Texas GOP leader pays $25,000 illegal voting ‘bounty’ to Pa. Democrat
AUSTIN, Texas — The conservative Texas Republican leader who pledged bounties to those who prove fraud at the polls has paid a liberal Democratic poll watcher who reported illegal voting by a Pennsylvania Republican. Tipster Eric Frank deposited a $25,000 check from Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s campaign this week,...
Warrant: Baldwin didn’t know weapon contained live round
SANTA FE, N.M. — Alec Baldwin was handed a loaded weapon by an assistant director who indicated it was safe to use in the moments before the actor fatally shot a cinematographer, court records released Friday show. The assistant director did not know the prop gun was loaded with live...
Wisconsin audit finds elections are ‘safe and secure’
MADISON, Wis. — A highly anticipated nonpartisan audit of the 2020 presidential election in Wisconsin released Friday did not identify any widespread fraud in the battleground state, which a key Republican legislative leader said shows its elections are “safe and secure.” The report from the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau did...
Rep. Ocasio-Cortez reintroduces bill for 9/11 cleanup crews
NEW YORK — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and two other legislators reintroduced a bill in the House on Friday to put immigrants who cleared debris after the Sept. 11 attacks on a fast track to legal immigration status in the United States. The 9/11 Immigrant Worker Freedom Act is a revised...
Employee who killed gunman likely saved lives, police say
SUPERIOR, Neb. — An employee who returned fire after a gunman killed two people at a Nebraska grain elevator likely prevented more deaths, a Nebraska State Patrol official said Friday. The employee, who was not named, retrieved a weapon and shot Max Hoskinson, 61, after Hoskinson began shooting at the...
Prosecutor: Woman charged with killing 4 had other targets
CLARE, Mich. — A woman was charged Friday with killing her father, sister and two handymen in mid-Michigan, two days after bodies were found in a rural county. Judy Boyer had a journal with names of other people whom she wanted to kill, Clare County Prosecutor Michelle Ambrozaitis told a...
Lyft report: Sexual assaults rose sharply in recent years
Lyft received an increasing number of reports of sexual assault in recent years, including more than 1,800 in 2019, according to a safety report from the ride-hailing company. More than half of the assaults in 2019 were “non-consensual touching of a sexual body part” and another 156 involved non-consensual sexual...
Supreme Court doesn’t block Texas abortion law, sets hearing
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court is allowing the Texas law that bans most abortions to remain in place, but has agreed to hear arguments in the case in early November. The justices said Friday they will decide whether the Justice Department and abortion providers can sue in federal court over...
What’s in, and what’s out, as Democrats reshape Biden bill
WASHINGTON — After months of talks, Democrats are edging closer to an agreement on what programs and policies to include in President Joe Biden’s massive plan to expand health and safety net programs and combat global warming. The plan seems likely to include universal preschool, paid family leave and the...
Robert Durst charged with 1982 murder of wife Kathie Durst
NEW YORK — Millionaire real estate scion Robert Durst has been charged with murder in the death of his first wife, Kathie Durst, nearly four decades after she disappeared and just days after he was sentenced to life in prison in California for killing a confidante who helped him cover...
Report: Foreign aid lost in Syria exchange rate distortions
BEIRUT — Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government has used distorted exchange rates to divert at least $100 million in international aid to its coffers in the past two years, according to new research. The currency manipulation deprives Syrians, most of them impoverished after a decade of war, of much needed...
Explainer: Is it time to get a covid-19 booster? Which one?
Millions more Americans just became eligible for covid-19 boosters, but figuring out who’s eligible and when can be confusing. And adding to the challenge is that this time around, people can choose a different brand of vaccine for that extra dose. A number of factors, including the vaccine you started...
Pfizer says covid-19 vaccine more than 90% effective in kids
Kid-size doses of Pfizer’s covid-19 vaccine appear safe and nearly 91% effective at preventing symptomatic infections in 5- to 11-year-olds, according to study details released Friday as the U.S. considers opening vaccinations to that age group. The shots could begin in early November — with the first children in line...
Sheriff says family on California hike died of extreme heat
SACRAMENTO — A Northern California family found dead on a hiking trail near the Merced River died after they overheated and ran out of drinking water on a sunny August afternoon when temperatures reached 109 degrees in the steep mountain terrain, authorities said Thursday. The deaths of Jonathan Gerrish, his...
Police: 4 killed in Washington state shooting
TACOMA, Wash. — Four people were killed in a shooting on Thursday afternoon in Tacoma, police said. The Tacoma Police Department said on Twitter at about 5:30 p.m. that two females and one male had died at the scene and that a male was taken to a hospital with life-threatening...
Sheriff: Alec Baldwin fired prop gun on movie set, killing woman
SANTA FE, N.M. — Actor Alec Baldwin fired a prop gun on the set of a Western and killed the cinematographer, officials said. The director of the movie was wounded, and authorities are investigating what happened. Halyna Hutchins, cinematographer on “Rust,” and director Joel Souza were shot Thursday in the...
Wright Brothers, wrong design: Ohio mangles license plate
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio’s debut of its new license plate failed to take off — because a banner depicted on the plate was attached to the wrong end of the Wright Brothers’ historic first plane, the Wright Flyer. The new license plate illustrates rays of sunlight beaming into the sky,...
Salmonella outbreak tied to onions sickens more than 650
NEW YORK — A salmonella outbreak tied to onions has sickened more than 650 people in 37 states, U.S. health officials said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said at least 129 people have been hospitalized. No one has died. Nearly all of the illnesses were reported in August...
FBI: Remains found in Florida park ID’d as Brian Laundrie
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The FBI on Thursday identified human remains found in a Florida nature preserve as those of Brian Laundrie, a person of interest in the death of girlfriend Gabby Petito while the couple was on a cross-country road trip. The remains, a backpack and notebook believed to...
It is ‘simply not true’ that witnesses took cellphone videos of train rape instead of calling police, district attorney says
PHILADELPHIA — The Delaware County district attorney on Thursday said it was “simply not true” that SEPTA passengers last week took cellphone videos of a man raping a woman on the train instead of deciding to intervene or call police. Jack Stollsteimer, the county’s top prosecutor, said that although one...
Covid-19 vaccine: CDC panel backs expanded booster rollout
WASHINGTON — Millions more Americans are closer to getting a covid-19 booster as influential government advisers on Thursday endorsed extra doses of all three of the nation’s vaccines — and opened the possibility of choosing a different company’s brand for that next shot. Certain people who received Pfizer vaccinations months...
House votes to hold Trump ally Steve Bannon in contemptVideo
WASHINGTON — The House voted Thursday to hold Steve Bannon, a longtime ally and aide to former President Donald Trump, in contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena from the committee investigating the violent Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection. In a rare show of bipartisanship on the House floor, the committee’s...
Judge won’t bar public from Ghislaine Maxwell jury selection
NEW YORK — A judge on Thursday rejected British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell’s bid to block the public and news media from jury selection in her New York City trial on charges she recruited teenage girls for financier Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse. U.S. District Judge Alison J. Nathan said the...
Why no tusks? Poaching tips scales of elephant evolution
WASHINGTON — A hefty set of tusks is usually an advantage for elephants, allowing them to dig for water, strip bark for food and joust with other elephants. But during episodes of intense ivory poaching, those big incisors become a liability. Now researchers have pinpointed how years of civil war...
Endangered orangutan in New Orleans expecting twinsVideo
NEW ORLEANS — A critically endangered Sumatran orangutan in New Orleans is pregnant with twins, the zoo in New Orleans announced Thursday. “We are very excited about this pregnancy,” Bob MacLean, senior veterinarian at the Audubon Zoo, said in a news release. “Twinning is extremely rare in orangutans — there...
