Trump suggests Adam Schiff ‘has not paid the price’ for prosecuting impeachmentVideo
President Donald Trump lashed out at Rep. Adam Schiff in a series of tweets on Sunday, saying the California Democrat has “not paid the price, yet” for his role in the impeachment process, a statement Schiff said he viewed as a threat. “Shifty Adam Schiff is a CORRUPT POLITICIAN, and...
Arizona, California cases push U.S. tally of new virus to 5
LOS ANGELES — The U.S. has five confirmed cases of the new virus from China, all among people who traveled to the city at the center of the outbreak, health officials said Sunday. Two new cases were reported Sunday — one in Los Angeles County in California and the other...
Herminie woman loved to nurture others
Nothing made Sara Heckman happier than taking care of someone else. First, it was her husband, John. Their children tell how the two married young — she as 16, he was 19. Then, there were her five children. Finally, there were her 12 grandchildren and five great grandchildren and the...
Pompeo lashes out at journalist; NPR defends its reporter
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo lashed out in anger Saturday at an NPR reporter who accused him of shouting expletives at her after she asked him in an interview about Ukraine. In a direct and personal attack, America’s chief diplomat said the journalist had “lied” to him and...
General: U.S. committed to Syria fight; Missions up against IS
GREEN VILLAGE MILITARY OUTPOST — U.S. troops at military outposts ín eastern Syria asked variations of the same question to their top commander Saturday: What is our future here? What are the goals we need to think about? Gen. Frank McKenzie, the U.S Middle East commander, knows the future is...
Xi calls situation grave as China scrambles to contain virus
BEIJING — China’s leader on Saturday called the accelerating spread of a new virus a grave situation, as cities from the outbreak’s epicenter in central China to Hong Kong scrambled to contain an illness that has infected more than 1,200 people and killed 41. President Xi Jinping’s remarks, reported by...
Campaign crunch time forces progressives to eye private jets
DES MOINES, Iowa — Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have spent the past year courting the Democratic Party’s base with appeals to the working class and sweeping promises to curb climate change. But as they balance their responsibilities to participate in the Senate’s impeachment trial and rally voters on the...
Woman kills retired trooper, self at Chicago-area cigar bar
LISLE, Ill. — A woman fatally shot a retired Illinois State Police trooper and wounded another retired state trooper and an off-duty trooper Friday night before turning the gun on herself at a cigar lounge in the Chicago suburbs, police said. The shooting at the Humidor Cigar Lounge in Lisle...
Salma Hayek apologizes for praising controversial new novel
NEW YORK — Salma Hayek is apologizing for promoting a controversial new novel, Jeanine Cummins’ “American Dirt,” without actually reading it. “American Dirt,” published Tuesday, tells the story of a Mexican woman and her 8-year-old son fleeing to the U.S. border after numerous family members are murdered in drug cartel-related...
Rare copy of a Christopher Columbus letter stolen in Venice is recovered by authorities in Delaware
PHILADELPHIA — Sometime in the mid-1980s, someone made their way into the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana in Venice, Italy, and walked out with a 500-year old Latin copy of the first letter Christopher Columbus wrote to Ferdinand, King of Spain, describing the wonders he beheld in the Americas. This week, after...
Campaigning heats up in Iowa as caucus voting approaches
DES MOINES, Iowa — With President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial keeping them on Capitol Hill for part of Saturday, several Democratic candidates trying to oust him in November will challenge the reality that even would-be presidents can’t be in two places at once. Their method: flood the early nominating states...
Trump defends Sanders, stoking Democratic divisions
WASHINGTON — As tensions between Democratic presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren rose earlier this month, Sanders found himself with an unusual ally: President Donald Trump. During a raucous campaign rally in which Trump critiqued some of his Democratic challengers, the president launched into an unprompted defense of Sanders....
Trump lawyers argue Democrats just want to overturn election
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s lawyers plunged into his impeachment trial defense Saturday by accusing Democrats of striving to overturn the 2016 election, arguing that investigations of Trump’s dealings with Ukraine have not been a fact-finding mission but a politically motivated effort to drive him from the White House. “They’re...
Senate floor belongs to Trump team as defense case opens
WASHINGTON — The floor of the Senate now belongs to President Donald Trump’s lawyers as they push the Republican-led chamber for his impeachment acquittal on charges that he abused his power and obstructed Congress. The president’s lawyers planned to begin their arguments Saturday in the impeachment trial and were expected...
Jeff Sessions stresses Trump loyalty in Alabama Senate race
VESTAVIA HILLS, Ala. — Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, giving a recent campaign speech to a suburban Republican club, recalled his 2016 decision to endorse then-presidential candidate Donald Trump at a time when many party members were uncertain about the bellicose outsider. “‘Jeff, are you sure?’” he said, recalling questions...
Spacewalking astronauts plug leak, finish fixing cosmic ray detector
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Spacewalking astronauts plugged a leak in a cosmic ray detector outside the International Space Station on Saturday, completing a series of complex repairs to give the instrument new life. The $2 billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer could resume its hunt for elusive antimatter and dark matter by...
Woman charged with killing kids faced child-welfare scrutiny
PHOENIX — A woman charged with murder in the deaths of her three young kids in Phoenix was the subject of several home visits by police and child-welfare authorities when she previously lived in Oklahoma, according to police reports. The reports released Friday by police in Prague, Oklahoma, say a...
NYPD officer charged in the death of his 8-year-old son
CENTER MORICHES, N.Y. — A New York Police Department officer and his fiancee left the officer’s 8-year-old son in a garage overnight in freezing temperatures and then did nothing to help him as he died of hypothermia, prosecutors said Friday. “They evinced no regard for this child’s human life,” Suffolk...
Officials identify remains found in burnt-out Hawaii home
HONOLULU — The Honolulu Medical Examiner’s Office has identified the remains of two people found in a burnt-out home where a man allegedly shot and killed two Honolulu police officers and attacked a neighbor before setting the house ablaze last weekend. Officials on Friday released a statement identifying the homeowner,...
Too soon to tell if new virus as dangerous as SARS cousin
The new virus from China has the world on edge because it’s a close cousin to viruses that killed hundreds in separate outbreaks. While it’s too early to tell if this latest threat will prove as deadly, health authorities are drawing on lessons from that grim past. WHAT’S THE LINK...
It didn’t take long for someone to pilfer weed from an airport bin where travelers ditch their stash
CHICAGO — One person’s trash is another person’s stash. Chicago police say someone apparently stole marijuana this week from one of the blue boxes placed at Midway Airport for travelers who need to dispose of their weed before they get on a plane. The “marijuana amnesty boxes” were placed there...
85,000 museum artifacts feared lost in NYC Chinatown fire
NEW YORK — Some 85,000 artifacts that tell the story of the Chinese migration to the United States may have been lost in a fire that struck a building in the heart of Manhattan’s Chinatown, a museum official said Friday. The president of the Museum of Chinese in America told...
Trump’s lawyers prepare a blistering defense
WASHINGTON — Over the last three days, House Democrats have presented compelling evidence in the form of snappy video clips, punchy PowerPoint slides and impassioned oratory, building a case that removing President Donald Trump from office is imperative to protect the Constitution and the country. Starting Saturday, Trump’s lawyers will...
Trial highlights: Dems cry cover-up, Trump hails activists
WASHINGTON — From the floor of the Senate, Democratic impeachment prosecutors said Friday that President Donald Trump tried to cover up his actions with Ukraine, another reason to remove him from office. A few blocks away, Trump told anti-abortion activists on the National Mall that he proudly stands with them....
Outbreak casts pall over China new year as deaths surpass 40
BEIJING — China’s most festive holiday began in the shadow of a worrying new virus Saturday as the death toll surpassed 40, an unprecedented lockdown kept 36 million people from traveling and authorities canceled a host of Lunar New Year events. The National Health Commission reported a jump in the...