetts tourist attraction with red paint over the summer. The 32-year-old resident was originally sentenced to a year in jail, but a Salem district court...
Home Depot workers petition to form 1st store-wide union
NEW YORK — Home Depot workers in Philadelphia have filed a petition with the federal labor board to form what could be the first store-wide union at the world’s largest home improvement retailer. The petition, filed with the National Labor Relations Board this week, seeks to form a collective bargaining...
Trump accused of vast fraud in lawsuit by New York Attorney General Letitia James
New York’s attorney general sued former President Donald Trump and his company for fraud on Wednesday, alleging they padded his net worth by billions of dollars by lying about the value of prized assets including golf courses, hotels and his homes at Trump Tower and Mar-a-Lago. Attorney General Letitia James...
U.S. home sales slipped, prices grew more slowly in August
Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes slowed in August for the seventh month in a row, as sharply higher mortgage rates and rising prices made homebuying less affordable, further cooling the once red-hot housing market. The National Association of Realtors said Wednesday that existing home sales fell 0.4% last month...
Judge prepares for Alex Jones to take stand in Connecticut
WATERBURY, Conn. — The judge overseeing the Connecticut trial of Alex Jones said Wednesday she is prepared to handle any incendiary testimony from the Infowars host when he is called to the stand this week in a defamation lawsuit filed by people who lost relatives in the Sandy Hook school...
Biden: Russia ‘shamelessly violated’ UN Charter in UkraineVideo
UNITED NATIONS — President Joe Biden declared at the United Nations Wednesday that Russia has “shamelessly violated the core tenets” of the U.N with its “brutal, needless war” in Ukraine. He said the war is an affront to the heart of what the international body stands for as he looked...
Putin orders partial military call-up, sparking protestsVideo
KYIV, Ukraine — Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a partial mobilization of reservists Wednesday, taking a risky and deeply unpopular step that follows humiliating setbacks for his troops nearly seven months after invading Ukraine. The first such call-up in Russia since World War II heightened tensions with Ukraine’s Western backers,...
Russians rush for flights out amid partial reservist call-up
BELGRADE, Serbia — Large numbers of Russians rushed to book one-way tickets out of the country while they still could Wednesday after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilization of military reservists for the war in Ukraine. Flights filled up quickly and the prices of tickets for remaining connections...
Ex-cop Lane gets 3 years in plea deal for aiding George Floyd death
MINNEAPOLIS — A former Minneapolis police officer who pleaded guilty to a state charge of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter in the killing of George Floyd was sentenced Wednesday to three years. Thomas Lane is already serving a 2 1/2-year federal sentence for violating Floyd’s civil rights. When it comes...
Illinois Lottery: 2 claim $1.337B Mega Millions jackpot
CHICAGO — Two people who wish to remain anonymous have claimed a $1.337 billion Mega Millions jackpot after a single ticket to the late July drawing was sold in a Chicago suburb, lottery officials said Wednesday. The Illinois Lottery said the prize was claimed by two individuals who had agreed...
Michelle Obama plans 6-city tour for ‘The Light We Carry’
NEW YORK — Michelle Obama plans a six-city tour this fall in support of her new book, “The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times,” beginning mid-November in Washington. D.C. and ending a month later in Los Angeles. “I’m looking forward to making some new connections — and of course,...
Fauci tempers Biden’s declaration that pandemic is ‘over’
Not so fast, Mr. President. Outgoing presidential covid adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci on Monday walked back President Joe Biden’s assertion that the coronavirus pandemic was “over.” A lot depends on how we respond to current variables and future virus variants, the nation’s top infectious disease expert said during a fireside...
Iran faces global criticism, protests over woman’s deathVideo
Iran faced international criticism on Tuesday over the death of a woman held by its morality police, which ignited three days of protests, including clashes with security forces in the capital and other unrest that claimed at least three lives. The U.N. human rights office called for an investigation. The...
Migrants sue Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over Martha’s Vineyard flightsVideo
BOSTON — Venezuelan migrants flown to the upscale Massachusetts island of Martha’s Vineyard sued Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his transportation secretary Tuesday for engaging in a “fraudulent and discriminatory scheme” to relocate them. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Boston, alleges that the migrants were told they were...
Trump FBI search puts unusual spotlight on National Archives nominee, a Norwin graduate
WASHINGTON — As a novelist, Colleen Shogan has imagined the most vivid of Washington dramas. Larceny at the Library of Congress. A homicide in the House of Representatives. A stabbing in the U.S. Senate. But Shogan is about to become a protagonist in a storyline too fantastical for fiction —...
Arbiter in Trump documents probe signals intent to move quicklyVideo
WASHINGTON — The independent arbiter tasked with inspecting documents seized in an FBI search of former President Donald Trump’s Florida home said Tuesday he intends to push briskly though the review process and appeared skeptical of the Trump team’s reluctance to say whether it believed the records had been declassified....
Video shows ‘unauthorized access’ to Georgia election equipmentVideo
ATLANTA — A Republican Party official in Georgia told a computer forensics team to copy components of the voting system at a rural elections office two months after the 2020 election and spent nearly all day there, contradicting her sworn deposition testimony about her role in the alleged breach of...
NTSB wants all new vehicles to check drivers for alcohol use
DETROIT — The National Transportation Safety Board is recommending that all new vehicles in the U.S. be required to have blood-alcohol monitoring systems that can stop an intoxicated person from driving. The recommendation, if enacted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, could reduce the number of alcohol-related crashes, one...
Judge holds gun ban for felony defendants unconstitutional
PECOS, Texas — A U.S. law banning those under felony indictments from buying guns is unconstitutional, a federal judge in West Texas ruled this week. U.S. District Judge David Counts, whom then-President Donald Trump appointed to the federal bench, dismissed a federal indictment against Jose Gomez Quiroz that had charged...
In South Carolina, Harris urges students to vote in midterms
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Vice President Kamala Harris visited two historically Black colleges in South Carolina to push for voter registration as she focuses on places and demographics that will be key to Democrats’ chances to hold on to Congress in the midterm elections. In remarks Tuesday to first-year students at...
Hertz to order up to 175K GM electric vehicles over 5 years
Hertz plans to order up to 175,000 electric vehicles from General Motors over the next five years. The agreement announced Tuesday includes electric vehicle deliveries through 2027 and will include SUVs, pickups and luxury automobiles from Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, Cadillac and BrightDrop. The companies expect deliveries of the Chevrolet Bolt...
