Police say Idaho dad killed neighbors over alleged indecent exposure by neighbor’s oldest son
BOISE, Idaho — An Idaho father killed a neighboring family because he was upset that the neighbor’s 18-year-old son had reportedly exposed himself to the man’s children, a police document alleges. Majorjon Kaylor, 31, of Kellogg, is charged with four counts of first-degree murder in the Father’s Day shooting. A...
Explosion in Paris building leaves 16 injured
PARIS — An explosion hit a building in Paris’ Left Bank on Wednesday, leaving 16 injured, police chief says - fire contained but not extinguished. The fire sent smoke soaring over the domed Pantheon monument and prompted the evacuation of buildings, police said. The cause of the blast was not...
U.S. approves chicken made from cultivated cells, the nation’s first ‘lab-grown’ meat
For the first time, U.S. regulators on Wednesday approved the sale of chicken made from animal cells, allowing two California companies to offer “lab-grown” meat to the nation’s restaurant tables and eventually, supermarket shelves. The Agriculture Department gave the green light to Upside Foods and Good Meat, firms that had...
Biden administration moves to restore endangered species protections dropped by Trump
BILLINGS, Mont. — The Biden administration proposed bringing back rules to protect imperiled plants and animals on Wednesday as officials moved to reverse changes under former President Donald Trump that weakened the Endangered Species Act. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said it would reinstate a decades-old regulation that mandates...
Lawsuit says insufficient prototype testing could put Titanic sub passengers in extreme danger
SEATTLE — The company whose submersible vanished in the North Atlantic on a tourist dive to the wreck of the Titanic was repeatedly warned that there might be catastrophic safety problems posed by the way it was developed, documents show. With five people aboard a vessel that if still functioning...
Indian Prime Minister Modi showcases yoga and diplomacy on the UN lawn
UNITED NATIONS — Praising yoga as “truly universal,” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi joined a crowd of diplomats and dignitaries for a morning yoga session on Wednesday at the United Nations and kicked off the public portion of his U.S. visit by calmly flexing India’s cultural reach. With a checkerboard...
Summer solstice in Pittsburgh region delivers over 15 hours of daylight
Fifteen hours, 4 minutes. That’s how much daylight the Pittsburgh region will see Wednesday during the summer solstice — the official start of summer and longest day of the year, when the sun takes the northernmost path through the sky. The result is short nights, early dawns and late sunsets....
Antlers and fancy dress: Stonehenge welcomes 8,000 visitors for summer solstice
STONEHENGE, England — All hail the rising sun. Around 8,000 revellers gathered around a prehistoric stone circle on a plain in southern England to express their devotion to the sun, or to have some communal fun. Druids, pagans, hippies, local residents and tourists, many clad in an array of colorful...
NFL QB Aaron Rodgers is set to speak at a psychedelics conference
DENVER — Months after Colorado’s voters decided to join Oregon in decriminalizing psychedelic mushrooms, Denver will host a conference this week put on by a psychedelic advocacy group bringing together an unlikely cohort of speakers — including an NFL star, a former Republican governor and a rapper. The conference and...
Search area for lost Titanic-bound submersible deepens, doubles in size as oxygen dwindles
Rescuers on Wednesday rushed more ships and vessels to the area where a submersible disappeared on its way to the Titanic wreckage site, hoping underwater sounds they detected for a second straight day might help narrow their search in an increasingly urgent mission. Crews were scouring an area twice the...
7-year-old fatally shoots 5-year-old child in eastern Kentucky
MCKEE, Ky. — A 7-year-old child fatally shot a 5-year-old child inside a home in eastern Kentucky, police said. An initial investigation found that the shooting reported Monday evening at the home in McKee was accidental, Kentucky State Police said in a statement. Life-saving measures were attempted, but the child...
Sweltering heat tests Texas’ power grid and patience as thousands in South still without electricity
AUSTIN, Texas — Texas’ power grid operator asked residents Tuesday to voluntarily cut back on electricity due to anticipated record demand on the system as a heat wave kept large swaths of the state and southern U.S. in triple-digit temperatures. On the last day of spring, the sweltering heat felt...
Pitt students frustrated after being told following commencement they were short of degree requirements
College students trying to understand what precise combination of courses they need to graduate generally take it on faith that if they follow a campus adviser’s instructions, they will get their degree. But what if the adviser gets it wrong? What if they needed more courses than they were told...
Georgia officials won’t take over elections in state’s largest, Democrat-heavy county
ATLANTA — Georgia’s State Election Board won’t take over running elections in the state’s most populous county, ending an investigation that had sparked fears of partisan meddling. The board voted unanimously on Tuesday to end its performance review of Fulton County nearly two years after it had begun. Multiple board...
Tropical Storm Bret spins toward eastern Caribbean as forecasters warn of heavy rainfall
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Tropical Storm Bret chugged toward the eastern Caribbean on Tuesday as the region prepared itself for an unusually early storm and the torrential rains that are forecast. Bret had maximum sustained winds of 45 mph and was moving across the Atlantic Ocean at 18 mph,...
DA, ethics panel back judge in Donald Trump hush-money case, finding no evidence of bias
NEW YORK — Donald Trump’s tempestuous views aside, Manhattan prosecutors say neither the former president nor his lawyers have shown any evidence to support their claims that the judge in his hush-money criminal case has an anti-Trump bias. They urged him to reject defense demands that he step aside from...
Judge strikes down Arkansas ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors
LITTLE ROCK — A federal judge struck down Arkansas’ first-in-the-nation ban on gender-affirming care for children as unconstitutional Tuesday, the first ruling to overturn such a prohibition as a growing number of Republican-led states adopt similar restrictions. U.S. District Judge Jay Moody issued a permanent injunction against the Arkansas law,...
Pennsylvania House passes tax credit for new police officers, teachers and nurses
HARRISBURG — A proposed tax credit to recruit new teachers, nurses and police officers passed through the Pennsylvania House of Representatives with bipartisan support on Tuesday, but leaders of the Republican-controlled Senate have suggested it lacks support in the caucus. The bill passed 137-66, with every Democrat and about one-third...
Probe blames Pennsylvania county’s November ballot paper shortage on inexperience, poor training
HARRISBURG — A prosecutor’s review of voting problems in a Pennsylvania swing county where ballot paper ran out last year found no evidence of criminal activity or purposeful efforts to prevent voting, according to a new report that blamed inexperienced supervisors. Luzerne District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce’s 24-page review said only...
I-95 will open this weekend in Philadelphia, Shapiro says
About two weeks after a section of Interstate 95 collapsed in Philadelphia, the heavily trafficked freeway should reopen to traffic. Gov. Josh Shapiro said at a news conference Tuesday that three lanes in each direction will reopen this weekend, about a week ahead of the originally projected timeline, and well...
Blood-red crickets invade Nevada town, residents fight backVideo
ELKO, Nev. — Dana Dolan was driving through her small Nevada hometown when she thought she had come upon a gory crash. The ground surrounding Elko’s stretch of Interstate 80 looked as if it had been covered in blood. As the red color shifted and moved, she realized instead it...
What to know about Hunter Biden’s plea deal in federal tax and gun case
The announcement that federal prosecutors have reached a plea deal with President Joe Biden’s son Hunter over tax and gun charges marks the likely end of a five-year Justice Department investigation that has dogged the Biden family. It doesn’t, however, mean that congressional Republicans are done with their own wide-ranging...
Why haven’t China and the U.S. agreed to restore military contacts?
TAIPEI, Taiwan — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has wrapped up a closely watched visit to Beijing during which he and President Xi Jinping pledged to stabilize plunging U.S-China ties. But China refused the biggest U.S. request: restoring military-to-military contacts. Blinken said he raised the issue of military communications...
Supreme Court turns away veterans who seek disability benefits over 1966 hydrogen bomb accident
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected an appeal on behalf of some U.S. veterans who want disability benefits because they were exposed to radiation while responding to a Cold War-era hydrogen bomb accident in Spain. The justices did not comment in turning away an appeal from Victor Skaar,...
Hunter Biden will plead guilty in a deal that likely averts time behind bars in a tax and gun case
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s son Hunter will plead guilty to federal tax offenses but avoid a full prosecution on a separate gun charge in a deal with the Justice Department that likely spares him time behind bars. Hunter Biden, 53, will plead guilty to the misdemeanor tax offenses as...
