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...
Woman arrested after throwing liquid on California Senate
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California police have arrested a woman who threw a feminine hygiene device containing “what appeared to be blood” onto the floor of the state Senate, splashing onto lawmakers and forcing them to finish their work in a committee room on the final day of the legislative session....
St. Louis woman makes 100 lunches a day to feed hungry children in her community
A St. Louis woman has been feeding underprivileged children in her neighborhood for the past five years. Champale Anderson, a health care provider who is also a mother of six, says she’s on a mission to feed the kids in her community who are living in poverty. She told St....
Innkeeper told not to use ‘Alienstock’ as name of event
LAS VEGAS — An innkeeper who expects an unknown number of campers to be attracted to her tiny Nevada desert town by a “Storm Area 51” internet hoax has been sent a cease-and-desist order over her use of the name “Alienstock.” Attorneys for Matty Roberts and associates, who broke ties...
Police: Georgia man faked racially motivated burglary
LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. — A man trashed his pizza restaurant and ice cream shop near Atlanta to fake a racially motivated burglary so he could file an insurance claim, police said. Gwinnett County police officers responded just before 9:30 p.m. Wednesday after a 911 call reporting a man damaging the businesses,...
Phoenix to become most populous US city to drop library fees
PHOENIX — Phoenix residents with overdue library books might want to wait a bit before bringing back their borrowed copies of the current best sellers. Starting in November, Phoenix’s public library system will join a growing number of libraries around the United States that have dropped overdue book fees. A...
Illinois man convicted in 2018 booby trap shotgun slaying
JONESBORO, Ill. — An Illinois man who rigged a shotgun to a rope attached to the door of a shed on his property in 2018 has been convicted of first-degree murder in the death of another man who tried to enter. A Union County jury convicted William Wasmund, 48, Thursday...
Taliban visits Moscow days after Trump says talks ‘dead’
MOSCOW — A negotiating team from the Taliban arrived Friday in Russia, a representative told The Associated Press, just days after U.S. President Donald Trump declared dead a deal with the insurgent group in Afghanistan. Russian state news agency Tass cited the Taliban’s Qatar-based spokesman Suhail Shaheen as saying the...
Pennsylvania wine, liquor sales continue to set new records
The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board is toasting a new retail sales record. The agency that operates more than 600 state stores statewide, and licenses more than 20,000 beverage alcohol producers and retailers, posted $2.67 billion in retail sales for wine and spirits in the fiscal year ending June 30 ....
Rillton’s George Matovich valued family, heritage
Two things were important to George Matovich — his grandchildren and his Serbian heritage. He began taking one granddaughter to practices, games and tournaments when she was 6 years old and continued taking her throughout her school career. “He was always on the sidelines,” said his daughter, Melissa Aird. “I’m...
Penn State board approves pay hike for university president
The president of Penn State is getting a 2.5% salary increase and trustees are making it retroactive to the beginning of July. The Board of Trustees on Friday voted unanimously to boost Eric Barron’s base pay to $855,000 a year. He’s been Penn State’s top administrator since 2014. The Centre...
Fact check: Dems draw link between Trump, El Paso murders
WASHINGTON — Ten Democrats seeking the presidency tripped over some details Thursday night as they sparred in a debate thick with policy and personal stories. Several made provocative accusations that President Donald Trump inspired the deadly shooting in El Paso, Texas, last month. On the policy front, Bernie Sanders claimed...
Man brings support clown to his layoff meeting
A man working at a New Zealand advertising agency had a funny way of dealing with his own firing. The unidentified adman was permitted to have someone at his side for support in a meeting where his job was being terminated, reports the New Zealand Herald. Rather than choosing a...
Albuquerque police: 5 people dead after multiple shootings
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Authorities in New Mexico’s largest city scrambled Friday to piece together what sparked separate shootings that killed five people and wounded six others as the mayor acknowledged that elected leaders and residents were tired of the violence that has plagued some parts of Albuquerque. There were no...
U.S. couple accused of ditching adopted girl, moving to Canada
LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Indiana prosecutors have charged a couple with abandoning their adopted daughter in 2013 and moving to Canada, renting an apartment in Lafayette for the then-11-year-old girl but otherwise leaving her to fend for herself. Prosecutors in Tippecanoe County, where Lafayette is located, filed neglect charges Wednesday against...
Torrential rains pound southeastern Spain, death toll to 4
BARCELONA, Spain — Rescue workers saved thousands of people from rising waters as record rainfall pounded southeastern Spain on Friday, a deluge that authorities said killed at least four people. The storm that slammed into the Mediterranean coastal regions of Valencia, Murcia and eastern Andalusia on Thursday and Friday left...
Reports: U.S. natural gas production, future supply at record levels
Two new reports tout the continued resilience and productivity of the nation’s natural gas industry, bolstered in part by the Marcellus shale play in Pennsylvania. Even at a time of low natural gas prices, which tend to put downward pressure on production, U.S. natural gas production set daily and monthly...
Death toll in Brazil hospital fire rises to 11
RIO DE JANEIRO — A fire raced through a hospital in Rio de Janeiro, forcing staff to wheel patients into the streets on beds or in wheelchairs and leaving at least 11 people dead, Brazilian officials said Friday. Four firefighters were hospitalized after battling the overnight blaze at Badim Hospital...
Civil War cannonball found in Kansas City area tree
INDEPENDENCE, Mo. — A worker has found what’s believed to be a Civil War cannonball lodged in a Kansas City area tree that he was hired to take down. KMBC-TV reports the small cannonball fell out as the worker was chopping the diseased tree on the grounds of the Overfelt-Johnston...
Mt. Pleasant festival celebrates glass heritage
More than 40,000 people attend the annual Mt. Pleasant Glass & Ethnic Festival, an event rich in the history of the glass industry that once thrived in this Western Pennsylvania town. There will be demonstrations by professional glass cutters as there have been since the festival’s inception. But the glass...
Mississippi sixth-grader scores 27 on ACTVideo
You might just be on your way to do remarkable things if you start reading books as a toddler. That’s exactly what sixth-grader Kristen Rhodes of Canton, Miss. did. And she’s continuing to show her academic prowess after scoring a 27 on the ACT. According to prepscholar.com, in order to...
HUD watchdog clears Ben Carson in $31,000 dining set order
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s independent watchdog on Thursday cleared Secretary Ben Carson of any misconduct in connection with the order of a $31,000 dining room set for his office suite. HUD’s Office of Inspector General launched a probe last year into allegations that Carson...
