2 acquitted, jury hung on 2 more in Michigan governor kidnap plot
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Two of four men were acquitted Friday in a conspiracy to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020, motivated by fury at the Democrat’s tough covid-19 restrictions early in the pandemic. The jury’s verdicts against Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta were read in the federal court...
Suspected extremist attack kills 16 soldiers in Burkina Faso
OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso — An attack by suspected Islamic extremist rebels on a military unit in Burkina Faso Friday has killed at least 16 security forces and injured many others, the army announced. A dozen military soldiers and four volunteer fighters who work alongside the army died when their military...
Cheers for Jackson as Biden declares ‘moment of real change’
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Friday celebrated the confirmation of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as the first Black woman to reach the Supreme Court, hailing “a moment of real change in American history.” It was a moment 46 days — and more than two centuries — in the making....
Washington state to preserve 10,000 forest acres as carbon reserve
SEATTLE — Washington state has launched a new program to save 10,000 acres of forest land as a carbon reserve. The Seattle Times reports the state intends to lease the trees as carbon credits to emitters of greenhouse gases that cause global warming. The DNR is partnering with Finite Carbon,...
Puerto Rico struggles to emerge from outage as anger builds
Shuttered businesses. Sleepless nights. Canceled classes. Hundreds of thousands of people across Puerto Rico remained without power on Friday, nearly two days after a fire at a main power plant sparked an island-wide outage. Crews have restored power to some 650,000 customers out of nearly 1.5 million, but people in...
SpaceX launches 3 visitors to space station for $55M each
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — SpaceX launched three rich businessmen and their astronaut escort to the International Space Station on Friday for more than a week’s stay, as NASA joins Russia in hosting guests at the world’s most expensive tourist destination. It’s SpaceX’s first private charter flight to the orbiting lab...
Parole revoked for Iowa man convicted of lottery rigging
DES MOINES, Iowa — A man serving a 25-year prison sentence for rigging computers to win lottery jackpots has had his parole revoked after he got into trouble in prison just before his scheduled release. Eddie Tipton was approved for release by the Iowa Board of Parole on Jan. 20...
Jury deadlocked on some charges in Whitmer kidnap plot trial
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Jurors say they’ve reached decisions on some charges and are deadlocked on others in the trial of four men accused of conspiring to kidnap Michigan. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker told the jury Friday to keep working on the unresolved charges. Decisions to...
Mass shooting suspect served less time due to California law
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A suspect arrested in connection with last weekend’s mass shooting outside bars in Sacramento served less than half his 10-year sentence because of voter-approved changes to state law that lessened the punishment for his felony convictions and provided a chance for earlier release. Smiley Allen Martin was...
Rape exceptions to abortion bans were once widely accepted. No more
WASHINGTON — As conservative states enacted stringent abortion bans in recent decades, there was one threshold they were loath to cross: Abortion was nearly always allowed in cases of rape or incest. It was a veneer of acceptance embraced by every GOP president from Reagan to Trump, and even the...
Missile kills at least 52 at crowded Ukrainian train station
KYIV, Ukraine — A missile hit a train station in eastern Ukraine where thousands had gathered Friday, killing at least 52 and wounding dozens more in an attack on a crowd of mostly women and children trying to flee a new, looming Russian offensive, Ukrainian authorities said. The attack that...
Major outage forces Puerto Rico to shutter schools, offices
SAN JUAN — More than a million customers in Puerto Rico remained without electricity on Thursday after a fire at a main power plant caused the biggest blackout so far this year across the U.S. territory, forcing it to cancel classes and shutter government offices. The blackout also left nearly...
Israeli forces kill Palestinian attacker; third victim diesVideo
A third Israeli has died following the attack by a Palestinian man who opened fire into a crowded bar in central Tel Aviv. Israeli security forces said they hunted down and killed the attacker early Friday. The shooting on Thursday evening in a downtown area packed with people in bars...
Appeals court OKs Biden federal employee vaccine mandate
NEW ORLEANS — President Joe Biden’s requirement that all federal employees be vaccinated against covid-19 was upheld Thursday by a federal appeals court. In a 2-1 ruling, a panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court and ordered dismissal of a lawsuit challenging the mandate. The...
Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg: Trump criminal investigation is continuing
NEW YORK — Refuting suggestions that he’s lost interest in going after Donald Trump, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said Thursday a criminal investigation into the former president and his business practices is continuing “without fear or favor” despite a recent shakeup in the probe’s leadership. In a rare public...
Congress votes to suspend Russia trade status, enact oil banVideo
WASHINGTON — Congress voted overwhelmingly Thursday to suspend normal trade relations with Russia and ban the importation of its oil, ratcheting up the U.S. response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine amid reports of atrocities. House action came after the Senate approved the two bills with 100-0 votes. The measures now...
U.S.: Man impersonated federal agent, claimed ties to Pakistani intelVideo
WASHINGTON — One of two men accused of impersonating federal agents and giving actual Secret Service agents gifts and free apartments in Washington has claimed to have ties to Pakistani intelligence and had visas showing travel to Pakistan and Iran, federal prosecutors said Thursday. The men, Arian Taherzadeh, 40, and...
Shanghai wrestles with food shortages under virus shutdownVideo
BEIJING — Residents of Shanghai are struggling to get meat, rice and other food supplies under anti-coronavirus controls that confine most of its 25 million people in their homes, fueling frustration as the government tries to contain a spreading outbreak. People in China’s business capital complain online grocers often are...
Key particle weighs in a bit heavy, confounding physicists
The grand explanation physicists use to describe how the universe works may have some major new flaws to patch after a fundamental particle was found to have more mass than scientists thought. “It’s not just something is wrong,” said Dave Toback, a particle physicist at Texas A&M University and a...
Jackson confirmed as 1st Black female high court justice
The Senate confirmed Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court on Thursday, shattering a historic barrier by securing her place as the first Black female justice and giving President Joe Biden a bipartisan endorsement for his effort to diversify the court. Jackson, a 51 year-old appeals court judge with nine...
Pelosi positive for covid-19, was at White House with Biden
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has tested positive for covid-19, a day after appearing unmasked at a White House event with President Joe Biden. Pelosi, D-Calif., received a positive test result for covid-19 and is currently asymptomatic, her spokesman Drew Hammill said Thursday in a tweet. He said she...
DA confirms suspect fatally shot Pa. officer before being killed
LEBANON — A man who broke into his stepfather’s house opened fire on responding police officers, killing a lieutenant one month away from retirement and wounding two other officers, a prosecutor said Thursday, releasing details of last week’s gunfight that also killed the suspect. Lebanon City Police Lt. William Lebo,...
Avalanche in northern Norway kills 3 members of skiing group
COPENHAGEN, Denmark — An avalanche in northern Norway on Thursday killed three people, police said. Another six members of the same skiing group were unhurt. Norwegian broadcaster NRK said the three victims were quickly found because they wore avalanche detectors, but were declared dead on the spot. Their identities and...
House panel: Justice Dept. ‘obstructing’ Trump records probe
WASHINGTON — A congressional oversight committee on Thursday said the Justice Department is “obstructing” its investigation into former President Donald Trump’s handling of White House records by preventing the release of information from the National Archives. The House Committee on Oversight and Reform sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick...
Gunmen shoot deputy governor of Myanmar Central Bank
BANGKOK — A deputy governor of Myanmar’s Central Bank was shot Thursday at her home, less than a week after tough new regulations were issued ordering that foreign money held in bank accounts in the military-ruled nation must be exchanged for the local currency. There were conflicting accounts of whether...
