Knife attack by employee at Paris police HQ kills 4 officers
PARIS — An employee armed with a knife attacked officers inside Paris police headquarters Thursday, killing at least four before he was fatally shot, a French police union official said. Police union official Loic Travers told reporters the attack appears to have begun in an office and continued elsewhere in...
Pennsylvania to move forward on power plant emission caps
HARRISBURG — Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration will start working to bring Pennsylvania into a regional consortium that sets a price and caps on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, part of the Democrat’s agenda to fight climate change. Wolf will make a formal announcement Thursday that he is ordering a...
Ex-leader of North Carolina GOP admits to lying to FBI in corruption case
CHARLOTTE — The former chairman of North Carolina’s Republican Party admitted Wednesday that he broke the law by lying to federal agents about his role in an alleged effort to bribe the state’s top insurance regulator to help a major GOP donor. Robin Hayes, 74, pleaded guilty to making a...
Pennsylvania bill would legalize pot, make state the only seller
Pennsylvania could be getting into the pot business. A bill under consideration in the state House of Representatives would legalize the recreational use of marijuana — and give the state a monopoly on its sale. The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board would be responsible for establishing and operating pot shops, similar...
Woman who climbed in exhibit with lions at Bronx Zoo identifies herself on social mediaVideo
The woman who climbed into the lion’s den at the Bronx Zoo during the weekend has identified herself — kinda — by way of social media. The unbelievably audacious daredevil calls herself Myáh Lareé Israelite, according to her instagram profile where she also posted a video of her climbing into...
U.S. judge: Injection sites don’t violate federal drug laws
PHILADELPHIA — A federal judge ruled Wednesday that supervised injection sites designed to prevent overdoses do not violate federal drug laws, giving advocates in Philadelphia and perhaps elsewhere a boost in their efforts to open them. U.S. District Judge Gerald A. McHugh said there’s no evidence that Congress intended 1980s-era...
Dallas cop Amber Guyger gets 10 years in prison for killing her neighborVideo
DALLAS — The brother of a black man who was shot dead by a white Dallas police officer who said she mistook the victim’s apartment for her own forgave the officer and embraced her Wednesday as she sobbed after being sentenced to a decade in prison. As people outside of...
Pa. senators weigh altering child sex abuse lawsuit time limits
HARRISBURG — A legislative tug-of-war over altering rules for child sexual abuse claims that occurred too long ago to file lawsuits resumed Wednesday in Pennsylvania’s Capitol, with victims and their advocates on one side and lawyers for religious organizations and the state’s insurance industry on the other. The Judiciary Committee’s...
Judge denies bail, public defender to man accused of spying
SAN FRANCISCO — A U.S. judge said Wednesday that a California tour operator is a flight risk and denied him bail while he awaits trial on charges of carrying national security documents to officials in China. U.S. Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Corley also ordered Xuehua Edward Peng to hire his own...
Protests escalate in Iraq: 9 dead, hundreds wounded
BAGHDAD — At least seven people were killed and dozens were wounded in clashes that spread across several Iraqi provinces on Wednesday as security forces fired live ammunition and tear gas for the second day to disperse anti-government protesters demanding jobs, improved services and an end to corruption. The deaths...
Ex-South Carolina official gets prison time in prostitution sting
COLUMBIA, S.C. — A former member of the board that oversees South Carolina highways will spend seven months in prison for trying to hire a prostitute just hours after he received probation for admitting he tried to derail an FBI investigation by destroying evidence. John Hardee, 72, was sentenced Wednesday...
Cops: Florida man caught on video cutting brake lines on electric scooters
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Police in Fort Lauderdale have arrested a man who appears on surveillance video to be cutting the brake line on a pair of electric scooters that people rent to ride around the city, police say. Randall Thomas Williams, 59, who lives in Fort Lauderdale, is seen...
Billionaire, friend get no-jail plea deal in Las Vegas drug case
LAS VEGAS — A billionaire California technology firm founder and his friend took no-jail plea deals Wednesday that had them donate $1 million to charities while not admitting guilt in a Las Vegas Strip hotel room drug investigation. Henry Thompson Nicholas III and co-defendant Ashley Christine Fargo stood with their...
Netanyahu’s legal saga reaches critical stage in Israel
JERUSALEM — Prosecutors began a pre-indictment hearing for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, opening a critical stage in a lengthy legal saga that threatens to end the career of the long-serving Israeli leader and has paralyzed the country’s political system. Netanyahu’s lawyers sat down with Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit...
Monday last day to register for Nov. 5 municipal electionVideo
People who need to register to vote in the Tuesday, Nov. 5 municipal election only have a few days left to do so. The deadline to register, or to change an address or party affiliation is Monday To qualify to vote, one must be a U.S. citizen at least one...
Democrats warn White House to expect subpoena on Ukraine
WASHINGTON — House Democratic leaders warned the White House on Wednesday to expect a subpoena demanding documents on President Trump’s dealings with Ukraine, accusing the administration of “flagrant disregard” of previous requests and saying that refusal could be considered an impeachable offense. Separately, the Democrats accused Trump of “an incitement...
Wolf: Marijuana pardons won’t be rubber-stamped
A week after Lt. Gov. John Fetterman urged Pennsylvanians with low-level, nonviolent marijuana convictions to apply for expedited pardons, Gov. Tom Wolf on Wednesday cautioned that such pardons will not be automatically approved. Fetterman, who chairs the board of pardons, joined Wolf last week in announcing their support for decriminalizing...
Pa. marijuana grower urges regulation for disclosure of vaping ingredients
In the wake of national concern over illness linked to vaping, one Pennsylvania medical marijuana company is making sure users, in their catchphrase, “know it before you blow it.” Clinton County-based Terrapin Pennsylvania has disclosed all of the ingredients in its vaporizing products at DemandCleanVapes.com, and called on state lawmakers...
‘Unprecedented’ demand for shingles vaccine leads to shortage
High demand for the shingles vaccine means Pennsylvanians wanting to protect themselves against the painful, blister-causing virus might have to wait. “The demand has been unprecedented,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and a Pittsburgh-based infectious disease physician. “We want to...
Report: Renewables will provide nearly half of world’s electricity by 2050
Renewable sources of energy will provide nearly half of the world’s electricity by 2050, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Currently, 28% of global electricity is generated from renewable energy sources such as hydropower, wind and solar technologies. In its International Energy Outlook 2019, EIA projects that renewables will...
Bernie Sanders has heart procedure, cancels campaign events
WASHINGTON — Bernie Sanders’ campaign said Wednesday that the Democratic presidential candidate had a heart procedure for a blocked artery and was canceling events and appearances “until further notice.” The 78-year-old Sanders experienced chest discomfort during an event Tuesday and sought medical evaluation, according to a campaign statement. It said...
Fed-up San Francisco neighbors use rocks to block homeless
SAN FRANCISCO — A group of San Francisco neighbors say they bought boulders and had them delivered to their sidewalk to stop people from camping and dealing drugs on their street. In Los Angeles this summer, the owner of a cultural center erected massive planters around his building to block...
Pompeo acknowledges he was on Trump call at center of probeVideo
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo acknowledged on Wednesday that he was on the July phone call between President Donald Trump and the Ukraine president that’s at the center of the House impeachment inquiry. But Pompeo continued to push back against what he said was Democrats’ “bullying and intimidation.”...
Sheriff: Armed girl threatened to kill boy over crush
HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. — Authorities in South Carolina say a girl brought two kitchen knives to her elementary school and threatened to kill a boy who had a crush on another girl. Citing a Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office report, The Island Packet reports the knives were found in the...
Twitter, Tweetdeck suffer global outages
Yes, everyone else was experiencing it, too. Twitter and Tweetdeck experienced global outages Tuesday night, and they remained a problem for many users Wednesday morning. Twitter Support said users might have had issues tweeting, getting notifications or viewing direct messages. Users also reported issues with retweeting and using Twitter’s GIF...