U.S./World category, Page 1279
Coal-fired power plant set to close, despite Trump support
FRANKFORT, Ky. — A federal utility board voted Thursday to close a coal-fired power plant in Kentucky, rejecting pleas from President Donald Trump and U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and handing the coal industry a defeat in its backyard. The Tennessee Valley Authority voted to retire the remaining coal-fired...
Montana women sue border patrol over racial profiling claims
HELENA, Mont. — Two Montana women questioned by a U.S. border agent who overheard them speaking Spanish in a convenience store sued U.S. Customs and Border Protection on Thursday, saying the agent illegally detained them without reason. The agent held Ana Suda and Martha Hernandez for 40 minutes in a...
$1.5B Mega Millions lottery jackpot still unclaimed
If you still have a Mega Millions ticket from October and you bought it in South Carolina, maybe check it again. There’s a $1.537 billion jackpot still waiting to be claimed. No one has come forward yet and time is running out as the price must be claimed within 180...
Court: Attorney who created fake child porn must pay $300K
CLEVELAND — An Ohio attorney has been ordered to pay $300,000 to two women whose photos from when they were young girls were manipulated to create fake child pornography used by the attorney in court cases. Cleveland.com reports a federal appeal court in Cincinnati ruled Wednesday that a bankruptcy judge’s...
‘Atmospheric river’ dumps more rain and snow across the West
LOS ANGELES — A storm fueled by a plume of moisture stretching over the Pacific Ocean almost to Hawaii dumped rain on California Thursday, boosting the threat of debris flows from saturated slopes and flooding from rising creeks and rivers. The storm made stronger by the phenomenon called an atmospheric...
Ex-FBI official: Justice Department discussed removing Trump from office
WASHINGTON — Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe said in an interview aired Thursday that he worried that investigations into President Donald Trump’s ties to Russia and possible obstruction of justice would be shut down after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey. According to CBS, which conducted the interview, McCabe...
Border security brawl seems near a serene resolution
WASHINGTON — Congress is set to resolve its clattering brawl with President Donald Trump in uncommonly bipartisan fashion as lawmakers prepare to pass a border security compromise providing a mere sliver of the billions he’s demanded for a wall with Mexico and averting a rekindled government shutdown this weekend. With...
School massacre 1 year later: A time to remember the victims
PARKLAND, Fla. — The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre a year ago renewed the national debate on guns and school safety, turned some victims’ parents and surviving students into political activists and at least temporarily ended the local sheriff’s career. But Thursday’s anniversary will primarily be about remembering the...
Prince Philip won’t be charged in UK car crash
LONDON — British prosecutors say Prince Philip won’t face charges in connection with a car collision that left two women injured. The decision came just days after Buckingham Palace said the 97-year-old royal would stop driving. Prosecutors said Thursday they had decided that it would not be in the public...
Suspect charged with murder in NYPD friendly fire death
NEW YORK — A robbery suspect with a long rap sheet and a habit of bizarre stunts was charged Wednesday with murder in the death of a New York City police detective struck by friendly fire while responding to a stick-up Tuesday night. Detective Brian Simonsen died after being hit...
Michael Avenatti accused of hiding millions of dollars from bankruptcy court
LOS ANGELES — Michael Avenatti hid millions of dollars from the court overseeing his law firm’s bankruptcy and used much of the money for personal compensation, a former partner alleges in new court records. The firm, Eagan Avenatti, was required by law to file monthly reports on its income and...
Perennial presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche dead at 96
LEESBURG, Va. — Lyndon LaRouche Jr., the political extremist who ran for president in every election from 1976 to 2004, including a campaign waged from federal prison, has died. He was 96. LaRouche’s political action committee confirmed Wednesday on its website that LaRouche died a day earlier. The cult-like figure,...
Ex-W.Va. Supreme Court justice Allen Loughry gets 2 years for corruption
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A former West Virginia Supreme Court justice who had a $32,000 blue suede couch in his office and was at the center of an impeachment and corruption scandal was sentenced to two years in federal prison Wednesday. “I have not seen evidence of remorse,” U.S. District Judge...
U.S. says ex-intel official Monica Witt defected to Iran, revealed secrets
WASHINGTON — A former U.S. Air Force counterintelligence specialist who defected to Iran despite warnings from the FBI has been charged with revealing classified information to the Tehran government, including the code name and secret mission of a Pentagon program, prosecutors said Wednesday. The Justice Department also accused Monica Elfriede...
Authorities say suspect in suitcase death is in the country illegally
A man accused of killing his ex-girlfriend and dumping her body in a suitcase in Connecticut is a citizen of Portugal who has been in the U.S. illegally for more than a year, federal authorities said Wednesday as the victim’s loved ones gathered for her funeral. Javier Da Silva Rojas,...
FEMA chief Brock Long, who faced questions over his use of government vehicle, to resign
WASHINGTON — Less than two years into a tenure marked by five major hurricanes, multiple lethal wildfires and a tense relationship with his boss, Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator William “Brock” Long resigned Wednesday “to go home to my family,” as he put it in an official statement released by...
Condolences pour in mourning the loss of NASA’s Mars rover
A robot tugged at our emotions with just eight little words. “My battery is low and it’s getting dark.” The poignant words were the last sent to Earth by NASA’s Opportunity, the Mars rover that spent the past 15 years exploring the planet before it stopped communicating about eight months...
Kentucky bishop says Covington students were not instigators
COVINGTON, Ky. — Investigators hired by a Kentucky diocese have found that Catholic school boys didn’t instigate a confrontation at the Lincoln Memorial that went viral on social media. Covington Bishop Roger Foys initially condemned the students’ behavior after a video showed a teenage boy face-to-face with a Native American...
NASA rover finally bites the dust on Mars after 15 years
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA’s Opportunity, the Mars rover that was built to operate for just three months but kept going and going, rolling across the rocky red soil, was pronounced dead Wednesday, 15 years after it landed on the planet. The six-wheeled vehicle that helped gather critical evidence that...
Unhappy with deal, Trump still doesn’t expect a new shutdown
WASHINGTON — Under mounting pressure from his own party, President Donald Trump appeared to be grudgingly leaning toward accepting an agreement that would head off a threatened second government shutdown but provide just a fraction of the money he’s been demanding for his Mexican border wall. Trump said Tuesday he...
King the wire fox terrier takes Westminster’s best in show
NEW YORK — Wire fox terriers are still King at Westminster. A wire fox from Brazil who’s won big in Europe became America’s top dog Tuesday night, beating out a crowd-pleasing longhaired dachshund and popular Sussex spaniel. There were some boos — along with modest cheers — when judge Peter...
Before Bezos fight, National Enquirer publisher AMI faced steep losses
NEW YORK — The publisher of the National Enquirer, currently under attack by Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos, has been facing steep financial losses that have left the once-loyal keeper of Donald Trump’s secrets with more than $1 billion in debt and a negative net worth. The closely held American...
Police detective killed by friendly fire in New York City
NEW YORK — A New York City police detective was shot and killed by friendly fire Tuesday night as officers confronted a robbery suspect who turned out to be armed with a replica handgun, Commissioner James O’Neill said. “This appears to be an absolutely tragic case of friendly fire,” an...
Police: Ohio State student and her abductor killed in Kentucky chase
CRESTWOOD, Ky. — A female student from an Ohio State University campus and a man suspected of abducting her both died after a police chase and shooting, Kentucky State Police said Tuesday. The chase began Monday afternoon in northern Kentucky as police responded to a call about a person in...
NASA about to pull plug on Mars rover, silent for 8 months
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA is trying one last time to contact its record-setting Mars rover Opportunity, before calling it quits. The rover has been silent for eight months, victim of one of the most intense dust storms in decades. Thick dust darkened the sky last summer and, for months,...
