Senate panel advances judicial nominee Steven Menashi on party-line voteVideo
WASHINGTON — A divided Senate Judiciary Committee endorsed a top aide to President Donald Trump for a federal appeals court post Thursday, despite complaints from lawmakers about his refusal to answer questions about his record at the Education Department and the White House. Steven Menashi, an associate White House counsel,...
Crash leaves thousands of tortillas on a Pennsylvania road
MINERSVILLE — Police say 40,000 pounds of tortillas littered a Pennsylvania road when a tractor trailer hit another truck and then a car before toppling over. WNEP-TV reports that the Wednesday crash occurred near Minersville on Route 901 when one truck hauling the tortillas took a curve too fast and...
Judge stays ‘Texas 7’ gang member execution for 2nd time
HOUSTON — The execution of a “Texas 7” gang member who killed a police officer has been stayed again because the state refused to provide him with a Buddhist chaplain in the death chamber. The U.S. Supreme Court initially blocked Patrick Murphy’s execution in March, saying his religious rights under...
November marks peak for deer collisions. Some tips on preventing crashesVideo
Fall is mating season for deer, which means they are out and about. Unfortunately for drivers that means they are out and about and can be on roads, making for potential driving hazards. According to AAA, November and December are the most common months for motor vehicle collisions with deer...
The Number Two Tavern is world’s first poo-powered pubVideo
It may look like a traditional Yorkshire pub but it’s flush with new technology. The Number Two Tavern in Leeds, England, is a pop-up demonstration of a cutting-edge energy production using power created by anaerobic digestion, according to Yorkshire Water. The process converts sewage into biogas that can generate heat...
Trial to determine sanity of newspaper shooter set for March
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — A Maryland judge on Thursday scheduled a March trial to determine whether a man who has pleaded guilty to killing five people at a Maryland newspaper is not criminally responsible because of mental illness. Judge Laura Ripken scheduled Jarrod Ramos’ trial to start March 4 and last...
Chicago’s top cop retiring after turbulent 3-plus years
CHICAGO — Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson announced Thursday that he’s retiring after more than three years as the city’s top cop, a post he took over during one of the most violent chapters in the city’s history and amid public outcry over the release of a video showing an...
Orangutan granted ‘personhood’ settles into new Florida home
WAUCHULA, Fla. — A 33-year-old orangutan granted legal personhood by a judge in Argentina is settling into her new surroundings at the Center for Great Apes in central Florida. Patti Ragan, director of the center in Wauchula, Florida, says Sandra is “very sweet and inquisitive” and adjusting to her new...
Pa. man found guilty of fatally stabbing girlfriend faces life term
MILLCREEK — A man accused of fatally stabbing his girlfriend amid an impending breakup has been convicted of murder. James Gilbert was also convicted Wednesday of aggravated assault, reckless endangerment and possession of an instrument of crime by a jury that deliberated for about 90 minutes. The murder count carries...
Jerry Sandusky’s resentencing on child sex abuse conviction delayed
BELLEFONTE — Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky’s resentencing on a 45-count child sexual abuse conviction is being delayed another two weeks. Judge Maureen Skerda on Thursday pushed the hearing back to 1 p.m. Friday, Nov. 22, at the county courthouse in Bellefonte. Skerda acted after Sandusky’s defense...
Trump denies he wanted Barr to publicly clear him
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday denied a report that he wanted Attorney General William Barr to hold a press conference to declare he broke no laws during a July phone call in which Trump pressed his Ukrainian counterpart to investigate Democrats. Trump tweeted just after midnight that the...
Iconic Pacific bird sanctuary ravaged by plastic and deathVideo
MIDWAY ATOLL, Northwestern Hawaiian Islands — Flying into the uninhabited Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, Midway Atoll appears out of the vast blue Pacific as a tiny oasis of coral-fringed land with pristine white sand beaches that are teeming with life. But on the ground, there’s a different scene: plastic, pollution and...
Massacre of Americans shows drug war worse this time aroundVideo
MEXICO CITY — There was a time when the violence of Mexico’s 2006-2012 drug war shocked Americans, but barely touched them. This time around — like everything else about the country’s renewed cartel conflict — it’s worse. The slaughter of three U.S. women and six of their children, some infants,...
Location, location: Why Ukraine leader aimed for Oval OfficeVideo
WASHINGTON — The room features a couple of couches, an extremely old desk and a pair of classic wing chairs by the fireplace. But the location conveys power and instantly elevates the stature of any guest. Through weeks of impeachment hearings and investigation, the Oval Office has emerged as such...
Trump works up a sweat at a Louisiana campaign rallyVideo
MONROE, La. — President Donald Trump worked up a sweat in a steamy Louisiana arena Wednesday night as he attempted to boost Republican businessman Eddie Rispone’s effort to unseat incumbent Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards in the nation’s last governor’s race of the year. “It may be 120 degrees in...
Over 2 million pounds of chicken recalled in 7 states, including Pa.
More than two million pounds of chicken in seven states was recalled because it might have been contaminated by metal, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service. None of the affected chicken was sold in stores. It was sold directly to institutions like schools, jails...
Reports: Woman who climbed in lion’s den at Bronx Zoo in police custodyVideo
Video captured her climbing into the lion’s den at the Bronx Zoo dancing and taunting one of the male big cats. Later she said she was a lion. But she was (obviously) lyin’. Six weeks later, Myah Autry is in police custody, according to the New York Daily News. A...
Dry no more: Upstate New York town votes to allow alcohol sales
ARGYLE, N.Y. — Break out the bubbly! A town in upstate New York has voted to overturn a local ban on the sale of alcohol that dates back to the Prohibition era. The Post-Star reports that Argyle voted Tuesday to relinquish its status as a dry town. Voters in this...
University of Alabama clarifies ‘disruptive behavior’ for students ahead of Trump’s visit for LSU game
A spokesman for the University of Alabama’s Student Government Association has clarified what he meant by “disruptive behavior” after receiving flak for a previous email warning students in reserved seating to mind their conduct at this weekend’s game against LSU, which President Donald Trump is expected to attend. “Some have...
1 killed, 2 wounded in shooting at San Diego restaurantVideo
SAN DIEGO — Police searched for a gunman who shot three employees — killing one — at a fast food restaurant in San Diego on Wednesday. The shooting happened around 5:30 p.m. at a Church’s Chicken in the Otay Mesa area, officials said. The suspected gunman had been in the...
Removing Martin Luther King’s name in Kansas City opens wounds, discussionVideo
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City leaders and residents on Wednesday began what is likely to be a challenging conversation about how to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and recover from wounds inflicted during a nearly yearlong debate over naming a street for the civil rights icon in the...
Prosecutors: Roger Stone lied because ‘truth looked bad’ for TrumpVideo
WASHINGTON — Prosecutors in the trial of Roger Stone told jurors Wednesday that the longtime Donald Trump confidant repeatedly lied to Congress “because the truth looked bad” for the president. The opening arguments in the case against Stone, a longtime Republican operative and provocateur, made clear that the president will...
Juli Briskman, woman who flipped off Trump’s motorcade, wins Virginia electionVideo
NEW YORK — Juli Briskman, who went viral in October 2017 when she was photographed flipping off the president as she rode past on her bicycle, defeated the incumbent Republican on Tuesday and won a seat on the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors in Virginia. Briskman, a first-time politician, will...
Democrats sweep through suburban Philadelphia counties
HARRISBURG — Democrats completed an electoral sweep of Philadelphia’s four suburban counties in Pennsylvania, long a bastion of Republican control and a critical bellwether for statewide candidates. Democrats won control in Delaware and Chester counties in the election Tuesday for the first time going back to the Civil War and...
Longtime Rolling Rock bartender friend of many
Butch Hammill loved people, an important trait for a man who worked 30 years as a bartender at the prestigious Rolling Rock Club in Ligonier Township and operated his own restaurant, the Meadows in Ligonier. “He was an old-school bartender. No matter where he worked, the clientele followed him. People...
