Venezuelans storm border as Colombia warns Russia
BOGOTA, Colombia — Hundreds of Venezuelans desperate for food and services stormed the Colombian border on Tuesday, while Bogota indirectly warned Russia against a military deployment in support of Venezuela’s embattled president, Nicolas Maduro. Parliament speaker Juan Guaido, whom dozens of countries have recognized as the country’s interim president, is...
April storm to sock the Northeast, has even brought snow to North Carolina
No, April’s not fooling. A powerful bomb cyclone will develop off the Carolina coast Tuesday, skirting the Eastern seaboard with wind, heavy precipitation and even some late-season snow. Flakes were flying in Charlotte on Tuesday morning, where the local National Weather Service office hoisted a statement cautioning “snow showers through...
Chinese woman carrying malware allegedly got into Mar-a-Lago
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A woman carrying two Chinese passports and a device containing computer malware lied to Secret Service agents and briefly gained admission to President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club over the weekend during his Florida visit, federal prosecutors allege in court documents. Yujing Zhang, 32, approached a Secret Service...
Trump defers push for health plan as a result of GOP resistance
WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell warned President Trump to hold off action in Congress to replace the Affordable Care Act, telling him to instead take it on the road as a 2020 campaign issue. The two spoke Monday ahead of Trump’s evening tweets suggesting he had moved off...
Ex-governor candidate found guilty in Oklahoma murder-for-hire plot
OKLAHOMA CITY — A federal jury on Tuesday convicted a former Oklahoma gubernatorial candidate and zookeeper in an attempted murder-for-hire plot. Jurors returned the guilty verdict following six days of testimony in the trial of Joseph Allen Maldonado-Passage, 56, who was accused of trying to arrange the killing of Florida...
Democrats reject Trump’s domestic spending cuts
WASHINGTON — Democrats controlling the House are proposing to cut back President Trump’s budget hikes for the Pentagon while significantly increasing spending on the domestic programs they favor. Tuesday’s move ramps up a battle with Trump and puts the Democratic House on a collision course with the GOP-held Senate as...
More condoms, fewer cigarettes found in annual beach cleanup
SANDY HOOK, N.J. — Volunteers cleaning up New Jersey beaches last year found everything but the kitchen sink. Oh wait, they found one of those, too. Unsurprisingly, nearly 82% of the trash removed during Clean Ocean Action’s beach sweeps last spring and fall was plastic, including beverage bottles, shopping bags,...
Lithuanian man discovers he’s sole passenger on huge jetliner to Italy
VILNIUS, Lithuania — A Lithuanian man flying to Italy got a pleasant surprise when he boarded the plane: He was the only passenger on the Boeing 737-800. Skirmantas Strimaitis, who was flying from capital Vilnius to the northern Italian city of Bergamo for a skiing holiday March 16, had the...
Lawmakers, rapper Meek Mill urge Pa. probation law changes
PHILADELPHIA — State lawmakers, criminal justice reform advocates and rapper Meek Mill joined forces Tuesday to push for an overhaul of Pennsylvania’s probation system. House Democratic Whip Jordan Harris said at an event in downtown Philadelphia that he will soon introduce a bill designed to put fewer people on parole...
128K kids in Tennessee cut from low-income Medicaid programs
NASHVILLE — At least 128,000 children in Tennessee have been cut from the state’s low-income health insurance programs over the past two years. The Tennessean reports that one in every eight children in TennCare were unenrolled between December 2016 and this January. State officials say the purge is due to...
Delay sought on California ruling allowing high-capacity ammo magazines
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California’s attorney general said Tuesday it appears the sale of high-capacity ammunition magazines has started in the state for the first time in nearly two decades after a federal court judge tossed out a statewide ban. Attorney General Xavier Becerra asked a federal judge to delay implementing...
Police: Customer chokes Giant Food Store cashier over smashed potato chips
A Giant Food Store customer angry that a cashier was apparently being careless with his snack chips confronted and choked the man, police allege. Bradley Bower, 55, of New Cumberland, will be arraigned on a charge of simple assault at the time of his preliminary hearing, which is set for...
Dam’s spillway gets first use since 2017 California crisis
OROVILLE, Calif. — Officials at the nation’s tallest dam unleashed water down a rebuilt spillway Tuesday for the first time since it crumbled two years ago and drove hundreds of thousands of California residents from their homes over fears of catastrophic flooding. Water flowed down the spillway and into the...
CBD is getting buzz, but does it work? And is it legal?
With CBD showing up everywhere, U.S. regulators announced Tuesday they are exploring ways the marijuana extract could be used legally in foods, dietary supplements and cosmetics. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it will hold a public hearing May 31 to gather more information on the science, manufacturing and...
Defense Ministry tells Algeria’s leader to quit immediately
ALGIERS, Algeria — The Algerian Defense Ministry called Tuesday for President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to quit “immediately” after two decades in office, saying “there is no more time to waste” after six weeks of nationwide protests against the chief of state and his inner circle. The ministry’s appeal came in a...
Amtrak wasted $23M on unneeded office space, inspector general says
WASHINGTON — Amtrak wasted at least $23 million by acquiring unneeded office space in Boston, New York, Washington and several other cities, according to a report by the railroad’s inspector general. The report by Stephen Lord, the assistant inspector general for Amtrak, sketches a picture of a quasi-public, federally-subsidized passenger...
High school robotics team gives toddler mobilityVideo
FARMINGTON, Minn. — The parents of a 2-year-old Minnesota boy who needed an expensive power wheelchair turned to an unlikely source for help — a high school robotics team. Farmington High School’s robotics team created a functioning wheelchair for Cillian Jackson by retrofitting a Power Wheels riding toy. Cillian’s father,...
North Carolina GOP chair, major donor charged with bribery
RALEIGH, N.C. — The chairman of North Carolina’s Republican Party, an insurance magnate and two of his associates are facing federal charges for a plan to shower the state’s top insurance regulator with campaign contributions to ensure special business treatment, a criminal indictment unsealed Tuesday said. State GOP Chairman Robin...
Pope: Women have ‘legitimate claims’ for justice, equality
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis said in a document released Tuesday that women have “legitimate claims” to seek more equality in the Catholic Church, but he stopped short of endorsing recent calls from his own bishops to give women leadership roles. In the text, Francis also told young adults they...
Administration officials grapple with Trump’s border threat
WASHINGTON — Trump administration officials are reining back the president’s threat to shut the southern border this week as they grapple with a surge of Central American migrants trying to enter the U.S. President Trump said last week he would seal the border with Mexico in the coming days if...
White House official cites problems in security clearances
WASHINGTON — A career official in the White House security office says dozens of people in President Trump’s administration were granted security clearances despite “disqualifying issues” in their backgrounds, including concerns about foreign influence, drug use and criminal conduct. Tricia Newbold, an 18-year government employee who oversaw the issuance of...
Police identify North Dakota business owner, 3 slain employees
MANDAN, N.D. — Police on Tuesday identified the owner of a North Dakota property management business and three employees as the people whose bodies were found there a day earlier, and said they don’t yet have a suspect in the attack. Chief Jason Ziegler didn’t say how the victims died...
May: U.K. to seek further Brexit delay, try to break logjam
LONDON — Prime Minister Theresa May said Tuesday that she will seek to further delay Britain’s exit from the European Union and seek to make an accord with the political opposition in a bid to break the Brexit impasse. May made the announcement after the EU’s chief negotiator warned that...
Another Texas chemical fire kills 1 worker, injures 2
HOUSTON — A fire at a Texas chemical plant Tuesday that sent plumes of black smoke into the air killed one worker and injured at least two others, authorities said, in the second major blaze at a Houston-area chemical facility in about two weeks. Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez confirmed...
Ohio proposal would honor presidential popular vote
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio’s coveted 18 electoral votes would be delivered to the presidential candidate who wins the national popular vote under a proposal making its way toward the state’s fall ballot. The proposed constitutional amendment, whose summary language was certified Monday, would force state lawmakers to assure the powerful...
