UCLA researchers say there is a way to predict who will become homeless
LOS ANGELES — With the ranks of homeless people growing faster than housing is being built, one of the most popular strategies for reducing homelessness has become to simply keep people in their homes. In theory, a small infusion of cash, counseling or legal aid could be the difference that...
Bill would require schools to have climate change lessons
CONCORD, N.H. — A bill up for consideration before the New Hampshire Legislature in 2020 would require school districts to offer lessons on climate change. The House bill would require at least 10 hours of climate education or a full semester of environmental education in high school, and anywhere from...
Greensburg man was local icon at Mt. Odin
For nearly 40 years, Russ Bell was Mr. Mt. Odin. If you were a golfer and you lived in Greensburg, chances are you knew the good-natured man who guided the expansion of the city golf course from nine to 18 holes and made sure the greens at the course were...
Hate crimes charges against man accused in Hanukkah stabbing
MONSEY, N.Y. — Handwritten journals containing anti-Semitic references were found in the home of the man charged with federal hate crimes Monday in the stabbing and slashing of five people celebrating Hanukkah at a rabbi’s house north of New York City, authorities said. Grafton E. Thomas, 37, was held without...
Endangered brown bat may become official D.C. ‘state’ mammal
WASHINGTON — A small, brown endangered bat would become the “official state mammal” of America’s capital city, under a proposed ordinance that will get a public hearing in January. The idea was proposed earlier this year by several Girl Scout troops after they studied the little brown bats, according to...
Australian cities snuffing fireworks as fire danger worsens
PERTH, Australia — New Year’s Eve fireworks in Australia’s capital city have been canceled as the wildfire danger worsens in oppressive summer heat, and pressure was building Monday for Sydney’s iconic celebrations to be similarly scrapped. Temperatures on Tuesday were set to hit 100 degrees Fahrenheit in the capital, Canberra,...
Retired Derry teacher loved teaching youngsters
As a young girl growing up in the Pittsburgh suburb of McKees Rocks, Frances E. Hayes was just 16 when she started at the University of Pittsburgh in 1940 and then traveled all the way to Oregon after graduation to take a teaching job where her sister lived. “She was...
NTSB: Poor condition of Louisiana wreckage will slow plane crash probe
The lack of a distress call and flight data recorder coupled with mangled and charred wreckage will make finding the cause of a fiery airplane crash in Louisiana extremely challenging, federal officials said Sunday. National Transportation Safety Board Vice Chairman Bruce Landsberg said at a news conference that it could...
U.S. Rep John Lewis of Georgia says he has pancreatic cancer
ATLANTA — Congressman John Lewis of Georgia announced Sunday that he has stage IV pancreatic cancer, vowing he will stay in office and fight the disease with the tenacity with which he fought racial discrimination and other inequalities dating to the civil rights era. Lewis, the youngest and last survivor...
Western Pa. unlikely to set rainfall record in 2019
This year may have been one of the wettest in Pennsylvania history, but it’s got a few more inches to go if it wants to top the list. As of Sunday around 4 p.m., the Pittsburgh area recorded 51.94 inches of rain with a likely chance to reach 52 inches...
Taliban council agrees to cease-fire in Afghanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan — The Taliban’s ruling council agreed Sunday to a temporary cease-fire in Afghanistan, providing a window in which a peace agreement with the United States can be signed, officials from the insurgent group said. They didn’t say when it would begin. A cease-fire had been demanded by Washington...
2 dead, 1 hurt in shooting at church near Fort Worth, Texas
WHITE SETTLEMENT, Texas — Congregants shot and killed a man who opened fire in a church near Fort Worth, Texas, on Sunday, killing the attacker, police said. A person shot by the suspect also died and a second parishioner has life-threatening injuries following the attack at the West Freeway Church...
5 stabbed at rabbi’s house on Hanukkah; suspect arraigned
MONSEY, N.Y. — A knife-wielding man stormed into a rabbi’s home and stabbed five people as they celebrated Hanukkah in an Orthodox Jewish community north of New York City, an ambush the governor said Sunday was an act of domestic terrorism fueled by intolerance and a “cancer” of growing hatred...
Officials confirm no survivors from Hawaii helicopter crash
HONOLULU — There were no survivors of a Hawaii tour helicopter crash that killed three minors and four adults, officials confirmed Saturday. A helicopter that was set to tour the rugged Na Pali Coast, the picturesque and remote northern shoreline of Kauai that was featured in the film “Jurassic Park,”...
A silent worship revival at an Episcopal church for the deaf
NEW YORK — The Lord’s Prayer ended with the bang of dozens of fists that landed on open palms after a circular motion and a thumbs up in a joint “Amen!” Not a voice could be heard inside the cavernous sanctuary of Holyrood Episcopal Church-Iglesia Santa Cruz in Manhattan. There...
‘Tough year’ for measles and other infectious diseases in U.S.
NEW YORK — This year, the germs roared back. Measles tripled. Hepatitis A mushroomed. A rare but deadly mosquito-borne disease increased. And that was just the United States. Globally, there was an explosion of measles in many countries, an unrelenting Ebola outbreak in Africa and a surge in dengue fever...
Hundreds of accused clergy left off church’s sex abuse lists
Richard J. Poster served time for possessing child pornography, violated his probation by having contact with children, admitted masturbating in the bushes near a church school and in 2005 was put on a sex offender registry. And yet the former Catholic priest was only just this month added to a...
6 men become 1st to cross perilous Drake Passage unassisted
LOS ANGELES — As freezing water thrashed their rowboat in some of the most treacherous waters in the world, six men fought for 13 days to make history, becoming the first people to traverse the infamous Drake Passage with nothing other than sheer manpower. They dodged icebergs, held their breaths...
NYC surpasses 300 killings 3 years after modern-era low
NEW YORK — New York City’s annual homicide total has surpassed 300 for the first time since 2016, fueled by pockets of gang violence, a pair of quadruple killings and an unusual number of bookkeeping adjustments. Through Dec. 22, the city has tallied 311 homicides, compared with 290 at the...
Doctor charged in 25 deaths sues hospital for defamation
COLUMBUS, Ohio — An Ohio doctor accused of ordering drug overdoses in the deaths of 25 hospital patients has sued his former employer for defamation, saying in a lawsuit that he did nothing wrong and did not deviate from hospital policy on end-of-life care. Dr. William Husel, who is accused...
Navy veteran survived Korean War attack, shared love of sports
Scottdale native Bill Bair frequently carried an attache case in the early 1950s, but the documents he bore weren’t business files. Often they were important military papers entrusted to him as an assistant to Korean War officers. Though he enlisted in the Navy in 1948, Bair usually traveled aboard airplanes...
Plane crash kills 5, including LSU coach’s daughter-in-law
ATLANTA — A small plane en route to a college football playoff game crashed into a post office parking lot in Louisiana shortly after takeoff Saturday, killing five people, including a well-known sports reporter who was the daughter-in-law of one of the team’s coaches. The two-engine Piper Cheyenne crashed in...
US astronaut sets record for longest spaceflight by a woman
A U.S. astronaut set a record Saturday for the longest single spaceflight by a woman, breaking the old mark of 288 days with about two months left in her mission. Christina Koch, a 40-year-old electrical engineer from Livingston, Montana, arrived at the International Space Station on March 14. She broke...
Science teachers, students get Times Square New Year’s stage
NEW YORK — This year’s New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square will spotlight efforts to combat climate change when high school science teachers and students press the button that begins the famous 60-second ball drop and countdown to next year. “On New Year’s Eve, we look back and reflect...
NYC man, 60, dies after beating in $1 Christmas Eve mugging
NEW YORK (AP) — A 60-year-old man who was kicked and punched while defending his partner during a $1 mugging on Christmas Eve has died. Juan Fresnada died Friday afternoon at the Bronx hospital where he was taken in critical condition after the mugging early Tuesday, the New York Police...
