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...
Americans getting more inactive, computers partly to blame
Americans are becoming increasingly sedentary, spending almost a third of their waking hours sitting down, and computer use is partly to blame, a new study found. Over almost a decade, average daily sitting time increased by roughly an hour, to about eight hours for U.S. teens and almost 61⁄2 hours...
2-cent fee proposed for single-use plastic bags in Pennsylvania
Earlier this month, PennEnvironment joined forces with Pennsylvania House Democrats to announce its “Zero Waste PA” package of 13 bills looking to tackle a number of litter and pollution problems. According to PennLive, the proposals range from “creating a 5-cent beverage bottle and can deposit program and raising fines for...
Trump meets with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey at White House
President Trump on Tuesday met privately with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, a huddle at the White House between one of the site’s most prolific users and an executive who’s faced criticism for the way Twitter has handled the president’s tweets. The meeting comes as Trump continues to attack the tech...
Social Security could go broke by 2035, but lawmakers have new ideas to fix it
WASHINGTON — There’s nothing like waiting until the last minute — as long as waiting doesn’t make the problem worse. Therein lies the conundrum facing lawmakers and 2020 presidential candidates when it comes to Social Security, which last year paid out retirement and disability benefits to some 63 million Americans....
Pennsylvania Congressman John Joyce takes back claims of tuberculosis-infected migrants crossing border
U.S. Rep. John Joyce, a Blair County Republican, is walking back his assertion that 12 cases of drug-resistant tuberculosis were being treated last week among migrants who had crossed the Mexican border and sought asylum in Yuma, Ariz. The freshman Congressman’s about-face came after a spokesman for the Yuma County...
Prison term OK’d for man acquitted in ‘Goodfellas’ heist
NEW YORK — A judge properly considered a legendary airport robbery recounted in the movie “Goodfellas” when she sentenced a reputed mobster to eight years in prison for an unrelated road rage arson, an appeals court said Tuesday. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan made the determination...
UPMC joins clinical trial for leukemia treatment
UPMC Hillman Cancer Center is joining a collaborative clinical trial for acute myeloid leukemia to explore new ways of treating patients. The Beat AML Master Clinical Trial, led by the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, will use genetic testing to determine the best course of treatment for the cancer. It affects...
United Nations adopts weak resolution on sexual violence in conflictVideo
UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. Security Council has approved a watered-down resolution on combatting sexual violence in conflicts after eliminating language on providing “sexual and reproductive health care” to survivors of rape and abuse to get U.S. support. The vote Tuesday on the German-drafted resolution was 13-0, with Russia and...
Planned Parenthood: States should oppose Trump ‘gag rule’
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — It’s time for states with leaders who support abortion rights to go on the offensive against Trump administration attempts to restrict abortion that would reduce access to health care, the president of Planned Parenthood said Tuesday. “States are a critical backstop at a time when we have...
Even light rain increases your risk of a deadly car crash
WASHINGTON — Even light rain significantly increases your risk of a fatal car crash, a new study finds. The wetter the roads, the deadlier they become, with rain, snow and ice increasing the risk of deadly car crashes by 34 percent, according to a study this week in the Bulletin...
Defense funds being used for Arizona, New Mexico border wall
YUMA, Ariz. — The U.S. government is moving forward with plans to use military funds to build border barriers in Arizona and New Mexico. The Department of Homeland Security issued waivers to environmental laws last week to build and replace 46 miles of barriers near Columbus, New Mexico, and 11...
