U.S./World category, Page 1217
Mystery surrounds 1,000 guns seized at Bel-Air mansion linked to Getty family
LOS ANGELES — A 57-year-old man identified in court records as the longtime companion of Los Angeles real estate mogul Cynthia Beck was behind bars for several hours overnight after police seized more than 1,000 guns — including some authorities allege were fully automatic — from a home in the...
Chelsea Manning released from jail on contempt charge
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning was released from a northern Virginia jail Thursday after a two-month stay for refusing to testify to a grand jury. Manning spent 62 days at the Alexandria Detention Center on civil contempt charges after she refused to answer questions to a...
Congress weighs bankruptcy relief for student loan debt
More than 40 years after Congress began tightening restrictions against discharging student loan debt in bankruptcy, federal lawmakers Thursday introduced a bill to provide bankruptcy relief for struggling borrowers. The Student Borrower Bankruptcy Relief Act of 2019 would remove the 2005 section of the bankruptcy code that made all private...
Video: Police fire 76 shots during ‘alarming and irresponsible’ car chase in Anaheim
Body camera videos released Wednesday show two police officers shooting at a suspect during a high-speed chase through a residential California neighborhood. The district attorney’s office called the officers’ actions “alarming and irresponsible” in a letter that accompanied the release of the videos, reports the Los Angeles Times. The dramatic,...
Charges dropped against woman with CBD oil at Disney World
ORLANDO, Fla. — Prosecutors in Florida have dropped a drug charge against a woman who was arrested after a guard found CBD oil while searching her purse at a Walt Disney World security checkpoint. Prosecutors said late last month in a court filing that the case against 69-year-old Hester Burkhalter...
Trump calls on Congress to end ‘surprise medical bills’
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday called for an end to “surprise medical bills,” the astonishingly high charges insured patients can face when a member of a medical team that treats them is not in their insurer’s network. “Not a pleasant surprise,” Trump said of bills that arrive in...
New analysis: Trump deficits worse than promised
WASHINGTON — A new nonpartisan analysis says President Donald Trump’s budget plan would produce significantly larger budget deficits than promised when it was released in March, mostly because its estimates of economic growth are too rosy. The Congressional Budget Office estimate says Trump’s budget, if enacted in its entirety, would...
Popular Virginia children’s singer faces child porn charge
RESTON, Va. — A popular children’s performer in northern Virginia has been arrested and charged with possessing child pornography. Fairfax County Police said on Thursday that 58-year-old Steven Rossi of Reston was arrested April 30 on 10 felony counts. Rossi performed under the name M. Knick Knack and has been...
White House misspells Red Sox as ‘Red Socks’ for team’s Trump visit
A misspelling Thursday is irking some baseball fans. The Boston Red Sox were due for a visit with President Donald Trump at 3:45 in the afternoon but the White House misspelled the team’s name as “Red Socks” on the schedule. Ace White House staff work strikes again --> Glenn...
U.S. prosecutors add hate crime charges in California synagogue shooting
SAN DIEGO — Federal officials announced Thursday that they have filed 109 hate crime charges against the 19-year-old man accused of opening fire in a Southern California synagogue. Prosecutors say the gunman, identified as John T. Earnest, killed a woman and wounded an 8-year-old girl, her uncle and Rabbi Yisroel...
China Mobile blocked from offering phone service in U.S.
U.S. communications regulators on Thursday rejected a Chinese telecom company’s application to provide service in the U.S. due to national security risks amid an escalation in tensions between the two countries. The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday voted unanimously, 5-0 across party lines, to reject China Mobile International USA Inc.’s...
U.S. seizes North Korean cargo ship for violating sanctions
WASHINGTON — The United States said Thursday that it has seized a North Korean cargo ship that was used to violate international sanctions, a first-of-its kind enforcement action that comes amid a tense moment in relations between the two countries. The “Wise Honest,” North Korea’s second largest cargo ship, was...
U.S. sanctions to hit Iran’s metals industry, a major employer
TEHRAN, Iran — U.S. sanctions have targeted Iran’s government, its paramilitary forces and the oil exports that fund them. Now they are hitting its vital steel, aluminum, copper and iron industries. The new sanctions, imposed as Tehran announced its partial withdrawal from its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, seem...
Britain goes first week without coal power since 1882
Britain is moving closer to not using any coal to generate electric power. The country went a week without using the fuel to produce electricity for the first time since it opened a coal-fired plant in 1882, reports The Guardian. I am proud that Britain has gone a record week...
The costliest $29 they’ll ever win: NJ levies $25K gambling fine
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — A gambler from Nevada lost $29 on a New Jersey internet gambling site, but the transactions cost a technology company $25,000. New Jersey regulators have fined Gaming Innovation Group for a flaw in its geolocation technology, which is designed to make sure people are within the...
Sister: 9-year-old boy accused of killing mom just ‘snapped’
FAWN RIVER TOWNSHIP, Mich. — The adult sister of a 9-year-old boy who is charged with killing their mother said he has mental health problems and probably just “snapped” on the day of the shooting. “My mom would not want him to be labeled a murderer,” Reagan Martin, 23, told...
Facebook auto-generates videos celebrating extremist images
WASHINGTON — The animated video begins with a photo of the black flags of jihad. Seconds later, it flashes highlights of a year of social media posts: plaques of anti-Semitic verses, talk of retribution and a photo of two men carrying more jihadi flags while they burn the stars and...
‘Archie’ causing some royal name drama
The inspiration for Prince Harry and Meghan’s newborn son’s name seems to be causing as much drama as the wait for his birth. Little Archie — full name Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor — came as a surprise to those betting on his name. In fact, Archie was not even in the...
Fake German heiress gets up to 12 years in prison
NEW YORK — The German con artist who passed herself off as a wealthy heiress was sentenced Thursday to four 12 years behind bars for swindling New York banks and hotels out of tens of thousands of dollars. Judge Diane Kiesel says she was “stunned by the depth of the...
Berlin park’s drug dealer solution panned by authorities
BERLIN — A creative attempt by a downtown Berlin park manager to keep drug dealers away from families and joggers has been met with an emphatic “nein” from German officials. Cengiz Demirci demarcated certain areas in the popular Goerlitzer Park with pink spray-painted lines for the dealers to stand behind,...
Chef stopped at Los Angeles airport with 40 frozen piranhas
LOS ANGELES — A famous South American chef says he was stopped as he brought 40 piranhas in a duffel bag through Los Angeles International Airport. Virgilio Martinez, chef-owner of Central restaurant in Peru, tells the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday that he hoped to serve the predatory, sharp-toothed fish...
Parents can’t delete what kids tell Amazon voice assistant
Amazon met with skepticism from some privacy advocates and members of Congress last year when it introduced its first kid-oriented voice assistant , along with brightly colored models of its Echo Dot speaker designed for children. Now those advocates say the kids’ version of Amazon’s Alexa won’t forget what children...
Notre Dame’s melted roof leaves astronomical lead levels
PARIS — Notre Dame Cathedral’s melted roof has left astronomically high lead levels in the plaza outside and adjacent roads. Paris police say lead levels from the roof were found to be between 10 and 20 grams per kilogram of ground — between 32 and 65 times the recommended limit...
‘Art of the Deal’ co-author calls for Trump book to be pulled or ‘recategorized’ as fiction
Decorated in eye-catching gold lettering, President Donald Trump’s 1987 memoir - a self-described “common sense guide to personal finance” - is touted as “a firsthand account of the rise of America’s foremost deal-maker.” But following news this week that Trump reported more than $1 billion in financial losses to the...
Australia takes responsibility for typos on 46M bank notes
CANBERRA, Australia — Australia’s central bank has taken responsibility for typos on 46 million bank notes after a radio station posted an image of the microscopic error on social media. Triple M radio posted on Instagram on Thursday a magnified photograph of a 50 Australian dollar ($35) note showing the...
