17-foot, 140-pound python captured in Florida park
Researchers last week captured and killed the largest Burmese python to be removed from Big Cypress National Preserve in the Florida Everglades, according to wildlife officials. The 17-foot, 140-pound female snake — an invasive species devastating to native wildlife — was discovered using a new tracking approach that leans on...
Q&A: Popular weed killer’s alleged link to cancer spreads concern
Clumps of dandelions have popped up in your yard, so you reach for a bottle of Roundup, the popular weed killer. It is known for being very effective, but its main ingredient, glyphosate, is getting a lot of attention because of lawsuits alleging links to cancer. In late March, a...
2 South Carolina men charged with killing, burying women
SPARTANBURG, S.C. — Two South Carolina men have been charged with murder after sheriff’s deputies found two bodies buried at a house just outside Spartanburg, authorities said. The arrests were made after one of the suspects shot himself in the head in front of deputies, survived, and subsequently told deputies...
Uganda police say kidnapped U.S. woman and driver are freed
KAMPALA, Uganda — Ugandan police said on Sunday they had rescued an American woman and her driver who had been kidnapped by gunmen in a national park. The two “are in good health” and “in the safe hands” of security officials, police said in a Twitter update. Although authorities provided...
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen resigns
WASHINGTON — Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen resigned on Sunday amid the administration’s growing frustration and bitterness over the number of Central American families crossing the southern border, two people familiar with the decision said. President Trump thanked her for her work in a tweet and announced U.S. Customs and...
4 adults, 2 kids shot and wounded at Chicago baby shower
CHICAGO — Two men who opened fire on a crowd of people gathered for a baby shower, wounding six people, including two children, may have acted in retaliation for an earlier gang conflict, police said Sunday. Authorities have only “shards of information” about what happened at the family gathering in...
Chief of staff says Dems will ‘never’ see Trump tax returns
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats will “never” see President Donald Trump’s tax returns, said White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney on Sunday, as a new front opened in the confrontation between the administration and Congress. Mulvaney accused Democrats of engaging in a “political stunt” and wanting “attention” after the chairman...
Smoking pot vs. tobacco: What science says about lighting up
NEW YORK — As more states make it legal to smoke marijuana, some government officials, researchers and others worry what that might mean for one of the country’s biggest public health successes : curbing cigarette smoking. Though there are notable differences in health research findings on tobacco and marijuana, the...
After 2016 loss, Democrats know they need white male voters
UPPER ST. CLAIR TOWNSHIP — When he moved to Pennsylvania about five years ago, it was a coin toss which party Brian Heitman would register with. No longer. Since Donald Trump’s election in 2016, Heitman, who is 42 and white, has become a reliable Democrat. Last week, he voted for...
Senate GOP game plan means more Trump nominees, fewer bills
WASHINGTON — Mitch McConnell says the Senate will be in the “personnel business” this year. But the majority leader’s focus on confirming President Donald Trump’s nominees is coming at the expense of any big legislative priorities. Nearly 100 days into the new Congress, the drive to confirm is adding more...
French priest’s 150-year-old heart being venerated in NYC
NEW YORK — The 150-year-old heart of a French priest is on a U.S. tour — a Roman Catholic relic with New York City as its latest stop. It was on display Saturday at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Fifth Avenue, where both the faithful and the curious lined up to...
Maldives leader celebrates victory in parliamentary election
MALE, Maldives — Maldives President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih’s party is leading in the vote count in the parliamentary election and has already declared a landslide victory that could give him a free hand in efforts to restore political freedoms and tackle corruption. The official results are expected late Sunday. Solih’s...
Erie Catholic diocese will open files to priest sex abuse victims
The Catholic Diocese of Erie, which recently settled a $2 million clergy sexual abuse complaint, is making “relevant” internal files available to abuse survivors for the asking, church officials said. The policy has been in effect since the diocese launched its compensation fund for abuse survivors in February, said Pittsburgh...
Trump: Democrats would ‘leave Israel out there’
LAS VEGAS — President Trump warned on Saturday that a Democratic victory in 2020 could “leave Israel out there,” as he highlighted his pro-Israel actions in an effort to make the case for Jewish voters to back his re-election. Speaking at the annual meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition, Trump...
Connecticut Medical Examiner seeks to ID bodies from 1944 circus fire
HARTFORD, Conn. — Connecticut’s medical examiner is seeking to exhume two female bodies found after the 1944 Hartford circus fire in an attempt to identify at least one of them. Chief State Medical Examiner James Gill told The Hartford Courant he is hoping modern DNA testing can put a name...
Judge rules New York county can’t ban unvaccinated children from schools, parks
Ten days after a New York county banned unvaccinated children from public places in an effort to stem the rise of measles cases, a state judge put the injunction on hold. “Children are hereby permitted to return to their respective schools forthwith and otherwise to assemble in public places,” Judge...
South Florida teacher faces suspension for showing videos with nudes
The pictures displayed by a high school art teacher showed nudity, for sure. The question is whether they were artistic or obscene. Brenda Fischer, a veteran teacher at Western High School in Davie, Fla., faces a three-day suspension for showing her students a video with nude models in positions that...
Trump to make case for Jewish voters to back his 2020 bid
LAS VEGAS — President Donald Trump is set to make the case for Jewish voters to back his re-election as he takes a victory lap with Republican donors in Las Vegas. Trump is appearing at the annual meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition, which supported his 2016 campaign and is...
Band of toddlers escapes Louisiana day care, found wandering near highway
Several 1-year-old children apparently escaped a Louisiana day care and were found wandering near a highway, prompting state officials to yank the facility’s license. According to the New York Daily News, four 1-year-old children at the Color Wheel Learning Center in Ascension Parish “found their way out of the facility’s...
Ex-US Sen Ernest ‘Fritz’ Hollings of South Carolina dead
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Ernest F. “Fritz” Hollings, the silver-haired Democrat who helped shepherd South Carolina through desegregation as governor and went on to serve six terms in the U.S. Senate, has died. He was 97. Family spokesman Andy Brack, who also served at times for Hollings as spokesman during his...
Vietnam vet who died Christmas Eve is finally laid to rest
RALEIGH, N.C. — When a Vietnam War veteran died Christmas Eve with no family nearby, a community of veterans, a friend and military supporters in North Carolina stepped up to make sure he was finally laid to rest with military honors. They ensured that Phillip “Flip” Drye’s military paperwork, delayed...
Anti-government protests prompt talk of ‘Balkan Spring’
PODGORICA, Montenegro — It all started with a video posted on social media: a secret recording from 2016 that appears to show a well-known local tycoon hand over an envelope containing bundles of cash to a party associate of Montenegro’s long-standing leader. The prominent businessman, a former close friend and...
Mormons bracing for more changes at church conference
SALT LAKE CITY — Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are preparing for more changes as they gather in Utah for a twice-yearly conference to hear from the faith’s top leaders. Church President Russell M. Nelson has implemented a host of changes in his first year...
Greensburg secretary Marjorie Taylor loved writing, painting
Before their daughter could even open her eyes and utter her first cry, Marjorie Taylor’s parents hung her out the window of their home and the attending nurse slapped her because she wasn’t breathing. “Finally then, she came to life,” said her daughter, Leslie Minteer of North Huntingdon. L. Marjorie...
FBI: NY man threatened to kill Minn. Congresswoman
NEW YORK — A western New York man has been charged with threatening to kill U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. Federal prosecutors announced Friday that Patrick Carlineo Jr. was arrested after placing a threatening call to Omar’s office in Washington D.C. last month. Authorities did not say when Carlineo...
