Protests erupt after Catholic school in Kansas declines to enroll a same-sex couple’s child
A Catholic school in Kansas refused to admit a same-sex couple’s kindergarten-aged child. Now, more than 1,000 people are protesting the decision and urging the school to change its mind. In a letter sent to the parents of students at St. Ann Catholic School in Prairie Village, the Rev. Craig...
Pa. man jailed for choking wife now charged with plotting her murder
HARRISBURG — A Pennsylvania man already serving time for assaulting and choking his wife faces new charges of plotting to kill her from prison. WHP-TV reports Dauphin County officials say Leroy Newton Vencak Jr. has been charged with solicitation to commit murder. A criminal complaint says Vencak solicited another person...
Gov. Wolf orders review of Glen Mills over abuse allegations
PHILADELPHIA — Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf has ordered a review of complaints against the oldest reform school in the country as a result of a newspaper investigation detailed decades of alleged abuse and cover-ups at the campus. Lawmakers and children’s advocates on Wednesday called for the state to launch an...
Latrobe World War II veteran was ‘all about photography’
If Harry Frye wasn’t at a local fire or town council meeting, he was covering high school sports or taking candid photos basically everywhere he went. “It’s all about photography,” said Patrick Frye, 57, of West Chester, about his father. “He always had his camera in his hand and didn’t...
N.J. town calls for hefty fine, jail time for barking dog owners
SADDLE RIVER, N.J. — A New Jersey town is putting some bite in an ordinance that could result in hefty fines and even jail time for owners of barking dogs. The Saddle River council is amending a one-sentence noise rule by placing time restrictions that would prohibit dogs from barking,...
At least 16 diagnosed with mumps at Temple University
PHILADELPHIA — Health officials say at least 16 cases of mumps have been confirmed at Temple University, the most cases in the city since 2011. The Department of Public Health for Philadelphia said Thursday the effectiveness of the mumps vaccination tends to wane over time so it’s not necessarily a...
Monthly shots control HIV as well as pills in 2 big studies
SEATTLE — Monthly shots of HIV drugs worked as well as daily pills to control the virus that causes AIDS in two large international tests, researchers reported Thursday. If approved by regulators in the United States and Europe, the shots would be a new option for people with HIV and...
Cohen sues Trump Organization, wants it to pay nearly $2M in legal bills
President Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen filed a lawsuit Thursday claiming the Trump Organization broke a promise to pay his legal bills and owes at least $1.9 million to cover the cost of his defense. The lawsuit, filed Thursday in New York state court, claims the Trump Organization stopped...
Colorado man discloses details about killing wife, daughters
DENVER — A Colorado man strangled his pregnant wife in their bed before driving her body and their two daughters to a worksite where he smothered the girls with a blanket, according to records of an interview he gave police from prison. Christopher Watts made the statements during authorities’ prison...
Justice Department targeting scams against older people
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department said Thursday that it has charged more than 225 individuals over the past year in connection with fraud scams that victimize people age 60 and older. Attorney General William Barr and other law enforcement officials announced what they said was the department’s largest-ever nationwide crackdown...
Melania Trump recognizes women of courage around the world
WASHINGTON — Melania Trump is honoring women from around the world with international courage awards. The first lady said at Thursday’s ceremony in Washington that courage is one of the qualities society needs most. She says courage is what propels the world forward. Mrs. Trump joined Secretary of State Mike...
Germany: Woman cries ‘murder’ for faster response to car blocking garage
German police say officers called to investigate a murder arrived to find that the woman who had reported it just wanted someone to remove a car blocking her garage. The woman, who wasn’t named, rang emergency dispatchers early Thursday and claimed that her husband had been killed, sending police and...
Man speaking on cellphone fatally shot in Philly restaurant; 1 bullet goes through phone
Authorities say a man talking on a cellphone inside a Philadelphia restaurant was killed when someone fired several shots, including one that went through the phone and struck him in the face. But it’s not yet known what sparked the shooting, which occurred around 9:30 p.m. Thursday. The 26-year-old man...
Ohio governor delays 3 more executions while drugs reviewed
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has delayed three additional executions to give the state prison system time to develop a new lethal injection method. The Republican governor’s order Thursday follows a federal judge’s scathing critique in January of the first drug used in the current process, the sedative...
Fired Florida officer guilty of slaying black motorist
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A fired Florida police officer was found guilty of manslaughter and attempted murder Thursday for the fatal 2015 shooting of a stranded black motorist, becoming the first officer in the state to be convicted of an on-duty shooting in 30 years. Nouman Raja, 41, now...
Trump fires back at DNC after they say they’ll not hold debate on Fox News
President Donald Trump said Wednesday night that he will skip debates with “the Fake News Networks” after the Democratic National Committee said they would not hold debates on Fox News. Trump fired back after the DNC chairman said that Fox could not be trusted to host a fair debate. Trump...
Guidelines ask agents to target Spanish speakers at border
SAN DIEGO — Border agents have been told to explicitly target Spanish speakers and migrants from Latin America in carrying out a Trump administration program requiring asylum seekers wait in Mexico, according to memos obtained by The Associated Press that reveal some inner workings of a top government priority to...
Trump still hopes for North Korea deal after video of activity at rocket launch site
WASHINGTON — Satellite photos showing new activity at a North Korean rocket launch site raised fresh doubts that Kim Jong Un will ever give up his drive for nuclear weapons, yet talks continue and President Donald Trump said he was still hoping for the agreement that eluded the leaders at...
McSally says in Senate hearing she was raped in Air ForceVideo
WASHINGTON— U.S. Sen. Martha McSally, the first female Air Force fighter pilot to fly in combat, said she was sexually assaulted by a superior officer and later, when she tried to talk about it to military officials, she “felt like the system was raping me all over again.” The Arizona...
Out of the shadows: Loyal money man swept into Trump probes
NEW YORK — Allen Weisselberg is seemingly everything his longtime boss, Donald Trump, isn’t. The modest money man has always been content to work behind the scenes, with no hint of flash, braggadocio or ostentatious spending. He lived in the same three-bedroom ranch house in suburban Long Island with the...
Manafort scheduled to learn sentence for tax and bank fraud
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — When former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort is sentenced for tax and bank fraud , U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III will likely issue the same lecture he gives to drug dealers and bank robbers. “You write the pages to your own life story,” Ellis routinely tells...
23 tornado deaths ‘gut wrenching’ in tiny Alabama community
BEAUREGARD, Ala. — With nearly two dozen people killed in a tornado outbreak that shattered a rural community in east Alabama, notifying the families of the dead was a huge, gut-wrenching task, done in the privacy of a country church. Pastor Rusty Sowell, with the county coroner behind him, would...
Pelosi: House to condemn ‘forms of hatred’ after Omar wordsVideo
WASHINGTON — Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday the House will vote on a resolution condemning anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, white supremacy and other forms of hate after freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar’s comments about Israel sparked turmoil among Democrats. Pelosi said she does not believe the Minnesota Democrat understood the “weight of her...
Georgia House panel approves anti-abortion ‘heartbeat’ bill
ATLANTA — Amid tears, gasps and handshakes, a Georgia House committee approved legislation Wednesday to outlaw abortion after a fetus’ heartbeat can be detected, which is before many women know they are pregnant. Women in Georgia can currently seek an abortion up to 20 weeks of a pregnancy. A heartbeat...
Report: Government kept tabs on journalists, ‘instigators’
SAN DIEGO — The U.S. government ran an operation to screen journalists, activists and others while investigating last year’s migrant caravan from Mexico, a San Diego TV station reported Wednesday, citing leaked documents. Dossiers that included photos from their passports or social media accounts, date of birth and other details...
