Associated Press stories, Page 2484
Romanian tourist dies in accident at Yosemite National Park
A Romanian tourist has died in a fall near a waterfall in Yosemite National Park in California. Authorities say 21-year-old Lucian Miu was scrambling on wet rocks below Bridalveil Fall on Wednesday when he fell about 20 feet. He died at a hospital. The Fresno Bee says two other people...
Vineyard fined $3.7M after bulldozing California wetland
SANTA ROSA, Calif. — California regulators say a Silicon Valley tech entrepreneur and winemaker has agreed to pay $3.76 million in penalties after his company bulldozed a protected wetland and filled in a stream bed to build a vineyard in Mendocino County. The Santa Rosa Press Democrat reports Saturday that...
Phillies sue to block Phanatic from becoming ‘free agent’
The Philadelphia Phillies have sued the New York company that created the Phanatic mascot to prevent the green furry fan favorite from becoming a free agent. In a complaint filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, the team alleged Harrison/Erickson threatened to terminate the Phillies’ rights to the Phanatic...
Texas governor: 20 dead in shooting at El Paso shopping complex
EL PASO, Texas — A young gunman opened fire in an El Paso, Texas, shopping area packed with as many as 3,000 people during the busy back-to-school season Saturday, leaving 20 dead and more than two dozen injured. Authorities were investigating the possibility the shooting was a hate crime, working...
Sprint car flips over fence after crash, kills spectator at Williams Grove Speedway
Authorities say a car flipped over the infield fence at a central Pennsylvania speedway and struck a track volunteer, killing him. The Cumberland County coroner’s office said two Sprint car drivers crashed into each other while rounding a turn at Williams Grove Speedway just before 9:30 p.m. Friday. Coroner Charles...
Impeachment summer? August town halls may decide next steps
WASHINGTON — Freshman Democratic Rep. Andy Kim came face to face with impeachment fervor at a town hall in New Jersey. “Do your job!” shouted one voter. Several states away, a woman held up a copy of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report and told freshman Rep. Elissa Slotkin at a...
103-year-old ex-chemist to be honored for work on penicillin
COLUMBUS, Ohio — The story is family lore. In 1942, chemist Robert Walton, then in his late 20s, was drafted following the attacks on Pearl Harbor and boarded a bus in Rahway, New Jersey, for basic training at Fort Dix. His journey lasted only a few miles when FBI agents...
Slave descendants to spend night in cabins at North Carolina plantation
Descendants of slaves removed from Africa to clear swamps for a North Carolina plantation are holding a reunion at the site, with some spending the night in a reconstructed slave cabin. About 40 descendants of two slaves named Kofi and Sally planned to gather Saturday at the Somerset Place State...
Collapsing California cliff claims 3 lives along beach
ENCINITAS, Calif. — A popular surfing beach was closed Saturday after a cliff collapsed, sending tons of sandstone onto beachgoers and killing three people. A 30-foot-long slab of the cliff plunged onto the sand near Grandview Beach north of San Diego. A KNSD-TV helicopter captured footage of beach chairs, towels,...
Freed from Swedish jail, rapper A$AP Rocky lands in US
LOS ANGELES — Nearly a month after he was arrested in Sweden, rapper A$AP Rocky returned to the United States as the verdict in an assault case against him and two other Americans looms. Los Angeles television stations reported the artist was among a group of people shown emerging from...
Franklin Regional grad Jackson finishes tied for 7th in Boys Junior PGA Championship
HARTFORD, Conn. — Jack Heath made a 40-foot birdie putt from the fringe on the par-4 18th hole for an 8-under-par 62 and a one-stroke victory Friday in the Boys Junior PGA Championship. “I knew if it went in, I would most likely win, and it went in,” Heath said....
Police: Rookie Texas officer shoots at dog, kills woman
ARLINGTON, Texas — A rookie Texas police officer accidentally shot and killed a woman behind a shopping plaza when he fired repeatedly at a dog believed to be hers that was running at him, authorities said Friday. The officer in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, who was released from supervised...
Sheriff: S.C. inmate with 10 cellphone violations planned killing
COLUMBIA, S.C. — A South Carolina inmate serving a murder sentence who was also convicted of running a drug ring from behind bars on contraband cellphones orchestrated the killing of a woman from his cell last month, a sheriff said Friday. Michelle Dodge, 27, was kidnapped and shot in the...
Forest Service wants to trim habitat for sage grouse
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — A U.S. Forest Service plan released Friday would reduce designated sage grouse habitat in Wyoming and Nevada while easing grazing rules intended to protect the ground-dwelling birds in five Western states. The plan would target 300 square miles now set aside for sage grouse in Wyoming and...
NYPD judge recommends firing officer in Eric Garner death
NEW YORK — In a reckoning five years in the making, an administrative judge on Friday recommended firing a New York City police officer over the 2014 chokehold death of an unarmed black man whose dying cries of “I can’t breathe” fueled a national debate over policing, race and the...
Ex-Pitt QB Nate Peterman, Glennon trying to earn green light from Raiders coach Gruden
NAPA, Calif. — As complex as his offense can be, Raiders coach Jon Gruden still gives quarterbacks the liberty to make whatever changes they want to make at the line of scrimmage. “But you have to earn your freedom,” Gruden said Friday. “You have to prove that you can recognize,...
States sue Trump administration over fuel economy penalties
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A coalition of states sued the Trump administration Friday for the second time to block a planned reduction in the penalties automakers pay when they fail to meet fuel economy standards. Twelve states and the District of Columbia sued the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for replacing...
Phoenix police to record when officers point their guns
PHOENIX — The Phoenix Police Department will train officers to track when they point their guns at people as the agency works to increase trust and transparency after a record number of shootings last year and national outrage over a cellphone video showing officers cursing and aiming guns at a...
Tony Gonzalez enters Hall of Fame with 3 DBs who tried covering him
CANTON, Ohio — At one end of the room sat Tony Gonzalez. All the way across it was Ed Reed. Sometimes in the past, that’s as close to each other as the two new Hall of Famers cared to be. Same thing for Champ Bailey and Aliquippa native Ty Law...
Ohio State training camp opens with new coach, new QB
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Sporting several weeks of beard growth, Ryan Day looked calm for a new guy leading a storied college football program where the unrelenting pressure helped push his legendary predecessor into early retirement. The 40-year-old Day opened his first training camp as Ohio State coach Friday, the hand-picked...
Prosecutor: Bethlehem man killed 97-year-old woman for rent money
PALMER, Pa. — A Bethlehem man has been charged with killing a 97-year-old woman and her son and setting the house ablaze in what prosecutors say was a robbery attempt. Northampton County First Deputy District Attorney Terry Houck said Friday that 37-year-old Derek Rose, of Bethlehem, needed rent money and...
Trump pick for national intelligence director is withdrawing
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump says his pick for national intelligence director has decided to withdraw from the running, citing unfair media coverage. In a tweet Friday, Trump said Republican Rep. John Ratcliffe of Texas had decided to stay in Congress. Questions about Ratcliffe’s experience have dogged him since Trump...
Times Leader newspaper in Pennsylvania sold to Avant
The Times Leader newspaper in Wilkes-Barre has been sold to a North Carolina media company. The newspaper reports that the Times Leader Media Group has been sold to privately held Avant Publications. The purchase price was not disclosed. Avant’s leadership group includes Scott Champion, whose Champion Media owns five dailies...
Police: Dad put beer in toddler’s baby bottle in Centre County
A Centre County couple is facing child abuse charges over reports that the father put a mix of beer and formula in his child’s bottle. Online court documents show 23-year-old Garrett Gunsallus was arrested this week on two felony child abuse charges, and a misdemeanor assault charge. His former wife,...
Pa. cash welfare program ends, court rejects injunction request
HARRISBURG — A state program that provided $205 a month in cash payments to poor or disabled Pennsylvanians has ended. The program known as general assistance ceased Thursday under a month-old law, while state Commonwealth Court rejected an injunction request that would have kept it operating during a legal challenge....
