U.S./World category, Page 785
German police say grenade-shaped item in forest was sex toy
BERLIN — A German police bomb squad called to investigate a suspected hand grenade in a Bavarian forest determined that the object actually was a rubber sex toy, authorities said Tuesday. A jogger reported finding a bag containing the device Monday in a forest outside the city of Passau, near...
Biden signs $15 minimum wage for federal contract workers
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden signed an executive order Tuesday to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour for federal contractors, providing a pay bump to hundreds of thousands of workers. Biden administration officials said that the higher wages would lead to greater worker productivity, offsetting any additional costs...
U.S. marks slowest population growth since the DepressionVideo
WASHINGTON — U.S. population growth has slowed to the lowest rate since the Great Depression, the Census Bureau said Monday, as Americans continued their march to the South and West and one-time engines of growth, New York and California, lost political influence. Altogether, the U.S. population rose to 331,449,281 last...
Colorado cop accused of hurting woman’s arm: ‘Ready for the pop?’Video
DENVER — A Colorado police officer accused of dislocating the shoulder of a 73-year-old woman with dementia while arresting her apparently knew he had injured her. He told fellow officers “ready for the pop?” as he showed them his body camera footage, according to police station surveillance video with enhanced...
Ex-cop who killed Tamir Rice appeals to Ohio Supreme Court
CLEVELAND — The white Cleveland police officer who fatally shot Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old Black child playing with a pellet gun outside a recreation center in November 2014, has filed an appeal with the Ohio Supreme Court to get his job back. Attorneys for Timothy Loehmann filed the appeal last...
Pathologist: Black man killed by North Carolina deputies was shot 5 timesVideo
ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. — Andrew Brown Jr., a Black man killed by deputies in North Carolina, was shot five times, including in the back of the head, according to an independent autopsy released Tuesday, hours before the FBI announced a federal civil rights investigation into last week’s shooting. The developments...
Census: Texas gains Congress seats; Calif. loses for 1st timeVideo
WASHINGTON — The nation’s political center of gravity shifted further to the Republican-led South and West on Monday, with Texas, Florida and other Sun Belt states gaining congressional seats while chillier climes like New York and Ohio lost them. Altogether, the U.S. population rose to 331,449,281, the Census Bureau said,...
Family of Black man shot by deputy in Virginia seeks release of audio
SPOTSYLVANIA COURTHOUSE, Va. — The family of a Black man shot by a Virginia sheriff’s deputy last week demanded the release of additional audio recordings related to the incident Monday and said Isaiah Brown remained in “very critical” condition. Speaking at a news conference outside the Spotsylvania County courthouse, an...
Justice Department to investigate Louisville policing practices after Breonna Taylor death
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is launching a broad inquiry of the police department in Louisville, Kentucky, the second such investigation into a local law enforcement agency in the last week. U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the probe, saying it will examine whether the Louisville police force engages “in...
Ga. man busted for meth after neighbor’s dog finds his stash
A man in Thomas County, Ga. got busted for drug possession after his neighbor’s dog found his stash of methamphetamine. The dog had reportedly come home carrying a suspicious brown bag in its mouth, leading to a further investigation as to where the illegal contents may have come from. WSB-TV...
Hundreds show up in Nebraska for fight over name JoshVideo
LINCOLN, Neb. — A fight over the name of Josh drew a crowd from around the country to a Nebraska park Saturday for a heated pool-noodle brawl. It all started a year ago when pandemic boredom set in and Josh Swain, a 22-year-old college student from Tucson, Ariz., messaged others...
Mother, son killed by bulls in Germany
BERLIN — Police say an 81-year-old woman and her 56-year-old son are believed to have been killed by bulls at their farm in western Germany. Southern Hesse police said officers were alerted Monday morning that two bulls were on the loose in the town of Lorsch, about 30 miles south...
Syria rights group urges world to reject presidential vote
BEIRUT — A leading Syrian rights group Monday called on the international community to reject next month’s presidential elections because they will take place under the rule of President Bashar Assad, who is implicated in war crimes. Paris-based Syrian Network for Human Rights, describing the elections as a sham, said...
Supreme Court to take up right to carry gun for self-defense
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court agreed on Monday to hear an appeal to expand gun rights in the United States in a New York case over the right to carry a firearm in public for self-defense. The case marks the court’s first foray into gun rights since Justice Amy Coney...
EU finalizing plans to allow U.S. tourists back this summer
BRUSSELS — The European Union is finalizing plans to allow tourists from the United States to travel to the 27-nation bloc this summer, officials said Monday. More than a year after the EU restricted travel to the region to a bare minimum in a bid to contain the pandemic, the...
Pa. student’s Snapchat profanity leads to high court speech case
WASHINGTON — Fourteen-year-old Brandi Levy was having that kind of day where she just wanted to scream. So she did, in a profanity-laced posting on Snapchat that has, improbably, ended up before the Supreme Court in the most significant case on student speech in more than 50 years. At issue...
Russian authorities suspend operation of Navalny’s offices
MOSCOW — Russian authorities on Monday ordered the offices of imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny to suspend all of their activities pending a court ruling on whether to ban them as an extremist group. The injunction by the Moscow prosecutor’s office was posted on social media by Navalny’s allies. The...
Biden expanding summer food program for 34 million schoolchildren
The Biden administration is expanding a program to feed as many as 34 million schoolchildren during the summer months, using funds from the coronavirus relief package approved in March. The Agriculture Department is announcing Monday that it will continue through the summer a payments program that replaced school meals because...
Airline bans Alaska state senator for violating mask rules
JUNEAU — Alaska Airlines has banned an Alaska state senator for refusing to follow mask requirements. “We have notified Senator Lora Reinbold that she is not permitted to fly with us for her continued refusal to comply with employee instruction regarding the current mask policy,” spokesman Tim Thompson told the...
Florida family may spend life in prison after ‘church’ sold bleach as covid-19 cure
MIAMI — A federal grand jury brought charges against members of a Bradenton family nearly a year after they were arrested for selling bleach that they claimed to be a cure for the covid-19 virus. Mark Grenon and his three sons — Jonathan, Jordan and Joseph — face several charges...
Indonesia says 53 crew of lost sub are dead, wreckage foundVideo
BANYUWANGI, Indonesia — Indonesia’s military on Sunday officially said all 53 crew members from a submarine that sank and broke apart last week are dead, and that search teams had located the vessel’s wreckage on the ocean floor. The grim announcement comes a day after Indonesia said the submarine was...
Police seek attacker who kicked Chinese American man in headVideo
NEW YORK — A 61-year-old Chinese American man was attacked by a man who kicked him repeatedly in the head in East Harlem, police said. The man was collecting cans when he was attacked from behind, knocked to the ground and kicked in the head shortly after 8 p.m. Friday....
Dallas-area man suspected of killing mother, sisterVideo
ALLEN, Texas — A Dallas-area man has been arrested while awaiting an airline flight out of state and charged with capital murder in the deaths of his mother and sister, police said Sunday. Isil Borat, 51, and daughter Burcu Hezar, 17, were found knifed to death in their Allen, Texas,...
Death toll in fire at Iraqi covid-19 hospital surpasses 80
BAGHDAD — The death toll from a massive fire at a Baghdad hospital for coronavirus patients rose to at least 82 Sunday as anxious families searched for missing relatives and the government suspended key health officials for alleged negligence. The flames, described by one witness as “volcanoes of fire,” swept...
Young adults’ relocations are reshaping political geography
Garima Vyas always wanted to live in a big city. She thought about New York, long the destination for 20-something strivers, but was wary of the cost and complicated subway lines. So Vyas picked another metropolis that’s increasingly become young people’s next-best option — Houston. Now 34, Vyas, a tech...
