NASA scrubs launch of new moon rocket test flight because of fuel leaksVideo
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Fuel leaks forced NASA to scrub the launch of its new moon rocket on a no-crew test flight on Monday. The next launch attempt will not take place until Friday at the earliest. The 322-foot Space Launch System rocket was set to lift off Monday morning...
Democrats: Abortion rulings may be ‘a blessing in disguise’
RALEIGH, N.C. — Democratic candidates have decried North Carolina’s newly reinstated abortion restrictions after a federal judge allowed a state law banning nearly all abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy to go into effect. But some North Carolina Democrats say the ruling earlier this month — the latest fallout of...
Suspended Somerset DA’s sexual assault trial continued to 2023
SOMERSET — Suspended Somerset County District Attorney Jeffrey Thomas’ trial on sexual assault charges has been continued to 2023. Court-appointed Senior Judge Timothy Creany granted Thomas’ attorneys’ motion to delay the case until Jan. 9, granting them time to obtain an expert medical report they said will be “essential” to...
Maryland court rules D.C.-area sniper to be resentenced
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Maryland’s highest court has ruled that Washington, D.C.-area sniper Lee Boyd Malvo must be resentenced, because of U.S. Supreme Court decisions relating to constitutional protections for juveniles made after Malvo was sentenced to six life sentences without the possibility of parole In its 4-3 ruling, however, the...
Rival Chechen fighters take war to battlefields of Ukraine
KYIV, Ukraine — Kneeling in a patch of yellow wildflowers, a Chechen soldier carefully attaches an explosive device to the bottom of a small drone. Seconds later, it is released. It explodes next to two old storefront mannequins set up 200 yards away, one with a Russian-style military hat on...
Trump search: What may come next in inquiry with legal peril
WASHINGTON — A newly released FBI document helps flesh out the contours of an investigation into classified material at former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate. But plenty of questions remain, especially because half the affidavit, which spelled out the FBI’s rationale for searching the property, was blacked out. That document,...
Explainer: Lower prescription prices to take time in new law
WASHINGTON — After decades of failed attempts, Democrats passed legislation that aims to rein in the soaring costs of drugs for some in the United States. It will take years for people to realize some of the most significant savings promised in the climate and health care bill that President...
Explainer: NASA tests new moon rocket, 50 years after Apollo
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Years late and billions over budget, NASA’s new moon rocket makes its debut next week in a high-stakes test flight before astronauts get on top. The 322-foot rocket will attempt to send an empty crew capsule into a far-flung lunar orbit, 50 years after NASA’s famed...
At $249 per day, prison stays leave ex-inmates deep in debt
HARTFORD, Conn. — Two decades after her release from prison, Teresa Beatty feels she is still being punished. When her mother died two years ago, the state of Connecticut put a lien on the Stamford home she and her siblings inherited. It said she owed $83,762 to cover the cost...
Doug Mastriano wore Confederate Army uniform in Army War College faculty photo
PHILADELPHIA — State Sen. Doug Mastriano, the Republican nominee for governor in Pennsylvania, appeared during his time on the faculty of the Army War College in an official photograph while wearing a Civil War Confederate Army uniform. That photograph, first reported Friday night by Reuters, was recently removed from the...
Murder suspect of former Japanese PM says life destroyed by mother’s religion
TOKYO — The brazen assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe with a handmade gun shocked a nation unused to high-profile political violence. But there has been another surprise in the weeks since the murder as details have emerged about an alleged assassin who was well-off until his mother’s...
Constable among 4 killed in Arizona eviction shooting
PHOENIX — An Arizona constable who got the job earlier this year when her predecessor quit over frustration about serving eviction notices was shot and killed while carrying out that same duty. Two other people died in the shooting, along with the gunman, authorities said. The shooting happened just after...
Missouri school district reinstates corporal punishment
A school district in southwest Missouri has decided to bring back spanking as a form of discipline for students, but only if their parents agree. The decision by the Cassville School District to resume the practice it dropped in 2001 comes as many public health experts contend corporal punishment is...
U.S. data reveals racial gaps in monkeypox vaccinations
The Biden administration said Friday there’s sufficient supplies of monkeypox vaccine available now but the shots aren’t getting to some of the people who need them most. About 10% of monkeypox vaccine doses have been given to Black people, even though they account for one-third of U.S. cases, according to...
USDA scattering rabies vaccines for wildlife in Pennsylvania, 12 other states
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has begun scattering millions of packets of oral rabies vaccine from helicopters and planes over 13 states from Maine to Alabama. The major aim is to keep raccoons from spreading their strain of the deadly virus to states where it hasn’t been found or isn’t...
Lebanese submarine finds 10 bodies on sunken migrant ship
BEIRUT — A Lebanese submarine has found the remains of at least 10 migrants who drowned when their boat sank earlier this year off the coast of Lebanon with about 30 people on board, the navy announced Friday. The boat, carrying dozens of Lebanese, Syrians and Palestinians trying to migrate...
Nebraska authorities baffled by missing canal water mystery
FURNAS COUNTY, Neb. — Authorities in Nebraska are trying to determine who released 16 million gallons of water by opening a dam on an irrigation channel one night this month — and why. The puzzling water release from the Cambridge Canal reduced the flow to some 18,000 acres of crops...
Philippine ferry carrying 82 people catches fire; 73 rescued
MANILA, Philippines — A Philippine ferry carrying 82 passengers and crew caught fire as it was approaching a port south of Manila on Friday, and at least 73 of those aboard have been rescued, including many who jumped into the water, the coast guard and survivors said. Search and rescue...
Moderna sues Pfizer, BioNTech over patents behind covid vaccine
Covid-19 vaccine maker Moderna is suing Pfizer and the German drugmaker BioNTech, accusing its main competitors of copying Moderna’s technology in order to make their own vaccine. Moderna said Friday that Pfizer and BioNTech’s vaccine Comirnaty infringes on patents Moderna filed several years ago protecting the technology behind its preventive...
Secret Service recovers $286M in stolen pandemic loans
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Secret Service said Friday that it has recovered $286 million in fraudulently obtained pandemic loans and is returning the money to the Small Business Administration. The Secret Service said an investigation initiated by its Orlando office found that alleged conspirators submitted Economic Injury Disaster Loan applications...
FBI: Trump mixed top secret docs with magazines, other items
WASHINGTON — Fourteen of the 15 boxes recovered from former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate early this year contained classified documents, many of them top secret, mixed in with miscellaneous newspapers, magazines and personal correspondence, according to an FBI affidavit released Friday. No space at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate was authorized...
No UN access yet to Russian-occupied nuke plant in Ukraine
KYIV, Ukraine — A team from the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency is expected to visit the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine soon but more shelling was reported in the area overnight. The visit comes after the plant was temporarily knocked offline, fueling fears of a catastrophe in a...
Turkish pop star jailed over joke about religious schools
ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish pop star Gulsen has been arrested on charges of “inciting hatred and enmity” with a joke she made about Turkey’s religious schools, the country’s state-run news agency reported. The 46-year-old singer and songwriter, whose full name is Gulsen Colakoglu, was taken away from her home in...
Police: West Virginia officers kill fugitive who they say pulled gun at father’s funeral
NUTTER FORT, W.Va. — A man being sought by U.S. Marshals and other law enforcement agencies was fatally shot at a northern West Virginia funeral service for his father Wednesday after he pulled a gun on officers attempting to apprehend him, authorities said. The shooting occurred in the Harrison community...
Mark Meadows, Sidney Powell testimony sought in Georgia election probe
ATLANTA — The prosecutor investigating whether Donald Trump and others illegally tried to influence the 2020 election in Georgia is seeking to compel testimony from more allies of the former president, including former chief of staff Mark Meadows and lawyer Sidney Powell. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis filed petitions...