Trump defense narrative unfolds as conservative supporters gird for impeachment
President Trump’s supporters in Western Pennsylvania seeking solace from the unfolding impeachment inquiry got a harsh dose of reality and strategy from political commentator Dinesh D’Souza. While Senate Republicans condemned the process and a group of House Republicans stormed a hearing room where impeachment witnesses were testifying, D’Souza joined a...
Critics gear up for response to lease sale in Arctic refuge
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Opponents of oil drilling in America’s largest wildlife refuge have a message for oil drillers and the people who finance them: Don’t become the company known for the demise of America’s polar bears. The Department of the Interior hopes to conduct a lease sale in the Arctic...
Scandal brings election risk for rising Democratic star
AGUA DULCE, Calif. — California U.S. Rep. Katie Hill has apologized to friends and supporters for engaging in an affair with a campaign staffer, but Susan Slates still feels let down by the 32-year-old Democrat who arrived in Congress just this year. Slates is a beauty salon owner in Hill’s...
Trump intends to uphold tradition of presidents and baseball
NEW YORK — President Donald Trump’s plan to attend Game 5 of the World Series on Sunday will continue a rich tradition of intertwining the American presidency with America’s pastime. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s limousine drove onto to the field ahead of the 1933 World Series, the last time the nation’s...
Hong Kong bans posting of police officers’ personal details
HONG KONG — Hong Kong authorities have won a temporary court order banning anyone from posting personal details or photos of police officers online, in their latest effort to clamp down on the city’s protest movement. The government said Saturday that the High Court granted the Department of Justice’s request...
Lawsuit: Flight attendant caught pilots livestreaming bathroom in cockpit during flight from Pittsburgh
A Southwest Airlines flight attendant said she witnessed two pilots streaming live voyeur-camera footage from the airplane’s bathroom into the cockpit, according to a lawsuit filed Friday. The attendant, Renee Steinaker, alleged she discovered the sneaky surveillance during a 2017 flight from Pittsburgh to Phoenix, according to Arizona Central. The...
More Vietnamese fear relatives are among 39 dead in truck
LONDON — More Vietnamese families came forward Saturday with information that their relatives may be among the 39 people found dead in the back of a container truck in southeastern England. British police had initially said they believed the victims were Chinese but have acknowledged this is a “developing picture.”...
Medication lockers help Miami’s homeless living with HIV
MIAMI — Ivette Naida says keeping tabs on her HIV medication can be a daunting task. Naida lives underneath a Miami highway overpass with several other homeless men and women. She has no safe place to keep her belongings. HIV-positive people who live on the streets are less likely to...
ERA activists are eyeing a win in Virginia. Is now the time?
RICHMOND, Va. — As Carol Jenkins sees it, a nearly 100-year push to add the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is closer to reality now than it’s ever been. That’s why there’s a “tremendous effort” underway to elect supporters of the long-stalled gender equality measure in Virginia’s elections...
Georgia inmate maintains innocence, won’t seek clemency ahead of execution
ATLANTA — Ray “Jeff” Cromartie met with Georgia officials to ask them to halt his execution. In the private meeting, the 52-year-old told the Board of Pardons and Paroles what he’s long said: he did not kill anyone. Cromartie, scheduled to be killed Wednesday, didn’t deny involvement in the April...
South Dakota inmate on death row loses 2 appeals in 1 day
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — A convicted killer in South Dakota who is scheduled to be executed early next month for the fatal stabbing of a young doughnut shop worker lost two appeals on Friday. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed a request by Charles Russell Rhines, 63, to...
Pentagon hands Microsoft $10B ‘war cloud’ deal, snubs Amazon
SAN FRANCISCO — The Pentagon has awarded Microsoft a $10 billion cloud computing contract , snubbing early front-runner Amazon, whose participation drew criticism from President Donald Trump and its business rivals. Bidding for the huge project, known as Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, or JEDI, pitted leading tech titans Microsoft, Amazon,...
Firefighters race to control blazes before winds roar back
LOS ANGELES — Howling winds that fueled destructive wildfires across California began to die down Friday, but residents in the northern part of the state braced for another round of power outages aimed at preventing what are expected to be the strongest gusts in years from sparking more blazes this...
Russian woman who infiltrated US politics out of prison
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A tantalizing chapter in Russia’s efforts to collect intelligence on American politics came to a close on Friday as a woman who worked as a covert agent was released from prison to be returned to her home country. Maria Butina, a gun rights activist who sought to...
President Trump takes victory lap on criminal justice reform
COLUMBIA, S.C. — When President Donald Trump talks about how his policies are helping African Americans, he almost always mentions a new law that has allowed thousands of non-violent offenders to gain early release from federal prison. He made the pitch again Friday at a criminal justice conference in South...
Defense secretary says U.S. troops, armored vehicles going to Syria oil fields
BRUSSELS — The United States will send armored vehicles and combat troops into eastern Syria to keep oil fields from potentially falling into the hands of Islamic State militants, U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Friday. It was the latest sign that extracting the military from Syria is more uncertain...
Judge: Justice Department must give House grand jury evidence from Mueller probe
WASHINGTON — A judge on Friday ordered the Justice Department to give the House secret grand jury testimony from special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, handing a victory to Democrats who want it for the impeachment investigation of President Donald Trump. The ruling from Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell...
RNC says it ‘wholeheartedly’ backs Trump in impeachment
WASHINGTON — The Republican National Committee moved Friday in an extraordinary vote to express that it “now more than ever wholeheartedly supports” President Donald Trump as he confronts House Democrats’ impeachment probe. The national party’s governing body expressed solidarity with Trump in condemning what it calls a “nakedly partisan impeachment...
Speculation on Dick’s CEO’s presidential aspirations stirs political waters
Twitter is afire with reports that Ed Stack, billionaire CEO of Dick’s Sporting Goods, might run for U.S. president through a third-party bid. Stack, who has homes in Sewickley and North Palm Beach, Fla., made national headlines when he halted the sale of semi-automatic weapons and destroyed a cache worth...
U.S. budget deficit hits $984 billion, highest in 7 years
The federal deficit for the 2019 budget year surged to $984.4 billion, its highest point in seven years, and is widely expected to top the $1 trillion mark in coming years. The 26% surge from the 2018 deficit of $779 billion that the government reported Friday reflected such factors as...
Woman drives motorhome into casino after she’s kicked out
Police say a woman who was angered when she was kicked out of a Las Vegas-area casino intentionally drove her motorhome into the building, injuring a custodian. North Las Vegas Police spokesman Eric Leavitt says the 50-year-old woman was ejected from the Cannery casino Friday morning and drove her Winnebago...
Trafford electrician loved making wine, growing peppers
Domenick Cercone’s family didn’t want flowers or memorial donations their father’s memory. They had a simple request, placed in the final line of his obituary. “Please fry up some Italian hot peppers and enjoy them with a glass of your favorite wine,” it read. If Mr. Cercone were here, it’s...
Trump critic gets 1st pitch at World Series game that Trump will attend
WASHINGTON — A day after President Donald Trump said he plans to attend Game 5 of the World Series, the Washington Nationals announced the ceremonial first pitch at that game will be thrown by chef José Andrés, a vocal critic of Trump. Four years ago, Andrés withdrew from plans to...
Elijah Cummings remembered as ‘fierce champion’ at funeral
BALTIMORE — Congressman and civil rights leader Elijah Cummings was remembered Friday as a “fierce champion of truth, justice and kindness” at a funeral that brought Washington politicians and ordinary people alike to the Baltimore church where he worshipped for nearly four decades. “It is no coincidence — is it?...
Hong Kongers use masquerade as new protest tactic
HONG KONG (AP) — Winnie the Pooh, Guy Fawkes, Pepe the Frog — these are the new faces of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protest movement. Demonstrators masqueraded Friday night as their favorite characters in defiance of the government’s ban this month on face coverings at public gatherings. Protesters in the semi-autonomous...
