Three-eyed snake found on highway in Australia
Two-headed snakes are so old-school. Now, a three-eyed snake, that’s something worth looking into. Well, as luck would have it, one was discovered recently in Australia. The Northern Territory Parks and Wildlife Service posted the find on its Facebook page. The service said its rangers found the juvenile carpet python,...
Lawmakers to see empty chair, not AG Barr, at House hearing
WASHINGTON — Attorney General William Barr plans to skip a House Judiciary hearing Thursday on special counsel Robert Mueller’s report , escalating an already acrimonious battle between Democrats and the Justice Department. Barr’s decision — he cites a disagreement over the questioning — came the day the department missed a...
Assange refuses extradition to U.S.; long legal fight expected
LONDON — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange told a London court on Thursday that he would not agree to be extradited to the United States, where he is accused of conspiring to hack into a Pentagon computer. Assange, appearing by video link from a London prison, said he would not “surrender...
Coroner: Woman obsessed with Columbine died before search
DENVER — A Florida teenager obsessed with the Columbine school shooting had already killed herself by the time authorities launched a manhunt for her after learning that she had traveled to Colorado just days before the 20th anniversary of the massacre, a coroner’s report said Wednesday. An autopsy summary by...
‘Riley Howell is a hero’: Student who attacked gunman lauded
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — David Belnap stood on his North Carolina college campus aching from the latest U.S. school shooting as he held a candle and wore a homemade T-shirt with “Riley Howell is a hero” written on the back. Howell died in his classroom Tuesday at the University of North...
Florida lawmakers pass bill allowing more armed teachers
TALLAHASSEE — More Florida classroom teachers could carry guns in school under a bill passed Wednesday by state lawmakers, the latest response to last year’s mass shooting at a Parkland high school. The Republican-led House voted 65-47 on Wednesday to send the bill to GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is...
Texas officer charged with homicide for shooting black manVideo
DALLAS — A Texas grand jury indicted a suburban Dallas police officer Wednesday on a charge of criminally negligent homicide for fatally shooting a black man during a traffic stop last year. The Tarrant County grand jury indicted Arlington Officer Bau Tran eight months after he shot 24-year-old O’Shae Terry...
GOP senator says Trump’s choice of Stephen Moore for Fed ‘is in trouble’Video
WASHINGTON — Stephen Moore’s prospects of getting confirmed to the Federal Reserve board grew dimmer Wednesday as Trump administration officials began to acknowledge privately that he does not have the votes and as Republican senators indicated that the ensuing drama over Moore’s pending nomination would end soon. Moore, whose name...
Defecating superintendent sues over release of mug shot
NEWARK, N.J. — A former New Jersey school superintendent who pleaded guilty to defecating on another high school’s track has sued the local police department for releasing his mug shot to news outlets. Thomas Tramaglini said in a federal lawsuit filed late Tuesday that Holmdel police violated his constitutional rights...
‘His sacrifice saved lives’: Student killed on Charlotte campus confronted suspect, police chief saysVideo
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — One of the two students who died Tuesday evening in a shooting on the University of North Carolina at Charlotte campus tackled the shooter and saved other lives, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney said Wednesday. The university identified the students who were killed as Ellis Parlier, 19,...
Appalachian Basin’s methane emissions fall despite increase in gas production
Two new reports have put some wind in the sails of the oil and gas industry at a time when Pennsylvania is trying to tighten the rules on methane emissions. The reports show a dramatic decline in methane emissions even as natural gas production has been on the increase. “It...
AG Josh Shapiro vows to appeal ruling that spared Graham Spanier from jail
PHILADELPHIA — Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro vowed Wednesday to appeal what he described as a “last-minute and highly unusual” ruling that overturned Graham B. Spanier’s child endangerment conviction just hours before the former Pennsylvania State University president was scheduled to report to jail. In a statement, the state’s top...
White House wants $4.5 billion in emergency border funding
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Wednesday asked Congress for an additional $4.5 billion in emergency funds for the U.S.-Mexico border as the administration contends with a surge of Central American migrant families, with the bulk of the money for shelter and care. The number of families and children arriving...
Ruling on Spanier conviction could open the door to renewed defamation suit against Louis Freeh
A federal judge’s order dismissing a child endangerment conviction against former Penn State President Graham Spanier if it stands could open the door to another civil suit in the long-running legal imbroglio stemming from the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse scandal. Spanier, 70, was scheduled to report to jail this...
No beer with karaoke in UtahVideo
Adding beer to an evening of karaoke is a recipe for trouble in Utah. The Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission has denied a request from Heart & Seoul Karaoke to offer beer alongside their musical entertainment, reports FOX-13 in Salt Lake City. Utah’s strict liquor laws will change...
Chinese fossil sheds light on mysterious Neanderthal kin
NEW YORK — Nearly 40 years after it was found by a monk in a Chinese cave, a fossilized chunk of jawbone has been revealed as coming from a mysterious relative of the Neanderthals. Until now, the only known remains of these Denisovans were a few scraps of bone and...
House Democrats consider holding Barr in contempt of Congress
WASHINGTON — Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee are discussing holding Attorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress, according to several lawmakers and officials familiar with the plan. During a pair of closed-door meetings Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning, the committee decided that it would likely make a push...
First parents plead guilty in college admissions scandal
A California couple became the first parents to plead guilty in the national college admissions scandal, after the United States accused them of paying at least $600,000 in bribes to get their daughters into school. Bruce and Davina Isackson entered their pleas Wednesday in federal court in Boston. They’re among...
Suspicions grow as Baltimore mayor’s leave drags on
BALTIMORE — Viewers of Baltimore newscasts are getting used to seeing images of embattled Mayor Catherine Pugh’s lawyer pulling up to her three-story house and vanishing inside. He later insists that her health is too fragile for her to think clearly enough to make decisions about the future. But after...
Rare conviction of officer in Minneapolis shooting spurs race concerns
MINNEAPOLIS — After three weeks of testimony, a jury needed little more than a day to convict a black Minneapolis police officer of murder in the fatal shooting of an unarmed white woman who had called 911 to report a possible crime, delivering a guilty verdict that immediately sparked questions...
2 people killed in UNC Charlotte shooting identified as investigation continues
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The two UNC Charlotte students killed in a campus shooting Tuesday evening were Ellis Parlier, 19, of Midland, N.C., and Riley Howell, 21, of Waynesville, N.C., university Chancellor Philip Dubois said on WBT radio Wednesday morning. With a suspect in custody following the shooting at UNC Charlotte,...
Pennsylvania teacher salaries rank 10th in the nation
Pennsylvania teachers average the 10th-highest salaries in the nation, according to a National Education Association annual pay analysis. While Pennsylvania teachers ranked below colleagues in New York, New Jersey and Maryland, they were well above teachers in West Virginia (who ranked next to last) and the bordering states of Ohio...
Report: 1 in 4 U.S. homes now powered only by electricity
One in four homes in the United States are now powered only by electricity, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The share of all-electric homes has risen in each census region over the past decade, particularly in the Midwest and South, according to the EIA’s 2015 Residential Energy Consumption...
Swarthmore College fraternities disband amid protests
SWARTHMORE, Pa. — The only two fraternities at Swarthmore College have opted to disband amid outrage over years-old documents containing derogatory comments about women and the LGBTQ community and jokes about sexual assault. Delta Upsilon and Phi Psi announced their decisions in separate Facebook posts Tuesday night. “We cannot in...
U.S. military stops releasing Afghanistan war information
WASHINGTON — Amid a battlefield stalemate in Afghanistan , the U.S. military has stopped releasing information often cited to measure progress in America’s longest war, calling it of little value in fighting the Taliban insurgency. The move fits a trend of less information being released about the war in recent...
