Minnesota GOP leader has family stake in gay conversion vote
ST. PAUL, Minn. — The top Republican in the Minnesota Senate, who helped defeat a proposed ban on so-called gay conversion therapy for minors, sent his daughter to a therapist opposed to gay relationships after suspecting she had a same-sex attraction when she was a teenager, the Star Tribune reported...
Farrakhan delivers insult while denying he’s anti-Semitic
CHICAGO — Nation of Islam leader Minister Louis Farrakhan referenced “Satanic Jews” in a speech denying allegations of anti-Semitism, misogyny and homophobia after Facebook banned him from the social media platform. During the speech Thursday at a Roman Catholic church on Chicago’s South Side, Farrakhan asserted people shouldn’t be angry...
Orchestra finds child who charmed crowd with ‘wow!’
BOSTON — A performing arts group has found the child who was literally wowed by a recent classical music concert. The Handel & Haydn Society had just finished a rendition of Mozart’s “Masonic Funeral” at Boston’s Symphony Hall on Sunday when a youngster blurted out: “WOW!” The group was so...
Prosecutors want to meet victims of sex offender Epstein
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Federal prosecutors said Friday they want to meet with once-underage victims of wealthy financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein before deciding whether to throw out a decade-old non-prosecution agreement that allowed him to avoid potentially severe penalties. Prosecutors said in court filings that victim input...
Penn-Trafford teacher, coach, inspired young athletes
Pat Cortazzo flipped a coin with another teacher to decide who would coach the Trafford High School football team and who would coach basketball. Cortazzo, who loved football and was a quarterback at Geneva College, “lost” and accepted the basketball position, according to his son, Sam. It turned out to...
Educators weigh options to give students ‘fighting chance’ in shooting situations
BALTIMORE — The actions of students who died tackling gunmen at two U.S. campuses a week apart have been hailed as heroic. At a growing number of schools around the country, they also reflect guidance to students, at least in some situations, to do what they can to disrupt shootings....
Swarthmore College to no longer allow frats, sororities
SWARTHMORE — Fraternities and sororities will no longer be allowed at Swarthmore College following outrage over years-old documents allegedly written by one fraternity there that contains derogatory comments about women and the LGBTQ community and jokes about sexual assault. School President Valerie Smith made the announcement Friday in a letter...
Dems: Rudy Giuliani’s Ukraine plea an attempt to impact 2020 election
NEW YORK — Democrats on Friday denounced a plan by President Donald Trump’s personal attorney to push Ukraine to open investigations that he hopes could benefit Trump politically, decrying it as an overt attempt to recruit foreign help to influence a U.S. election. Rudy Giuliani said he would to travel...
Schools in Houston area close as storms drench area
HOUSTON — Schools shut down Friday around flood-prone Houston after an overnight storm dumped heavy rainfall on the nation’s fourth-largest city, though forecasters said the high waters were expected to recede as the storms let up. The National Weather Service said most areas received between 1 and 3 inches of...
Natty Light looking to fill sweet summer intern gig
When you get back to college in the fall, you will surely be asked by friends: “What did you do over the summer?” If the answer to that is anything other than, “I was a summer intern for Natty Light,” then you have failed at summer. That’s right: The crew...
Hannastown man grew up in Italy before opening Latrobe barber shop
Shirley DaRold joked her father was older than sliced bread. Except it’s not really a joke: the first commercial loaf of sliced bread was sold in Missouri in 1928. By that time, Luigi “Fast Louie” DaRold was already 3 years old and had moved from Murrysville’s White Valley neighborhood across...
CNN’s Betsy Klein shares letter Trumps sent to friend battling cancer
CNN White House reporter Betsy Klein shared a touching letter Donald and Melania Trump sent to her friend battling brain cancer. In a tweet late Thursday, Klein said “a dear family-friend is battling brain cancer” and received the letter from the Trumps, saying “her mom says it brought much joy...
Authorities: Teen apparently mauled to death by dogs
DIGHTON, Mass. — Authorities say a 14-year-old Massachusetts boy has apparently been mauled to death by dogs. A spokesman for Bristol District Attorney Thomas Quinn III said in an email that police in Dighton responded to a 911 call about a dead male at a property in town at about...
Illinois woman finds snake in her washing machine
Snakes can survive some pretty amazing conditions. Recently, one even made it through the spin cycle. A woman in Evanston, Ill., opened the lid on her washing machine only to see a snake inside, NBC News in Chicago reports. “I was totally creeped out,” Sanela Kamencic told NBC 5. “How...
Florida sheriff’s office captures 2 huge alligators in 1 day
They aren’t the “Gator Boys,” but a Florida sheriff’s department had to help wrangle some unwanted visitors Thursday. First, the Collier County Sheriff’s office said it received a call at 6:30 a.m. for a “massive gator” in a residential area, near where kids were waiting at their bus stop. Trapper...
Florida man regrets trying to pawn his baby for laughs on Snapchat
Brian Slocum thought he had a pretty good idea for a joke. The 43-year-old was driving down the main commercial thoroughfare in Sarasota, Florida, on Tuesday evening when he spotted A&F Pawn Jewelry and Loan, nestled in between a vape shop and a beauty salon in a shell-colored strip mall....
Fact-checking the Trump administration’s immigration fact sheet
When we see politicians or government officials writing fact checks of their own, we break out our magnifying glass. Today, we’re inspecting a new “myth vs. fact” document from the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), the arm of the Justice Department that runs the U.S. immigration court system. The...
After shouting match breaks out, Alabama Senate tables controversial abortion voteVideo
After a shouting match broke out, the Alabama Senate on Thursday abruptly delayed a vote on a bill that would outlaw most abortions in the state and make performing the procedure a felony punishable by up to 99 years imprisonment. The tumult and yelling on the Senate floor began when...
Mystery surrounds 1,000 guns seized at Bel-Air mansion linked to Getty family
LOS ANGELES — A 57-year-old man identified in court records as the longtime companion of Los Angeles real estate mogul Cynthia Beck was behind bars for several hours overnight after police seized more than 1,000 guns — including some authorities allege were fully automatic — from a home in the...
Chelsea Manning released from jail on contempt charge
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning was released from a northern Virginia jail Thursday after a two-month stay for refusing to testify to a grand jury. Manning spent 62 days at the Alexandria Detention Center on civil contempt charges after she refused to answer questions to a...
Republicans attack Richard Burr over decision to subpoena Trump Jr.Video
WASHINGTON — Just days after the Senate’s top Republican declared “case closed” on the Trump campaign’s involvement with Russian meddling in the 2016 election, a GOP-led Senate committee investigating the issue subpoenaed the president’s son, setting off howls from Republicans aimed at Sen. Richard Burr. Burr, a North Carolina Republican...
Senate GOP leader wants to unload lieutenant governor’s residence
HARRISBURG — A senior Republican in the Pennsylvania Senate said Thursday the state should sell the lieutenant governor’s residence at Fort Indiantown Gap, saying it would save money and the proceeds could help fund housing for military veterans. President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati asked for co-sponsors for legislation he is...
Congress weighs bankruptcy relief for student loan debt
More than 40 years after Congress began tightening restrictions against discharging student loan debt in bankruptcy, federal lawmakers Thursday introduced a bill to provide bankruptcy relief for struggling borrowers. The Student Borrower Bankruptcy Relief Act of 2019 would remove the 2005 section of the bankruptcy code that made all private...
Trump to nominate Patrick Shanahan for top Pentagon postVideo
WASHINGTON — President Trump on Thursday said he will nominate Patrick Shanahan to be his second secretary of defense. Shanahan, a former Boeing executive, has been leading the Pentagon as acting secretary since Jan. 1, a highly unusual arrangement for arguably the most sensitive Cabinet position. “Acting Secretary Shanahan has...
Video: Police fire 76 shots during ‘alarming and irresponsible’ car chase in Anaheim
Body camera videos released Wednesday show two police officers shooting at a suspect during a high-speed chase through a residential California neighborhood. The district attorney’s office called the officers’ actions “alarming and irresponsible” in a letter that accompanied the release of the videos, reports the Los Angeles Times. The dramatic,...
