Erie woman pleads guilty to setting woman on fire
A 59-year-old woman faces up to 40 years in prison after pleading guilty Wednesday to using rubbing alcohol to set another woman on fire at an east Erie residence in December. Mary E. Hull of Erie pleaded guilty to first-degree felony counts of aggravated assault and arson. Erie County Judge...
Germany seizes 1.5 tons of cocaine, 2nd big haul in weeks
BERLIN — Customs officials in Hamburg have found 1.65 tons of cocaine on a container ship that arrived from Brazil, soon after Germany’s biggest-ever single seizure of the drug. The port city’s customs office said Wednesday the new shipment was found last week in a container of tobacco cartons loaded...
11-year-old boy creates #ElPasoChallenge
Shaken to the core by the killings in an El Paso, Texas, Walmart, an 11-year-old hometown boy — Ruben Martinez —is trying to bring some light to this horrifically dark event. ABC.com reports: “The day after the shooting, when Ruben began to ask his mom (Rose Gandarilla) even more questions...
Trump faces protests as he visits Dayton, El Paso
DAYTON, Ohio — Protesters greeted President Donald Trump’s arrival in Dayton Wednesday, blaming his incendiary rhetoric for inflaming political and racial tensions in the country, as he visited survivors of last weekend’s mass shootings and saluted first responders. The president and first lady Melania Trump began their visit at the...
Immigration raids under way at Mississippi food plants
MORTON, Miss. — U.S. immigration officials have launched raids at several Mississippi food processing plants. A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official said Wednesday that search warrants were executed at seven locations across the state targeting several companies. They include the Morton plant of poultry producer Koch Foods Inc., which...
Cambodian rescued after 4 days wedged in mountain rock
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — A Cambodian man who became wedged between rocks while collecting bat droppings for sale has been rescued after being trapped for almost four days. Police said Sum Bora slipped Sunday while trying to retrieve his flashlight, which he had accidentally dropped in the small rocky hollow....
El Paso, with deep Mexican American past, rallies amid painVideo
EL PASO, Texas — The massacre that killed 22 people at a Walmart in El Paso struck a city that has long been the cradle of Mexican American culture and immigration and suffered through bloody episodes of racial violence in the past. The white gunman apparently wrote an anti-Hispanic rant...
Dayton, site of latest mass shooting, warily awaits Trump
DAYTON, Ohio — Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley’s stricken community will have a visitor Wednesday in President Donald Trump, who in the wake of two mass shootings over the weekend has made calls for unity on the heels of his divisive political talk. White House officials said Trump’s visits to Texas...
Bipartisan ‘red flag’ gun laws plan has support in Congress
WASHINGTON — Despite frequent mass shootings, Congress has proved to be unable to pass substantial gun violence legislation, largely because of resistance from Republicans. But a bipartisan proposal by Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., is gaining momentum following weekend mass shootings in Texas and Ohio that left...
FEMA to conduct national Emergency Alert System test
The Federal Emergency Management Agency will conduct a nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System Wednesday to determine whether the broadcast still works in the event internet service is disrupted. The test, in coordination with the Federal Communications Commission, will happen at 2:20 p.m. Eastern time, according to an announcement...
Some skeptical as Trump prepares to visit sites of shootings
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is bringing a message aimed at national unity and healing to the sites of the mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton. But the words he offers for a divided America will be complicated by his own incendiary, anti-immigrant rhetoric that mirrors language linked to...
800 men accuse Boy Scouts of America of sex abuse, lawyers say
About 800 men have come forward this year alleging they were sexually abused as boys by Boy Scouts of America leaders, a group of lawyers said Tuesday. The announcement at a news conference in Washington came a day after two Center City lawyers in the group filed a lawsuit in...
Image of white Texas cops on horseback leading black suspect away via rope sparks outrage
Images from the arrest of a black man who was led away from the scene by mounted police who used a rope in Galveston, Texas sparked outrage during the weekend and prompted an apology from the department’s chief. The Galveston Police Department arrested 43-year-old Donald Neely, 43, who they said...
North Korea’s Kim: Missile test ‘adequate warning’
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea said Wednesday leader Kim Jong Un supervised a live-fire demonstration of newly-developed short-range ballistic missiles he said were intended to send an “adequate warning” to the United States and South Korea over their joint military exercises. The announcement by Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News...
Art Institute official filled life with music
Ellis Matthews already knew how to play bass, piano and saxophone when he decided to start taking clarinet lessons at the age of 85. “He was thrilled to be able to do that at this point in life, to see how far he could get with it,” said his daughter,...
Authorities: Montana man assaulted boy who kept hat on during anthem
SUPERIOR, Mont. — A man is facing an assault charge after Montana authorities say someone saw him throw a 13-year-old boy to the ground because the teenager didn’t remove his hat when the national anthem was played at a rodeo. The boy was taken to a hospital in Spokane, Wash.,...
Dartmouth settles sexual misconduct lawsuit for $14M
CONCORD, N.H. — Dartmouth College announced Tuesday that it has settled a contentious federal lawsuit with nine women who sued the school over allegations that it ignored years of harassment and assault by former psychology department professors. In a statement Tuesday, both sides say the settlement includes $14 million for...
As UK-EU relations cool, battle looms to stop no-deal Brexit
LONDON — In Brussels and London, one question is growing louder: Can Boris Johnson be stopped? Britain’s prime minister says the U.K. is leaving the European Union in less than 90 days, either with a divorce deal, or — it seems increasingly likely — without one. With Britain and the...
Boom in overdose-reversing drug is tied to fewer drug deaths
NEW YORK — Prescriptions of the overdose-reversing drug naloxone are soaring, and experts say that could be a reason overdose deaths have stopped rising for the first time in nearly three decades. The number of naloxone prescriptions dispensed by U.S. retail pharmacies doubled from 2017 to last year, rising from...
Trump, Republican party sue over California tax return law
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Trump campaign and Republican Party sued California on Tuesday over a new law requiring presidential candidates to release their tax returns to run in the state’s primary, legislation that was aimed at prying loose President Trump’s returns. California’s law is “a naked political attack against the...
Bedford County man charged with sale of guns stolen from federal custody
A Bedford County man has been charged in connection with the theft and sale of multiple guns from a federal facility. Richard A. Schreiber, 38, of Everett in eastern Bedford County faces eight charges related to the sale of weapons found to be stolen from the National Firearms and Ammunition...
‘Target list’ prompts domestic terrorism case in Gilroy
LOS ANGELES — The discovery of a “target list” containing religious institutions, courthouses and other sites compiled by the gunman in a mass shooting at a California food festival has prompted the FBI to open a domestic terrorism case. Shooter Santino William Legan, 19, appeared to be interested in conflicting...
Prosecutor: Boy lifted, thrown from UK museum in a single move
A youth court in London ordered a teenager held on an attempted murder charge Tuesday for allegedly throwing a 6-year-old boy from a viewing area at the top of the British capital’s Tate Modern museum. The French boy was only a short distance from his parents Sunday when he was...
Florida woman says lightning caused toilet to explode
A toilet shattered into hundreds of pieces when lightning struck a septic tank outside a Florida home. Marylou Ward told WINK-TV that Sunday’s blast was the loudest sound she has ever heard. “It used to be our toilet,” Ward told the news station. “We have nothing now.” “We come in...
Peter Strzok sues FBI for firing him over anti-Trump texts
WASHINGTON — A veteran FBI agent who wrote derogatory text messages about Donald Trump filed a lawsuit Tuesday charging that the bureau caved to “unrelenting pressure” from the president when it fired him. The suit from Peter Strzok also alleges he was unfairly punished for expressing his political opinions, and...
