Taliban attack 2nd Afghan city as U.S. envoy says deal is near
KABUL, Afghanistan — The Taliban on Sunday launched an attack on a second Afghan city in as many days, an official said, even as a United States envoy says the U.S. and the Taliban are “at the threshold of an agreement” to end America’s longest war. The spokesman for the...
5 killed in West Texas mass shooting
AUSTIN, Texas — At least five people were killed in West Texas after a man who was stopped by state troopers when his vehicle failed to signal a left turn opened fire and fled, shooting more than 20 people before he was killed by officers outside a movie theater, authorities...
Belle Vernon woman was 1st female X-ray technician in hometown
Eula Tintori was a woman ahead of her time. Her daughter said the Traverse City, Mich., native became the first female X-ray technician in her hometown hospital when officials there realized the young woman they had hired to assist in the X-ray lab showed great promise. At the time mammography...
Tennis clinic held in Pittsburgh for blind and visually impaired peopleVideo
The Highland Park Tennis Club, with help from Envision Blind Sports, hosted a blind and vision impaired tennis clinic on Saturday afternoon. Catering to each participant’s ability, volunteers from the tennis club and Slippery Rock University’s women’s tennis team gave hands-on instruction free of charge. Jessica Kovacs of Plum watched...
Greensburg rally offers message of hope on National Overdose Awareness DayVideo
At 18 years old, Nakkia Proffit had to watch as a friend fatally overdosed, and it still was not enough to keep her from making negative decisions about drugs. On Saturday, Proffit was continuing her recovery and shared her story with attendees at a rally in Greensburg’s St. Clair Park...
Justice Ginsburg reports she’s ‘very well’ following cancer
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg says she’s on her way to being “very well” following radiation treatment for cancer. The 86-year-old justice was speaking Saturday at the Library of Congress National Book Festival in Washington. The event came a little over a week after Ginsburg disclosed that she had...
Taliban launch major attack on Afghan city of Kunduz
KABUL, Afghanistan — The Taliban launched a large-scale attack on Kunduz, one of Afghanistan’s main cities, killing at least 15 people and wounding more than 75 others, government officials said Saturday, even as the insurgent group continued negotiations with the United States on ending America’s longest war. The militants, who...
Court reverses sole conviction in San Francisco pier killing
SAN FRANCISCO — A California state appeals court on Friday threw out the sole conviction against an immigrant who fatally shot a young woman on the San Francisco waterfront in 2015. Jose Inez Garcia-Zarate was acquitted of murder in the killing of Kate Steinle, who was walking on a pier...
Trump aide Madeleine Westerhout, who was his longtime Oval Office gatekeeper, resigns
WASHINGTON — An aide and gatekeeper to President Trump resigned from the White House staff on Thursday, according to people familiar with the matter. Madeleine Westerhout, whose formal title was special assistant to the president and director of Oval Office operations, had worked for Trump since the transition. The president...
Cops: 19-year-old extorted girls into sending nude photos
BETHLEHEM — A 19-year-old Pennsylvania man is accused of extorting nude photos and money from underage girls and was arrested while he was trying to extort more photos from a teen while police were interviewing her. Police say they immediately went to the Bethlehem home of Charles Cummings and took...
Indiana County native, Cold War code-breaker, dies at age 101
Angeline Nanni could have lived her life in relative peace and quiet working at her sisters’ Blairsville beauty shop. Instead, she became part of one of the most important counterintelligence programs of the Cold War. Ms. Nanni and her compatriots in the Venona Project helped decrypt thousands of coded messages...
1st charges filed in string of child homicides in St. Louis
ST. LOUIS — A man is charged with fatally shooting a 15-year-old who investigators say was backing away from him with his hands raised in the first criminal case filed after a string of recent child homicides in St. Louis that have drawn attention to gun violence in Missouri. Joseph...
New Jersey law could open up Boy Scouts to abuse lawsuits from Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania survivors of alleged sexual abuse decades ago at the hands of Boy Scout leaders could take advantage of a New Jersey law set to take effect later this year that allows them to sue. A bill signed in May that will take effect Dec. 1 gives sex abuse survivors...
California deputies rescue wailing bear trapped in dumpster
KINGS BEACH, Calif. — Deputies helped a wailing bear cub reunite with its family after it got stuck inside a trash container outside a motel near Lake Tahoe. The cub can be heard crying from inside the metal dumpster in video recorded by Placer County Sheriff’s deputies on Tuesday. While...
‘Conservative’ string attached to $50 million college gift
FAIRFAX, Va. — A $50 million gift made earlier this year to Virginia’s largest public university was given specifically to “promote the conservative principles of governance,” newly released documents show, raising concerns from critics that it compromises academic freedom at the school. George Mason University announced the gift earlier this...
Judge: No bail for suspect in Nevada sledgehammer attack
LAS VEGAS — A man accused of killing a woman with a sledgehammer while she was calling 911 for help told police who arrested him about “smashing people” and said the woman asked him to hit her, a prosecutor told a judge on Friday. “The violence is almost unspeakable,” Chief...
More vaping illnesses reported, many involving marijuana
WASHINGTON — Health officials are investigating more cases of a breathing illness associated with vaping. While the cause remains unclear, officials said Friday that many reports involve e-cigarette products that contain THC, the mind-altering substance in marijuana. Officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday they are...
Wave of child sex abuse lawsuits threatens Boy Scouts
TRENTON, N.J. — The Boy Scouts of America is facing a threat from a growing wave of lawsuits over decades-old allegations of sexual abuse. The Scouts have been sued in multiple states in recent months by purported abuse victims, including plaintiffs taking advantage of new state laws or court decisions...
Commission: 11 Texas judges broke law by denying free bail
HOUSTON — Texas’ judicial ethics commission has found 11 current and former judges broke the law by indiscriminately denying free bail to thousands of poor people charged with crimes. The State Commission on Judicial Conduct this week publicly admonished the group of Harris County district judges, most of whom have...
$250 fine for white woman who brandished gun at black couple
STARKVILLE, Miss. — A white Mississippi woman who brandished a handgun at an African American couple while telling them to leave a campground has been convicted of a misdemeanor and fined $250. Local news outlets report 70-year-old Ruby Nell Howell of Starkville was found guilty Tuesday in Oktibbeha County Justice...
25 bags of white powder in London luggage turn out to be vegan cake mix
What could have been a huge drug bust crumbled when police determined the evidence was cake mix. British Transport Police were dispatched when a suitcase containing 25 bags of white powder was spotted at Britain’s Gatwick airport on Wednesday, reports The Guardian. An employee of Purezza vegan pizza shops was...
E-cigarette maker Juul facing mounting scrutiny by state AGs
WASHINGTON — E-cigarette giant Juul Labs is facing mounting scrutiny from state law enforcement officials, with the attorneys general in Illinois and the District of Columbia investigating how the company’s blockbuster vaping device became so popular with underage teens, The Associated Press has learned. The company’s rapid rise to the...
New plan calls for killing sea lions to save salmon in Columbia River
BOISE, Idaho — More than 1,100 sea lions could be killed annually along a stretch of the Columbia River to boost faltering populations of salmon and steelhead. Billions of dollars have been spent in Idaho, Oregon and Washington to save 13 species of Columbia Basin salmon and steelhead protected under...
Jim Leavelle, lawman at Lee Harvey Oswald’s side, dies at 99
DALLAS — Jim Leavelle, the longtime Dallas lawman who was captured in one of history’s most iconic photographs as he escorted President John F. Kennedy’s assassin as he was fatally shot, has died. He was 99. Leavelle, distinctive in his light-colored suit and white Stetson, is seen in the photograph...
Donald Trump gets statue in wife’s homeland of Slovenia
SELA PRI KAMNIKU, Slovenia — There’s no mistaking it depicts Donald Trump: a large wooden statue of the U.S. president has been erected in Slovenia, the homeland of his wife Melania. The nearly 26-foot high construction shows Trump with his trademark hair style, blue suit, white shirt and a long...
