U.S./World category, Page 1085

Puerto Rico has started cutting benefits paid out by a food stamps program used by more than 1 million of its residents, as federal lawmakers have not provided the island with additional emergency disaster funding amid opposition from the Trump administration. On Monday, Puerto Rico started reducing food stamp benefits...

CHICAGO — A grand jury in Chicago indicted “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett on 16 felony counts related to making a false report that he was attacked by two men who shouted racial and homophobic slurs. The Cook County grand jury indictment dated Thursday and made public on Friday gives details...

SANTA FE, N.M. — New Mexico took a step toward legalizing recreational marijuana when its House approved a bill that would allow state-run stores and require customers to carry a receipt with their cannabis or face penalties. The measure, narrowly approved Thursday following a late-night debate, mixes major provisions of...

LEWISTON, Maine — Text messages made public by a woman who said she had an affair with a mayoral candidate who was later elected in Maine’s second-largest city reveal a racist remark he sent her while the two were working to undermine a political opponent. Heather Berube Everly has called...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - Former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning will be held in jail until she testifies before a grand jury or that grand jury is no longer operating, a federal judge in Alexandria ruled Friday. Most of the hearing at which prosecutors argued for Manning to held in contempt...

MIDDLETON, N.H. — Police in New Hampshire say a 3-month-old puppy was stabbed during a break-in at a home. WMUR-TV reports police said no one was home during the burglary on Thursday in Middleton. When the residents came home, they found the puppy, named Jax, with stab wounds to his...

WASHINGTON — U.S. housing starts jumped 18.6 percent in January, as builders ramped up construction of single-family houses to the fastest pace in eight months. The Commerce Department said Friday that January ground breakings occurred at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.23 million. Home construction rebounded sharply from December,...

WASHINGTON — The pace of hiring in the United States fell last month to its lowest point in nearly a year and a half, a surprise drop likely reflecting harsh weather and other temporary factors that led most economists to see the slowdown as a temporary blip. Employers added just...

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — An Alabama judge has approved a wrongful death lawsuit filed by a 21-year-old man on behalf of an aborted embryo. Al.com reported Wednesday that Ryan Magers is calling the 6-week-old embryo “Baby Roe” in his suit seeking damages from the Alabama Women’s Center for Reproductive Alternatives. Magers...

GUYTON, Ga. — An investigator with the Effingham County Sheriff’s Office in Georgia says a girl whose body was buried in the backyard had been beaten, bound, starved and shocked with a stun gun. The Savannah Morning News reports Investigator Abby Brown testified Tuesday that 14-year-old Mary Crocker also was...

GREEN BAY, Wis. — A cheese from Ohio has captured the top spot at the U.S. Championship Cheese Contest in Wisconsin. The baby Swiss made by Guggisberg Cheese in Millersburg, Ohio, barely edged out a Gouda made by Marieke Penterman in Thorp, who won the contest in 2013. Penterman was...

CARACAS, Venezuela — A massive blackout plunged Caracas and much of the nation into chaos Thursday, forcing the rush-hour closure of the capital’s metro and sending tens of thousands of people into the streets in what the authorities alleged was an act of “sabotage.” “This is part of a power...

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis denounced the “depraved hatred” behind a wave of anti-Semitic attacks in parts of the world and said interfaith dialogue can help counter it. Francis met Friday with a delegation of the American Jewish Committee and praised their longstanding good relations. He lamented that their meeting...

WASHINGTON — Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson, once seen as a candidate to succeed Jim Mattis as defense secretary, said Friday she is resigning to become president of the University of Texas at El Paso. A former U.S. House Republican member from New Mexico and graduate of the U.S. Air...

A billionaire diamond trader has died after complications during a medical procedure. The Toronto Sun reports that Israeli-Belgian dual citizen Ehud Arye Laniado, who founded Omega Diamonds, died at an upscale Paris hospital. “Farewell to a visionary businessman. It is with great sadness that we confirm that our founder Ehud...

The Boulder, Colo., police department is conducting an internal investigation after video surfaced of an officer questioning a black man who was picking up garbage in front of his residence. The officer has been placed on administrative leave until the investigation is complete. On Friday morning, an officer initially approached...

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. — The high school party took an ugly turn. Drink cups were used to form a crude swastika. Nazi salutes flashed. Cameras clicked. What appears to have been a woefully misguided attempt at humor turned into a national embarrassment for the Southern California city of Newport Beach,...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was sentenced Thursday to nearly four years in prison for tax and bank fraud related to his work advising Ukrainian politicians, much less than what was called for under sentencing guidelines. Manafort, sitting in a wheelchair as he deals with complications...

NEW ORLEANS — A woman and two children bludgeoned to death with a hammer in a suburban New Orleans apartment were killed by the woman’s boyfriend, authorities said Thursday. Two other children remain hospitalized as a result of the attack Wednesday morning in Terrytown. Jefferson Parish Sheriff Joseph Lopinto identified...

Here’s a little good news for millionaires worried about the ramifications of tax time as April 15 draws ever nearer: your chances of being audited have decreased significantly in recent years. Government records show the number of audits of America’s wealthiest taxpayers — those filing returns for $1 million or...

A Catholic school in Kansas refused to admit a same-sex couple’s kindergarten-aged child. Now, more than 1,000 people are protesting the decision and urging the school to change its mind. In a letter sent to the parents of students at St. Ann Catholic School in Prairie Village, the Rev. Craig...

NEW YORK — Authorities say a man who served jail time for breaking into Taylor Swift’s Manhattan townhouse has been arrested for doing it again. Roger Alvarado of Homestead, Florida was arrested around 2:30 a.m. Thursday after he allegedly climbed a ladder to a second-floor patio and smashed a glass...

SADDLE RIVER, N.J. — A New Jersey town is putting some bite in an ordinance that could result in hefty fines and even jail time for owners of barking dogs. The Saddle River council is amending a one-sentence noise rule by placing time restrictions that would prohibit dogs from barking,...

DENVER — A Colorado man strangled his pregnant wife in their bed before driving her body and their two daughters to a worksite where he smothered the girls with a blanket, according to records of an interview he gave police from prison. Christopher Watts made the statements during authorities’ prison...

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department said Thursday that it has charged more than 225 individuals over the past year in connection with fraud scams that victimize people age 60 and older. Attorney General William Barr and other law enforcement officials announced what they said was the department’s largest-ever nationwide crackdown...