Former Reading mayor Vaughn Spencer gets 8 years in prison for corruption schemeVideo
PHILADELPHIA — A former Pennsylvania mayor was sentenced Wednesday to eight years in prison for trading city contracts for campaign contributions in a pay-to-play investigation that’s resulted in the convictions of more than a dozen people, including another mayor. “I let ambition take over, and I’m truly sorry,” a tearful...
Former DHS head Kirstjen Nielsen took up cyber despite White House aversionVideo
WASHINGTON — A top White House official told Kirstjen Nielsen, then Homeland Security secretary, not to bring up election security with President Trump, steering her away from discussing a critical national security threat with a president who bristles at suggestions that Russian interference contributed to his 2016 victory, according to...
Federal Clean Slate law unveiled with bipartisan support
A proposed federal law designed to seal nonviolent criminal records is drawing from the kind of bipartisan support that ushered a similar measure to law in Pennsylvania last summer. The federal Clean Slate Act, H.R. 2348, includes sponsorship from U.S. Reps. Guy Reschenthaler, a Peters Township Republican, and Delaware Democrat...
Police: Ohio man stole $166K from mom to buy porn, sex dolls, 150 lingerie items
A Dayton, Ohio, man spent more than $150,000 of his mother’s money on sex-related items and a laptop computer, according to court records. In court records, Shaun Joseph, 59, admitted to investigators that he should not have spent the $166,000 on pornography and fetish materials, the Dayton Daily News reports....
People stop traffic to help gigantic snake cross the road
Why did the humongous snake cross the road? Well, really … for any reason it wants. But, in this case, it crossed because a few folks in Brazil were kind enough to halt traffic and let the anaconda get across a divided highway. The Dodo reported on the incident, talking...
In Mexico, migrants turn to ‘The Beast’ after highway raids
IXTEPEC, Mexico — The train known as “The Beast” is once again rumbling through the night loaded with people headed toward the U.S. border after a raid on a migrant caravan threatened to end the practice of massive highway marches through Mexico. A long freight train loaded with about 300...
U.S. WWII bomb detonated in Germany, causing widespread damage
The controlled detonation of an American World War II bomb in the southern German city of Regensburg has still caused widespread damage to nearby houses. Some 4,500 residents had to be evacuated from the area before experts performed the detonation. A spokeswoman for the Bavarian city, Dagmar Obermeier-Kundel, said the...
2020 Democrats confronting debate over letting felons vote
Democratic presidential contenders are facing a new debate over whether criminals in prison, even notorious ones like the Boston Marathon bomber, should be able to win back their right to vote. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders says they should and that voting is “inherent to our democracy — yes, even for...
Cop, teacher, others accused of trying to lure teens for sex
HACKENSACK, N.J. — A New Jersey police officer and a New York City high school teacher are among 16 men who allegedly tried to set up sexual encounters with people they thought were teenage boys and girls. New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal announced the arrests Wednesday. They were made...
Texas high school posts dress code for parents
A Texas high school is telling parents that they need to dress appropriately for school. James Madison High School in Houston shared a letter on April 9 with parents stating they must set an example of what to wear in certain settings, including the school. The letters listed several items...
FBI joins investigation after car plows into 8 California pedestrians
SUNNYVALE, Calif. — The FBI is assisting California officials in the investigation of a motorist who appeared to deliberately plow into a group of people, injuring eight, authorities said Wednesday. Prentice Danner, a spokesman for the FBI’s field office in San Francisco, said the Sunnyvale Police Department is the lead...
Japan apologizes for forcibly sterilizing people, vows compensation
TOKYO — Japan’s government apologized Wednesday to tens of thousands of people who were forcibly sterilized under a now-defunct Eugenics Protection Law which was designed to “prevent the birth of poor-quality descendants,” and promised to pay them compensation. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga offered “sincere remorse and a heartfelt apology”...
An upbeat Kim arrives in Russia, ready for Putin summit
VLADIVOSTOK, Russia — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un stepped off his khaki-green armored train in far-eastern Russia on Wednesday, smiling and upbeat ahead of a much-anticipated summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin that comes amid deadlocked global diplomacy over Kim’s nuclear program. Dressed in a black coat and a...
Snapchat user base grows 2%, Snap shares climb
Snap Inc.’s fortunes rise and fall on the size of Snapchat’s user base. When the user numbers started to decline in early 2018 because of a tumultuous redesign and flabby Android app, its stock price began a long slide to less than $5 a share. Executive churn followed, and a...
Cars underwater at Dallas airport after heavy rains in Texas
DALLAS — Dozens of vehicles parked at a Dallas airport are underwater after heavy rains moved across much of Texas and brought flash-flood warnings and high-water rescues. Water pooled Wednesday outside the terminal at Dallas Love Field Airport. Some vehicles parked in an underground parking garage were almost completely covered,...
Landslide win for lesbian former police chief as Tampa mayor
TAMPA, Fla. — Tampa’s openly gay former police chief has been elected its mayor in a landslide victory. Voters elected 59-year-old Jane Castor in a runoff against 76-year-old retired banker and philanthropist David Stratz. Castor said her victory with more than 73% of the 53,144 votes cast on Tuesday sends...
Egypt court sentences 2 monks to death for abbot’s killing
CAIRO — An Egyptian court has sentenced two monks to death for killing an abbot in a desert monastery north of Cairo last year. The Damanhur Criminal Court, north of Cairo, announced the verdict Wednesday for two defrocked monks identified as Isaiah and Faltaous. They can appeal. The two were...
UN: No screen time for babies; only 1 hour for kids under 5
LONDON — The World Health Organization has issued its first-ever guidance for how much screen time that children under five should get: not very much. The U.N. health agency said Wednesday that children under 1 should not have any screen time while those under five should not spend more than...
Trump’s threat to go to court on impeachment defies ruling
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Wednesday he’ll go directly to the U.S. Supreme Court “if the partisan Dems” ever try to impeach him. But Trump’s strategy could run into a roadblock: the high court itself, which said in 1993 that the framers of the Constitution didn’t intend for the...
Pa. woman killed when she falls into meat grinder at work
MUNCY, Pa. — Authorities say a woman was killed when she fell into a meat grinder at a processing plant in northern Pennsylvania. It’s not clear what caused the accident at the Economy Locker Storage Company in Muncy. The Lycoming County coroner’s office says 35-year-old Jill Greninger apparently fell around...
Citing Trump, Iowa’s longest-serving GOP lawmaker turns Democrat
Iowa’s longest-serving Republican legislator, State Rep. Andy McKean, ditched the GOP on Tuesday as he offered a searing renunciation of President Donald Trump, saying he could no longer support Trump as the party’s standard-bearer because of his “unacceptable behavior” and “reckless spending.” McKean revealed he would join the Democratic Party,...
Straight talk on race becoming a must for white candidates
After touring the National Lynching Memorial recently, former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper spoke of the “shame” he felt that some white people “kind of looked the other way during these lynching incidents.” Former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke of Texas has acknowledged he “clearly had advantages” as a white man. Sen....
Boy Scouts could be hit with more sex abuse claims
NEW YORK — The lawyers’ ads on the internet aggressively seeking clients to file sexual abuse lawsuits give a taste of what lies ahead this year for the Boy Scouts of America: potentially the most fateful chapter in its 109-year history. Sexual abuse settlements have already strained the Boy Scouts’...
Arkansas woman convicted of killing husband in porn dispute
PINE BLUFF, Ark. — A 69-year-old Arkansas woman has been convicted of second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of her husband after he ordered a pornography channel for their satellite television services. The jury found Patricia Hill guilty Tuesday in Pine Bluff after she testified that she wasn’t thinking when...
Democrats clash with Trump officials on subpoenas, tax returnsVideo
WASHINGTON — The struggle between House Democrats and the Trump administration over investigations intensified Tuesday as a former White House official defied a subpoena and the Treasury Department ignored a deadline for providing President Trump’s tax returns. Rep. Elijah Cummings, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said the White...
