U.S./World category, Page 1176
Expelled student facing more rape charges jailed for year
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — A man who was allowed to remain enrolled at Marshall University despite a rape accusation has been sentenced to a year in jail for violating probation after new sexual assault charges emerged. A West Virginia circuit court judge sentenced Joseph Chase Hardin on Friday after he took...
Congressional inaction on vote security puts onus on states
The death of a bill in Congress this week that would have bolstered election security systems puts more pressure on states to prevent cyberattacks from Russia that former special counsel Robert Mueller warned against this week. But many states are paralyzed by their own inaction. State and local election officials...
Environmentalists, tribes blast Utah national monument plan
SALT LAKE CITY — The U.S. government has decided to allow off-road vehicles access to archaeologically sensitive land at a Utah national monument that houses sacred tribal sites under a plan announced Friday. The Bureau of Land Management’s plan for the Bears Ears National Monument says that certain historic sites...
Smugglers offer cash to troops, others to drive migrants
SAN DIEGO — On the surface, it seemed like a simple task: Drive to a spot a few miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border, pick up people and then drop them off at a McDonald’s or other spot past the city of San Diego, and make anywhere from $500 to...
Texas grand jury indicts Michigan professor on assault claim
HOUSTON — A grand jury in Texas this week indicted a University of Michigan professor who’s also a renowned opera singer on one count of sexual assault for what prosecutors say was the rape of an incapacitated man in 2010. The grand jury in Houston handed up the indictment Thursday...
Official: Arizona to resume executions after 5-year hiatus
PHOENIX — Arizona is poised to resume executions after a five-year hiatus brought on by an execution that critics said was botched, a subsequent lawsuit challenging the way the state carries out the death penalty, and the difficulty of finding lethal injection drugs, Attorney General Mark Brnovich said. Brnovich said...
Strike by Alaska ferry workers snarls travel plans
JUNEAU, Alaska — The first strike by Alaska ferry workers in over 40 years has snarled travel plans for thousands of people during the busy tourist and fishing season, leaving some stranded and catching the attention of a Democratic presidential candidate. Members of the Inlandboatmen’s Union of the Pacific went...
Black rag dolls meant to be abused are pulled from stores
NEWARK, N.J. — Black rag dolls that came with instructions to “find a wall” and slam the toy against it have been pulled from three stores after customers and a lawmaker said they were offensive. The “Feel Better Doll” featured instructions to “whack” the doll “whenever things don’t go well...
Tree-eating beetle gains ground in U.S. West, raising concerns
CLARKDALE, Ariz. — Matt Johnson treks along an Arizona riverbank and picks out a patch of yellow-tinged tamarisks. He sweeps a cloth net across the trees, hoping to scoop up beetles that munch on their evergreenlike leaves. He counts spiders, ants and leafhoppers among the catch and few beetles or...
Heat, then hail: Weather and travel woes hit Britain, France
LONDON — The temperature’s dropping but Europe’s troubles aren’t over: A record-busting heat wave gave way Friday to thunderstorms and hailstorms, bringing the Tour de France to a dramatic halt and causing trouble at British airports and beyond on one of the most hectic travel days of the year. In...
2 North Carolina bomb squad agents injured in explosion
RALEIGH, N.C. — Two North Carolina bomb squad agents were wounded Friday, one of them critically, when bomb-making materials blew up while they were searching the home of a man stopped with homemade explosives in his car, authorities said. Two State Bureau of Investigation agents were assisting the Sampson County...
As Trump expands deportation powers, immigrants prepare
CHICAGO — A sweeping expansion of deportation powers unveiled this week by the Trump administration has sent chills through immigrant communities and prompted some lawyers to advise migrants to gather up as much documentation as possible — pay stubs, apartment leases or even gym key tags — to prove they’ve...
Trump vows to retaliate against French digital tax
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump promised on Friday to retaliate against France for adopting a pioneering tax on internet giants like Google, Amazon and Facebook. He also managed to get in a shot at French wine. Trump, who doesn’t drink, tweeted: “I’ve always said American wine is better than French...
Hundreds of Hells Angels gathering in Carolina college town
CLEMSON, S.C. — Police are preparing for hundreds of Hells Angels to descend on a South Carolina college town next week for an annual gathering. The Greenville News reports an estimated 600 to 700 members of the motorcycle club are expected to ride into Clemson between Monday and Friday. Clemson...
Grasshoppers on the go make migratory stop in Vegas area
LAS VEGAS — A migration of mild-mannered grasshoppers sweeping through the Las Vegas area is being attributed to wet weather several months ago. Nevada state entomologist Jeff Knight told reporters on Thursday the number of adult pallid-winged grasshoppers traveling north to central Nevada is unusual but not unprecedented, and poses...
Girls cyberbullied more than boys amid U.S. harassment rise
SEATTLE — Rachel Whalen remembers feeling gutted in high school when a former friend would mock her online postings, threaten to unfollow or unfriend her on social media and post inside jokes about her to others online. The cyberbullying was so distressing that Whalen said she contemplated suicide. Once she...
University fires 9 officers over social media posts
NORFOLK, Va. — A historically black university in Virginia said Friday that it has fired nine of its police officers for sharing “misogynistic, racist and other offensive remarks via social media.” Hampton University’s statement did not detail the remarks the officers made. But it said they were fired for “egregious...
Bill Cosby appeal to focus on other women’s testimony, quaaludes
Prosecutors set to defend Bill Cosby’s sexual assault conviction in appeals court next month call the accusations from other women no coincidence, but “the culmination of a decades-long pattern of behavior.” Cosby, a long-beloved actor and comedian, was convicted in the first celebrity trial of the #MeToo era. He turned...
Libya’s coast guard recovers dozens of bodies of migrants
CAIRO — Libya’s coast guard recovered dozens of bodies of Europe-bound migrants who perished at sea as search operations continued Friday, a day after up to 150 people, including women and children, went missing and were feared drowned after their boats capsized in the Mediterranean Sea. A top U.N. official...
Animal shelter says it mistakenly killed woman’s dog
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — An Alabama animal shelter says it mistakenly euthanized a woman’s dog only hours after picking it up. The Montgomery Advertiser reports Kim Wright found a note on her door Monday saying her dog Vinnie had been running loose in the neighborhood and was picked up by the...
Viral video shows raw chicken meat crawling off tableVideo
How fresh do you like your meat? Rare? Really rare? Crawling-off-the-table rare? Well, if a video making its rounds on the internet is to be believed, that last one is possible. While the 7-second clip has been circulating for about a month, it seems to be a posting to Facebook...
Police: Man killed father, brother, wounded mother in LA
LOS ANGELES — A man fatally shot his father, brother and two other people Thursday during a 12-hour rampage across Los Angeles’ sprawling San Fernando Valley, eluding a manhunt until he was arrested after gunning down a bus passenger, authorities said. Police said they did not know what motivated Gerry...
Duterte offers bounty for ‘head’ of lead killer of 4 police
MANILA, Philippines — Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte offered a bounty to anybody who can deliver to him the head of the communist rebel leader behind the killings of four police intelligence officers last week in an insurgency-hit central province. Duterte said in a speech late Thursday that he raised a...
N. Korea says missile test was ‘solemn warning’ to S. Korea
SEOUL, South Korea — A day after two North Korean missile launches rattled Asia, the nation announced Friday that its leader Kim Jong Un supervised a test of a new-type tactical guided weapon that was meant to be a “solemn warning” about South Korean weapons introduction and its rival’s plans...
Report: No radiation exposure at Grand Canyon National Park
GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, Ariz. — Authorities say final findings show there’s no radiation exposure from uranium ore samples that poses a health risk for employees and visitors at Grand Canyon National Park. Park officials announced in February that they were investigating whether anyone was exposed to radiation at unsafe...
