Pentagon: 109 troops suffer brain injuries from Iran strike
WASHINGTON — The number of U.S. service members diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries has shot up to more than 100, the Pentagon said Monday, as more troops suffer the aftereffects of the Iranian ballistic missile attack early last month in Iraq. The department said the latest total is 109 military...
Feds seek 7 to 9 years in prison for Trump ally Roger Stone
WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors are asking a judge to sentence President Donald Trump’s Trump confidant Roger Stone to serve between 7 and 9 years in prison after his conviction on witness tampering and obstruction charges. Stone, who is scheduled to be sentenced next week, was convicted in November of a...
Cruise ship infections nearly double as China virus deaths spike
BEIJING — The number of people infected on a cruise ship south of Tokyo with a new strain of coronavirus almost doubled Monday, as authorities in China and beyond pursued greater quarantine measures to contain the disease. Deaths from the new coronavirus have hit 909, the Chinese government announced, with...
Guilty plea in Louisiana to federal charges in black church burnings
LAFAYETTE, La. — The aspiring ‘black metal’ musician who was arrested in a series of fires set at African American churches in Louisiana last spring pleaded guilty Monday to federal and state criminal charges. The U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release that Holden Matthews pleaded guilty to three...
Lawsuit: Scranton school district knew about lead, asbestos contaminationVideo
SCRANTON — Current and former employees of a Pennsylvania school district claimed in a lawsuit filed Monday that officials knew for years that unsafe levels of lead and asbestos posed potential health risks for students and staff but never disclosed the information to them or the public. The plaintiffs are...
Pennsylvania sues Juul over marketing e-cigarettes to teens
HARRISBURG — The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office sued electronic cigarette manufacturer Juul Labs Inc. on Monday over how its products are marketed and sold to teenagers. The agency is seeking an injunction from Philadelphia courts to halt Juul’s e-cigarette sales in Pennsylvania or force it to dramatically change business practices....
More high school students than ever are coming out, but their despair remains acute
PHILADELPHIA — The proportion of high school students who identify as a sexual minority — lesbian, gay, bisexual or questioning— doubled in the past several years, according to a new study published Monday. Yet those greater numbers have not necessarily meant they have found greater acceptance or peace. The study,...
William Barr: Justice Department has process to take Ukraine info from Rudy GiulianiVideo
WASHINGTON — Attorney General William Barr said Monday the Justice Department is taking information that President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani is gathering in Ukraine about the president’s Democratic rival Joe Biden and his son. But Barr cautioned that federal officials have “to be very careful” with information coming...
Amazon wants to question Trump over losing $10B contract bidVideo
Amazon wants President Donald Trump to submit to questioning over the tech company’s losing bid for a $10 billion military contract. The Pentagon awarded the cloud computing project to Microsoft in October. Amazon later sued, arguing that Trump’s interference and bias against the company harmed Amazon’s chances. Amazon was considered...
Florida man who drove van at GOP voter sign-up worked as stagehandVideo
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A man charged with driving a van into a tent where local Republicans were registering voters worked as a stagehand and had lived in northeast Florida for two years, according to jail records and an arrest report. Gregory Timm, 27, had been referred work through the local...
Bernie Sanders tops Democratic field in national poll after Iowa
MANCHESTER, N.H. — Bernie Sanders is leading the Democratic field in a national poll taken after the Iowa caucuses. The Quinnipiac University poll showed the Vermont senator with 25% support, topping the survey for the first time. He was followed by former Vice President Joe Biden at 17% and former...
Drugs fail to slow decline in inherited Alzheimer’s disease
Two experimental drugs failed to prevent or slow mental decline in a study of people who are virtually destined to develop Alzheimer’s disease at a relatively young age because they inherited rare gene flaws. The results announced Monday are another disappointment for the approach that scientists have focused on for...
Police: 3 people shot at Walmart in eastern Arkansas
FORREST CITY, Ark. — At least three people were shot Monday morning at a Walmart in eastern Arkansas, police said. The shooting was reported mid-morning in Forrest City, a dispatcher with the Forrest City Police Department told the Associated Press. Forrest City Police dispatcher Chastity Boyd told the Associated Press...
U.K. looks at building bridge linking Scotland, Northern Ireland
LONDON — The British government said Monday it is seriously studying the feasibility of a bridge between Scotland and Northern Ireland, an audacious idea that has been floated by Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Johnson’s spokesman, James Slack, said the proposal was being taken seriously and “a range of officials” were...
State grant aims to align local education with employers’ expectations
If Franklin Regional teachers are going to prepare their students for the modern workplace, it only makes sense to find out what that workplace looks like and how its expectations align with the district’s curriculum. Staff members were given that opportunity, along with professional development training in college and career...
Lawsuit: TSA agent purposely groped woman at N.C. airport
ASHEVILLE, N.C. — A woman says in a lawsuit that a security screener at a North Carolina airport intentionally groped her. The lawsuit was filed Feb. 4 in federal court against the U.S. government as well as the female Transportation Security Administration agent. The lawsuit says the passenger was screened...
Michigan police fatally shoot man who stabbed police dog
SAGINAW, Mich. — Police officers fatally shot a man who stabbed a police dog in the head during a hostage situation at a home in a mid-Michigan city, law enforcement officials said. Officers in Saginaw were responding to a reported domestic disturbance that became a hostage situation at the house...
South Sudan’s leader wins dubious ‘spoiler of peace’ awardVideo
KAMPALA, Uganda — South Sudan President Salva Kiir on Monday was named the top “spoiler of peace” in a new award that seeks to shame him and others into taking serious steps to end bloody conflict in the world’s youngest country. Kiir and rival leader Riek Machar are under growing...
Chinese military stole masses of Americans’ data, U.S. says
WASHINGTON — Four members of the Chinese military have been charged with breaking into the networks of the Equifax credit reporting agency and stealing the personal information of tens of millions of Americans, the Justice Department said Monday, blaming Beijing for one of the largest hacks in history to target...
Russia: Youth group members found guilty of plotting attacks
MOSCOW — A Russian military court convicted seven members of a left-wing youth group of terrorism charges Monday and sentenced them to prison terms ranging from six to 18 years, in a case that human rights groups called fabricated. A three-judge panel of the court in Penza in western Russia...
Oh deer!: Man gets trampled in North Carolina parking lotVideo
LOCUST, N.C. — A suspect escaped from a hit and run in a North Carolina McDonald’s parking lot last month. But police aren’t looking for who’s responsible. Ken Worthy was leaving the restaurant in Locust with his wife and a Diet Coke in hand, when he saw something approaching him,...
5 Turkish troops killed in clashes with Syrian armyVideo
ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey said it hit back at Syrian government forces on Monday, after “intense” Syrian shelling killed five of its soldiers and wounded five others in Syria’s northern Idlib province. The fighting in Idlib led to the collapse of a fragile cease-fire that was brokered by Turkey and...
More than 450 civilians killed in central Mali last year
DAKAR, Senegal — Islamic militants and ethnic-based militias killed more than 450 civilians in central Mali last year, making it the deadliest year in the region since the country’s crisis began in 2012, Human Rights Watch said in a new report Monday. Militants have even begun pulling men off of...
Drugs fail to slow decline in inherited Alzheimer’s disease
Two experimental drugs failed to prevent or slow mental decline in a study of people who are virtually destined to develop Alzheimer’s disease at a relatively young age because of rare gene flaws. The results announced Monday are another disappointment for the approach that scientists have focused on for years...
Death toll rises as storm moves eastwards across Europe
BERLIN — A strong winter storm that has battered Europe with hurricane-force winds and heavy rains has killed several people and caused severe travel disruption on Monday. There were reports of deaths directly linked to the storm with three drivers, one in the southwest of the Czech Republic, one in...
