U.S./World category, Page 974
Billions of dollars in aid for small businesses go unclaimed
NEW YORK — Billions of dollars offered by Congress as a lifeline to small businesses struggling to survive the pandemic are about to be left on the table when a key government program stops accepting applications for loans. Business owners and advocacy groups complain that the money in the Paycheck...
‘White power’ flare-up in retirement haven The Villages reveals tensions
THE VILLAGES, Fla. — There has always been a low-boil tension in The Villages retirement community between the Republican majority and the much smaller cohort of Democrats, but a veneer of good manners in “Florida’s Friendliest Hometown” mostly prevailed on golf courses and at bridge tables. Those tensions, though, flared...
Prosecutor: Golden State Killer said inner voice drove him
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The man dubbed the Golden State Killer made incriminating statements after his arrest and indicated he was driven by an internal force he couldn’t control, a prosecutor said Monday. Sacramento County prosecutor Thien Ho said that Joseph James DeAngelo Jr. was alone in a police interrogation room...
NYC mayor seeks $1 billion police cut amid City Hall protestVideo
NEW YORK — A week after a “defund the police” protest became a full-blown occupation outside City Hall, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Monday he has a plan for the New York City police department budget to be slashed by $1 billion. The mayor, a Democrat, declined to discuss the...
Broadway shutdown due to coronavirus extended again until January
The shutdown on Broadway has been extended again — until at least early January. Although an exact date for performances to resume has yet to be determined, Broadway producers are now offering refunds and exchanges for tickets purchased for shows through Jan. 3. “The Broadway experience can be deeply personal...
Long-controversial Robert E. Lee marker in Ohio vandalized
FRANKLIN, Ohio — A vandal or vandals over the weekend spray-painted a marker honoring Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in the southwest Ohio city of Franklin. WHIO-TV reports they also wrote “no racist monuments” on the road in front of the marker, which was moved from alongside a public highway...
Supreme Court strikes down Louisiana abortion clinic law
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday struck down a Louisiana law regulating abortion clinics, reasserting a commitment to abortion rights over fierce opposition from dissenting conservative justices in the first big abortion case of the Trump era. Chief Justice John Roberts joined with his four more liberal colleagues in...
Supreme Court refuses to block upcoming federal executions
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday refused to block the execution of four federal prison inmates who are scheduled to be put to death in July and August. The executions would mark the first use of the death penalty on the federal level since 2003. The justices rejected an...
Supreme Court declines to hear border wall challenge
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court is leaving in place a decision that rejected environmental groups’ challenge to sections of wall the Trump administration is building along the U.S. border with Mexico. The high court on Monday declined to hear an appeal involving construction of 145 miles of steel-bollard walls along...
Alabama mayor resigns after post on Crimson Tide’s BLM video
CARBON HILL, Ala. — A controversial Alabama mayor has resigned after posting disparaging comments about the University of Alabama football team voicing its support for the Black Lives Matter movement. Carbon Hill Mayor Mark Chambers submitted his resignation letter to the city clerk on Saturday, news outlets reported. The council...
French former prime minister, wife found guilty of fraud
PARIS — A Paris court on Monday found French former prime minister Francois Fillon guilty of having used public funds to pay his wife and children for work they never performed. The work had brought the family more than $1.13 million since 1998. The couple’s lawyers immediately announced an appeal....
Little Caesars workers fired after swastika found on pizza
BROOK PARK, Ohio — Two employees were fired after an Ohio couple who purchased a pizza at Little Caesars found pepperonis had been placed to form a backward swastika. Misty and Jason Laska made the discovery when they opened the box that they had purchased Saturday at the store. Misty...
Afghan official: Bomb, mortars kill 23 civilians in Helmand
KABUL, Afghanistan — A car bombing and mortar shells fired at a busy market in southern Afghanistan’s Helmand province on Monday killed 23 people, including children, a statement form a provincial governor’s office said. Both the Taliban and the Afghan military blame each other for the attack in Sangin district....
U.K. judge warns Assange on U.S. extradition hearing attendance
LONDON — A British judge said Monday that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange must attend his next court hearing unless he can provide medical evidence to support his absence. Lawyers for Assange said he could not attend the latest hearing on his U.S. extradition case by video link from prison for...
Trump denies being briefed about reported Russian bounties on U.S. troops in AfghanistanVideo
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has denied he was made aware of U.S. intelligence officials’ conclusions Russia secretly offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants for killing American troops in Afghanistan. The Trump administration was set to brief select members of Congress on the matter Monday. The intelligence assessments came amid Trump’s...
Couple draw guns at crowd heading to St. Louis mayor’s homeVideo
ST. LOUIS — A white couple stood outside their mansion and pointed guns at protesters in St. Louis as the group marched toward the mayor’s home to demand her resignation. Mark McCloskey, 63, told a TV station that he and wife, Patricia, both personal injury lawyers, were facing an “angry...
Suspect in killing at Louisville protest in custody
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The suspect arrested in the shooting death of a man during a Louisville protest over the police killing of Breonna Taylor had taken part in demonstrations but was disruptive and had been asked by other protesters to leave, authorities and protesters said Sunday. The man, identified by...
Mississippi lawmakers vote to remove rebel emblem from flagVideo
JACKSON, Miss. — Mississippi lawmakers voted Sunday to surrender the Confederate battle emblem from their state flag, triggering raucous applause and cheers more than a century after white supremacist legislators adopted the design a generation after the South lost the Civil War. Mississippi’s House and Senate voted in succession Sunday...
California’s alleged Golden State Killer set to plead guilty
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Forty years after a sadistic suburban rapist terrorized California in what investigators later realized were a series of linked assaults and slayings, a 74-year-old former police officer is expected to plead guilty Monday to being the elusive Golden State Killer. The deal will spare Joseph James DeAngelo...
Trump struggles as furor grows over reported Russian bounty offer to kill U.S. troopsVideo
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump, confronted with a damaging report that Russia offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants to kill American and allied troops in Afghanistan, declared Sunday on Twitter that he was never briefed about the finding by U.S. intelligence. Democrats including Trump’s prospective presidential rival, Joe Biden, and House...
Man fires shots at business center in northern California
RED BLUFF, Calif — Authorities shot a man who drove into a distribution center Saturday south of Red Bluff and started shooting at people, local media reported. The shooting by a man with “AR-type weapon” started about 3:30 p.m. at the Walmart distribution center, emergency dispatchers told the Record-Searchlight newspaper....
Mississippi takes step toward dropping rebel image from flag
JACKSON, Miss. — Spectators at the Mississippi Capitol broke into cheers and applause Saturday as lawmakers took a big step toward erasing the Confederate battle emblem from the state flag, a symbol that has come under intensifying criticism in recent weeks amid nationwide protests against racial injustice. “The eyes of...
Alabama officer fired over post of protester in rifle scope
HOOVER, Ala. — An Alabama police chief says one of his officers has been fired after posting a photo on social media that depicted a protester in the crosshairs of a rifle scope. Former Officer Ryan Snow was fired Friday, Hoover police Chief Nick Derzis said. The officer posted the...
Thousands gather in Denver to protest Elijah McClain’s death
DENVER — Thousands of demonstrators gathered outside a suburban Denver police building Saturday to call for justice in the death of Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old Black man put into a chokehold by police last year. McClain’s death last August has prompted a handful of small protests over the last 10...
3 New Mexico deaths from drinking hand sanitizer likely tied to alcoholism
Three people in New Mexico have died and a fourth is permanently blind after drinking a dangerous amount of hand sanitizer, officials said. The state’s Department of Health on Friday said another three patients remained in critical condition over the weekend. All seven people “are believed to have drunk hand...
