Study: Methane emissions from burping dairy cows can be reduced
For scientists studying climate change, belching cows are no laughing matter. Penn State researchers say they have found a way to reduce methane emissions from burping dairy cows, which constitutes 5% of the greenhouse gases generated in the United States. The research team, led by Alexander Hristov, Penn State distinguished...
Klobuchar is ending her presidential bid, will endorse BidenVideo
Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar ended her Democratic presidential campaign on Monday and plans to endorse rival Joe Biden in an effort to unify moderate voters behind the former vice president’s White House bid. She is flying to Dallas and plans to join Biden at his rally Monday night, according to...
5 key questions ahead of critical Super Tuesday primaries
DENVER (AP) — Tuesday is the biggest day of the primary calendar, when 14 states from the Atlantic to the Pacific vote on the Democratic presidential nominee. The roster includes the nation’s two most populous states, California and Texas, and nearly one-third of all the delegates at July’s Democratic National...
Israelis vote in 3rd election in a year focused on NetanyahuVideo
JERUSALEM — Israelis voted Monday in an unprecedented third election in less than a year to decide whether longtime Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stays in power despite his upcoming trial on corruption charges. Netanyahu, the longest-serving leader in Israeli history, has been a caretaker prime minister for more than a...
Trump to make first visit of 2020 to Pennsylvania
HARRISBURG — President Donald Trump is making his first visit this year to the presidential battleground state of Pennsylvania, in a town hall-style event hosted by Fox News in Scranton on Thursday. The one-hour event will be at the Scranton Cultural Center. The location is important for this year’s presidential...
Coronavirus ravaging Iran kills confidant of its supreme leader
TEHRAN, Iran — A member of a council that advises Iran’s supreme leader died Monday from the new coronavirus, becoming the highest-ranking official within the Islamic Republic’s Shiite theocracy to be killed by the illness ravaging the country. The death of Expediency Council member Mohammad Mirmohammadi came as Iran announced...
Esper: U.S. to start initial troop pullback from Afghanistan
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Mark Esper says he has given the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan the go-ahead to begin the initial withdrawal of U.S. troops. Speaking at a Pentagon news conference Monday, Esper said he was not sure whether the drawdown had begun, but said it is required to...
American Jewish History Museum seeks bankruptcy protection
PHILADELPHIA — The National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia filed for bankruptcy protection Monday, seeking relief from debt brought by construction efforts. Phil Darivoff, chair of the museum’s board, told The Philadelphia Inquirer the museum has been carrying millions of dollars in debt since it opened its 100,000-square-foot...
Milwaukee brewery employees return to work after shooting
MILWAUKEE — Molson Coors employees returned to work Monday amid heightened security at the Milwaukee brewery where a worker last week fatally shot five co-workers and then himself. Additional guards, both armed and unarmed, were patrolling the grounds, according to a company email. Several Milwaukee police vehicles were stationed around...
Supreme Court justices reject appeal over bump stock ban
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal of the federal ban on bump stocks, devices that allow semi-automatic firearms to fire rapidly like machine guns. The justices did not comment in declining to review a lower court-ruling that upheld the ban, which took effect nearly a year...
Supreme Court to decide fate of Obama health care lawVideo
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court agreed Monday to decide a lawsuit that threatens the Obama-era health care law, a case that will keep health care squarely in front of voters even though a decision won’t come until after the 2020 election. The court said it would hear an appeal by...
Ex-guard frees dozens of hostages in Manila mall, is subdued
MANILA, Philippines — A recently dismissed security guard freed his hostages and walked out of a shopping mall in the Philippine capital on Monday, ending a daylong hostage crisis in an upscale commercial district near the police and military headquarters, officials said. The former guard at the commercial complex, identified...
Authorities announce 2nd coronavirus death in U.S.
SEATTLE — Health officials in Washington state said Sunday night that a second person had died from the coronavirus — a man in his 70s from a nursing facility near Seattle where dozens of people were sick and had been tested for the virus. Researchers said earlier the virus may...
Louisiana clinic prepares for Supreme Court abortion fight
SHREVEPORT, La. — The Hope Medical Group for Women in northern Louisiana fields phone calls every day from anxious pregnant women who ask if abortion is still legal and if the clinic, one of only three that provides abortions in the state, is still open. Despite the protesters who sometimes...
Coronavirus deaths top 3,000 as warnings sound for global economyVideo
SEOUL, South Korea — The number of new virus infections rose worldwide along with fears of a weakening global economy, even as cases in China dropped to their lowest level in six weeks on Monday and hundreds of patients at the outbreak’s epicenter were released from hospitals. The number of...
South Korean military: North Korea fires unidentified projectiles
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea fired two unidentified projectiles from a coastal area Monday as it resumed weapons demonstrations following a monthslong hiatus. The launches came two days after North Korea’s state media said leader Kim Jong Un supervised an artillery drill aimed at testing the combat readiness of...
Judge rules head of immigration agency Ken Cuccinelli was unlawfully named
SAN DIEGO — A federal judge has ruled that Ken Cuccinelli was unlawfully appointed to lead the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency and, as a result, lacked authority to give asylum seekers less time to prepare for initial screening interviews. Cuccinelli, a former Virginia attorney general and an immigration...
Joe Biden warmly welcomed in Selma as Dems court black votersVideo
SELMA, Ala. — Joe Biden received a warm reception Sunday in this crucible of the civil rights movement as he and other Democratic presidential hopefuls appealed for black support in a town where demonstrators were once beaten for marching for the right to vote. Themes of fighting voter suppression, providing...
DA: Bucks County man shot, wounded by police during standoff dies
DOYLESTOWN — A man shot and wounded by police during a standoff near Philadelphia last month has died, authorities said. The Bucks County district attorney’s office said Thomas Edward Zeller, 61, was pronounced dead Sunday afternoon at Abington Hospital-Jefferson Health. The Montgomery County coroner’s office was scheduled to do an...
New York confirms 1st positive test of new coronavirus
NEW YORK — New York confirmed Sunday the state’s first positive test of the new virus that has sickened tens of thousands of people across the globe. A woman in her late 30s contracted the virus while traveling in Iran, according to a statement from Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office. She...
Pete Buttigieg ends historic presidential campaign, urges unity
WASHINGTON — Pete Buttigieg, who rose from relative obscurity as an Indiana mayor to a barrier-breaking, top-tier candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, ended his campaign on Sunday. The decision by the first openly gay candidate to seriously contend for the presidency — and among the youngest ever — came...
Charges dropped against man shot by Chicago cop at stationVideo
CHICAGO — A man shot and seriously wounded by a Chicago police officer in a downtown train station won’t face charges, as prosecutors on Sunday dropped the criminal case stemming from an incident captured on bystander video and shared widely. Cook County prosecutors moved to drop resisting arrest and criminal...
West Virginia University president responds after 2 shootings
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The president of West Virginia University released a letter Sunday emphasizing the university’s commitment to safety after two recent shootings near the Morgantown campus, one of them involving a fatality. WVU President Gordon Gee wrote to the community that the campus of more than 26,000 students is...
Weary and divided, Israel goes back to the polls
JERUSALEM — For the third time in under a year, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking reelection, and once again the Israeli leader is on the ropes. After two inconclusive elections last year, opinion polls forecast another stalemate — a troubling scenario for Netanyahu, who will go on trial on...
Turkey, Syria fighting escalates; refugees mass at EU borderVideo
KASTANIES, Greece — Thousands of migrants and refugees massed at Turkey’s western frontier Sunday, trying to enter Greece by land and sea after Turkey said its borders were open to those hoping to head to Europe. In Syria, Turkish troops shot down two Syrian warplanes after the Syrian military downed...