Biden says presidents can be subject to criminal prosecution
President Joe Biden said he “can’t think of one” reason presidents should receive absolute immunity from prosecution, as Republican front-runner Donald Trump has claimed. Biden made the comment in response to a reporter’s question Saturday before departing the White House for Camp David, where he will spend Christmas. The Supreme...
Alabama woman with rare double uterus gives birth to two children
DORA, Ala. — An Alabama woman with two uteri and two cervixes has given birth to two babies after carrying one of them in each uterus. Kelsey Hatcher of Dora, about 28 miles northwest of Birmingham, gave birth to two girls Wednesday and Thursday after a combined 20 hours of...
1 killed in shooting at Florida shopping mall
OCALA, Fla. — A man died in a shooting at a shopping mall in central Florida two days before Christmas in which the victim was apparently “targeted” for the attack, police said. Ocala police Chief Mike Balken told reporters Saturday evening the man was killed after he was shot multiple...
SpaceX launch sends up booster flying for record 19th time
ORLANDO, Fla. — SpaceX sent up another Starlink mission from Cape Canaveral early Saturday with a first-stage booster flying for a record 19th time. The Falcon 9 rocket on the Starlink 6-32 mission with 23 Starlink satellites launched from Space Launch Complex 40 at 12:33 a.m. This marked a record...
Israel and Hamas measures get a look as most U.S. state legislatures meet for first time since Oct. 7
Most U.S. state legislatures will reconvene in January for the first time since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel sparked a war in Gaza and protests worldwide — and they’re preparing to take action in response, symbolic and concrete. Legislatures in at least eight states that were in session late...
North Dakota lawmaker made homophobic remarks to officer during DUI stop, bodycam footage shows
BISMARCK, N.D. — A North Dakota lawmaker who serves on a panel that handles law enforcement legislation made homophobic and anti-migrant remarks to a police officer who arrested him on a charge of driving drunk, body camera footage shows. Republican state Rep. Nico Rios of Williston also was charged with...
Trump says he’s eager to debate Biden in 2024, even if controversial commission plans events
NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump says he is eager to debate President Joe Biden, even if the debates are sponsored by the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates. And he says he is open to debating a single Republican rival if a serious challenger emerges after the New Hampshire...
Bidens make traditional pre-Christmas visit to children’s hospital
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden joined his wife, first lady Jill Biden, on Friday for a Christmas season visit to Children’s National Hospital to meet young patients and their families. The first lady read the children “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas” as the president waved and flashed smiles at the...
Vatican to publish never-before-seen homilies by Pope Benedict XVI during his 10-year retirement
ROME — The Vatican next year will publish a collection of never-before-seen homilies delivered by the late Pope Benedict XVI during his private Sunday Masses, most of them penned during his 10-year retirement, officials said Saturday. The consecrated women who tended to Benedict during his pontificate and retirement recorded the...
Czech Republic marks a day of mourning for the victims of its worst mass killing
PRAGUE — The Czech Republic came to a standstill at noon Saturday as people across the country observed a minute of silence for the victims of its worst mass killing that left 14 dead and questions about the shooter’s motive. National flags on public buildings flew at half-staff and bells...
Paramedics were convicted in Elijah McClain’s death. That could make other first responders pause
BRIGHTON, Colo. — Two Denver-area paramedics were convicted Friday for giving a fatal overdose of the sedative ketamine to Elijah McClain in 2019 — a jury verdict that experts said could have a chilling effect on first responders around the country. The case involving the 23-year-old Black man’s death was...
Wisconsin Supreme Court orders new legislative maps in redistricting case brought by Democrats
MADISON, Wis. — The liberal-controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court overturned Republican-drawn legislative maps Friday and ordered that new district boundary lines be drawn as Democrats had urged in a redistricting case they hope will weaken GOP majorities. The ruling comes less than a year before the 2024 election in a battleground...
Dreaming of a white Christmas? Alaska may be your best bet, as U.S. ski resorts see rain, not snow
GILFORD, N.H. — For most Americans dreaming of a white Christmas, this year’s prospects aren’t good. Although parts of the Rockies and Midwest already have snow or could get a fresh dusting by Monday, other parts of the country that normally are coated in white this time of year still...
Supreme Court says no, for now, to plea to rule quickly on whether Trump can be prosecuted
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court said Friday that it will not immediately take up a plea by special counsel Jack Smith to rule on whether former President Donald Trump can be prosecuted for his actions to overturn the 2020 election results. The issue will now be decided by the U.S....
Tape reveals Donald Trump pressured Michigan officials not to certify 2020 vote, a new report says
Donald Trump pressured two election officials not to certify 2020 vote totals in a key Michigan county, according to a recording of a post-election phone call disclosed in a new report by The Detroit News. The former president’s 2024 campaign neither confirmed nor denied the recording’s legitimacy, insisting in a...
FDA says fake Ozempic shots are being sold through some legitimate sources
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it has seized “thousands of units” of counterfeit Ozempic, the diabetes drug widely used for weight loss, that had been distributed through legitimate drug supply sources. The FDA and the drug’s maker, Novo Nordisk, are testing the shots. They do not yet have...
Czechs mourn 14 dead and dozens wounded in the worst mass shooting in the country’s history
PRAGUE — People in the Czech capital were trying to come to grips Friday with the worst mass shooting in the country’s history that left 14 dead and dozens wounded inside a university building. The shooter is also believed to have killed his father earlier in the day and a...
Biden is pardoning thousands convicted of marijuana charges on federal lands and in Washington
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is making thousands of people who were convicted of use and simple possession of marijuana on federal lands and in the District of Columbia eligible for pardons, the White House said Friday, in his latest round of executive clemencies meant to rectify racial disparities in...
1 injured in shooting at a Virginia hospital; suspect in custody
RICHMOND, Va. — Police said one person was injured at a Richmond hospital when a man who had come into the hospital for a mental health evaluation began shooting. Richmond Police Chief Rick Edwards told reporters that a 911 call came in at 4:11 a.m. of shots fired at Chippenham...
Biden signs executive order aimed at financial facilitators of the Russian defense industry
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden signed an executive order Friday giving the U.S. Treasury Department the authority to target financial institutions that facilitate Russia’s efforts to bolster its defense industry. The new sanctions authority is meant to gum up the Kremlin’s push to restock the Russian military’s depleted arsenal after...
Israel strikes 2 homes, killing more than 90 Palestinians while hundreds have been detained
RAFAH, Gaza Strip — More than 90 Palestinians, including dozens from an extended family, were killed in Israeli airstrikes on two homes, rescuers and hospital officials said Saturday, a day after the U.N. chief warned again that nowhere is safe in Gaza and that Israel’s offensive is creating “massive obstacles”...
Russian official says U.S. is hampering a prisoner exchange with unequal demands
MOSCOW — A Russian deputy foreign minister said that talks with the United States on a potential prisoner exchange that would free Americans held in Russia are hampered by publicity and an alleged disparity in the U.S. negotiating stance. The U.S. State Department said last week that Russia rejected several...
Probe: Doomed Philadelphia news helicopter hit trees fast, broke up, then burned, killing 2
SHAMONG, N.J. — A Philadelphia television news helicopter returning from an assignment photographing Christmas lights this week plunged into a southern New Jersey forest “at very high speed,” broke apart, then caught fire after it crashed, killing both occupants, a federal crash investigator said Friday. Todd Gunther, an investigator with...
Biden believes U.S. Steel sale to Nippon Steel warrants ‘serious scrutiny,’ White House says
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden believes “serious scrutiny” is warranted for the planned acquisition of U.S. Steel by Japan’s Nippon Steel, the White House said Thursday after days of silence on a transaction that has drawn alarm from the steelworkers union. Lael Brainard, the director of the National Economic Council,...
New Pa. poll shows would-be presidential race between Biden, Trump a statistical dead heat
A new poll of Pennsylvania voters shows that a would-be presidential race between Democrat Joe Biden and Republican Donald Trump is a statistical dead heat. Muhlenberg College in Allentown released a statewide poll this week that showed 42% of Pennsylvania voters say they prefer Biden in 2024, compared to 41%...
