Sheriff’s deputy slain near Houston was first Sikh officer
JERSEY VILLAGE, Texas — A sheriff’s deputy described as “a trailblazer” because he was the first Sikh deputy of the Harris County Sheriff’s Office when he joined the force 10 years ago, was shot and killed while making a traffic stop Friday near Houston. Deputy Sandeep Dhaliwal, 42, was pronounced...
Cape Cod brings back limited-edition chips in support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month
A popular potato chip company is showing its dedication to support Breast Cancer Awareness Month by returning to a familiar, limited-edition flavor. In a Thursday tweet, Cape Cod Chips reminded us that “October is right around the corner” and the company has brought back the Pink Himalayan Salt & Red...
U.S. ambassador pressed Ukraine corruption fight before ouster
WASHINGTON — Months before the call that set off an impeachment inquiry, many in the diplomatic community were alarmed by the Trump administration’s abrupt removal of a career diplomat from her post as ambassador to Ukraine. The ambassador’s ouster, and the campaign against her that preceded it, are now emerging...
Pennsylvania high court passes on death penalty review
PHILADELPHIA — The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has declined a special petition to review the constitutionality of the death penalty but says it will still consider the fairness of individual cases. The decision Friday comes after the court heard arguments this month from critics who call the punishment cruel and arbitrary...
Riverview shows off STEAM curriculum to Gov. Wolf
Gov. Tom Wolf visited Riverview Junior-Senior High School in Oakmont on Friday to learn about the district’s efforts to prepare students for jobs in fields of STEAM — that’s science, technology, engineering, arts and math — and to tout his own plan for growing the workforce in those fields, PAsmart....
Subpoenas mark first concrete steps for Trump impeachment
WASHINGTON — House Democrats took their first concrete steps in the impeachment investigation of President Trump on Friday, issuing subpoenas demanding documents from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and scheduling legal depositions for other State Department officials. At the end of a stormy week of revelation and recrimination, House Speaker...
Iran releases seized U.K.-flagged tanker
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran on Friday released a British-flagged oil tanker it had seized in July, while the country’s president, returning from an annual United Nations meeting, said he had been told the United States had offered to lift sanctions if Tehran returned to the negotiating table over its nuclear...
House rebukes Trump on border wall, but he plans veto
WASHINGTON — The Democratic-controlled House made a second attempt Friday to overturn President Trump’s use of emergency powers to raid military base projects such as schools and target ranges to pay for his long-promised border fence. The 236-174 vote sent the legislation to Trump, who is sure to veto it...
Take this bridge, get a million bucks. No one didVideo
There’s an old joke about selling bridges to people but this one was free. And it came with a million bucks. But no one would take it. The bridge had carried traffic over the Puyallup River in Washington State since 1925, according to KIRO-7. But two new bridges replaced it...
Video: Baggage handlers fight under plane at San Antonio airport as passengers and crew watchVideo
Passengers and crew on a flight from San Antonio headed to Las Vegas were in for a surprise Thursday afternoon when they witnessed an apparent fight between baggage handlers who were slugging one another underneath a neighboring plane parked at the terminal. According to the crew member who sent the...
Ex-French President Chirac embraced European unity, opposed U.S. invasion of Iraq
PARIS — Jacques Chirac, a two-term French president who was the first leader to acknowledge France’s role in the Holocaust and who defiantly opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, died Thursday at 86. President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute in a nationally televised speech to a predecessor he said...
U.S. deploys air defense systems, troops to Saudi Arabia
WASHINGTON — The U.S. is sending one Patriot missile battery and four ground-based radar systems to Saudi Arabia, the Pentagon said Thursday, in what officials describe as the first steps to help the kingdom protect itself against Iranian attacks. Two more Patriot batteries and a THAAD missile defense system will...
Report: Pa. natural gas royalty payments on the rise
Natural gas royalties paid to Pennsylvania landowners rose significantly in tax year 2017 due to increased production and higher prices, the state Independent Fiscal Office said in a recent report. The report said $1.06 billion in royalty payments were made in 2017 — a 64% increase from tax year 2016....
Flight diverted because passenger stuck in bathroomVideo
A stuck bathroom door sent a planeload of people to Denver. United Airlines flight 1554 was making its way from Washington, D.C., to San Francisco on Wednesday when one of the bathroom doors became stuck, KUSA-TV reported. The plane made an unscheduled landing in Denver, Emily Williams with the Denver...
Red Sand public art project represents human traffickingVideo
Volunteers gathered at Excela Frick Hospital in Mt. Pleasant this week for this year’s final local installation of the Red Sand Project. Snipping open small bags, they poured the brightly colored sand into sidewalk cracks outside the hospital’s emergency entrance. The Blackburn Center is sponsoring the public art installation, which...
Egypt rights group: Nearly 2,000 detained since protests
CAIRO — An Egyptian rights groups said Thursday the number of people arrested and detailed in the wake of last weekend’s protests has risen to nearly 2,000 amid fresh calls for new rallies demanding President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi step down. Rare protests erupted in Cairo and several other provinces last Friday...
Video shows historic mansion being moved by bargeVideo
An old home needed a new place to stay, so a family decided to moved it by land and sea. On Wednesday, a historic mansion that’s spent 250 years on the same plot in Easton, Md., was loaded onto a barge and motored up Chesapeake Bay about 50 miles to...
‘Gross’ lanternflies causing big bug problem for someVideo
KUTZTOWN, Pa. — In the Great Spotted Lanternfly War, Pennsylvania’s citizen-soldiers are fighting back with fly swatters and vacuums, dish soap and sticky tape. They’re stomping and spraying and zapping and bragging about their kills on social media. “DESTROY THEM,” a propaganda poster urges. “Die, die, die, spotted lanternfly,” a...
Health officials: It’s time to give flu vaccine another shot
WASHINGTON— The flu forecast is cloudy and it’s too soon to know if the U.S. is in for a third miserable season in a row, but health officials said Thursday not to delay vaccination. While the vaccine didn’t offer much protection the past two years, specialists have fine-tuned the recipe...
Census: Inequality grew, including in heartland states
ORLANDO, Fla. — The gap between the haves and have-nots in the United States grew last year to its highest level in more than 50 years of tracking income inequality, according to Census Bureau figures. Income inequality in the United States expanded from 2017 to 2018, with several heartland states...
‘OK’ hand gesture, ‘Bowlcut’ added to hate symbols databaseVideo
COLLEGE PARK, Md. — The “OK” hand gesture, a mass killer’s bowl-style haircut and an anthropomorphic moon wearing sunglasses are among 36 new entries in a Jewish civil rights group’s online database of hate symbols used by white supremacists and other far-right extremists. The Anti-Defamation League has added the symbols...
Whistleblower: White House tried to ‘lock down’ details of Ukraine call
WASHINGTON — A secret whistleblower complaint at the center of an impeachment inquiry alleges that President Donald Trump abused the power of his office to “solicit interference from a foreign country” in next year’s U.S. election. The White House then tried to “lock down” the information to cover it up,...
Court to hear Alex Jones’ appeal in Sandy Hook case
HARTFORD, Conn. — Connecticut’s highest court is set to hear arguments on whether conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was wrongly penalized for an outburst on his internet show against a lawyer for relatives of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims. The state Supreme Court hearing is scheduled for Thursday. Relatives of...
Cosby ‘doing very well’ on 1-year prison anniversary, determined to continue appeal, spokesman says
Disgraced comedian Bill Cosby, once known as “America’s Dad,” marked his one-year prison anniversary touting his new paternalistic role behind bars, his spokesman said Wednesday. “He’s doing very well regarding this unwanted anniversary,” spokesman Andrew Wyatt told the New York Daily News. “I just ended a visit with him. He...
Washington plunges into Trump impeachment investigation
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump pressed the leader of Ukraine to “look into” Joe Biden, Trump’s potential 2020 reelection rival, as well as the president’s lingering grievances from the 2016 election, according to a rough transcript of a summer phone call that is now at the center of Democrats’ impeachment...
