Warren Buffett’s son helps Colombia kick cocaine curse
TIBU, Colombia — With Colombian military snipers in position, Howard Buffett descends from a helicopter and trudges through the wet grass in steel-toe boots chewed through by his dog’s teeth. Waiting under a tin-roofed shack is a small group of coca farmers. They’ve never heard of multi-billionaire investor Warren Buffett,...
U.S. scientists: Earth just had its hottest January in recorded historyVideo
Last month was the hottest January since scientists began keeping temperature records in 1880, scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Thursday. Global land and ocean temperatures exceeded all temperatures recorded in the past 141 years of data at 2.05 degrees above the 20th century average. Of the...
Brrrr! Arctic front brings dangerous wind chills to Midwest
MINNEAPOLIS — Students stayed home from school Thursday and several businesses were closed in parts of the upper Midwest as arctic air pushed wind chill readings to dangerously low temperatures. A wind chill warning was in effect for northeastern North Dakota and northern Minnesota, with wind chill readings plunging to...
In win for Amazon, judge freezes work on Pentagon contract
NEW YORK — A federal judge on Thursday ordered a temporary halt of Microsoft’s work on a $10 billion military cloud contract, a win for Amazon, which sued the U.S. government last year for awarding the contract to its rival. Amazon’s lawsuit, filed in November, alleged that President Donald Trump’s...
Hopeful Hearts Gala in Pittsburgh helps heart failure patients and families
There’s a reason to think of hearts all year long, not just Feb. 14. On Valentine’s Day, the Joe Beretta Foundation will present its inaugural Hopeful Hearts Valentine’s Gala at the Omni William Penn Hotel in Pittsburgh. It features live entertainment by No Bad Juju, a three-course meal and a...
Los Angeles County moves to dismiss 66,000 marijuana convictions
LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey on Thursday announced the dismissal of 66,000 marijuana convictions in the county, a move to undo decades of drug enforcement that disproportionately targeted people of color years after California voters legalized weed. The top prosecutor this week filed a motion...
New Jersey teacher investigated for telling students to act as slaves
TOMS RIVER, N.J. — A New Jersey school district is investigating a teacher’s history lesson that had students pretend to be slaves, officials said. According to social media posts by a student in the class, 8th-grade social studies teacher Lawrence Cuneo forced Toms River Intermediate School students to act as...
Smithton engineer was visionary family man
Cazmier Liszewski’s mind was always at work. “He was constantly doing, constantly thinking, constantly creating,” said his daughter, Patty Liszewski. As an engineer for Aerojet and Westinghouse, he worked on designs for rockets and nuclear power. At home, he rebuilt cars in his garage and tended the hobby farm that...
Trump’s story at State of the Union about veteran’s comeback was not quite trueVideo
NEW YORK — Tony Rankins, a formerly homeless, drug-addicted Army veteran, got a standing ovation at the State of the Union after President Donald Trump described how he turned his life around thanks to a construction job at a company using the administration’s “Opportunity Zone” tax breaks targeting poor neighborhoods....
AG William Barr: Trump tweets on cases make it ‘impossible’ to do job
WASHINGTON — Attorney General William Barr took a public swipe at President Donald Trump on Thursday, saying that the president’s tweets about Justice Department prosecutors and cases “make it impossible for me to do my job.” Barr made the comment during an interview with ABC News just days after his...
Virus cases surge after China revises way count is tallied
BEIJING — China reported a surge in deaths and infections from a new virus Thursday after changing the way the count is tallied, further clouding an epidemic that has stirred fear as it spread to more than two dozen countries. The spike came after two days in which the number...
Trump to transfer $3.8B from military to fund his wall
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is transferring $3.8 billion in recently passed military funding to finance construction of the president’s long-sought U.S.-Mexico border wall, angering not just Democrats but also GOP defense hawks. Thursday’s move by the Pentagon would transfer money from National Guard units, aircraft procurement and shipbuilding to...
Court halts Pentagon work with Microsoft on cloud contract
NEW YORK — A federal court has ordered the Pentagon to temporarily halt work with Microsoft on a $10 billion military cloud contract that Amazon was initially favored to win. Amazon subsequently sued, alleging that President Donald Trump’s bias against the company hurt its chances to win the project. Amazon...
Senate acts to restrain Trump’s military powers against Iran
WASHINGTON — The Senate approved a bipartisan measure Thursday limiting President Donald Trump’s authority to launch military operations against Iran. The measure, authored by Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., says Trump must win approval from Congress before engaging in further military action against Iran. Eight Republicans joined with Democrats to pass...
Trump Fed nominee Shelton faces skepticism at Senate hearing
Washington — One of President Donald Trump’s nominees for the Federal Reserve came under sharp questioning Thursday from senators over her unorthodox economic views, including from two Republicans whose doubts about her nomination could imperil it. The nominee, Judy Shelton, sought to make her unconventional views an asset by promising...
Trump slams former chief of staff John Kelly, who defended key impeachment witness
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday lashed out against former White House chief of staff John Kelly for being disloyal after the ex-adviser came to the defense of a former national security aide who offered key testimony in the impeachment inquiry. The president’s comments targeting Kelly came after Kelly...
Amsterdam bans tour groups from sex workers’ windows
AMSTERDAM — The local government in Amsterdam has banned guided tours that take groups past the famed windows in the city’s red-light district where visitors watch semi-naked sex workers pose. The move announced Thursday is the city government’s latest attempt to address over-tourism and to clean up and to protect...
JTown Kitchen owner believes ‘the bigger, the better’Video
Diners at JTown Kitchen are unlikely to leave hungry. They also are likely to leave with leftovers. Cheryl Cochran makes big plates for big appetites at the Jeannette eatery she owns with her husband, Christian Weiss. “It’s been described to me as comfort food. The bigger, the better,” Cochran said...
Hope Hicks returning to White House
WASHINGTON — Hope Hicks, one of President Donald Trump’s most trusted and longest-serving aides, is returning to the White House as his reelection campaign moves into high gear. Hicks will be serving as counselor to the president, working with presidential son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, according to a person...
Longest-serving federal judge, named by LBJ, retires at 98
NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York City who was nominated by President Lyndon Johnson and who contributed to the landmark case that struck down racial segregation in public schools is retiring at age 98. U.S. District Judge Jack Weinstein was known for favoring lenient sentences and rehabilitation....
Fiery train derailment in Kentucky spills ethanol into river
PIKEVILLE, Ky. — A fiery train derailment Thursday morning in eastern Kentucky trapped two crew members and caused a chemical leak into a river, authorities said. Two crew members of the CSX train were initially trapped before getting out and a flammable liquid was leaking into a river, said Charles...
U.K. Treasury chief quits as Johnson shakes up Cabinet
LONDON — U.K. Treasury chief Sajid Javid unexpectedly resigned on Thursday after resisting a reduction in his power, as Prime Minister Boris Johnson sought to tighten his grip on the government with a Cabinet shake-up. Javid had been widely expected to keep his job — the second most powerful in...
Part of the ceiling collapses at Atlanta airport restaurant
ATLANTA — Part of a restaurant ceiling collapsed inside Atlanta’s airport, and one person asked to be treated by emergency crews, airport officials said. The collapse happened shortly before 8 a.m. Thursday in Concourse A, one of the closest concourses to the main domestic terminal, the airport said in a...
Flooding forces Alabama school system to shut downVideo
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — An Alabama school system called off classes Thursday because flooding affected its public water supply, and officials asked residents to conserve water. Hartselle schools canceled for the day because water from a rising creek flooded a water pumping station, the Morgan County Sheriff’s Office said in a...
Disease warriors tasked to fight misinformation about Covid-19
A global storm of online posts about the Covid-19 virus prompted public health experts to fight a war on two fronts — one against the respiratory virus that surfaced in Wuhan, China, late last year, and a second one against a sea of misinformation about it. Officials from the World...
