Fire chief dies, suffers emergency at firefighter’s funeralVideo
PORTLAND, Maine — The tragedy of a Maine firefighter who was fatally injured while shielding a colleague from flames was compounded Sunday by the death of a fire chief who suffered a medical emergency at the memorial service. Oxford Fire Chief Gary Sacco suffered the emergency as several thousand people,...
Adam Schiff says it’s ‘mistake’ for Mueller not to interview TrumpVideo
WASHINGTON — The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee said Sunday that special counsel Robert Mueller was making a “mistake” by not demanding that President Trump testify as part of his investigation, which by many accounts may soon be nearing its end. Speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Rep. Adam...
Trump expected to seek $8.6B for border wall in new budget
WASHINGTON — President Trump will seek $8.6 billion in his new budget to build the U.S.-Mexico border wall, two administration officials said Sunday, setting up another showdown with Congress, which has resisted giving him more money for his signature campaign promise. The request would more than double the $8.1 billion...
Democrats were trying to ‘protect’ Omar with resolution denouncing hate, Rep. Liz Cheney says
Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said Sunday that House Democrats were trying to protect Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., with last week’s resolution broadly denouncing hate, as a Democratic co-author of the measure pushed back, arguing that “history is going to judge” those who voted against it. Cheney was one of 23...
Jerome Powell says Trump’s attacks played no role in rate pause
WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell says political attacks by President Trump played no role in the Fed’s decision in January to signal that it planned to take a pause in hiking interest rates. He also said in an interview broadcast Sunday that he can’t be fired by the...
Pennsylvania man claims he found another R. Kelly sexual abuse tape
NEW YORK — A Pennsylvania man who said he was cleaning out an old videotape collection found what he thought was a recording of R&B singer R. Kelly in concert, but instead turned out to show a man who appeared to be Kelly sexually abusing girls, he and his attorney...
U.S. authorities to assist in investigation of Ethiopian Airlines crash that killed 157
U.S. air safety officials are assisting in the investigation into the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines plane bound for Nairobi that went down Sunday, killing all 157 people on board, including eight Americans. The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board will take part in the probe, officials said,...
Trump donor claimed she could offer access to president
PALM BEACH, Fla. — A company run by a donor to President Trump claimed it could provide Chinese clients with a chance to mingle and take photos with the president, along with access to his private club in Palm Beach. It remains unclear how much Li Yang charged for the...
Boeing likely to face new questions after another 737 crash
Investigators rushed to the scene of a devastating plane crash in Ethiopia on Sunday, an accident that could renew safety questions about the newest version of Boeing’s popular 737 airliner. The Boeing 737 Max 8 operated by Ethiopian Airlines crashed shortly after taking off from the capital of Addis Ababa,...
Church pastor near deadly tornado: Lord reaching out hand
BEAUREGARD, Ala. — The pastor of a church that became a center for shelter, help and grieving when a tornado killed 23 people in eastern Alabama said in his first Sunday service after the storm that the Lord has reached out his hand to the community. Imperfect things like tornadoes...
Birth control pills recalled for defective packaging
A drug company is recalling some packs of birth control because the pills may be mislabeled and lead to unintended pregnancy. Florida-based Apotex Corp. is recalling four lots of Ethinyl Estradiol USP pills because they may contain defective blisters with incorrect tablet arrangements and an empty blister pocket. According to...
Trump calls Ann Coulter ‘wacky nut job’ over border wall criticism
President Donald Trump has had enough with conservative commentator Ann Coulter’s attacks about the wall along the southern border. In a series of tweets posted Saturday night, Trump called Coulter a “Wacky Nut Job … who still hasn’t figured out that, despite all odds and an entire Democrat Party of...
Turbulence injures 30 on flight from Istanbul to New York
NEW YORK — Severe turbulence tossed terrified passengers and crew around a Turkish Airlines plane cabin as it passed over Maine on Saturday, with 30 people suffering bumps, bruises, cuts and a broken leg before the flight landed safely at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, officials said. Dozens...
Melania Trump: Growing ease in first lady role, but not politics
WASHINGTON — Melania Trump came armed with surefire applause lines when she stepped up to address a largely female audience that had gathered to celebrate other women. The first lady showcased the record number of women serving in Congress. She said women’s unemployment had hit its lowest level in 65...
Town by town, local journalism is dying in plain sight
WAYNESVILLE, Mo. — Five minutes late, Darrell Todd Maurina sweeps into a meeting room and plugs in his laptop computer. He places a Wi-Fi hotspot on the table and turns on a digital recorder. The earplug in his left ear is attached to a police scanner in his pants pocket....
Modern policing: Algorithm helps NYPD spot crime patterns
NEW YORK — When a syringe-wielding drill thief tried sticking up a Home Depot near Yankee Stadium, police figured out quickly that it wasn’t a one-off. A man had also used a syringe a few weeks earlier while stealing a drill at another Home Depot 7 miles south in Manhattan....
No survivors in Ethiopian Airlines crash en route to Kenya
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — A jetliner carrying 157 people crashed shortly after takeoff from the Ethiopian capital Sunday, killing everyone aboard, authorities said. More than 30 nationalities were among the dead. It was not clear what caused the plane to go down in clear weather. The pilot sent out a...
Babe Ruth’s last surviving daughter dies in Nevada at 102
HENDERSON, Nev. — Julia Ruth Stevens, the last surviving daughter of Hall of Fame baseball slugger Babe Ruth and a decades-long champion of his legacy, has died at age 102, her family has announced. Tom Stevens said Sunday that his mother died Saturday morning at an assisted living facility in...
Satellite images suggest North Korea planned space launch even before Hanoi
TOKYO — Satellite images suggest North Korea was preparing to launch a space rocket even before the breakdown of the Hanoi summit between President Trump and Kim Jong Un, experts say. There is no way of knowing whether Pyongyang will follow through with the plans, which would undoubtedly be seen...
More blackouts hit Venezuela as opposition, government rally
CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuelan opposition and government loyalists held rival demonstrations in Caracas on Saturday, as both sides prepared for what some fear could be a protracted power struggle. The rallies unfolded as power and communications outages continued to hit Venezuela, intensifying the hardship of a country paralyzed by economic...
Experts to gather at Saint Vincent College to explore hate crimes
Robin Valeri wasn’t surprised to learn that Robert Bowers, the man accused of gunning down 11 worshippers in Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue last fall, was active in online communities where hatred flowed freely. Valeri, a psychology professor at St. Bonaventure University in upstate New York, began studying cyber hate...
Ebola treatment center in Congo is attacked again; 1 dead
KINSHASA, Congo — Heavily armed assailants again attacked an Ebola treatment center in the heart of eastern Congo’s deadly outbreak on Saturday, with one police officer killed and health workers injured, authorities said, while frightened patients waited in isolation rooms for the gunfire to end. The early-morning attack in Butembo...
Trump signed Bibles. Heresy? Many religious leaders say no
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — President Donald Trump was just doing what he could to raise spirits when he signed Bibles at an Alabama church for survivors of a deadly tornado outbreak, many religious leaders say, though some are offended and others say he could have handled it differently. Hershael York, dean...
They go after suspected pedophiles while others watch online
CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. — Many days, Brandi Lehrian wakes up to five or six text messages from men wishing her a good morning — and sometimes more. She spends most of the day and night letting multiple men believe that she can make their fantasies come true: No, she’s never been...
As budget deficit balloons, few in Washington seem to care
WASHINGTON — The federal budget deficit is ballooning on President Donald Trump’s watch and few in Washington seem to care. And even if they did, the political dynamics that enabled bipartisan deficit-cutting deals decades ago has disappeared, replaced by bitter partisanship and chronic dysfunction. That’s the reality that will greet...
