U.S./World category, Page 978
Mississippi mayor flouts calls to resign over Floyd comments
PETAL, Miss. — A Mississippi mayor whose remarks about the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody sparked outrage is resisting calls to resign, including from his own town’s board of aldermen. “Why in the world would anyone choose to become a police officer in our society today?” Petal...
Minneapolis police station torched during George Floyd protestVideo
MINNEAPOLIS — Cheering protesters torched a Minneapolis police station that the department abandoned as three days of violent protests spread to nearby St. Paul and angry demonstrations flared across the U.S over the death of George Floyd, a handcuffed black man who pleaded for air as a white police officer...
Minneapolis officer accused in George Floyd’s death opened fire on 2 peopleVideo
A white Minneapolis police officer who knelt on George Floyd’s neck opened fire on two people during his 19-year career and had nearly 20 complaints and two letters of reprimand filed against him. Derek Chauvin, 44, became the focus of street protests and a federal investigation after he was seen...
NSA: Russian agents have been hacking major email program
BOSTON — The National Security Agency says the same Russian military hacking group that interfered in the 2016 presidential election and unleashed a devastating malware attack the following year has been exploiting a major email server program since last August or earlier. The timing of the agency’s advisory Thursday was...
Police: Connecticut man wanted in 2 slayings surrendered peacefullyVideo
HARTFORD, Conn. — A college student wanted in connection with two killings in Connecticut was taken into custody when he walked out of a wooded area in Maryland and surrendered peacefully to officers who had their guns drawn, ending six days on the run in several states and providing some...
VA Secretary Robert Wilkie grilled on Nazi grave markers at military cemeteries
WASHINGTON — Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie on Thursday wouldn’t commit to removing three headstones containing swastikas and messages honoring Adolf Hitler from the graves of German prisoners of war, frustrating House lawmakers. Wilkie said he wanted to work with members of Congress to put such anti-Semitic and racist imagery...
National Guard called to respond to Minneapolis violenceVideo
MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz called in the National Guard on Thursday as looting broke out in St. Paul and a wounded Minneapolis braced for more violence after rioting over the death of a handcuffed black man in police custody reduced parts of one neighborhood to a smoking shambles....
Trump’s fossil fuel agenda gets pushback from federal judges
BILLINGS, Mont. — Federal courts have delivered a string of rebukes to the Trump administration over what they found were failures to protect the environment and address climate change as it promotes fossil fuel interests and the extraction of natural resources from public lands. Judges have ruled administration officials ignored...
Stimulus payments in form of debit card cause confusion across country
As the IRS encourages Americans to be on the lookout for scams related to federal coronavirus stimulus money, the agency is sending millions of people their money in the form of a debit card. The prepaid card was sent to 4 million people who did not provide their banking information...
Fires, looting rock Minneapolis after man’s death in police custody; 1 deadVideo
MINNEAPOLIS — Fires burned and looters struck Thursday after violent protests over the death of a black man in police custody rocked a Minneapolis neighborhood for a second straight night, with damage stretching for miles across the city and Mayor Jacob Frey appealing to the governor to activate the National...
41 million Americans have lost jobs since coronavirus hit, but layoffs slowVideo
WASHINGTON — The coronavirus crisis threw at least 2.1 million Americans out of work last week despite the gradual reopening of businesses around the country, stoking fears Thursday that the scourge is doing deep and potentially long-lasting damage to the U.S. economy. Amid a few glimmers of hope, most of...
College student wanted in 2 Connecticut slayings is capturedVideo
HARTFORD, Conn. — A college student sought by police as a suspect in a crime spree including two slayings in Connecticut has been captured, Connecticut State Police said Wednesday night. Peter Manfredonia, 23, had been the subject of a six-day search involving several police agencies and the FBI. He was...
North Huntingdon historian seeks volunteers to help digitize WWI burial records
Andrew Capets’ initial interest in World War I was finding out more about his grandfather’s unit, the 313th Machine Gun Battalion. That research led the North Huntingdon resident and amateur historian to write “Good War, Great Men,” which focused on his grandfather’s battalion and its exploits, including fighting in the...
Man who hanged effigy of Kentucky governor fired from jobVideo
LOUISVILLE — A protester who participated in hanging an effigy of Kentucky’s governor at an armed rally on the State Capitol grounds has been fired from his job at an auto dealer. Neil Huffman Auto Group said it terminated the unidentified employee after an internal review, saying it “does not...
Amazon uses portion of headquarters for homeless shelter in Seattle
Cyber market giant Amazon has created a permanent homeless shelter inside one of its buildings at its Seattle headquarters. The facility is home to 50 families in private rooms and is slated to double that number in the near future, per media website Deadline. Officials at the shelter say they...
Postal service offers reward for info on paintball attacks in D.C. area
WASHINGTON — A $50,000 reward is being offered for information that leads to the arrest and convictions of people who’ve been shooting mail carriers with paintball guns. The Washington Post reports that the mail carriers were attacked on Saturday in at least five incidents in Washington and Maryland. Postal Inspection...
Disney, SeaWorld announce plans for Florida parks to reopenVideo
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — SeaWorld and Walt Disney World will reopen in Orlando in June and July after months of inactivity because of the coronavirus pandemic, according to plans a city task force approved Wednesday. The proposals will now be sent to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for final approval. The...
Mike Pompeo says Hong Kong is no longer autonomous from ChinaVideo
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has notified Congress that the Trump administration no longer regards Hong Kong as autonomous from mainland China, setting the stage for the united States to withdraw the former British colony’s preferential trade and financial status it has enjoyed since it reverted to Chinese...
Minneapolis mayor: Officer who put knee on man’s neck should be chargedVideo
MINNEAPOLIS — The mayor of Minneapolis called Wednesday for criminal charges against the white police officer seen on video kneeling against the neck of a handcuffed black man who complained that he could not breathe and died in police custody. Based on the video, Mayor Jacob Frey said officer Derek...
Disney plans to reopen parks beginning July 11Video
Looks like a lot of people are about to get a whole lot happier. Disney announced Wednesday it is hoping to reopen all four of its parks — the Happiest Place on Earth — in Orlando, Fla., by mid-July, the Orlando Sentinel reports. The phased reopening would begin July 11...
So-called honor killing of teen girl brings outcry in Iran
TEHRAN, Iran — The so-called honor killing of a 14-year-old Iranian girl by her father, who reportedly used a farming sickle to behead her as she slept, has prompted a nationwide outcry. Reza Ashrafi, now in custody, was apparently enraged when he killed his daughter Romina on Thursday after she...
U.S. deaths from coronavirus surpass 100,000 milestoneVideo
HARTFORD, Conn. — The United States surpassed a jarring milestone Wednesday in the coronavirus pandemic: 100,000 deaths. That number is the best estimate and most assuredly an undercount. But it represents the stark reality that more Americans have died from the virus than from the Vietnam and Korea wars combined....
New requirements for dentists could raise prices for patients
PHILADELPHIA — When the dentist’s office called to cancel Laura Lizcano’s appointment for a crown and cavity filling in March because of the coronavirus, she wasn’t terribly worried. The 25-year-old freelance musician didn’t know at the time that the pandemic would keep medical offices closed for months — and prevent...
Historic SpaceX launch postponed because of stormy weather
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The launch of a SpaceX rocket ship with two NASA astronauts on a history-making flight into orbit has been called off with 16 minutes to go in the countdown because of the danger of lightning. Liftoff is rescheduled for Saturday. The spacecraft was set to blast...
Poll: Half of Americans would get a covid-19 vaccineVideo
Only about half of Americans say they would get a covid-19 vaccine if the scientists working furiously to create one succeed, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. That’s surprisingly low considering the effort going into the global race for a vaccine against...
