U.S./World category, Page 1255
Barbara Bush blamed Trump for ‘angst,’ new book reveals
WASHINGTON — Barbara Bush says Donald Trump caused her “angst” during the 2016 election and led her to question whether she was still a Republican in the months before she died. The late former first lady’s thoughts about Trump were revealed in excerpts published Wednesday in USA Today of an...
World’s biggest Tyrannosaurus rex, nicknamed Scotty, discovered in Canada
Scotty lived in prehistoric Saskatchewan, Canada, 66 million years ago. He was 42 feet long and weighed more than 9.7 tons. Scotty was world’s biggest Tyrannosaurus rex and the largest dinosaur skeleton ever found in Canada. He also lived longer than most T. rexes. These are some of the finding...
Storm chaser’s mother blames the Weather Channel in son’s death
The wall of charcoal gray clouds drifted across the sky, the rain picked up and the storm chasers gunned it. Kelley Williamson and Randy Yarnall were looking for rotation, any signs of the birth of a tornado. Hurtling down a two-lane highway deep in the Texas Panhandle, they sat behind...
Kirsten Gillibrand releases her 2018 taxes
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand has released her tax returns for 2018, showing she paid $29,170 in federal taxes on an income of about $214,000. The New York Democrat on Wednesday became the first presidential candidate to disclose the latest tax filing. Her income included her $167,000 Senate salary,...
U.S. trade gap falls 15 percent to $51.1 billion in January
WASHINGTON — The U.S. trade deficit tumbled nearly 15 percent in January as imports fell and exports rose. Shipments of American goods to China skidded to the lowest level in more than eight years as the world’s two biggest economies remained locked in a trade war. The Commerce Department said...
Arby’s manager charged in death of threatening customer
TULSA, Okla. — Authorities say the manager of an Oklahoma Arby’s restaurant has been charged in the fatal shooting of a customer who she said threatened her. Tulsa County jail records show 25-year-old Deionna Young is being held without bond Tuesday on a first-degree murder charge. Records don’t list an...
U.S. shuts interior checkpoints to focus on Mexico border
LAS CRUCES, New Mexico — U.S. immigration authorities have temporarily closed highway checkpoints in New Mexico and much of West Texas, as they reassign agents and use the outposts to help process the growing numbers of Central Americans arriving at the Mexican border. The checkpoints, located up to 100 miles...
Search on for burial site of America’s first published poet
NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. — Anne Bradstreet was the North American continent’s first published poet, yet her legacy has largely been lost to time. Now, professors and students at Merrimack College in Massachusetts are trying to pinpoint her burial site while at the same restoring her legacy and what they say...
Heiress hoax scores woman celebrity treatment, and charges
NEW YORK — Anna Sorokin traveled in celebrity circles and tossed $100 tips — all the more reason to believe she was the German heiress she said she was. But behind the jet-set lifestyle and pricey threads, prosecutors say, was a fraudster who bilked friends, banks and hotels for a...
Trump buoyant at luncheon while Pelosi urges focus on policy
WASHINGTON — An exuberant President Donald Trump took a victory lap on Capitol Hill, emboldened by the end of the special counsel’s Russia probe, even as Democrats pressed insistently for Robert Mueller’s full report and Justice Department officials said more information could be released in “weeks, not months.” Trump strode...
Trump’s 2020 machine a far cry from fly-by-night 2016 effort
WASHINGTON — In 2016, President Donald Trump compared Hillary Clinton’s campaign to the lumbering federal bureaucracy. Now he’s building one of his own. From an office tower across the Potomac River from Washington, from the bowels of the Republican National Committee’s headquarters on Capitol Hill and from field offices across...
FAA to revamp aircraft construction oversight, official says
The Federal Aviation Administration plans to significantly revamp its oversight of airplane construction this summer after questions were raised about how it manages inspections done by the industry, according to testimony prepared for a Senate subcommittee hearing on Wednesday. The testimony by Calvin Scovel III, the Transportation Department’s inspector general...
Dismissal of Smollett case brings backlash, more questions
CHICAGO — Prosecutors still insist Jussie Smollett faked a racist, anti-gay attack on himself in the hopes that the attention would advance his acting career. The “Empire” star still says he was assaulted by two men late at night in downtown Chicago. But with little explanation, authorities on Tuesday abruptly...
Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 Max makes emergency landing in Florida
A Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 on its way to storage was forced to make an emergency landing Tuesday afternoon shortly after departing Orlando, Fla. Southwest Flight 8701 took off from Orlando International Airport at 2:50 p.m. and returned to the airport about 10 minutes later, after pilots reported...
Maker of OxyContin reaches $270M settlement in Oklahoma
OKLAHOMA CITY — The maker of OxyContin and the company’s controlling family agreed Tuesday to pay a groundbreaking $270 million to Oklahoma to settle allegations they helped create the nation’s deadly opioid crisis with their aggressive marketing of the powerful painkiller. It is the first settlement to come out of...
Kids get measles vaccine after New York county declares emergency
NEW YORK — Some parents who had resisted having their children vaccinated reluctantly brought them in for a measles shot Wednesday as a state of emergency took effect in a county in New York City’s northern suburbs. Rockland County enacted the emergency order Tuesday night to fight a measles outbreak...
House fails to override Trump veto of his border emergency
WASHINGTON — The Democratic-controlled House fell short Tuesday in its effort to override President Donald Trump’s first veto, handing him a victory in his effort to spend billions more for constructing barriers along the Southwest border than Congress has approved. Lawmakers voted 248-181 in favor of overturning his veto, mostly...
El Chapo seeks new trial, citing jury misconduct
NEW YORK — Defense attorneys asked a federal judge Tuesday to grant a new trial to the Mexican drug lord known as El Chapo, saying jurors improperly followed media coverage of the sensational drug conspiracy case. Joaquin Guzman’s defense team said in court filings that jurors repeatedly disregarded instructions to...
Suit-sizing issue causes NASA to nix 1st all-female spacewalk
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA has nixed the first all-female spacewalk over a spacesuit size issue. Astronaut Anne McClain was supposed to float out of the International Space Station this Friday with newly arrived Christina Koch. But McClain pulled herself from the lineup because there’s not enough time to get...
Jussie Smollett’s attorneys say all criminal charges dropped
CHICAGO — Attorneys for “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett said Tuesday that charges alleging he lied to police about a racist and homophobic attack have been dropped. Smollett attorneys Tina Glandian and Patricia Brown Holmes said in a statement that Smollett’s record “has been wiped clean.” Smollett was indicted on 16...
George H.W. Bush’s office set to close for final time
HOUSTON — Four months after the death of the former president, George H.W. Bush’s office in Houston is to close for the last time at 5 p.m. Friday. Bush Chief of Staff Jean Becker says “as one era ends, a new one is beginning.” In a statement issued Monday, Becker...
Ohio man on beer diet for Lent has lost 25 pounds
An Ohio man who is sustaining himself during Lent on a diet of beer is about halfway through his challenge and has dropped 25 pounds so far. Del Hall, who works at a brewery in Cincinnati and is Army veteran, has posted updates to social media throughout his beer fast....
50 years for man who raped neighbor, then offered yard work
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A 20-year-old convicted of raping his neighbor and then offering to do work around her house to make it up to her is being sent to prison for 50 years. Jurors in West Palm Beach found Timothy Walding guilty of sexual battery, false imprisonment and...
Baby boom: 9 labor unit nurses pregnant at Maine hospital
PORTLAND, Maine — Nine nurses who work in the labor and delivery unit at the largest hospital in Maine are expecting babies in the next few months. Maine Medical Center announced the bonanza of babies with a Facebook post on Monday featuring eight of the nine nurses and their respective...
Family owners of Panera, Einstein Bros. Bagels admit Nazi past
The German family whose holding company owns controlling stakes in companies such as Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Panera Bread, Pret a Manger and Einstein Bros. Bagels profited from the horrors of the Nazi regime, according to a report in a German newspaper. The tabloid Bild, one of Germany’s most popular papers,...
