Tax credit proposed to help young Pennsylvania farmers acquire land
The Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, the state’s largest farm organization, is backing legislation that would provide a tax credit as an incentive for selling or leasing land to a beginning farmer. While in Harrisburg for its state legislative conference this week, the bureau urged support of the incentive as set forth...
FBI could review the many suspicions around Smollett case
CHICAGO — The FBI was already investigating Jussie Smollett before President Donald Trump tweeted that the agency and the Department of Justice would review the case, which the president called “an embarrassment” to the nation. Trump’s tweet on Thursday came two days after a surprise decision by Cook County prosecutors...
Harry Reid testifies exercise device injury cost him Senate
LAS VEGAS — Former U.S. Sen. Harry Reid told a Nevada jury Thursday that his career was cut short by injuries he suffered when a TheraBand exercise device slipped from his hand and he fell in his home bathroom in 2015. From a wheelchair on the witness stand in a...
‘Texas 7’ prison-break gang member gets execution reprieve
HUNTSVILLE, Texas — A member of the “Texas 7” gang of escaped prisoners won a reprieve Thursday night from execution for the fatal shooting of a suburban Dallas police officer after claiming his religious freedom would be violated if his Buddhist spiritual adviser wasn’t allowed to be in the death...
Trump turns Mueller probe’s findings into political weapon
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Presenting himself as both vindicated and vindictive, a fired-up President Trump on Thursday turned the findings of the special counsel’s Russia investigation into a political weapon at a boisterous Michigan rally that was part victory lap, part 2020 campaign push. With Robert Mueller’s investigation largely over,...
Tourist taking photos dies in fall at Grand Canyon
GRAND CANYON WEST, Ariz. — Two people have died at the Grand Canyon in separate incidents this week that included one man stumbling over the edge of the rim while trying to take pictures, officials said. A helicopter lifted the body of the Hong Kong man from 1,000 feet below...
U.K. leader Theresa May rolling the dice again on Brexit deal
LONDON — British Prime Minister Theresa May rolled the dice Thursday on another Brexit vote in Parliament, sending a tweaked and trimmed version of her EU divorce deal back to lawmakers who had rejected it twice before. But the agreement faced substantial opposition, even after May sacrificed her job for...
McConnell moves to change Senate rules to speed up confirmation of Trump nominees
WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is setting up a major fight in the Senate next week over the chamber’s rules, as Republicans plan to deploy a controversial procedural maneuver to speed up consideration of hundreds of lower-level Trump administration nominees. Agitated by Democrats slowing down consideration of...
Trump ditches proposal to slash Special Olympics funding
WASHINGTON — President Trump announced Thursday that he was backing off a budget request to eliminate funding for the Special Olympics, reversing course after his administration weathered days of criticism for the proposed cut. Speaking to reporters as he left the White House for a rally in Michigan, Trump said...
Clash between Republicans and Rep. Adam Schiff overshadows Russia intelligence hearing
WASHINGTON — Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday demanded that Chairman Adam B. Schiff step down from his post in light of his repeated allegations that President Trump’s campaign colluded with Russians in the 2016 election, the latest in growing GOP attacks against the California Democrat. The heated,...
Patriots owner Robert Kraft wants court to throw out day spa surveillance video
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Attorneys for New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft have filed a court motion seeking to throw out surveillance video that allegedly shows him paying for sex acts at a Jupiter day spa. The motion also asks the court to rule that a traffic stop of...
Trump orders Treasury, HUD to develop new plan for how home sales are financed
WASHINGTON — President Trump ordered federal regulators on Wednesday to develop plans to change the way the country finances the majority of its home purchases. The plan could upend decades of housing policy while finally reckoning with a major piece of unfinished business from the financial crisis — the fates...
Federal bills would let state prisons jam cellphone signals
Federal legislation proposed Thursday would give state prison officials the ability they have long sought to jam the signals of cellphones smuggled to inmates within their walls. U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and U.S. Rep. David Kustoff of Tennessee introduced companion bills in both chambers, The Associated Press has...
Wisconsin superintendent bans sexist cheerleading awards
MILWAUKEE — The superintendent of a Wisconsin high school district has outlawed cheerleading awards that objectify students’ bodies and ordered mandatory staff training on discrimination and harassment. Dr. Sue Savaglio-Jarvis said in a letter Monday to all principals and administrators in the Kenosha Unified School District that “mock awards of...
Rock On: NASA releases artsy shots of 2 asteroids
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA has released a pair of artsy shots of two little asteroids. Thursday’s picture shows an asteroid coming apart at its dusty seams, courtesy of the Hubble Space Telescope. Two long comet-like tails are streaming from asteroid Gault, a 2.5-mile-wide world that’s spinning so fast it’s...
Man allegedly steals Little Debbie snack truck, eats nothing
ELMIRA, N.Y. — It appears an upstate New York man was not hungry when police say he stole a Little Debbie delivery truck. Police say 38-year-old Joseph Tocco of Elmira swiped the truck Monday from a loading dock. Police stopped it a short time later. Police say Tocco told them...
Record 1,100 mutilated dolphins wash up on French shores this year
PARIS — The dolphins’ bodies were horribly mutilated, the fins cut off. But what shocked French marine researchers wasn’t just the brutality of the deaths of these highly intelligent mammals, but also the numbers involved — a record 1,100 have washed up on France’s Atlantic coast since January. The mass...
Philly landlord charged with stealing from murdered tenant’s home
Authorities say a landlord was charged with stealing from his tenant’s home in Philadelphia the day after he was murdered. Police say 38-year-old Dan Charyna was arrested early Thursday morning and charged with burglary, criminal trespass and theft. Officers responded to the home Wednesday evening, the same location the tenant...
Seattle bus driver shot in torso drives passengers to safety
SEATTLE — A Seattle bus driver hailed as a hero for steering the bus away from a gunman who opened fire on him and his passengers says he’s “glad to be alive.” Eric Stark was hit in the torso Wednesday afternoon by a bullet but authorities say he still managed...
Motorist hit in face by frozen turkey dies years later at 59
LAKE RONKONKOMA, N.Y. — A New Yorker who urged leniency for the teenager who nearly killed her in 2004 by throwing a frozen turkey through her car windshield has died. Victoria Ruvolo was 59. Anthony Ruvolo says his aunt died Monday. The cause is not known, and it’s unclear whether...
Mueller report is more than 300 pages, AG tells top Democrat
WASHINGTON — Special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russia’s interference in the 2016 election spans more than 300 pages, a Justice Department official said Thursday. Attorney General William Barr confirmed the report’s length during a Wednesday phone call with Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. During...
ACLU: Meijer to change policies on filling prescriptions
PETOSKEY, Mich. — The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan says it has reached an agreement with Meijer on policy changes and training after a pharmacist at one of the retailer’s stores refused to fill a prescription to help a woman complete a miscarriage. The ACLU said in a news...
Pa. man gets death for teen’s rape, murder, dismemberment
DOYLESTOWN, Pa. — A man who killed and dismembered his girlfriend’s 14-year-old daughter as part of a rape-murder fantasy he shared with the teenager’s mother was sentenced to death Thursday. Jacob Sullivan, 46, had pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and related charges for killing Grace Packer in 2016. After deliberating...
Police: Standoff ‘resolved’ at hotel hours after man killed
MANCHESTER, N.H. — At least one man was killed in a 15-hour standoff at a New Hampshire hotel that ended Thursday, police said. The standoff ended around 10:30 a.m. with authorities bringing out a stretcher with someone on it at the Quality Inn in Manchester, New Hampshire, near Interstate 293...
Smollett saga shook public trust, heightened racial tensions
In the two months since Jussie Smollett reported a late-night attack by assailants shouting racial and anti-gay slurs, the “Empire” actor and activist went from victim to defendant. Police and many in the black community rallied to his defense before condemning his account as a hoax. On Tuesday, Smollett was...
