Woman survives 80-foot cliff fall in South Dakota state park
GARRETSON, S.D. — Authorities say a Minnesota woman has escaped with minor injuries after falling more than 80 feet from a cliff at a state park in South Dakota. Minnehaha County sheriff’s Sgt. Scott Dubbe says the fall happened Monday evening at the Palisades State Park, about 20 miles northeast...
Va. school board files appeal to defend transgender policy
RICHMOND, Va. — A Virginia school board has filed a federal appeal to defend its transgender bathroom ban. The Gloucester County School Board’s appeal appeared Tuesday on the docket for the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond. Briefs containing legal arguments will come next. The board has been...
Ohio medical board to review nearly 2,000 ‘sexual boundary’ cases
COLUMBUS, Ohio — The State Medical Board of Ohio plans to review nearly 2,000 closed cases involving alleged “sexual boundary” violations by doctors over the past 25 years to see if any involved evidence of criminal misconduct that was ignored. Gov. Mike DeWine requested such a review after learning credible...
Police: Man dies in fall from Cleveland apartment filled with drugs
CLEVELAND — Authorities in Cleveland aren’t sure if a man who died in an eight-story fall over the weekend had jumped from a balcony when a bail bondsman showed up serving a warrant. Police say the body of the 24-year-old man was found Saturday in downtown Cleveland’s Flats entertainment district....
In California, a buzzy campaign idea gets a test run
STOCKTON, Calif. — Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang wants to give cash to every American each month. Susie Garza has never heard of Yang. But since February, she’s been getting $500 a month from a nonprofit in Stockton, California, as part of an experiment that offers something unusual in presidential...
Armed group storms Popeyes demanding chicken sandwiches
Hey, when you need a chicken sandwich … you need a chicken sandwich. But launching an all-out assault on Popeyes is probably not the best way to go about it. Especially when you’re lugging an infant around. According to a report from ABC13 News in Houston, a group of people...
2 dead, 3 missing after boat capsizes along Indiana river
MARTINSVILLE, Ind. — A Labor Day cookout ended in tragedy when a longboat ferrying seven family members capsized on a central Indiana river, killing a 6-year-old boy and a 73-year-old woman, and leaving three men missing, authorities said Tuesday. It is unclear what caused the flat-bottomed boat to capsize Monday...
Pence aide defends stay at Trump property in Ireland
DUBLIN — A top aide to Vice President Mike Pence is defending Pence’s decision to stay at one of President Donald Trump’s properties while in Ireland amid criticism by Democrats that he is enriching Trump at taxpayers’ expense. Marc Short, Pence’s chief of staff, told reporters aboard Air Force Two...
Sheriff: 14-year-old killed his family, later confessed
ELKMONT, Ala. — Authorities in Alabama say a teenager called 911 about hearing gunshots and then admitted to killing five members of his family. Limestone County Sheriff’s spokesman Stephen Young tells WAFF-TV that deputies responded to the Elkmont scene early Tuesday morning. He says deputies were called by the 14-year-old,...
Philadelphia police: Man kills girlfriend while she’s at friend’s home
PHILADELPHIA — Authorities say a man who had been having “domestic problems” with his girlfriend stabbed her to death while she was staying at a friend’s home in Philadelphia. The stabbing occurred early Tuesday. Authorities say three children were in the home at the time, including one who is related...
Deadly Dorian pounds relentlessly at desperate Bahamas
FREEPORT, Bahamas — Hurricane Dorian remained stationary early Tuesday, its relentless winds causing catastrophic damage in the northwest Bahamas, flooding the islands of Abaco and Grand Bahama with walls of water reaching the second floors of buildings, trapping people in attics and drowning the Grand Bahama airport under 6 feet...
Have it your way when making healthier fast food choices
Does following a weight-loss or healthy diet mean you must swear off fast food? Not necessarily. An occasional stop for fast food can fit into a healthy diet — if you’re careful about what you order. Consider the following tips. Keep portion sizes small If the fast-food restaurant offers several...
For chronic Lyme patients, every day can be a struggleVideo
It was bad enough that Amy Wiester of Bell Township contracted Lyme disease at age 6 after suffering a tick bite at her family’s farm. But Wiester, 36, was bitten twice more by Lyme-carrying ticks, in 2004 and 2018. The disease — and the co-infections that frequently accompany it —...
Worried? Losing sleep? It’s hard not to be stressed in 2019
Are you feeling stressed? Do your days bring more OMGs than LOLs? Do you lose sleep over finances, violence, politics or the country and planet’s future? If you have a kid(s), do the demands of parenting cause anxiety? If you are a kid, do the pressures of adolescence prompt the...
High-capacity magazines get new scrutiny as Congress returns
SEATTLE — Lawmakers around the country are making a renewed push to ban high-capacity magazines that gunmen have used in many recent massacres, allowing them to inflict mass casualties at a startling rate before police can stop the carnage. Nine states have passed laws restricting magazine capacity to 10 to...
World War II vet who trained at Saint Vincent College had to jump from plane over enemy territory
Bernard J. Harrington, a co-pilot on a World War II B-24 Liberator heavy bomber who flew 35 combat missions over Germany, Italy, the Balkans, picked a good spot to land when he and his crew had to bail out their airplane. Mr. Harrington was on his 19th mission when his...
Harry Potter removed from Tennessee Catholic school library
NASHVILLE — A Catholic school in Tennessee has removed the Harry Potter books from its library after the school’s priest decided they could cause a reader to conjure evil spirits. In an email obtained by The Tennessean, the Rev. Dan Reehil of Nashville’s St. Edward Catholic School said he consulted...
Double cuddle: Berlin zoo celebrates birth of 2 panda cubs
BERLIN — A zoo in Berlin is celebrating the arrival of two panda cubs, the first time one of the rare mammals has given birth in Germany. Zoo Berlin said Monday that mother Meng Meng gave birth to a hand-sized pink cub at 6:54 p.m. Saturday. According to the zoo,...
Iran warns of ‘strong step’ from atomic deal if no new terms
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran will “take a strong step” away from its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers if Europe cannot offer the country new terms by a deadline at the end of this week, a government spokesman said Monday as top Iranian diplomats traveled to France and Russia for...
Taliban attack Kabul as U.S. envoy says deal almost final
KABUL, Afghanistan — The Taliban claimed responsibility for a large explosion in the Afghan capital Monday night, just hours after a U.S. envoy briefed the Afghan government on an agreement “in principle” with the insurgent group that would see 5,000 U.S. troops leave the country in five months. Interior Ministry...
Texas gunman was fired from job, called FBI before shooting
ODESSA, Texas — The gunman in a spate of violence after a routine traffic stop in West Texas had just been fired from his job and called both police and the FBI before the shooting began, authorities said Monday. Seth Aaron Ator, 36, was fired Saturday from Journey Oilfield Services,...
8 killed in deadly California boat fire; dozens missing
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — A fire raged through a boat carrying recreational scuba divers anchored near an island off the Southern California coast early Monday, leaving at least eight people dead and hope diminishing that any of the 26 people still missing would be found alive. Five crew members escaped...
Dorian triggers massive flooding in Bahamas; at least 5 deadVideo
FREEPORT, Bahamas — Hurricane Dorian unleashed massive flooding across the Bahamas on Monday, pummeling the islands with so much wind and water that authorities urged people to find floatation devices and grab hammers to break out of their attics if necessary. At least five deaths were blamed on the storm....
Police unsure why man went on West Texas shooting rampage
ODESSA, Texas — Police say they are not sure why a man with a misdemeanor on his record and no warrant for his arrest erupted in a spate of violence after a routine traffic stop in West Texas, killing seven, including a man slain outside his parents’ home and a...
There’s no single ‘gay gene,’ according to vast DNA analysis
A new study that analyzed the DNA of nearly half a million people has found that while genetic differences play a significant role in sexual preference, there is no single gene responsible. The findings, described Thursday in the journal Science, looked at sexual behavior and not sexual identity. Still, the...