Man who let 12-year-old drive car that hit boy is imprisoned
WATERLOO, Iowa — An Iowa father whose 12-year-old son struck a 4-year-old boy while driving the man’s car has been sent to prison. Black Hawk County District Court records say 34-year-old Jesse Azbill pleaded guilty Friday to child endangerment and aiding and abetting serious injury by auto. He was sentenced...
Eastern Pa. city joins Pittsburgh, Sharpsburg in banning wild-animal acts
Following in the footsteps of two Allegheny County communities, Whitemarsh Township officials in eastern Pennsylvania voted to ban wild and exotic animal circus acts last week. The move comes after similar bans enacted in both Pittsburgh and Sharpsburg, and will affect the town of Plymouth Meeting in Whitemarsh, where the...
Elizabeth Warren offers anti-corruption plan central to her campaign
NEW YORK — Elizabeth Warren has released a proposal aimed at government corruption, providing a detailed policy roadmap for a fight she says is at the core of her presidential campaign. The Democratic senator from Massachusetts is announcing the plan Monday in Manhattan’s Washington Square Park, near the site of...
Propane explosion kills firefighter, injures 6 others
FARMINGTON, Maine — A powerful propane explosion leveled a recently opened nonprofit center after crews arrived to investigate the smell of gas Monday morning, killing one firefighter and injuring six other people, including fellow firefighters, officials said. The building had been evacuated after the gas was detected, said Farmington Town...
UAW official: GM’s offer came too late to avoid strike
DETROIT — A strike by over 49,000 United Auto workers against General Motors could have been averted had the company made its latest offer sooner, the union’s top negotiator said in a letter to the company. In the letter dated Sunday, UAW Vice President Terry Dittes told GM’s labor relations...
Pigeon poops on lawmaker discussing pigeon poop problemVideo
CHICAGO — A pigeon apparently didn’t think much of a lawmaker’s ideas to address a messy situation at a Chicago Transit Authority stop known by some as “pigeon poop station.” WBBM-TV reports that one of the birds did its business on the head of Democratic state Rep. Jaime Andrade as...
No new measles cases reported in fading U.S. outbreak
NEW YORK — The nation’s worst measles epidemic in 27 years could be in its final stages as a week went by with no new reported cases. “To get to zero is tremendously encouraging,” said Jason Schwartz, a Yale University expert on vaccination policy. The current epidemic emerged about a...
W.Va. man caught with $25K of heroin sues over seizure of home
OAK HILL, W.Va. — A West Virginia man whose house and car were seized after deputies found $25,000 worth of heroin in an illegal search is suing the authorities involved, saying his property was improperly forfeited. The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports Keith Allen Sizemore is suing Fayette County, the town of...
Dining, laughing, living amid Hong Kong protests
HONG KONG (AP) — A couple in wedding dress and tuxedo pose for photos on Hong Kong’s famed Victoria Peak. A diner at a streetside restaurant focuses on his food while protesters march by. Two people ride the up escalator as a phalanx of riot-ready police descends on the other...
U.S. service member killed in action in Afghanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan — A U.S. service member was killed in action in Afghanistan on Monday, NATO said, without providing further details. Last week, President Donald Trump abruptly called off talks with the Taliban to end American’s longest war, citing the killing of a U.S. service member in a Taliban attack...
Neighborhood children had a friend, champion in Hempfield’s ‘Nanny T.’
Jean Rae Todaro never had to think twice when she heard the ominous public service announcement: “It’s 10 p.m. Do you know where your children are?” They were always in the downstairs rec room of her Hempfield Township home, playing pool or watching TV. “We’d have 10-12 kids downstairs every...
With Penn State student debt highest in Big Ten, what is the university doing to help?
Student debt is a $1.5 trillion issue in the United States, and Penn State students bear the highest debt load in the Big Ten. In a presentation Friday to the Penn State Board of Trustees, President Eric Barron talked about who is most affected by debt at Penn State, and...
Trump boxed in after blaming Iran for Saudi oil plant strikeVideo
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration sought to offer new evidence to back its claim that Iran conducted the attack on major Saudi Arabian oil facilities, saying the munitions used in the strikes were well beyond the capabilities of the Houthi rebels who claimed responsibility. The evidence put forward by several...
Dem presidential candidates call for Kavanaugh’s impeachment
WASHINGTON — At least three Democratic presidential candidates are calling for the impeachment of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in the face of a new, uninvestigated, allegation of sexual impropriety when he was in college. Kavanaugh was confirmed last October after emotional hearings in the Senate over a sexual assault...
Trump targets border state with rally amid defiant Democrats
SANTA FE, N.M. — Donald Trump lost New Mexico by 8 percentage points in 2016. Last year, his party lost a House seat and the governor’s mansion. Last week, a congressional candidate went viral by taunting the president by name in an ad. Still, Trump is headed to New Mexico...
Suspect arrested in fire at historic Minnesota synagogue
DULUTH, Minn.— Authorities say a suspect has been arrested in a fire that destroyed a historic synagogue in northeastern Minnesota. Duluth police and fire officials said in a press release that a news conference is set for 11 a.m. Sunday to talk about the investigation into the fire earlier this...
Yemen’s Houthi rebels launch drones on 2 big Saudi oil sites
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Yemen’s Houthi rebels launched drone attacks on the world’s largest oil processing facility in Saudi Arabia and a major oil field Saturday, sparking huge fires at a vulnerable chokepoint for global energy supplies. The drone attacks affected up to half of the supplies from the...
Man who dragged shark from boat in Florida sentenced to 10 days in jail
A Florida fisherman will spend 10 days in jail after pleading guilty to misdemeanor animal cruelty for dragging a live shark by the tail from a boat. According to the Tampa Bay Times, Robert “Bo” Benac III was the last of three men facing charges stemming from the June 2017...
White House says bin Laden son killed in U.S. operation
WASHINGTON — The White House announced Saturday that Hamza bin Laden , the son of the late al-Qaida leader who had become an increasingly prominent figure in the terrorist organization, was killed in a U.S. counterterrorism operation in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region. A statement issued in President Trump’s name gave no...
Solid gold toilet stolen from Winston Churchill’s birthplace
LONDON — A unique solid gold toilet that was part of an art exhibit was stolen early Saturday from the magnificent home in England where British wartime leader Winston Churchill was born. The toilet, valued at roughly $1.25 million, was the work of Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan. It had been...
Still reeling from Hurricane Dorian, Bahamas hit by tropical storm
FREEPORT, Bahamas — Officials temporarily suspended aid efforts and closed a couple of small airports in the Bahamas Saturday as Tropical Storm Humberto dumped rain on parts of the archipelago’s northwest region that were already hammered by Hurricane Dorian two weeks ago. Humberto lashed the islands as U.N. Secretary-General Antonio...
Lying prisoners: New laws crack down on jailhouse informants
HARTFORD, Conn. — A movement to put jailhouse informants under a more powerful microscope before they testify is gaining traction around the country, a byproduct of new DNA testing technology that has exonerated dozens of people wrongly locked up based on informants’ lies. Several states have moved to toughen regulations...
Sikh preaches love 18 years after brother killed over turban
PHOENIX — Indian Sikh immigrant Rana Singh Sodhi still preaches love and tolerance 18 years after his brother was gunned down in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks by a man who mistook him for a Muslim because of his turban and beard. “I want there to be...
Collection of premier proverb scholar opens at UVM
BURLINGTON, Vt. — From “Strike while the iron is hot” to “Been there, done that,” proverbs have been developed around the world for centuries, spread by word of mouth, writings, and nowadays social media. University of Vermont Professor Wolfgang Mieder, thought to be the world’s premier paroemiologist, has been studying...
The ‘fool’ that fentanyl made into a millionaire
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. SALT LAKE CITY — The photo that flashed onto the courtroom screen showed a young man dead on his bedroom floor, bare feet poking from the cuffs of his rolled up jeans. Lurking on a...
