Walmart to make ‘every effort’ to keep disabled greeters
After more than a week of backlash, Walmart is pledging to make “every effort” to find other roles for disabled workers who’d accused the retailer of targeting them as it prepares to eliminate the “people greeter” job at 1,000 stores. Greg Foran, president and CEO of Walmart’s U.S. stores, said...
In America, talk turns to something unspoken for 150 years: Civil war
At a moment when the country has never seemed angrier, two political commentators from opposite sides of the divide concurred last week on one point, nearly unthinkable until recently: The country is on the verge of “civil war.” First came former U.S. attorney Joseph diGenova, a Fox News regular and...
Ex-Vegas headliner faints at 20-year sentence in porn case
LAS VEGAS — A former Las Vegas illusion show headliner from Germany appeared to faint Thursday while being sentenced to 20 years in prison and fined more than $500,000 in a federal child pornography case. Jan Rouven Fuechtener, 40, stiffened and fell backward over his chair after Chief U.S. District...
Trump’s interior secretary misusing post to aid California water district, complaint says
WASHINGTON — Complaints are mounting against Acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt over allegations he used his position to help the interests of his former lobbying client, California’s powerful Westlands Water District. The nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center filed a complaint accusing Bernhardt of ethics violations by partaking in decisions directly related...
President ordered top clearance for Jared Kushner despite concerns of John Kelly, intel officials
WASHINGTON — President Trump early last year directed his then-chief of staff, John Kelly, to give presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner a top-secret security clearance — a move that made Kelly so uncomfortable that he documented the request in writing, according to current and former administration officials. After Kushner, a senior...
Ohio man who pleaded guilty in 4 slayings sentenced to death
IRONTON, Ohio — A man who pleaded guilty in the deadly Ohio shootings of four relatives, including a young boy, has been sentenced to the death penalty. A panel of three judges sentenced 24-year-old Arron Lawson on Thursday in the 2017 slayings near Ironton in southern Ohio’s Lawrence County. Prosecutors...
Former governor Paul LePage: Dissolving Electoral College would hurt whites
BANGOR, Maine — Former Maine Gov. Paul LePage says any elimination of the Electoral College would hurt white people. LePage told WVOM radio that allowing the popular vote to choose the president would give minorities more power and that “white people will not have anything to say.” Proposals to eliminate...
German town defends seizing family’s pet, selling it on eBay
BERLIN — Officials in Germany are defending their decision to seize an indebted family’s pet pug and sell it on eBay, saying the move was a last resort because authorities were unable to find anything else to take. The incident in the western town of Ahlen prompted criticism on social...
Colorado, Rocky Mountain highs bring in billions through recreation pot sales
Denver long ago laid title to being the Mile High City, but with more than $6 billion in retail sales of cannabis and cannabis-infused products in four years of legalized recreational marijuana in Colorado, the state’s capital city might now want to claim being at least a mile and half...
Union wants Pennsylvania school pension fund to divest private prison stocks
The American Federation of Teachers, or AFT, is calling on Pennsylvania’s $56.2 billion school employees’ retirement fund (PSERs) and 23 other large pension funds to consider divesting their stock in private prison corporations. A new AFT report found that PSERs is among two dozen public pension funds that own a...
Andrew Wheeler, former energy lobbyist, confirmed as nation’s top environmental official
WASHINGTON — The Senate on Thursday approved former coal lobbyist Andrew Wheeler to head the Environmental Protection Agency by a vote of 52 to 47, elevating a veteran of Washington political and industry circles who has advanced President Trump’s push to roll back Obama-era environmental regulations. Wheeler, who began his...
Judge won’t make Mongols biker gang surrender trademark logo
SANTA ANA, Calif. — A California federal judge has refused to order the Mongols motorcycle gang to forfeit its trademarked logo, delivering a blow to prosecutors. U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter said Thursday that such an order would have been unconstitutional. Mongols attorney Joe Yanny says the ruling...
Protesters in Ukraine call for president’s impeachment
KIEV, Ukraine — Hundreds of demonstrators marched across the Ukrainian capital Thursday calling for the impeachment of the country’s president over embezzlement claims. President Petro Poroshenko, who is seeking re-election in a March 31 vote, has come under fire over a media investigation that implicated one of his senior associates...
Moscow court orders prominent U.S. investor to remain in jail
MOSCOW — A Moscow court on Thursday rejected an appeal by a prominent U.S. foreign investment manager and ordered him to remain in jail for at least the next month-and-a-half in connection with an embezzlement probe. The Moscow City Court’s decision to keep Michael Calvey behind bars until April 13...
Trump accepts Kim’s ‘word’ he had no role in Otto Warmbier death
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Thursday he takes North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “at his word” that Kim was unaware of the alleged mistreatment of an American college student who died after being imprisoned there. Trump said in Vietnam that Kim “tells me he didn’t know about it,...
Former West Penn Power manager loved fishing, family
If there was a place Cecil Fitzgerald was truly happy, it was most likely far offshore, aboard a boat with a fishing line in the water. “We really enjoyed boating and fishing,” said Mr. Fitzgerald’s wife of 63 years, Mary Lou Fitzgerald. “That was one of the main things we...
Arizona town bans phone use by drivers
FLORENCE, Ariz. — A town in central Arizona has banned the use of phones while driving beginning in March. The Casa Grande Dispatch reported Thursday that the Florence Town Council passed an ordinance on Feb. 19 prohibiting the use of “portable wireless communication devices” while behind the wheel. The ordinance...
Mercer County among first in state to implement new post-election audits
A Western Pennsylvania county will be among the first in the state to have an enhanced audit of its election results. Mercer and Philadelphia counties both bought new voting systems that will be used for the first time in November. With concerns over election security increasing in recent years, the...
DeVos to pitch federal tax credit for ‘educational freedom’
The Trump administration is proposing a federal tax credit for donations made to groups offering scholarships for private schools, apprenticeships or other educational programs. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is unveiling the plan Thursday, while legislation is being proposed by Republicans in the House and Senate. The proposal, called the Education...
U.S. economic growth just missed 3 percent mark in 2018
WASHINGTON — The U.S. economy slowed in the final three months of last year to an annual growth rate of 2.6 percent, the slowest pace since the beginning of 2018, as the government shutdown and other factors took a toll on growth. Economists believe growth has slowed even more in...
Hyundai, Kia recall over 500K vehicles as fire risk spreads
DETROIT — Hyundai and Kia have added more than a half-million vehicles to 3½-year string of U.S. recalls for engine failures and fires. Three recalls released Thursday by the government add new problems and vehicles to the Korean automakers’ list of safety woes, which have brought hundreds of complaints about...
Rescuers pass water, food to Indonesia mine buried
BOLAANG MONGONDOW, Indonesia — Rescuers have passed water and food to some of the dozens of people trapped in a collapsed Indonesian gold mine, an official said Thursday, calling the grueling rescue effort in a remote inaccessible location a race against time. The national disaster agency said 19 people had...
Ice castles turn farmland into winter wonderlandVideo
NORTH WOODSTOCK, N.H. — On a clear, frigid night in a courtyard made of walls of ice, Bruce McCafferty and his young son stand mesmerized, bathed in the pulsating rainbow light emanating from a series of stout ice formations. McCafferty and his son Dougie have come out to Ice Castles...
Cohen returns to Capitol Hill after slamming Trump as liar
WASHINGTON — In a damning depiction of Donald Trump, the president’s former lawyer cast him as a racist and a con man who used his inner circle to cover up politically damaging allegations about sex and who lied throughout the 2016 election campaign about his business interests in Russia. A...
Trump, Kim summit collapses amid failure to reach deal
HANOI, Vietnam — The nuclear summit between President Donald Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un collapsed Thursday after the two sides failed to reach a deal due to a standoff over U.S. sanctions on the reclusive nation, a dispiriting end to high-stakes meetings meant to disarm a global threat....
