Should the SAT be optional? Bribery scandal renews debate
BUFFALO — The most brazen abuses of standardized testing in the college bribery scandal could be chalked up to security lapses: the ringer hired to take the SAT, the proctors paid to look the other way, the accommodations for extra time obtained through false diagnoses of disabilities. But the scheme...
YouTuber arrested after livestreaming himself driving over 185 mph
A self-proclaimed YouTube celebrity who livestreamed himself driving in excess of 185 mph ended up being arrested by police. On March 31, Beau Alan Rogel took his 2017 Ford Mustang on the road and filmed himself speeding down a Mississippi highway, announcing the increasing speeds as he went. Apparently, someone...
Study challenges health benefits of moderate drinking
LONDON — It might just be enough to kill your buzz: A new study challenges the idea that a drink or two a day could actually be good for you. In a study conducted in China, the researchers found that moderate drinking slightly raised the risk of stroke and high...
Group says 60 killed in protests against Sudan’s president
CAIRO — Sudan’s security forces have killed at least 60 people in more than three months of street protests, an international rights group said Friday as organizers called for fresh anti-government rallies in the capital, Khartoum, and other cities. Physicians for Human Rights said President Omar al-Bashir’s forces have attacked...
Teens get weekends in jail for racist, anti-Semitic graffiti
GLENELG, Md. — Two Maryland teens have been sentenced to jail for racist and anti-Semitic graffiti that was found at their former high school in Glenelg. News outlets report 19-year-olds Matthew Lipp and Tyler Curtiss were sentenced Thursday to 16 consecutive weekends in jail and eight consecutive weekends, respectively. Curtiss...
2 seen in surveillance at Gerald Ford grave come forward
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Police say two people suspected of defacing the gravesite of former President Gerald Ford and first lady Betty Ford have come forward and are cooperating. Grand Rapids, Michigan, police say the results of the investigation will be forwarded to a prosecutor for review when it is...
Pope’s Good Friday meditation to focus on human trafficking
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis is dedicating this year’s Good Friday meditations to victims of human trafficking. The Vatican said Friday that Francis had asked an Italian nun who rescues migrant women forced to work as prostitutes to compose the meditations. They will be read aloud at the torch-lit ritual...
EU investigates video game companies over antitrust concerns
BRUSSELS — The European Union’s competition watchdog is stepping up its investigation of a U.S. video game platform and five game makers over concerns they blocked players from buying cheaper versions of games in other countries. The EU’s competition commissioner said Friday it issued a statement of objections to Valve...
Lawsuit: Teacher sexually abused child, birthed his kids
WHEELING — A West Virginia man says his middle school teacher sexually abused him for years, gave birth to his children and threatened to take them away if he left her. The Intelligencer reports 28-year-old Christopher Birch is suing former Bridge Street Middle School science teacher and track coach, Elizabeth...
Nipsey Hussle’s brother found him dying. These are his final moments
LOS ANGELES — The caller on the other end of Samiel Asghedom’s phone was panicked but clear. His younger brother — known to the world as rapper Nipsey Hussle, but to Samiel as just Nips — had been shot. It was Sunday afternoon — hours before hundreds of mourners would...
Chief: Family DNA leads police to mother who abandoned baby
COLUMBIA, S.C. — When a dead baby was found abandoned in a box in a vacant South Carolina field 29 years ago, every single detective on Greenville’s force poured themselves into the case. There were solid leads — the vacuum cleaner box where the girl was found was traced back...
‘Close your legs?’: Judge may be suspended over questions he asked an alleged rape victim
A New Jersey Superior Court judge could be suspended for three months without pay after asking an alleged sexual assault victim if she tried closing her legs to prevent the attack, according to a court advisory panel. The panel this week released a 45-page recommendation in the case of John...
Suspect held in 4 slayings at North Dakota business
MANDAN, N.D. — A 44-year-old man was arrested Thursday in the slayings of four people who were shot or stabbed earlier this week at a property management business, police said. Chief Jason Ziegler said surveillance video identified a vehicle of interest and helped lead them to the suspect, who lived...
Washington wolf census finds more packs, breeding pairs
SPOKANE, Wash. — The number of gray wolves in Washington state kept growing last year and for the first time the state documented a pack living west of the Cascade Range, wildlife officials said Thursday. The state has a minimum of 126 wolves in 27 packs with 15 successful breeding...
A year later, Trump’s ‘zero tolerance’ border policy frays
SAN DIEGO — As the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy hits its anniversary, the promise to criminally prosecute everyone who crosses the Mexico border illegally has been forced to evolve. Today the reality is families come first. A surge in family arrivals, largely from Guatemala and Honduras, has led Border...
Search warrant states ‘sneak and peek’ necessary at Jupiter spa
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Jupiter police released documents Thursday detailing reasons the agency requested a “sneak and peek” search warrant that allowed them to set up surveillance cameras covertly inside the Orchids of Asia Day Spa. That comes a day after attorneys for New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft,...
NYPD’s secret weapon in standoffs: a simple length of rope
NEW YORK — The New York Police Department has all the latest crime-fighting tools: body cameras, algorithms, even drones. But it is now widely deploying a far simpler technology, a 5½-foot (1½-meter) piece of rope, to help officers deal with one of the diciest kinds of calls. The department this...
Biologists: Killing hungry sea lions saving imperiled fish
PORTLAND, Ore. — A plan to kill California sea lions to save an endangered run of fish on a river that cuts through Portland, Oregon, appears to be working just months after wildlife officials began euthanizing the giant marine mammals, biologists said Thursday. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife...
Attorneys, judge keep winnowing jury pool for ex-cop’s trial
MINNEAPOLIS — A judge and attorneys have excused seven more people from the jury pool for the murder trial of a former Minneapolis police officer who fatally shot an unarmed woman who had called 911 to report a possible rape near her home. Mohamed Noor is charged with murder in...
2 Georgia officers shot; police deal with hostage situation
ATLANTA — A gunman suspected of shooting two Georgia police officers remain barricaded in a home Thursday with a teenager who was considered a hostage, police said. Both officers were in serious condition at an Atlanta hospital as police negotiated with the gunman in a bid to get him to...
Analysis: Why Americans shouldn’t feel grateful for $137 insulin
Last month, Eli Lilly and Co. announced with some fanfare that it was manufacturing a generic version of its own best-selling insulin brand, Humalog, which it would sell for half off — $137.35 versus about $275. David Ricks, the chief executive of Lilly, said the company was making this seemingly...
Trump tweets video mocking Biden over contact with women
One day after Joe Biden posted a video acknowledging that his past behavior had made women uncomfortable, President Donald Trump tweeted out a parody video Thursday in which a second Biden approaches the former vice president from behind, puts his hands on his shoulders and appears to sniff his hair....
Mormons ease opposition to same-sex couples and their kids
SALT LAKE CITY — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Thursday repealed rules that banned baptisms for children of gay parents and that labeled same-sex couples as sinners eligible for expulsion — marking a reversal of policies condemned as jarring detours from a push by the faith...
Investigator details events preceding California SUV crash over cliff
SAN FRANCISCO — Before her wife drove an SUV off a Northern California cliff, Sarah Hart spent hours searching on her phone for overdosing options and whether it was relatively painless to die by drowning, a highway patrol investigator testified Thursday. California Highway Patrol investigator Jake Slates said despite the...
Man charged with killing Nipsey Hussle pleads not guilty
LOS ANGELES — The man charged with killing rapper Nipsey Hussle was ordered held on $5 million bail after pleading not guilty Thursday to murder and attempted murder charges. Eric R. Holder Jr., 29, making his first court appearance after Sunday’s shooting and subsequent two-day manhunt, spoke only to say...
