Students end sit-in outside University of Oklahoma offices
NORMAN, Okla. — Dozens of students at the University of Oklahoma have ended a sit-in outside the university’s administrative offices following two instances in which professors used racial slurs in their classrooms. The three-day sit-in organized by the Black Emergency Response Team, known as BERT, ended Friday with the student...
`Let’s go home’: Afghan war vets torn on US-Taliban deal
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Veterans of America’s longest war are finding themselves torn as the U.S. signs a potentially historic peace accord with the Taliban in Afghanistan. For many, the U.S. is long overdue in withdrawing its forces after more than 18 years of fighting. Others question the trustworthiness of...
Serbia passes law in response to missing babies scandal
BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbian lawmakers on Saturday approved a long-awaited law that aims to shed light on the fate of hundreds of children whose parents fear might have been stolen from birth clinics throughout the Balkan country. The bill passed on a 136-0 vote in the 250-member assembly. Two...
Florida’s freshwater turtles falling prey to the international black marketVideo
MIAMI — Florida freshwater turtles are being illegally caught and exported live in increasingly large numbers to keep up with demand for their meat, their supposed medicinal purposes and their value as pets, state wildlife officials said this month. The black market trade is putting a strain on the state’s...
Washington governor declares state of emergency over virus after 1st. U.S. death
The governor of Washington state declared a state of emergency Saturday after a man died there of COVID-19, the first such reported death in the United States. More than 50 people in a nursing facility are sick and being tested for the virus. Gov. Jay Inslee directed state agencies to...
University of Pittsburgh tells students in 3 countries to return home, stay away from others
The University of Pittsburgh has notified 41 of its students studying in Italy, South Korea, and Japan that “they should return to their home communities in the United States and practice social distancing for 14 days after they arrive.” Pitt already had canceled or changed the venue for all spring...
1 injured, 2 arrested in shootout near WVU campus
Morgantown police have arrested two men in connection to a shootout stemming from a robbery early Saturday morning near the campus of West Virginia University. Police said the shooting occurred around 1:15 a.m. at an apartment on College Avenue, according to Morgantown’s CBS-affiliate WDTV. Edward Kolleh, 29, and Ethan Horseman,...
Baltimore squeegee kids find work, risks, cash at stoplights
BALTIMORE — A clock starts ticking when the light turns red at Baltimore intersections. Young men huddled on the sidewalk jump into the street, a squeegee in one hand, a bottle of glass cleaner in the other. For these “squeegee kids,” every idling windshield is an opportunity - to make...
Jeff Sessions in fight to win back his old Senate seat
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — To reclaim the Alabama Senate seat he held for 20 years, Jeff Sessions must first get through a competitive GOP primary with challengers eager to capitalize on his very public falling out with President Donald Trump. The former attorney general is banking on his long history in...
Oregon reports 1st coronavirus case: elementary school employee
SALEM, Ore. — Oregon’s first corinavirus case emerged on Friday, and the infected person worked at an elementary school in the Portland area, which will be temporarily closed, authorities said. The Lake Oswego School District sent a robocall to parents saying that Forest Hills Elementary will be closed until Wednesday...
Man gets 99 years in prison for role in Texas girl’s death
DALLAS — A Dallas man was convicted and sentenced to 99 years in prison Friday for his part in the abduction and killing of a 13-year-old suburban Dallas girl. Dallas County jurors deliberated for about an hour before sentencing Desmond Jones for his involvement in the death of Shavon Randle....
Inmate who escaped Utah jail caught in Idaho 4 days later
SALT LAKE CITY — A California man convicted of mail fraud who escaped from a Utah jail by posing as a fellow inmate whose time had come to be released was captured in Idaho Friday, authorities said. Kaleb Wiewandt was arrested on Interstate 84 southeast of Mountain Home, Idaho, the...
Utah advances plan to remove felony status for polygamy
SALT LAKE CITY — Polygamy wouldn’t be a felony crime in Utah for the first time in 85 years under a bill that passed the Legislature on Friday and appears to be supported by the governor. Lawmakers voted overwhelmingly for the proposal that supporters said will allow the 30,000 or...
Students stage sit-in outside University of Oklahoma offices
NORMAN, Okla. — Dozens of University of Oklahoma students staged a sit-in that continued Friday outside OU’s administrative offices following two instances of professors using racial slurs in the classroom. However, OU Interim President Joseph Harroz Jr. has rejected the demands of the school’s Black Emergency Response Team, known as...
‘Lone wolf’ broke news of the Milwaukee gunman’s identity
IOWA CITY, Iowa — When a local newspaper reported the identity of the gunman in Milwaukee’s mass shooting, it came many hours after that news was broken on Twitter by an unemployed and formerly imprisoned journalist working from his bedroom in California. Matthew Keys was the first to report that...
US judge cancels oil and gas leases on some sage grouse land
BOISE, Idaho — A federal judge has cancelled more than $125 million in oil and gas leases on public lands that are home to the declining bird species greater sage grouse, in a ruling that said the Trump administration illegally curtailed public comment. The ruling doesn’t prevent the administration from...
Court temporarily halts Trump’s ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy
SAN DIEGO — Dealing a significant blow to a signature Trump administration immigration policy, a federal appeals court ruled Friday that the government can no longer make asylum-seekers wait in Mexico while their cases wind through U.S. immigration courts. The government faced a setback from a three-judge panel of the...
Democrats launch probe of Justice Department, seek Roger Stone interviews
WASHINGTON — The House Judiciary Committee is launching a wide-ranging probe of Attorney General William Barr and the Justice Department, demanding briefings, documents and interviews with 15 officials as it tries to determine whether there has been improper political interference in federal law enforcement. Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., on...
Trump’s EPA readies rollback of rules limiting mercury, other toxins
WASHINGTON — Despite bipartisan objection and industry pushback, the Trump administration is expected to soon weaken rules meant to limit mercury and other toxic emissions from oil and coal-fired power plants across the nation. The Environmental Protection Agency has already sent the Office of Management and Budget the final rule,...
Pompeo to witness signing of Afghanistan peace deal, Trump says
WASHINGTON — President Trump said Friday that he’s dispatching Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to the signing of an agreement with the Afghan Taliban aimed at beginning a drawdown of thousands of U.S. troops and ending America’s 18-year involvement in the war. Trump said Pompeo would soon, at the president’s...
Wilkes-Barre native reportedly contracts coronavirus on cruise ship in Japan
A Wilkes-Barre native is on life support in Japan after contracting the coronavirus while on vacation, according to WNEP, an ABC affiliate in Luzerne County. Dan Fisher, who graduated from Coughlin High School in 1975, was on vacation in Japan earlier this month when he fell ill, Fisher’s childhood friend,...
U.S. reports first drug shortage tied to virus outbreak
WASHINGTON — Health officials reported the first U.S. drug shortage tied to the viral outbreak that is disrupting production in China, but they declined to identify the manufacturer or the product. The Food and Drug Administration said late Thursday that the drug’s maker recently contacted officials about the shortage, which...
W.Va. moving to up fines after girl’s fall into grease pit
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia may soon stiffen fines for restaurants that fail to secure the lids of grease pits after a young girl fell into one of the collection traps last year. The House of Delegates on Friday unanimously approved a measure to increase fines from $5 to $50...
Harvey Weinstein juror: #MeToo movement was not a factor in trial
NEW YORK — The jury that convicted Harvey Weinstein of rape and sex assault did not consider the trial’s implications for the #MeToo movement, one of the jurors said in an interview aired Friday. “No, zero, absolutely zero,” juror Drew Malbin said on “CBS This Morning.” “Because it’s not the...
Franklin Regional plans lecture series on hot-button school issues
Franklin Regional officials are reaching out to parents and the community to engage them about hot-button issues facing today’s students: bullying, drugs and pitfalls of social media use. The Franklin Regional Parent and Community Lecture Series kicks off March 11 with an overview of the district’s bullying prevention strategy. It...
