Ex-Phoenix area sheriff declares victory despite court loss
PHOENIX (AP) — Former Phoenix-area Sheriff Joe Arpaio lost a bid to erase his criminal conviction for disobeying a 2011 court order, but claimed victory Thursday after an appeal’s court said the verdict no longer has any legal consequence because of President Donald Trump’s pardon. The 9th Circuit Court of...
Grandfather, Navy vet among 5 victims of Wisconsin shooting
The five men who were killed by a co-worker at a Milwaukee brewery include an electrician, a Navy veteran, a father of two small children, a fisherman and a grandfather who is being remembered as someone who “always put his family’s needs before his own.” Authorities said the five men...
Warren still dogged by past claims of indigenous ancestry
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — Cherokee citizens are calling on Elizabeth Warren to publicly disavow a family story of indigenous heritage as a way to dissuade others from making false claims they say often romanticize Native Americans. The topic has haunted the Massachusetts senator since even before she announced she would seek...
New coronavirus case escalates US response
VACAVILLE, Calif. — Public health officials were retracing the steps of a Northern California woman on Thursday believed to be the first person in the U.S. to contract the highly contagious coronavirus without traveling internationally or being in close contact with anyone who had it. The diagnosis, confirmed Wednesday, marks...
Mississippi man gets death sentence for multiple killings
MAGNOLIA, Miss. — A Mississippi man was given four death sentences by a jury on Thursday, hours after he spoke in court and blamed the devil for his actions the night eight people were shot to death. Willie Cory Godbolt, 37, was convicted Tuesday of the May 2017 slayings of...
Pence’s handling of 2015 HIV outbreak gets new scrutiny
INDIANAPOLIS — President Donald Trump’s choice of Vice President Mike Pence to oversee the nation’s response to the new coronavirus threat is bringing renewed scrutiny to the former governor’s handling of an HIV outbreak in southern Indiana when he was governor. Pence reluctantly agreed to authorize a needle exchange program...
Guam residents compensated for war atrocities decades later
HAGATÑA, Guam — For Antonina Palomo Cross, Japan’s occupation of Guam started with terror at church. The then-7-year-old was attending Catholic services with her family when the 1941 invasion began, setting off bomb blasts, sirens and screams. It ended with her family surrendering their home and eventually carrying the dead...
Milwaukee police search house in wake of brewery shooting
MILWAUKEE — Police searched a home on Milwaukee’s north side Thursday as they hunted for clues about why an employee at one of the nation’s largest breweries gunned down five co-workers before taking his own life. The house, a one-story home with a massive jungle-gym in the backyard, was roped...
Congress eyes billions in funding to fight coronavirus
WASHINGTON — Capitol Hill negotiations on emergency spending to combat the coronavirus outbreak are likely to produce a bill that’s double or even triple the $2.5 billion plan requested by President Donald Trump just days ago. Lawmakers and aides involved in the talks say they are proceeding well and are...
Michigan settles lawsuit over teen abuse in prison for $80M
DETROIT — The state of Michigan has agreed to pay $80 million to settle a class-action lawsuit on behalf of male teens who said they were sexually harassed or assaulted in prison while housed with adults, officials said Thursday. The deal closes years of litigation. The lawsuit accused the Corrections...
Former Baltimore mayor sentenced to 3 years in book scheme
BALTIMORE — The disgraced former mayor of Baltimore was sentenced to three years in federal prison Thursday for arranging fraudulent sales of her self-published children’s books to nonprofits and foundations to promote her political career and fund her run for the city’s highest office. Catherine Pugh spoke through tears for...
Ex-Pennsylvania lawmaker Mike Folmer pleads guilty in child porn case
LEBANON — A former Pennsylvania state lawmaker charged last fall with possession of child pornography pleaded guilty Thursday. Mike Folmer entered a guilty plea in Lebanon County Court to three counts of possessing child porn and one count of criminal use of a communications facility for having items on his...
Ex-Pennsylvania lawmaker pleads guilty in child porn case
LEBANON — A former Pennsylvania state lawmaker charged last fall with possession of child pornography pleaded guilty Thursday. Mike Folmer entered a guilty plea in Lebanon County Court to three counts of possessing child porn and one count of criminal use of a communications facility for having items on his...
Child psychologist indicted on child pornography charges
DAYTON, Ohio — An Ohio child psychologist who once wrote a weekly parenting column has been indicted on 145 counts related to downloading child pornography, authorities said Thursday. Gregory Ramey, 70, of Beavercreek in southwest Ohio, was indicted by a Montgomery County grand jury on Wednesday and surrendered to authorities...
U.S. House passes bill to help eradicate invasive swamp rodent
WASHINGTON — A measure to grant funding to try to eradicate the invasive rodents called nutria has passed the U.S. House with the help of a large, stuffed specimen. California Rep. Josh Harder brought the taxidermied nutria he calls Nellie to the House floor Wednesday ahead of a vote that...
CDC infographic ranks which beards, mustaches interfere with face masks
As people worry about current COVID-19 outbreaks around the world, a three-year-old graphic illustrating the effectiveness of wearing a mask with facial hair has begun to spread across social media and appear on at least one late-night comedy show. In November 2017 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)...
Study: Drivers are jerks to pedestrians, but rich drivers are the worst
If you are a pedestrian, you know one thing: Drivers aren’t usually your friend. Even within the designated white lines, getting across a busy street can be a monster task against those behind the wheel. Well, researchers at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, set out to see just how...
Stolen hearse carrying casket recovered after freeway chase
LOS ANGELES — It has all the hallmarks of an only-in-Los Angeles crime: A thief stole a hearse — with a body inside — that went on a wild ride, ending with a chase and a crash on a busy freeway. Authorities say they found the body undisturbed inside a...
Ocasio-Cortez, Miranda use star power to promote NYC censusVideo
“Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda is joining U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in a public service announcement aimed at getting New Yorkers of all backgrounds, including immigrants, to participate in the once-a-decade head count. The PSA unveiled Thursday on social media begins with Ocasio-Cortez speaking in front of a classroom of students...
South Carolina sued over its ban on LBGTQ sex ed discussions
CHARLESTON, S.C. — It is against state law in South Carolina for public school sex education classes to mention anything other than heterosexual relationships, unless the talk involves sexually transmitted diseases. A federal lawsuit now aims to change that. The National Center for Lesbian Rights and Lambda Legal said their...
Ohio bill would ban competition by transgender females
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Transgender females would be banned from competing in Ohio high school and college girls and women’s sports under a bill introduced Wednesday by House Republicans. The legislation would apply to all public schools and colleges and any private schools or colleges that are members of a state...
White police officers use force more than black cops, study says
White police officers are more likely to use force than their nonwhite counterparts, and especially in minority neighborhoods, according to a new study. “White officers use force 60% more than black officers, and use gun force twice as often,” Mark Hoekstra, an economics professor at Texas A&M University, and CarlyWill...
Seeking cure, U.S. researchers infect thousands of monkeys with coronavirus
The U.S. National Institutes of Health has infected thousands of monkeys with a strain of coronavirus in attempt to find a vaccine cure for the illness. According to United Kingdom newspaper The Daily Star, rhesus macaques have been infected with the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS- CoV) and then...
DNA databases are boon to police but menace to privacy, critics say
WASHINGTON — Nearly two years after the arrest of the suspected Golden State Killer revitalized DNA forensics, some state lawmakers around the country are pushing to stop or restrict police searches of genetic code databases. Other lawmakers, meanwhile, want to make it even easier for police to use the technique,...
Woman rejected for transplant because her bladder was brewing alcohol
The patient, a 61-year-old woman, insisted she had not been drinking, even though multiple tests found alcohol in her urine. The stakes were high. She had come to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center seeking a liver transplant. Another hospital’s transplant program had rejected her because of positive urine tests,...
