Mexican police nab man who tried to rob bank with front-end loader
MEXICO CITY — Police in Mexico say they caught a man who stole a front-end loader, drove it to a local bank, knocked down a wall, chained a safe to the machine and tried to drag it off. Prosecutors in the central state of Morelos say the loader had a...
Scranton man sentenced to life in death of neighbor found in bathtub
SCRANTON, Pa. — A northeastern Pennsylvania man has been sentenced to life in prison in the death of a neighbor found slain in a bathtub five years ago. The (Scranton) Times-Tribune reports that a Lackawanna County judge on Friday tacked on two to four more years to the sentence of...
Huge ghost town next door clouds Iowa city’s future
KNOXVILLE, Iowa (AP) — Crunching slowly down snow-covered Liberty Lane between stately brick buildings, Brian Hatch can recall when the sprawling veterans’ center on the edge of his small Iowa town teemed with activity as patients walked the lush, tree-covered grounds and hundreds of doctors, nurses and other staffers kept...
Brett Kavanaugh pivots as Supreme Court allows one execution, stops another
It’s difficult to say with certainty why the Supreme Court on Thursday night stopped the execution of a Buddhist inmate in Texas because he was not allowed a spiritual adviser by his side, when last month it approved the execution of a Muslim inmate in Alabama under the almost exact...
Massage spa busts often result in light sentences
ORLANDO, Fla. — When Florida authorities shut down 10 massage spas last month and arrested hundreds of men for buying sex, they broke a longstanding pattern of meting out minor charges and punishment for owners, letting patrons off scot-free and turning a mostly blind eye to signs of human trafficking....
New Orleans mayor to apologize for 1891 lynching of 11 Italian Americans
NEW ORLEANS — The mayor of New Orleans plans an apology to Italian Americans for what’s considered the nation’s most deadly lynching — violence in which 11 Italian immigrants were killed after acquittals in a police chief’s murder. “This has been a longstanding wound,” said Michael Santo of the Order...
Tens of thousands of Gaza protesters join anniversary march
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Tens of thousands of Palestinians gathered Saturday at rallying points near the Israeli border to mark the first anniversary of weekly protests in the Gaza Strip, as Israeli troops fired tear gas and opened fire at small crowds of activists who approached the border fence....
Gaza officials say Palestinian man killed by Israeli troops
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Gaza health officials said Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian man near the perimeter fence with Israel early Saturday, hours before a planned mass rally that is to mark a year of weekly border protests. The fatal shooting was bound to raise tensions at...
LA-area police chase backs up traffic for miles on freeway
BURBANK, Calif. — Traffic was backed up for miles for thousands of drivers Friday night on a busy Los Angeles-area freeway after a chase that lasted well over an hour and saw the driver repeatedly back into police cruisers. At one point after backing into a cruiser, the man gestured...
Gunman barricaded following shooting of Texas state trooper
FRISCO, Texas — A SWAT team on Saturday arrested a man suspected of shooting and wounding a Texas state trooper after evading an attempted traffic stop and then holing up in a suburban Dallas apartment for a 15-hour standoff, authorities said. Bryan M. Cahill, of Frisco, was taken into custody...
Trump backtracks on call to gut $300M Great Lakes program
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — President Donald Trump tried repeatedly to gut funding for a wide-ranging Great Lakes cleanup, only to be stymied by Congress. Suddenly, he did an about-face. It happened Thursday during a campaign-style speech in the battleground state of Michigan. For years, the program the Obama administration established...
‘I was shocked’: Nevada Democrat accuses Biden of touching, kissing her without consent
A onetime Democratic nominee for Nevada’s lieutenant governor accused former vice president Joe Biden on Friday of touching and kissing her without her consent during her campaign in 2014, an experience she says left her feeling mortified, embarrassed and confused. In an essay published by “The Cut,” Lucy Flores wrote...
Police killing of pipe-wielding NYC man called legal
NEW YORK — Police officers were “legally justified” in the killing of a mentally disturbed man they said was wielding a piece of pipe like a gun on a New York City street, according to a report on the shooting released Friday. The review by the office of New York...
Judge blocks California’s high-capacity ammunition ban
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — High-capacity gun magazines will remain legal in California under a ruling Friday by a federal judge who cited home invasions where a woman used the extra bullets in her weapon to kill an attacker while in two other cases women without additional ammunition ran out of bullets....
‘Evil attracts evil’: Judge gives Pa. mom life in teen murder
DOYLESTOWN, Pa. — A woman who plotted the rape, torture and murder of her own teenage daughter pleaded guilty on Friday and was sentenced to life in prison for a crime so barbaric that prosecutors and the judge strained for superlatives to describe it. One day after her co-conspirator boyfriend...
Judge rejects Trump plan for road in Alaska wildlife refuge
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The Trump administration violated federal law with a proposed road through a national wildlife refuge in Alaska, a federal judge ruled Friday, saying the project would have reversed previous policy without explanation. U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason rejected an Interior Department land exchange that would have...
It could take ‘weeks’ for answers in SC girl’s death after school fight, sheriff says
COLUMBIA, S.C. — The Colleton County sheriff urged patience as investigators figure out what happened in a classroom fight that left a 10-year-old girl dead. Fifth grader RaNiya Wright was airlifted to a hospital Monday after a fight in a Forest Hills Elementary School classroom, according to school officials. She...
A look at the cast of characters in the Jussie Smollett saga
CHICAGO — Jussie Smollett, a successful but not A-list actor, burst into the world’s consciousness in January after he reported being the victim of a racist and anti-gay attack. In the two months since, a number of figures in Chicago and beyond have gained international attention and emerged as supporting...
Catholic church in SC names 42 priests accused of sex abuse
CHARLESTON, S.C. — The Catholic diocese in South Carolina on Friday released a list of 42 priests with ties to the state who have been credibly accused of sexually abusing children. All but 11 of the priests on the list released by the Charleston Diocese have died. The list doesn’t...
Fossils show world-wide catastrophe on the day the dinosaurs died
Sixty-six million years ago, a massive asteroid crashed into a shallow sea near Mexico. The impact carved out a 90-mile-wide crater and flung mountains of earth into space. Earthbound debris fell to the planet in droplets of molten rock and glass. Ancient fish caught glass blobs in their gills as...
Police: Seattle shooting suspect says he was in alcoholic blackout
SEATTLE — A man accused of randomly shooting at cars and a public bus in Seattle, leaving two people dead and two injured, told police afterward that he was in an alcoholic blackout and didn’t remember doing it, authorities said in court documents Friday. Tad-Michael Norman, 33, was charged in...
Judge restricts access to evidence in Minneapolis police shooting case
MINNEAPOLIS — The judge overseeing the trial of a former Minneapolis police officer who shot and killed an unarmed Australian woman has set tight restrictions for how the courtroom will be run and ruled Friday that members of the public and media will not view graphic evidence that is presented...
US judge: School’s rule for girls to wear skirts breaks law
RALEIGH, N.C. — A North Carolina charter school promoting traditional values engaged in unconstitutional sex discrimination by requiring girls to wear skirts, a federal judge has ruled. U.S. District Judge Malcolm Howard ruled that Charter Day School can’t enforce the skirts-only rule as part of its dress code that punishes...
Greensburg woman remembered as ‘great teacher’
Nancy Hogue turned a job teaching for the U.S. Defense Department into an opportunity to travel all over Europe and beyond. Five years into her teaching career, Mrs. Hogue took a position teaching the children of U.S. military personnel at Air Force bases in Puerto Rico; Labrador, Canada; and Zaragoza,...
Poll: Most see women equal to men in politics
WASHINGTON — An all-time high of 84 percent of Americans believe women are just as suited emotionally for politics as men, according to a new survey that comes as the largest-ever field of women are running for president and with a record number serving in Congress. The growing acceptance of...
