Chaotic scene as House Republicans disrupt impeachment depositionVideo
WASHINGTON — Republicans brought House Democrats’ impeachment investigation to a halt on Wednesday as around two dozen GOP House members stormed into a closed-door deposition with a Defense Department official. Democrats said the move compromised national security as some of them brought electronic devices into a secure room. The GOP...
Report: Traffic-related deaths rise in Pa., continue to drop across U.S.
Pennsylvania saw a slight increase in traffic-related fatalities last year despite a national down tick, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Across the state, just over 1,100 traffic deaths were reported in 2018, an increase of 20 fatalities since 2017, data shows. Of those, 34 were reported in...
California deputy fatally shot investigating marijuana theft
SOMERSET, Calif. — A Northern California sheriff’s deputy was killed Wednesday while responding to a call regarding a theft from a private marijuana garden in the rural Sierra Nevada foothills, officials said. The El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office said Deputy Brian Ishmael was fatally shot in the community of Somerset...
Missouri farmer charged in killing of Wisconsin brothers
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Missouri cattle farmer charged Wednesday with two counts of first-degree murder shot two brothers from Wisconsin, burned their bodies and dumped the remains on a manure pile on his property, investigators said. Garland Nelson, 25, of Braymer, is also charged with two counts of abandonment...
Jerry Sandusky takes appeal of molestation conviction to U.S. court
HARRISBURG — Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky is asking a federal court to do what state courts so far haven’t and either grant him a new trial or release him from prison. The 75-year-old Sandusky filed a petition Tuesday that repeats many of the arguments he’s made...
Elijah Cummings lying in repose at historically black college
BALTIMORE — Mourners, constituents and other well-wishers paid respects to U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings on Wednesday as his body lay in repose at a historically black college in Baltimore ahead of the first in a series of services. A tan hearse with a U.S. House of Representatives seal carrying Cummings’...
Federal judges seem skeptical of Trump arguments in tax case
NEW YORK — Three judges on a federal appeals panel appeared inclined Wednesday to reject arguments that President Donald Trump’s tax returns can’t be given to a New York grand jury because he is immune from state criminal law — even if he were to shoot someone on Fifth Avenue....
Police share photo of ’Drunk Santa’ in jail cell
The Brea Police Department in Orange County, Calif., took to social media Tuesday to share a message from a man in a Santa Claus suit sleeping inside a jail cell. The post to Twitter, which is composed as a letter, reads, “Dear Santa, I’m sorry I stole your red suit....
Teen found dead near Penn State campus, fraternity suspended
STATE COLLEGE — Authorities say a 17-year-old male was found dead in an off-campus house at Penn State and a fraternity has been suspended. Penn State officials said Tuesday that the Alpha Delta chapter of Chi Phi has lost all its privileges. Police said the teenager was found Saturday night...
39 people found dead in truck container in southeast England
LONDON — Police in southeastern England said 39 people were found dead Wednesday inside a truck container believed to have come from Bulgaria. The truck, which is said to have entered Britain via the Welsh port of Holyhead on Saturday, was found by ambulance workers at Waterglade Industrial Park in...
Transgender woman loses lawsuit against estheticians who refused to wax her male genitalia
A human rights tribunal in British Columbia has ruled against a transgender woman who said she was refused wax services at more than a dozen beauty salons. According to the Canadian Broadcast Corporation, Jessica Yaniv identifies as female, but has male genitalia. Yaniv contacted the businesses via Facebook messages requesting...
Pennsylvania Game Commission advises hunters to take precautions against EEE virus
The Pennsylvania Game Commission is issuing a warning to the state’s hunters. With a rare mosquito-transmitted virus documented in the state this year, the Game Commission is encouraging hunters and others who spend time outdoors to take precautions against mosquito bites and report to the agency any dead or strange-acting...
Anonymous Trump official writing ‘unprecedented’ inside takeVideo
NEW YORK — The Trump administration official who wrote an anonymous essay about resistance from the inside has a book deal. The book, titled “A Warning”, will come out Nov. 19, The Hachette Book Group imprint Twelve announced Tuesday. It will likely set off the biggest Washington guessing game since...
Ohio woman who claims she sold drugs to send kids to college gets 11-year sentence
ZANESVILLE, Ohio — An Ohio woman who claims the reason she sold drugs was to raise money to buy a farm and send her five children to college has been sentenced to 11 years in prison. The Zanesville Times Recorder reports 41-year-old Janet Gartner’s defense attorney, Nicole Churchill, said Monday...
Trump floats Mulvaney replacements including Steve Mnuchin and Kellyanne ConwayVideo
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump has for weeks been privately testing the idea of replacing his chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, who’s swiftly fallen out of favor with some of the president’s allies as a result of high-profile stumbles handling the House impeachment inquiry. About a month ago, Trump said to...
Democrats in impeachment inquiry ‘astonished’ by latest testimony of key U.S. diplomat William TaylorVideo
WASHINGTON — The top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine provided House investigators Tuesday with what some lawmakers described as the most detailed and shocking account they’ve yet heard regarding President Donald Trump’s attempt to pressure Ukraine to help investigate his political enemies, according to Democrats who left the secured hearing room....
Pa. House votes to exempt fire, rescue agencies from records law
The Pennsylvania House is giving its approval to a bill that would exempt the state’s volunteer fire and rescue companies from the Right-to-Know Law. State representatives voted 166 to 34 on Tuesday to send the proposal to the Senate. Supporters of the legislation argue the 2008 rewrite of the open...
U.S. highway deaths fall in 2018 for 2nd straight year
The U.S. government’s road safety agency says traffic deaths fell by a small amount for the second straight year. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration attributed the 2.4% drop partially to technology in newer vehicles that can prevent crashes. A total of 36,560 people died on the nation’s roads in...
Mitch McConnell resolution prods Trump to keep troops in Syria
WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell introduced legislation Tuesday denouncing Turkey’s invasion of northern Syria and gently prodding President Donald Trump to halt his withdrawal of U.S. troops from the embattled country. But McConnell, R-Ky., said lawmakers should refrain from imposing sanctions on Turkey for now, saying, “We don’t...
Charge dropped against man arrested after speaking Spanish
PORTLAND, Maine — Federal prosecutors dismissed a felony charge against a Guatemalan who was arrested after coming to the attention of Border Patrol agents for speaking Spanish in public in a case that raised concerns about racial profiling. The Border Patrol acknowledged in a court document that suspicions about members...
South Pole’s ozone hole shrinks to smallest since discoveryVideo
WASHINGTON — The ozone hole near the south pole this year is the smallest since it was discovered, but it is more due to freakish Antarctic weather than efforts to cut down on pollution, NASA reported . This fall, the average hole in Earth’s protective ozone layer is 3.6 million...
Tennessee autoworker killed in car accident on picket line
SPRING HILL, Tenn. — A striking autoworker in Tennessee has died when a vehicle hit him along a picket line outside a General Motors plant. Columbia Police Lt. Jeremy Haywood says a vehicle accidentally struck a pedestrian outside the Spring Hill plant just before 6:30 a.m. on Tuesday. A statement...
Pennsylvania House resumes guest chaplain invocation
On Monday, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives resumed its policy of having guest chaplains offer a session-opening prayer following an August reversal of a lower-court decision by a federal appeals court. In 2016, a group of atheists, agnostics, freethinkers and humanists filed suit, arguing against the practice of limiting prayers...
Challenge to victims’ rights amendment heads to Commonwealth Court
A state appellate court will hear arguments Wednesday in Harrisburg in a suit seeking to bar Pennsylvania from counting votes in the Nov. 5 referendum on a crime victims’ rights amendment. Civil liberties advocates say Marsy’s Law, the proposed amendment that has attracted widespread support from victims’ rights groups and...
2 students charged with shouting racial slur on UConn campus
STORRS, Conn. — Two University of Connecticut students have been charged with shouting a racial slur outside a campus apartment complex in an incident that was caught on video and has led to protests at the school. Jarred Karal, of Plainville, Ryan Mucaj, of Granby, both identified by police as...
