U.S./World category, Page 1154
Electric bikes might soon be coming to national park trails
WASHINGTON — Motorized electric bicycles may soon be humming their way into serene national parks and other public lands nationwide, under a new Trump administration order — hotly opposed by many outdoors groups — allowing the so-called e-bikes on every federal trail where a regular bike can go. Sales of...
Trump eyes mental institutions as answer to gun violence
WASHINGTON — When shots rang out last year at a high school in Parkland, Fla., leaving 17 people dead, President Donald Trump quickly turned his thoughts to creating more mental institutions. When back-to-back mass shootings in Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas, jolted the nation earlier this month, Trump again...
5 whales dead after mass stranding on Maui beach
HONOLULU — Five whales died, including four that were euthanized, after a mass stranding Thursday on a beach on the Hawaii island of Maui. Ten melon-headed whales were found stranded alive early in the morning on Sugar Beach in the coastal resort community of Kihei. Hours later, a whale calf...
Hurricane Dorian bears down on northern Bahamas
Hurricane Dorian bore down on the northern Bahamas on Saturday with howlingwinds, surging seas and a threat of torrential rains, forcing some evacuations and hotel closures ahead of the fierceCategory 4 storm. Forecasters expected Dorian, packing 150 mph winds, to hit some Bahamian islands Sunday before heading nearFlorida and then...
1-year-old child dies in hot car in North Carolina
PINEVILLE, N.C. — Police in North Carolina say a baby has died after his mother left the 1-year-old in a hot car while she was at work. News outlets report Pineville Police responded to a 911 call Thursday evening and found the 1-year-old boy in his car seat in a...
He walked into a Virginia Beach 7-Eleven for a Big Gulp. He ended up shooting 2 robbers, killing 1
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — It had already been a long and emotional day for the Virginia Beach man when he walked into a 7-Eleven store to buy a Big Gulp. He’d just been involved in a heated argument with his stepfather, and police had been called to the house. After...
250 pigs escape; most back, some with help from hot dog buns
ORANGE, Vt. — About 250 pigs have been causing a ruckus in a Vermont town the past month after they escaped from their enclosure, but most of them had been returned as of Thursday thanks to a trail of hot dog buns and good ol’ fashioned corralling. Several farm workers...
Alabama governor apologies for wearing blackface in college
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey apologized Thursday for wearing blackface decades ago, becoming the latest politician to face scrutiny over racially insensitive photos and actions from their university days. Ivey, 74, issued the apology after a 1967 radio interview surfaced in which her now-ex-husband describes her actions at...
Condemned death row inmate waits to hear whether he will be spared
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A condemned Tennessee prisoner is waiting to hear whether he will be spared the death chamber after he claimed prosecutors illegally excluded African Americans from the jury pool. Abu-Ali Abdur’Rahman (ah-BOO’-ah-LEE’) (AHB’-dur-RAK’-mahn), who is black, faces an April 16 execution date for the 1986 murder of Patrick...
Feds: Drug ring had enough cheap fentanyl to kill 14 million
NORFOLK, Va. — Law enforcement officials in Virginia said Thursday that they’ve taken down a multi-state drug ring and seized enough cheap fentanyl from China to kill 14 million people. The bust was announced in the wake of growing efforts to stem the flow of fentanyl from Chinese labs to...
Texas governor says ‘mistakes’ made in immigrant rhetoric
EL PASO, Texas — Republican Gov. Greg Abbott said Thursday “mistakes were made” when he sent a fundraising mailer that called on supporters to “defend Texas” from illegal immigration, which was dated a day before a gunman targeting Mexicans killed 22 people in El Paso. The letter was condemned as...
Teammates mourn slayings of pitcher’s family in Va. town
KEELING, Va. — Blake Bivens was inconsolable as the 24-year-old minor league pitcher flew from a road trip back to southern Virginia, where his wife, 1-year-old son and mother-in-law were slain. “It was awful,” said Montgomery Biscuits manager Morgan Ensberg, who traveled with Bivens on Tuesday. “Blake is an incredibly...
New Mexico official: Retake state land leased to Epstein
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — New Mexico’s attorney general urged officials Thursday to retake state trust land that had been leased to Jeffrey Epstein’s ranch, saying the financier’s bid for the scrubby, desert acreage meant for cattle grazing should not have been granted. In a statement, Attorney General Hector Balderas accused Epstein...
Marshal says fugitives had 8-hour head start on authorities
PHOENIX — The U.S. marshal for Arizona says a fugitive couple suspected of murder escaped by tying up two security guards near the Utah state line. In an interview Thursday with Phoenix radio station KTAR-FM, David Gonzales shared more details about how 56-year-old Blane Barksdale and 59-year-old Susan Barksdale escaped...
U.S. proposes easing rules on methane emissions
WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to revoke many of its regulations covering oil-industry leaks of methane, a potent climate-changing gas. EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler said in a statement Thursday that the agency is following President Donald Trump’s directive to remove regulatory burdens on the oil and gas...
Unflushed toilet prompts threat with machete
A Florida man was arrested after threatening a friend with a machete over an unflushed toilet. Keith Mounts, 46, of Hudson was detained last week by officers from the Pasco Sheriff’s Office, reports Newsweek. The victim claimed Mounts pointed the knife in his face and said he would “chop” him...
New species of bloodsucking leech with 3 jaws discovered
BALTIMORE — What has three jaws, 56 to 59 teeth in each, no thumbs and was first discovered in Charles County, Md.? No, this is not a story about Chessie, the monster who definitely lives at the bottom of the Chesapeake Bay along with the unedited footage of Stanley Kubrick’s...
Judge ends case against Epstein, with a nod to the accusers
NEW YORK — A judge has formally ended the criminal case against financier Jeffrey Epstein. U.S. District Judge Richard Berman on Thursday granted prosecutors’ request to dismiss charges against Epstein after he killed himself in jail Aug. 10 while he was awaiting his sex trafficking trial. The judge’s action was...
Ouch! Pro runner steps into Michigan pothole, breaks leg
FLINT, Mich. — There’s more evidence of Michigan’s woeful roads: A champion runner says he fractured a leg bone when he stepped into a pothole during a 10-mile race in Flint. Chris Derrick, a three-time U.S. Cross Country champion, posted a photo of his right leg on Instagram. View this...
Magnitude 6.3 earthquake rumbles 150 miles off Oregon coast
COOS BAY, Ore. — An underwater earthquake with an initial 6.3 magnitude has struck off the Oregon coast. The U.S. Geological Survey said Thursday no tsunami is expected from the temblor, which happened about 150 miles from land. It was at a depth of about 5.4 miles underwater. There were...
Apple sanctions phone-repair shops for iPhone fixes
NEW YORK — There may soon be more places to get an Apple-sanctioned fix for a cracked iPhone screen. Apple said Thursday that it will sell tools and parts to independent phone-repair shops in the United States and later in other countries. The repair shops need to have an Apple-certified...
Greek leader wants talks with Germany on war reparations
BERLIN — Greece’s newly elected prime minister has said during a visit in Berlin that he hopes Germany will agree to start negotiations on war reparations. After a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told reporters “we hope there will be a positive response.”...
Hurricane Dorian picks up steam, menaces Florida
MIAMI (AP) — Leaving mercifully little damage in its wake in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, a strengthening Hurricane Dorian posed an increasing menace to Florida on Thursday as it swirled toward a possible direct hit on the state over Labor Day weekend. Along much of Florida’s east coast,...
‘This ain’t your mother’s marijuana,’ surgeon general says
WASHINGTON — Federal health officials are issuing a national warning against marijuana use by adolescents and pregnant women , as more states legalize some forms of the drug’s use. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and Surgeon General Jerome Adams made the announcement Thursday. The warning comes as more...
Virginia man gets 5 years in prison for dog burned alive
RICHMOND, Va. — A Virginia man will serve five years in prison without parole for the death of a pit bull that was tied to a fence, covered in accelerant and set on fire. Richmond police announced Wednesday that the sentence was part of 20-year-old Jyahshua A. Hill’s plea agreement....
