U.S./World category, Page 662
Capitol Police denies baseless claim its officers spy on GOP
WASHINGTON — A year after the Jan. 6 insurrection, U.S. Capitol Police officers are facing increasingly heated and baseless allegations from House Republicans that the department’s officers are operating as politically driven spies. The rhetoric is complicating the force’s effort to win back public confidence. The latest tumult occurred Tuesday,...
Ex-candidate sentenced to year in prison for death threats
DOVER, Del. — A former Delaware political candidate who unsuccessfully sought the Republican nominations for governor and U.S. Senate has been sentenced to a year in prison after pleading guilty to federal charges of mailing threats to a lawyer who represented his wife in a divorce case. Michael Protack was...
1 juror dismissed from federal trial in George Floyd killing
ST. PAUL, Minn. — The judge overseeing the federal trial of three former officers charged with violating George Floyd’s civil rights dismissed a juror Wednesday because his son is ill. U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson replaced the juror in the trial of J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao...
Christian revival at school prompts student walkout in W.Va.
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Between calculus and European history classes at a West Virginia public high school, 16-year-old Cameron Mays and his classmates were told by their teacher to go to an evangelical Christian revival assembly. When students arrived at the event in the school’s auditorium, they were instructed to close...
Kentucky Rep. Hal Rogers apologizes for cursing at Democrat over masksVideo
WASHINGTON — A senior Republican lawmaker apologized late Tuesday for using an expletive when Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty asked him to put his mask on while in the Capitol. The confrontation was just the latest dust-up in the House over mask-wearing, which many Republicans have refused to do. Earlier Tuesday,...
Los Angeles nun, 80, gets prison for $835,000 school theft to fund gambling habit
LOS ANGELES — A Los Angeles nun and school principal who stole more than $800,000 to pay for a gambling habit was sentenced Monday to a year in federal prison. Mary Margaret Kreuper, 80, admitted to stealing the money from 2008 to 2018 while she was principal at St. James...
Doug Emhoff whisked out of event following reported bomb threatVideo
WASHINGTON — Doug Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, was whisked out of an event Tuesday at a Washington high school by Secret Service agents following an apparent bomb threat. Emhoff was at Dunbar High School for an event in commemoration of Black History Month. He was in...
West Virginia coach files complaint against police in basketball scuffle
BECKLEY, W.Va. — A high school coach has filed a complaint alleging two West Virginia State Police troopers used excessive force when detaining him after a scuffle at a girls basketball game. Eugene “Gene” Nabors, an assistant coach of the Woodrow Wilson High School girls basketball team in Beckley, filed...
Texts: Michigan mom of alleged school shooter joked about gunVideo
ROCHESTER HILLS, Mich. — A day before four students were killed at a Michigan school, the mother of the teenager charged with carrying out the mass shooting sent him a text message asking if he had showed teachers a “pic of your new gun,” an investigator testified Tuesday. The text...
Justice Department announces $3.6B crypto seizure, 2 arrests
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department announced Tuesday its largest-ever financial seizure — more than $3.5 billion — and the arrests of a New York couple accused of conspiring to launder billions of dollars in cryptocurrency stolen from the 2016 hack of a virtual currency exchange. Federal law enforcement officials said...
Covid-19 protests threaten border trade between Canada, U.S.
OTTAWA, Ontario — Canadian lawmakers expressed increasing worry Tuesday about the economic effects of disruptive demonstrations after the busiest border crossing between the U.S. and Canada became partially blocked by truckers protesting vaccine mandates and other covid-19 restrictions. The blockade at the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, prevented...
Money on the table: child credit cash available via tax returns
The Biden administration wants families with children to know that there is roughly $193 billion waiting for them — all they need to do is file their taxes to claim it. That estimated total is what remains of the expanded child tax credit, and the administration is concerned that some...
Wisconsin GOP looks to block abortions if heartbeat detected
MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin Republicans pushed ahead Tuesday with a Texas-style abortion ban, holding a hearing on legislation that would prohibit abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy. The bill would prohibit anyone from performing or attempting to perform an abortion if a fetal heartbeat is present unless the pregnant...
Gates, French Gates top list of biggest U.S. charity donors
A handful of Americans donated at least $1 billion to charity last year, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s annual ranking of the 50 Americans who gave the most to charity in 2021. Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates topped the list, pledging $15 billion to the Bill & Melinda Gates...
Park outside: Hyundai, Kia recall vehicles due to fire risk
DETROIT — Hyundai and Kia are telling the owners of nearly 485,000 vehicles in the U.S. to park them outdoors because they can catch fire even if the engines have been turned off. The recalls from the two Korean automakers are another in a long string of fire and engine...
Police trainer testifies against officers in Floyd’s death
ST. PAUL, Minn. — A Minneapolis police officer who oversaw medical training for two of the three former officers charged with violating George Floyd’s civil rights was scheduled to resume testifying in their federal trial Tuesday about what they were taught. Officer Nicole Mackenzie, the department’s medical support coordinator, testified...
Report: U.S. fight against opioid abuse needs new strategy
WASHINGTON — The U.S. needs a nimble, multipronged strategy and Cabinet-level leadership to counter its festering overdose epidemic, a bipartisan congressional commission advises. With vastly powerful synthetic drugs like fentanyl driving record overdose deaths, the scourge of opioids awaits after the covid-19 pandemic finally recedes, a shift that public health...
Iran nuclear talks resume amid pressure for results
VIENNA — Diplomats from Iran and world powers reconvened in Vienna on Tuesday to seek a deal reviving Tehran’s 2015 nuclear accord, with pressure mounting for results soon. Negotiators from Iran and the remaining parties to the agreement — Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China — got back to work...
Retired pope asks pardon for abuse, but admits no wrongdoing
ROME — Retired Pope Benedict XVI asked forgiveness Tuesday for any “grievous faults” in his handling of clergy sex abuse cases, but admitted to no personal or specific wrongdoing after an independent report criticized his actions in four cases while he was archbishop of Munich, Germany. “I have had great...
Justice Department signals it may allow safe injection sites
NEW YORK — A year after winning a major court battle against the opening of so-called safe injection sites — safe havens for people to use heroin and other narcotics with protections against fatal overdoses — the Justice Department is signaling it might be open to allowing them. In response...
U.S. warns midterms could spark calls for extremist violence
WASHINGTON — The upcoming midterm elections are emerging as a rallying point for domestic extremists and foreign adversaries seeking to disrupt the U.S. and incite violence, the Department of Homeland Security warned Monday. Unsubstantiated fraud claims, which have haunted the country since the 2020 presidential election, may be used to...
Police: 1 killed in shooting at Washington state grocery store
RICHLAND, Wash. — Police say one person was killed and another injured Monday morning in a shooting at a Fred Meyer store in Richland, Wash. Police said the suspect is a white man with a handgun who is believed to have fled the store after the 11:04 a.m. shooting. Richland...
Muscogee dismayed by nearly naked statue of Georgia ancestor
ATLANTA — There’s a problem with putting someone on a pedestal: Exposed on all sides, a hero to some can be seen as a traitor to others. Atlanta plans to install a statue of a Native American man atop a 110-foot column in its new Peace Park, where it will...
Black colleges alarmed by bomb threats, but undeterred
From her office in Birmingham, Alabama, DeJuana Thompson looks across the street and sees a daily reminder of terror. Her window overlooks the 16th Street Baptist Church, where a bomb in 1963 killed four young Black girls. “Living in the era of bomb threats is not new to people of...
Ukraine crisis talks move to Moscow and Washington
MOSCOW — International efforts to defuse the standoff over Ukraine intensified Monday, with French President Emmanuel Macron holding talks in Moscow and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Washington to coordinate policies as fears of a Russian invasion mounted. The buildup of an estimated 100,000 Russian troops near Ukraine has fueled...
