U.S./World category, Page 1239
Connecticut Medical Examiner seeks to ID bodies from 1944 circus fire
HARTFORD, Conn. — Connecticut’s medical examiner is seeking to exhume two female bodies found after the 1944 Hartford circus fire in an attempt to identify at least one of them. Chief State Medical Examiner James Gill told The Hartford Courant he is hoping modern DNA testing can put a name...
Judge rules New York county can’t ban unvaccinated children from schools, parks
Ten days after a New York county banned unvaccinated children from public places in an effort to stem the rise of measles cases, a state judge put the injunction on hold. “Children are hereby permitted to return to their respective schools forthwith and otherwise to assemble in public places,” Judge...
South Florida teacher faces suspension for showing videos with nudes
The pictures displayed by a high school art teacher showed nudity, for sure. The question is whether they were artistic or obscene. Brenda Fischer, a veteran teacher at Western High School in Davie, Fla., faces a three-day suspension for showing her students a video with nude models in positions that...
Band of toddlers escapes Louisiana day care, found wandering near highway
Several 1-year-old children apparently escaped a Louisiana day care and were found wandering near a highway, prompting state officials to yank the facility’s license. According to the New York Daily News, four 1-year-old children at the Color Wheel Learning Center in Ascension Parish “found their way out of the facility’s...
Vietnam vet who died Christmas Eve is finally laid to rest
RALEIGH, N.C. — When a Vietnam War veteran died Christmas Eve with no family nearby, a community of veterans, a friend and military supporters in North Carolina stepped up to make sure he was finally laid to rest with military honors. They ensured that Phillip “Flip” Drye’s military paperwork, delayed...
Anti-government protests prompt talk of ‘Balkan Spring’
PODGORICA, Montenegro — It all started with a video posted on social media: a secret recording from 2016 that appears to show a well-known local tycoon hand over an envelope containing bundles of cash to a party associate of Montenegro’s long-standing leader. The prominent businessman, a former close friend and...
Mormons bracing for more changes at church conference
SALT LAKE CITY — Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are preparing for more changes as they gather in Utah for a twice-yearly conference to hear from the faith’s top leaders. Church President Russell M. Nelson has implemented a host of changes in his first year...
Kansas lawmakers OK mandating notice on abortion ‘reversal’
TOPEKA, Kan. — Kansas legislators passed a measure Friday that would require abortion providers to tell patients who are taking medication to terminate their pregnancies that the process can be reversed after they take the first of two pills. Abortion opponents contend the bill ensures that women who harbor doubts...
Colorado educator accused of taking gun to school, threatening staff
AURORA, Colo. — An administrator at a suburban Denver high school was arrested after police said he brought a handgun to the school and threatened other staff members. Tushar Rae was arrested on charges of carrying a concealed weapon at a school and making violent threats, The Aurora Sentinel reported...
Ex-cop’s attorneys join media access request at murder trial
MINNEAPOLIS — Attorneys for a former Minneapolis police officer accused of fatally shooting an unarmed woman joined the media’s challenge Friday to a judge’s restrictions on what video evidence may be seen by the public during the trial. Hennepin County District Judge Kathryn Quaintance heard a request from a media...
Belgium apologizes for kidnapping mixed-race African babies
BRUSSELS — The Belgian government has apologized for the country’s role in kidnapping thousands of mixed-race babies from their African mothers during colonial times. Thousands of children in what are now the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Burundi were taken away and raised in Belgian institutions. Prime Minister Charles...
Harvard reviews sale of coach’s home to prospect’s father
BOSTON — Harvard’s longtime fencing coach sold his suburban Boston home for nearly double its assessed value to a man whose son was later admitted to the school and joined the team — a transaction now under review by the university. The coach, Peter Brand, received nearly $1 million in...
Trump sidelines immigration nominee for ‘tougher direction’
WASHINGTON — The notice to Congress from the White House was met with confusion: Why would President Donald Trump withdraw his nominee to lead U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement? Longtime border official Ron Vitiello appeared to be cruising toward confirmation. One Senate committee had endorsed his nomination and a second...
Vaccine wars: Social media battle outbreak of bogus claims
SAN FRANCISCO — Like health officials facing outbreaks of disease, internet companies are trying to contain vaccine-related misinformation they have long helped spread. So far, their efforts at quarantine are falling short. Searches of Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram turn up all sorts of bogus warnings about vaccines, including the soundly...
Filings: Bill Cosby agrees to settle 7 defamation cases
Bill Cosby has agreed to settle lawsuits filed by seven women who say he defamed them when he accused them of lying about sexual misconduct allegations. Filings Friday in federal court in Springfield, Mass., show the two sides have negotiated a settlement since Cosby went to prison last fall in...
Florida businessman convicted in $1B Medicare fraud case
MIAMI — A federal jury on Friday convicted a Florida health care executive on 20 criminal counts in what prosecutors described as a $1 billion Medicare fraud scheme. Jurors reached a partial verdict after four days of deliberating the fate of Philip Esformes in one of the biggest such cases...
Ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner ordered to register as sex offender
NEW YORK — Former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner was ordered Friday to register as a sex offender as he nears the end of a 21-month prison sentence for having illicit online contact with a 15-year-old girl. A New York City judge designated Weiner a Level 1 offender under the state’s...
Visiting border, Trump to push again on immigration
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump headed to California on Friday in a renewed push to make border security a central campaign issue for his 2020 re-election. Trump, talking to reporters as he left the White House to head out west, denied that he changed his mind about shutting down the...
Pro-KKK editor says Alabama paper is sold, but to whom?
LINDEN, Ala. — An Alabama newspaperman who drew widespread condemnation after a recent editorial embracing the Ku Klux Klan says he has sold his little weekly paper — but the new owner’s identity and maybe even the sale itself are shrouded in doubt. The Democrat-Reporter, whose longtime editor and publisher...
Should the SAT be optional? Bribery scandal renews debate
BUFFALO — The most brazen abuses of standardized testing in the college bribery scandal could be chalked up to security lapses: the ringer hired to take the SAT, the proctors paid to look the other way, the accommodations for extra time obtained through false diagnoses of disabilities. But the scheme...
YouTuber arrested after livestreaming himself driving over 185 mph
A self-proclaimed YouTube celebrity who livestreamed himself driving in excess of 185 mph ended up being arrested by police. On March 31, Beau Alan Rogel took his 2017 Ford Mustang on the road and filmed himself speeding down a Mississippi highway, announcing the increasing speeds as he went. Apparently, someone...
Study challenges health benefits of moderate drinking
LONDON — It might just be enough to kill your buzz: A new study challenges the idea that a drink or two a day could actually be good for you. In a study conducted in China, the researchers found that moderate drinking slightly raised the risk of stroke and high...
Group says 60 killed in protests against Sudan’s president
CAIRO — Sudan’s security forces have killed at least 60 people in more than three months of street protests, an international rights group said Friday as organizers called for fresh anti-government rallies in the capital, Khartoum, and other cities. Physicians for Human Rights said President Omar al-Bashir’s forces have attacked...
Teens get weekends in jail for racist, anti-Semitic graffiti
GLENELG, Md. — Two Maryland teens have been sentenced to jail for racist and anti-Semitic graffiti that was found at their former high school in Glenelg. News outlets report 19-year-olds Matthew Lipp and Tyler Curtiss were sentenced Thursday to 16 consecutive weekends in jail and eight consecutive weekends, respectively. Curtiss...
2 seen in surveillance at Gerald Ford grave come forward
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Police say two people suspected of defacing the gravesite of former President Gerald Ford and first lady Betty Ford have come forward and are cooperating. Grand Rapids, Michigan, police say the results of the investigation will be forwarded to a prosecutor for review when it is...
