2020 Dems back gun limits after El Paso mass shooting
LAS VEGAS — Democratic presidential candidates expressed outrage Saturday that mass shootings have become chillingly common nationwide and blamed the National Rifle Association and its congressional allies after a gunman opened fire at a shopping area near the Texas-Mexico border. “It’s not just today, it has happened several times this...
2 United pilots held for alleged intoxication before flight
Police in Scotland say two pilots have been arrested on suspicion of being under the influence of alcohol or drugs before a scheduled flight to New Jersey. The flight, United Airlines 162 to Newark, New Jersey, was due to leave Glasgow Airport at 9 a.m. on Sunday. It was canceled...
North Irwin Pepsi delivery man loved his job, people
Clifford Lee Bressler loved his job as a delivery man for Pepsi Co., serving grocery store owners with soft drinks from the company’s warehouse in the Pittsburgh suburb of McKees Rocks. “He loved people,” and loved going to the “mom and pop” grocery stores, where he would become friends with...
56,000 cases put on fast-track in U.S. immigration courts
LOS ANGELES — Rosita Lopez said armed gang members demanded money from her and her partner at their small grocery store on the Guatemalan coast and threatened to kill them when they couldn’t pay. When her partner was shot soon afterward, they sold everything and fled north. Lopez was eight...
Romanian tourist dies in accident at Yosemite National Park
A Romanian tourist has died in a fall near a waterfall in Yosemite National Park in California. Authorities say 21-year-old Lucian Miu was scrambling on wet rocks below Bridalveil Fall on Wednesday when he fell about 20 feet. He died at a hospital. The Fresno Bee says two other people...
Vineyard fined $3.7M after bulldozing California wetland
SANTA ROSA, Calif. — California regulators say a Silicon Valley tech entrepreneur and winemaker has agreed to pay $3.76 million in penalties after his company bulldozed a protected wetland and filled in a stream bed to build a vineyard in Mendocino County. The Santa Rosa Press Democrat reports Saturday that...
Texas governor: 20 dead in shooting at El Paso shopping complex
EL PASO, Texas — A young gunman opened fire in an El Paso, Texas, shopping area packed with as many as 3,000 people during the busy back-to-school season Saturday, leaving 20 dead and more than two dozen injured. Authorities were investigating the possibility the shooting was a hate crime, working...
Test is first in U.S. to help detect new STD threat
It is hard to get much of a reputation if nobody knows you’re around, and that has definitely been the case for mycoplasma genitalium, the tiny bacteria estimated to be more prevalent than the bug that causes gonorrhea but is almost completely off the public’s radar. That’s because, until very...
Impeachment summer? August town halls may decide next steps
WASHINGTON — Freshman Democratic Rep. Andy Kim came face to face with impeachment fervor at a town hall in New Jersey. “Do your job!” shouted one voter. Several states away, a woman held up a copy of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report and told freshman Rep. Elissa Slotkin at a...
103-year-old ex-chemist to be honored for work on penicillin
COLUMBUS, Ohio — The story is family lore. In 1942, chemist Robert Walton, then in his late 20s, was drafted following the attacks on Pearl Harbor and boarded a bus in Rahway, New Jersey, for basic training at Fort Dix. His journey lasted only a few miles when FBI agents...
Slave descendants to spend night in cabins at North Carolina plantation
Descendants of slaves removed from Africa to clear swamps for a North Carolina plantation are holding a reunion at the site, with some spending the night in a reconstructed slave cabin. About 40 descendants of two slaves named Kofi and Sally planned to gather Saturday at the Somerset Place State...
Collapsing California cliff claims 3 lives along beach
ENCINITAS, Calif. — A popular surfing beach was closed Saturday after a cliff collapsed, sending tons of sandstone onto beachgoers and killing three people. A 30-foot-long slab of the cliff plunged onto the sand near Grandview Beach north of San Diego. A KNSD-TV helicopter captured footage of beach chairs, towels,...
Freed from Swedish jail, rapper A$AP Rocky lands in US
LOS ANGELES — Nearly a month after he was arrested in Sweden, rapper A$AP Rocky returned to the United States as the verdict in an assault case against him and two other Americans looms. Los Angeles television stations reported the artist was among a group of people shown emerging from...
Police: Rookie Texas officer shoots at dog, kills woman
ARLINGTON, Texas — A rookie Texas police officer accidentally shot and killed a woman behind a shopping plaza when he fired repeatedly at a dog believed to be hers that was running at him, authorities said Friday. The officer in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, who was released from supervised...
California festival gunman killed himself, officials say
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The gunman who opened fire on a California food festival killed himself after officers shot him multiple times, officials said Friday, correcting previous police accounts that the officers fired the fatal bullet. Police gave the update soon after the Santa Clara County Medical Examiner-Coroner’s Office said...
Sheriff: S.C. inmate with 10 cellphone violations planned killing
COLUMBIA, S.C. — A South Carolina inmate serving a murder sentence who was also convicted of running a drug ring from behind bars on contraband cellphones orchestrated the killing of a woman from his cell last month, a sheriff said Friday. Michelle Dodge, 27, was kidnapped and shot in the...
Forest Service wants to trim habitat for sage grouse
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — A U.S. Forest Service plan released Friday would reduce designated sage grouse habitat in Wyoming and Nevada while easing grazing rules intended to protect the ground-dwelling birds in five Western states. The plan would target 300 square miles now set aside for sage grouse in Wyoming and...
Grasshoppers are invading Las Vegas. How long will they stay?
If you’re planning to visit Las Vegas anytime soon, don’t fear the grasshoppers. Specifically, pallid-winged grasshoppers that have descended in such numbers that their swarms show up on weather radar screens. They’re also turning up as pizza toppings, but more on that later. Don’t worry, the grasshoppers don’t pose a...
NYPD judge recommends firing officer in Eric Garner death
NEW YORK — In a reckoning five years in the making, an administrative judge on Friday recommended firing a New York City police officer over the 2014 chokehold death of an unarmed black man whose dying cries of “I can’t breathe” fueled a national debate over policing, race and the...
States sue Trump administration over fuel economy penalties
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A coalition of states sued the Trump administration Friday for the second time to block a planned reduction in the penalties automakers pay when they fail to meet fuel economy standards. Twelve states and the District of Columbia sued the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for replacing...
Phoenix police to record when officers point their guns
PHOENIX — The Phoenix Police Department will train officers to track when they point their guns at people as the agency works to increase trust and transparency after a record number of shootings last year and national outrage over a cellphone video showing officers cursing and aiming guns at a...
Trump pick for national intelligence director is withdrawing
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump says his pick for national intelligence director has decided to withdraw from the running, citing unfair media coverage. In a tweet Friday, Trump said Republican Rep. John Ratcliffe of Texas had decided to stay in Congress. Questions about Ratcliffe’s experience have dogged him since Trump...
Dashcam captures plane landing in busy streetVideo
A Washington State Patrol officer happened to capture video of an airplane landing on a busy street. Trooper Clint Thompson was on patrol Thursday morning when the plane approached in view of his dashcam. The camera continued recording as the officer turned the car around pulled up behind the plane...
Pa. cash welfare program ends, court rejects injunction request
HARRISBURG — A state program that provided $205 a month in cash payments to poor or disabled Pennsylvanians has ended. The program known as general assistance ceased Thursday under a month-old law, while state Commonwealth Court rejected an injunction request that would have kept it operating during a legal challenge....
Settlement to allow Midwest gas to flow to Pittsburgh, beyond through Laurel Pipeline
Parties to a three-year dispute over the Laurel Pipeline say American consumers will be the winners when bi-directional service begins in October. The Laurel Pipeline, operated by Houston-based Buckeye Partners LP, carries petroleum from Philadelphia refineries to central and Western Pennsylvania. But since 2016, Buckeye has sought to reverse the...
