EU investigates video game companies over antitrust concerns
BRUSSELS — The European Union’s competition watchdog is stepping up its investigation of a U.S. video game platform and five game makers over concerns they blocked players from buying cheaper versions of games in other countries. The EU’s competition commissioner said Friday it issued a statement of objections to Valve...
Lawsuit: Teacher sexually abused child, birthed his kids
WHEELING — A West Virginia man says his middle school teacher sexually abused him for years, gave birth to his children and threatened to take them away if he left her. The Intelligencer reports 28-year-old Christopher Birch is suing former Bridge Street Middle School science teacher and track coach, Elizabeth...
Nipsey Hussle’s brother found him dying. These are his final moments
LOS ANGELES — The caller on the other end of Samiel Asghedom’s phone was panicked but clear. His younger brother — known to the world as rapper Nipsey Hussle, but to Samiel as just Nips — had been shot. It was Sunday afternoon — hours before hundreds of mourners would...
Chief: Family DNA leads police to mother who abandoned baby
COLUMBIA, S.C. — When a dead baby was found abandoned in a box in a vacant South Carolina field 29 years ago, every single detective on Greenville’s force poured themselves into the case. There were solid leads — the vacuum cleaner box where the girl was found was traced back...
‘Close your legs?’: Judge may be suspended over questions he asked an alleged rape victim
A New Jersey Superior Court judge could be suspended for three months without pay after asking an alleged sexual assault victim if she tried closing her legs to prevent the attack, according to a court advisory panel. The panel this week released a 45-page recommendation in the case of John...
Suspect held in 4 slayings at North Dakota business
MANDAN, N.D. — A 44-year-old man was arrested Thursday in the slayings of four people who were shot or stabbed earlier this week at a property management business, police said. Chief Jason Ziegler said surveillance video identified a vehicle of interest and helped lead them to the suspect, who lived...
Washington wolf census finds more packs, breeding pairs
SPOKANE, Wash. — The number of gray wolves in Washington state kept growing last year and for the first time the state documented a pack living west of the Cascade Range, wildlife officials said Thursday. The state has a minimum of 126 wolves in 27 packs with 15 successful breeding...
A year later, Trump’s ‘zero tolerance’ border policy frays
SAN DIEGO — As the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy hits its anniversary, the promise to criminally prosecute everyone who crosses the Mexico border illegally has been forced to evolve. Today the reality is families come first. A surge in family arrivals, largely from Guatemala and Honduras, has led Border...
Search warrant states ‘sneak and peek’ necessary at Jupiter spa
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Jupiter police released documents Thursday detailing reasons the agency requested a “sneak and peek” search warrant that allowed them to set up surveillance cameras covertly inside the Orchids of Asia Day Spa. That comes a day after attorneys for New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft,...
NYPD’s secret weapon in standoffs: a simple length of rope
NEW YORK — The New York Police Department has all the latest crime-fighting tools: body cameras, algorithms, even drones. But it is now widely deploying a far simpler technology, a 5½-foot (1½-meter) piece of rope, to help officers deal with one of the diciest kinds of calls. The department this...
Biologists: Killing hungry sea lions saving imperiled fish
PORTLAND, Ore. — A plan to kill California sea lions to save an endangered run of fish on a river that cuts through Portland, Oregon, appears to be working just months after wildlife officials began euthanizing the giant marine mammals, biologists said Thursday. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife...
Attorneys, judge keep winnowing jury pool for ex-cop’s trial
MINNEAPOLIS — A judge and attorneys have excused seven more people from the jury pool for the murder trial of a former Minneapolis police officer who fatally shot an unarmed woman who had called 911 to report a possible rape near her home. Mohamed Noor is charged with murder in...
2 Georgia officers shot; police deal with hostage situation
ATLANTA — A gunman suspected of shooting two Georgia police officers remain barricaded in a home Thursday with a teenager who was considered a hostage, police said. Both officers were in serious condition at an Atlanta hospital as police negotiated with the gunman in a bid to get him to...
Analysis: Why Americans shouldn’t feel grateful for $137 insulin
Last month, Eli Lilly and Co. announced with some fanfare that it was manufacturing a generic version of its own best-selling insulin brand, Humalog, which it would sell for half off — $137.35 versus about $275. David Ricks, the chief executive of Lilly, said the company was making this seemingly...
Trump tweets video mocking Biden over contact with women
One day after Joe Biden posted a video acknowledging that his past behavior had made women uncomfortable, President Donald Trump tweeted out a parody video Thursday in which a second Biden approaches the former vice president from behind, puts his hands on his shoulders and appears to sniff his hair....
Mormons ease opposition to same-sex couples and their kids
SALT LAKE CITY — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Thursday repealed rules that banned baptisms for children of gay parents and that labeled same-sex couples as sinners eligible for expulsion — marking a reversal of policies condemned as jarring detours from a push by the faith...
Investigator details events preceding California SUV crash over cliff
SAN FRANCISCO — Before her wife drove an SUV off a Northern California cliff, Sarah Hart spent hours searching on her phone for overdosing options and whether it was relatively painless to die by drowning, a highway patrol investigator testified Thursday. California Highway Patrol investigator Jake Slates said despite the...
Man charged with killing Nipsey Hussle pleads not guilty
LOS ANGELES — The man charged with killing rapper Nipsey Hussle was ordered held on $5 million bail after pleading not guilty Thursday to murder and attempted murder charges. Eric R. Holder Jr., 29, making his first court appearance after Sunday’s shooting and subsequent two-day manhunt, spoke only to say...
Pennsylvania state universities freed to set tuition
Pennsylvania’s 14 state-owned universities will have new latitude in setting tuition under a policy the Board of Governors of the Pennsylvania State System of High Education approved Thursday. Pennsylvania’s 14 state-owned universities will have new latitude in setting tuition under a policy approved Thursday. Annual tuition rates for the schools...
Pennsylvania’s medical marijuana market growing
More than 100,000 Pennsylvanians now have passports to medical marijuana. Doctors have approved more than 102,000 certifications allowing patients to buy medical marijuana at licensed state dispensaries, state officials announced this week. “Realizing 100,000 patient certifications and seeing the first Phase II grower and processor operationalized is a testament to...
California shoplifter stuffs chain saw down his pantsVideo
A man stretched the limits of shoplifting, and his waistband, when he slid a chainsaw down his pants in a California store. Jeff Bennett of RG Equipment in Fresno told the Fresno Bee his security camera caught the suspect Wednesday stuffing the chainsaw blade in his pants and then covering...
Judge rejects lawsuit over Pennsylvania turnpike toll hikes
HARRISBURG — A federal judge is dismissing a lawsuit over Pennsylvania Turnpike toll increases that are financing payments to help fund transit agencies. U.S. District Judge Yvette Kane ruled Thursday that a truckers’ organization didn’t adequately argue that the scheme violates the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution or the...
California woman fired from job after MAGA hat flap
A California woman who berated a man wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat and encouraged others to “get this guy!” has been fired from her job. The confrontation began Monday at a Starbucks, according to the man who identified himself to NBC Bay Area as Victor. “This woman comes...
Report: Pennsylvania largest net exporter of electricity in U.S.
Pennsylvania was the largest net exporter of electricity in the United States from 2013-17, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. California was the largest net importer during the same time period. The EIA said Pennsylvania sent an annual average of 59 million megawatt hours of electricity to other states...
Pennsylvania among 27 states offering ‘Cyber FastTrack’ program for students
A national cybersecurity program designed specifically for undergraduate and graduate students will launch Friday in Pennsylvania and 26 other states to encourage more young people to discover their talent and pursue careers in cybersecurity. The Cyber FastTrack program is designed to entice more people into cybersecurity as well as bridge...
