Cincinnati Public Schools agrees to pay $3M in bullied child’s suicide
The parents of an 8-year-old boy who killed himself after being bullied repeatedly at an Ohio school have reached a tentative $3 million settlement with his school district. The agreement announced Friday will go to the school board for Cincinnati Public Schools on Monday for approval in the Gabriel Taye...
American Legion official in Ohio resigns over censored Memorial Day speech
The head of an American Legion post in Ohio stepped down Friday amid criticism following the decision of Memorial Day ceremony organizers to turn off a retired U.S. Army officer’s microphone while he was speaking about how freed Black slaves honored fallen soldiers just after the Civil War. American Legion...
Christian college near Philly ends program citing gender, sex guidelines
A small Christian university outside Philadelphia shuttered its highly regarded social work program partly because school officials say the accrediting agency was attempting to impose sexuality and gender values that don’t align with the university’s religious mission. According to those officials, the decision by the Cairn University Board of Trustees...
FDA approves obesity drug that helped people cut weight 15%
Regulators on Friday said a new version of a popular diabetes medicine could be sold as a weight-loss drug in the U.S. The Food and Drug Administration approved Wegovy, a higher-dose version of Novo Nordisk’s diabetes drug semaglutide. In company-funded studies, participants taking Wegovy had average weight loss of 15%,...
Fisher-Price recalls baby soothers after 4 infant deaths
Fisher-Price says it is recalling a model of its baby soothers after the deaths of four infants who were placed on their backs unrestrained in the devices and later found on their stomachs. In a joint statement with the Consumer Product Safety Commission, Fisher-Price said Friday it is recalling its...
3,000 eggs abandoned after drone scares birds in California
HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. — Some 3,000 elegant tern eggs were abandoned at a Southern California nesting island after a drone crashed and scared off the birds, a newspaper reported Friday. Two drones were flown illegally over the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve in Huntington Beach in May and one of them...
2 deputies fired at man killed in Minneapolis arrest attempt
Crowds vandalized buildings and stole from businesses in Minneapolis’ Uptown neighborhood after law enforcement officers on a U.S. Marshals Service task force fatally shot a man they were trying to arrest for illegally possessing a gun, authorities said Friday. Authorities did not immediately release the name of the man killed...
Senate GOP rejects Biden infrastructure plan, prep new offer
WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans on Friday panned President Joe Biden’s latest infrastructure proposal and are expected to make a new offer as talks grind toward next week’s deadline for progress on a bipartisan deal. Speaking after the release of a modest May jobs report, Biden made the case for his...
Minnesota man charged in 1972 murder of 15-year-old Illinois girl: ‘This brutal crime haunted our community many, many, many years’
NAPERVILLE, Ill. — A former Naperville man has been charged with first-degree murder in the 1972 stabbing death of 15-year-old Julie Ann Hanson, linked to the case through DNA evidence and genealogy, Naperville police Chief Robert Marshall and Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow said Friday. Barry Lee Whelpley, 76,...
Experts see strides on AIDS, but covid-19 halted progress
NEW YORK — Some researchers believe covid-19 has derailed the fight against HIV, siphoning away health workers and other resources and setting back a U.S. campaign to decimate the AIDS epidemic by 2030. Saturday marks the 40th anniversary of the first report that brought AIDS to the attention of the...
Belarus opposition slams dissident TV confessions as coerced
WARSAW, Poland — The Belarusian opposition said Friday a dissident journalist was coerced to appear in a video on state TV in which he wept and praised the country’s authoritarian ruler, a broadcast sharply criticized by Western officials. In the 90-minute video broadcast Thursday night, Raman Pratasevich repented for his...
Judge: U.S. can’t delay challenge to public land coal sales
BILLINGS, Mont. — A U.S. judge has rejected the Biden administration’s attempt to delay a lawsuit from several states and environmentalists who are seeking to end lease sales for coal mining on federal lands. The coal leasing program was temporarily shut down under President Barack Obama because of concerns about...
Facebook suspends Trump accounts for 2 years
Facebook said it is suspending former President Donald Trump’s accounts for two years following its finding that he stoked violence ahead of the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection. “At the end of this period, we will look to experts to assess whether the risk to public safety has receded. We will...
U.S. intel report on UFOs: No evidence of aliens, but …
WASHINGTON — Whatever or whoever they are, they’re still out there. U.S. intelligence is after them, but its upcoming report will not deliver the full and final truth about UFOs. The tantalizing prospect of top government intel finally weighing in — after decades of conspiracy theories, TV shows, movies and...
Bargain hunters pounce as Trump condo prices hit decade lows
NEW YORK — The building has stunning Manhattan skyline views, its spa offers deep-tissue massages, and the fancy restaurant off the lobby serves up prime steaks. Best of all, many apartments at the Trump World Tower are selling at a deep discount — assuming the buyer doesn’t mind the name...
After 2-year battle, House panel interviewing Trump counsel
WASHINGTON — The House Judiciary Committee is questioning former White House counsel Don McGahn behind closed doors on Friday, two years after House Democrats originally sought his testimony as part of investigations into former President Donald Trump. The long-awaited interview is the result of an agreement reached last month in...
Students suspended after schoolyard clash over Pride flags
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A schoolyard clash over gay Pride flags got some students suspended and others expelled from their Florida middle school. The Pinellas County Sheriff’s office is investigating, and a congressman got involved. It happened last Friday at Seminole Middle School, where some students displayed Pride flags at...
House Dems unveil $547B infrastructure bill amid Biden talks
WASHINGTON — House Democrats released a plan Friday for spending $547 billion over the next five years on road, mass transit and rail projects, a blueprint for what they want parts of President Joe Biden’s broader infrastructure proposal to look like. The proposal from Rep. Peter DeFazio, the Democratic chairman...
Football coaches ousted after player says he was forced to eat pork
CANTON, Ohio — The head football coach at an Ohio high school and six other coaches there have been ousted after a football player said he was forced him to eat pork in violation of his religious beliefs for missing a voluntary workout. The Canton City Board of Education voted...
North Atlantic right whales getting tinier. Scientists say humans are to blame
One of the giants of the deep is shrinking before our eyes, a new study says. The younger generation of critically endangered North Atlantic right whales are on average about three feet shorter than whales were 20 years ago, drone and aircraft data show in a study in Thursday’s journal...
U.S. to swiftly boost global vaccine sharing, Biden announcesVideo
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden announced Thursday the U.S. will swiftly donate a first tranche of 25 million doses of surplus vaccine overseas through the U.N.-backed COVAX program, promising infusions for South and Central America, Asia, Africa and others at a time of glaring shortages abroad and more than ample...
Celebrity attorney F. Lee Bailey dead at 87
WALTHAM, Mass. — F. Lee Bailey, the celebrity attorney who defended O.J. Simpson, Patricia Hearst and the alleged Boston Strangler, but whose legal career halted when he was disbarred in two states, has died, a former colleague said Thursday. He was 87. The death was confirmed Thursday by Peter Horstmann,...
Traffic deaths up 7% last year, highest number since 2007
DETROIT — U.S. traffic deaths rose 7% last year, the biggest increase in 13 years even though people drove fewer miles because of the coronavirus pandemic, the government’s road safety agency reported Thursday. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration blamed the increase on drivers taking more risks on less-congested roads...
Feds reportedly investigating whether Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz obstructed justiceVideo
ORLANDO, Fla. — Federal investigators are exploring whether U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz obstructed justice by attempting to influence a witness in the federal sex trafficking probe targeting him, according to a pair of new reports. According to Politico, the obstruction element of the case concerns a phone conversation between the...
SpaceX launches tiny critters, solar panels to space stationVideo
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — SpaceX launched thousands of tiny sea creatures to the International Space Station on Thursday, along with a plaque-fighting toothpaste experiment and powerful solar panels. The 7,300-pound shipment — which also includes fresh lemons, onions, avocados and cherry tomatoes for the station’s seven astronauts — should arrive...
