Report: Worker who died at Epcot fell off cherry picker
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Authorities say a man who died in an industrial accident at Disney World’s Epcot theme park fell from the elevated basket of a cherry picker. The Orlando Sentinel reports witnesses told investigators that 58-year-old George Grimes was in the elevated basket of the small cherry...
Trump keeps a sharp focus on Ohio for 2020 campaign
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is returning to the state that foretold his 2016 victory and serves as the linchpin of his re-election effort. Trump’s visit to Ohio on Wednesday marks his first trip to the state since last year’s midterm election campaign , when the state was a rare...
Shifting hopes as Republicans and Democrats await Mueller
WASHINGTON — It’s a witch hunt, a vendetta, the worst presidential harassment in history. That’s what President Donald Trump has shouted for two years about the special counsel’s Russia probe. Now, barring an eleventh-hour surprise, Trump and his allies are starting to see it as something potentially very different: a...
California man, 96, found in home with hundreds of rats
OJAI, Calif. — A Southern California woman is in custody after deputies discovered her 96-year-old father and multiple pets living in a home stinking of feces and infested with up to 700 rats, authorities said Tuesday. Catherine Ann Vandermaesen, 65, was arrested on suspicion of felony elder abuse and misdemeanor...
School official sorry for calling Hitler a ‘good leader’
MADISON, N.J. — A New Jersey sports official is apologizing for telling student athletes that Adolf Hitler was a “good leader” with “bad moral character and intentions.” Nutley High School athletic director Joe Piro made the remark while addressing Madison High School students Saturday during an assembly aimed at promoting...
God, country and chickenpox: How outbreak entangled school in vaccine showdown
Bill Kunkel used to vaccinate his kids, before he read where some vaccines come from. He is skeptical of the pharmaceutical industry’s motives and came across anti-vaxxer theories online, though they aren’t supported by science. But his main objection is about abortion. Decades ago, cells were taken from legally aborted...
Stories of the victims of the New Zealand mosque attack
Fifty people were killed in a terror attack at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, on Friday. Some information about the victims: HUSNA AHMED Farid Ahmed refuses to turn his back on his adopted home, despite losing his 45-year-old wife, Husna Ahmed, in the Al Noor mosque attack. They had...
Floodwaters threaten millions in crop and livestock losses
DES MOINES — Farmer Jeff Jorgenson looks out over 750 acres of cropland submerged beneath the swollen Missouri River, and he knows he probably won’t plant this year. But that’s not his biggest worry. He and other farmers have worked until midnight for days to move grain, equipment and fuel...
Search warrants provide inside look at the investigation into Michael Cohen
WASHINGTON — The USB drive was black and red, and its white label seemed inscrutable — Tracking #: 180208140208. But on Feb. 8, 2018, the tiny digital storage device helped change history when special counsel Robert Mueller gave it to the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan. The drive contained Michael...
Jury: Roundup weed killer major factor in man’s cancer
SAN FRANCISCO — Roundup weed killer was a substantial factor in a California man’s cancer, a jury determined Tuesday in the first phase of a trial that attorneys said could help determine the fate of hundreds of similar lawsuits. The unanimous verdict by the six-person jury in federal court in...
Dr. Don L. Fisher, pioneering cardiologist at Allegheny General Hospital, dead at 100
Jeff Fisher’s memories of his father, Dr. Don L. Fisher, are intertwined with the place where his father spent most days for 66 years — Allegheny General Hospital. “He was at work quite a bit,” Jeff Fisher, 65, of Peachtree City, Ga., said of his father. “Actually, he included us...
Fish in Cuyahoga River that famously caught fire now OK’d for consumption
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Fish in the Cuyahoga River, which became synonymous with pollution when it caught fire in Cleveland in 1969, are now safe to eat, federal environmental regulators say. The easing of fish consumption restrictions on the Cuyahoga was lauded Monday by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine as an important...
Rep. Devin Nunes sues for $250 million over parody Twitter accountVideo
WASHINGTON — A parody Twitter account purporting to be owned by an unhappy cow living on one of Rep. Devin Nunes’ Iowa farms attacked the California Republican as a “treasonous cowpoke” and “udder-ly worthless” during the 2018 campaign. Now Nunes wants $250 million in damages from Twitter for failing to...
Report: U.S. renewable energy use has doubled since 2008
Americans relied on renewable energy sources for 17.6 percent of all electricity generation in 2018, setting a new record, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The federal agency said renewable sources — solar, wind and hydroelectric power — provided 742 million megawatt hours of electricity in 2018, nearly double...
Pa. House votes for tougher public pension forfeiture rules
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania state lawmakers voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to make it harder for officials and government employees convicted of crimes related to their jobs to retain their public pensions. The state House voted 194 to 1 to approve legislation that applies the pension forfeiture law to state and federal felonies...
Trump praises Brazil’s far-right president Bolsonaro at White House
WASHINGTON — President Trump praised Brazil’s new far-right leader Tuesday as he welcomed him to the White House, saying the man who’s been described as the “Trump of the Tropics” has done “a very outstanding job.” Trump said President Jair Bolsonaro had run “one of the incredible campaigns,” saying he...
Patriots owner Robert Kraft offered plea deal in prostitution case
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Florida prosecutors have offered a plea deal to New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and other men charged with paying for illicit sex at a massage parlor. The Palm Beach State Attorney confirmed Tuesday it has offered Kraft and 24 other men charged with soliciting prostitution...
Police: Unicorn-costumed robbery suspect has been unmasked
BALDWIN, Md. — The robbery suspect wore a unicorn costume, and police in Maryland say he has been unmasked. News outlets report that Baltimore County police say 28-year-old Jacob William Rogge donned a pink-and-white unicorn costume and smashed a convenience store register with a crowbar Saturday. Police say 27-year-old Joseph...
Dutch prosecutors consider terror motive in fatal tram shooting
UTRECHT, Netherlands — Investigators probing the deadly tram shooting in the Dutch city of Utrecht sharpened their focus Tuesday on a possible extremist motive, as judicial authorities revealed that the main suspect was released from jail this month and faces a rape trial in July. The nature of Monday’s attack...
Iowa sues to shut down national puppy-laundering ring
DES MOINES, Iowa — The Iowa Attorney General’s Office is suing to shut down what it describes as a national puppy-laundering ring that sells dogs from illegal breeding operations at inflated prices while pretending the animals are rescues. The lawsuit filed Monday seeks an injunction to dissolve breeder J.A.K.’s Puppies,...
Passengers restrain woman who tried to open plane door during flight
ROMULUS, Mich. — Officials say fellow passengers restrained a woman after she allegedly tried to open an exit during a flight from Indianapolis to Detroit. Detroit Metropolitan Airport spokeswoman Erica Donerson says the woman may have been suffering from a medical issue. Donerson says the woman was restrained until the...
West Virginia lawsuit accuses diocese of knowingly employing pedophilesVideo
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey sued the Catholic diocese of Wheeling-Charleston and its former bishop Michael Bransfield on Tuesday, charging that they “knowingly employed pedophiles and failed to conduct adequate background checks” for people working in Catholic schools and camps, a news release from Morrisey’s office says. The lawsuit,...
Are we alone in the universe? New Penn State center searches for answer
Is anyone out there? Or are we alone in the universe? Penn State intends to make its newly created Extraterrestrial Intelligence Center (PSETI) a global leader and worldwide hub for research aimed at answering that question. For most people, SETI - the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence - conjures images of...
Cal U readies for annual robotics competition
The robots are coming, again. More than 1,000 high school students, representing 52 robotics teams, will gather at California University of Pennsylvania later this week for Destination: Deep Space, the annual Greater Pittsburgh Regional FIRST Robotics Competition. The competition on Thursday, Friday and Saturday that challenges students to build and...
Elizabeth Warren wants to kill the electoral college
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., on Monday endorsed ending the electoral college, arguing for a system where “every vote matters.” Many Democrats, including Warren, have disparaged the electoral college following the presidential election results in 2000 and 2016, when Al Gore and Hillary Clinton both won the national popular vote, yet...
