U.S./World category, Page 1046
Utah advances plan to remove felony status for polygamy
SALT LAKE CITY — Polygamy wouldn’t be a felony crime in Utah for the first time in 85 years under a bill that passed the Legislature on Friday and appears to be supported by the governor. Lawmakers voted overwhelmingly for the proposal that supporters said will allow the 30,000 or...
Students stage sit-in outside University of Oklahoma offices
NORMAN, Okla. — Dozens of University of Oklahoma students staged a sit-in that continued Friday outside OU’s administrative offices following two instances of professors using racial slurs in the classroom. However, OU Interim President Joseph Harroz Jr. has rejected the demands of the school’s Black Emergency Response Team, known as...
‘Lone wolf’ broke news of the Milwaukee gunman’s identity
IOWA CITY, Iowa — When a local newspaper reported the identity of the gunman in Milwaukee’s mass shooting, it came many hours after that news was broken on Twitter by an unemployed and formerly imprisoned journalist working from his bedroom in California. Matthew Keys was the first to report that...
US judge cancels oil and gas leases on some sage grouse land
BOISE, Idaho — A federal judge has cancelled more than $125 million in oil and gas leases on public lands that are home to the declining bird species greater sage grouse, in a ruling that said the Trump administration illegally curtailed public comment. The ruling doesn’t prevent the administration from...
Court temporarily halts Trump’s ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy
SAN DIEGO — Dealing a significant blow to a signature Trump administration immigration policy, a federal appeals court ruled Friday that the government can no longer make asylum-seekers wait in Mexico while their cases wind through U.S. immigration courts. The government faced a setback from a three-judge panel of the...
Democrats launch probe of Justice Department, seek Roger Stone interviews
WASHINGTON — The House Judiciary Committee is launching a wide-ranging probe of Attorney General William Barr and the Justice Department, demanding briefings, documents and interviews with 15 officials as it tries to determine whether there has been improper political interference in federal law enforcement. Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., on...
Trump’s EPA readies rollback of rules limiting mercury, other toxins
WASHINGTON — Despite bipartisan objection and industry pushback, the Trump administration is expected to soon weaken rules meant to limit mercury and other toxic emissions from oil and coal-fired power plants across the nation. The Environmental Protection Agency has already sent the Office of Management and Budget the final rule,...
Pompeo to witness signing of Afghanistan peace deal, Trump says
WASHINGTON — President Trump said Friday that he’s dispatching Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to the signing of an agreement with the Afghan Taliban aimed at beginning a drawdown of thousands of U.S. troops and ending America’s 18-year involvement in the war. Trump said Pompeo would soon, at the president’s...
W.Va. moving to up fines after girl’s fall into grease pit
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia may soon stiffen fines for restaurants that fail to secure the lids of grease pits after a young girl fell into one of the collection traps last year. The House of Delegates on Friday unanimously approved a measure to increase fines from $5 to $50...
Harvey Weinstein juror: #MeToo movement was not a factor in trial
NEW YORK — The jury that convicted Harvey Weinstein of rape and sex assault did not consider the trial’s implications for the #MeToo movement, one of the jurors said in an interview aired Friday. “No, zero, absolutely zero,” juror Drew Malbin said on “CBS This Morning.” “Because it’s not the...
Nigeria confirms 1st case of new virus in sub-Saharan AfricaVideo
ABUJA, Nigeria — Nigerian authorities on Friday reported the first confirmed case of the new coronavirus in sub-Saharan Africa as the outbreak spread to a region with some of the world’s weakest health systems. The health commissioner for Lagos, Africa’s largest city with more than 20 million people, said an...
Vatican task force offers help to church on abuse prevention
VATICAN CITY — The Vatican is launching a task force of experts to help Catholic dioceses and religious orders develop guidelines to handle cases of sexual abuse by clergy and tend to survivors. The initiative was proposed last year during Pope Francis’ summit on preventing abuse. It was considered necessary...
Mexico confirms first 2 cases of coronavirus
MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s assistant health secretary announced Friday that the country now has two confirmed cases of the new coronavirus. Hugo Lopez-Gatell said one of the patients is in Mexico City and the other in the northern state of Sinaloa. While a second test is still pending on that...
California is abnormally dry after low-precipitation winter
SAN FRANCISCO — A dry beginning of the year has left most of California abnormally parched, as officials brace for the possibility of an early and more intense wildfire season amid record-breaking temperatures. Drought has expanded from just under 10% of the state last week to nearly a quarter, mainly...
Ex-Phoenix area sheriff declares victory despite court loss
PHOENIX (AP) — Former Phoenix-area Sheriff Joe Arpaio lost a bid to erase his criminal conviction for disobeying a 2011 court order, but claimed victory Thursday after an appeal’s court said the verdict no longer has any legal consequence because of President Donald Trump’s pardon. The 9th Circuit Court of...
Grandfather, Navy vet among 5 victims of Wisconsin shooting
The five men who were killed by a co-worker at a Milwaukee brewery include an electrician, a Navy veteran, a father of two small children, a fisherman and a grandfather who is being remembered as someone who “always put his family’s needs before his own.” Authorities said the five men...
New coronavirus case escalates US response
VACAVILLE, Calif. — Public health officials were retracing the steps of a Northern California woman on Thursday believed to be the first person in the U.S. to contract the highly contagious coronavirus without traveling internationally or being in close contact with anyone who had it. The diagnosis, confirmed Wednesday, marks...
Mississippi man gets death sentence for multiple killings
MAGNOLIA, Miss. — A Mississippi man was given four death sentences by a jury on Thursday, hours after he spoke in court and blamed the devil for his actions the night eight people were shot to death. Willie Cory Godbolt, 37, was convicted Tuesday of the May 2017 slayings of...
Guam residents compensated for war atrocities decades later
HAGATÑA, Guam — For Antonina Palomo Cross, Japan’s occupation of Guam started with terror at church. The then-7-year-old was attending Catholic services with her family when the 1941 invasion began, setting off bomb blasts, sirens and screams. It ended with her family surrendering their home and eventually carrying the dead...
Milwaukee police search house in wake of brewery shooting
MILWAUKEE — Police searched a home on Milwaukee’s north side Thursday as they hunted for clues about why an employee at one of the nation’s largest breweries gunned down five co-workers before taking his own life. The house, a one-story home with a massive jungle-gym in the backyard, was roped...
Michigan settles lawsuit over teen abuse in prison for $80M
DETROIT — The state of Michigan has agreed to pay $80 million to settle a class-action lawsuit on behalf of male teens who said they were sexually harassed or assaulted in prison while housed with adults, officials said Thursday. The deal closes years of litigation. The lawsuit accused the Corrections...
Former Baltimore mayor sentenced to 3 years in book scheme
BALTIMORE — The disgraced former mayor of Baltimore was sentenced to three years in federal prison Thursday for arranging fraudulent sales of her self-published children’s books to nonprofits and foundations to promote her political career and fund her run for the city’s highest office. Catherine Pugh spoke through tears for...
Child psychologist indicted on child pornography charges
DAYTON, Ohio — An Ohio child psychologist who once wrote a weekly parenting column has been indicted on 145 counts related to downloading child pornography, authorities said Thursday. Gregory Ramey, 70, of Beavercreek in southwest Ohio, was indicted by a Montgomery County grand jury on Wednesday and surrendered to authorities...
U.S. House passes bill to help eradicate invasive swamp rodent
WASHINGTON — A measure to grant funding to try to eradicate the invasive rodents called nutria has passed the U.S. House with the help of a large, stuffed specimen. California Rep. Josh Harder brought the taxidermied nutria he calls Nellie to the House floor Wednesday ahead of a vote that...
Study: Drivers are jerks to pedestrians, but rich drivers are the worst
If you are a pedestrian, you know one thing: Drivers aren’t usually your friend. Even within the designated white lines, getting across a busy street can be a monster task against those behind the wheel. Well, researchers at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, set out to see just how...
