Customers to spend $1,047.83 this Christmas, despite tariffs, shorter shopping season
Trade wars and a calendar fluke will be among the things affecting shopping behavior during this year’s Christmas holiday shopping season. With new U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods set to begin Dec. 15, shoppers who wait until later in the shopping season may end up paying more for some goods,...
White House official won’t testify in impeachment probe without order
WASHINGTON — A former deputy national security adviser expected to testify in the House impeachment inquiry is signaling that he will not appear Monday as scheduled. Charles Kupperman was supposed to testify behind closed doors, but last week asked the federal court in Washington for guidance on whether he was...
Sewing a place in history, one stitch at a timeVideo
Jessica Young can laugh now, but it was not funny when a client once asked if an article of clothing she had ordered for a re-enactor costume was indeed hand sewn. The stitches, the client believed, were too perfect. “I said, ‘thank you,’” recalls Young, 34, of Trafford. Young is...
Trump draws boos when introduced to Nationals Park crowd at World SeriesVideo
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s low-profile appearance Sunday night at Game 5 of the World Series came at a high-profile moment of his presidency. Yet he still drew loud boos and jeers when introduced to the crowd. Wearing a dark suit and a tie, Trump arrived at Nationals Park just...
California Rep. Katie Hill resigns amid scandalVideo
WASHINGTON — Rep. Katie Hill, D-Calif., resigned Sunday after allegations that she engaged in an affair with a congressional aide were made public earlier this month. Hill announced the resignation in a statement, saying she was stepping down “with a broken heart.” It is with a broken heart that today...
California declares state of emergency over wildfires, windVideo
SANTA ROSA, Calif. — California’s governor declared a statewide emergency Sunday after officials ordered nearly 200,000 people to leave their homes as hurricane-force winds drove multiple wildfires through bone-dry vegetation. Meanwhile, the state’s largest utility cut electricity to millions of residents as a precaution to prevent more areas from igniting....
John Conyers, longest serving black congressman, dies at 90
DETROIT — Former U.S. Rep. John Conyers, one of the longest-serving members of Congress whose resolutely liberal stance on civil rights made him a political institution in Washington and back home in Detroit despite several scandals, has died. He was 90. Conyers, among the high-profile politicians topped by sex harassment...
Frustrated Democratic governors find ways to sidestep GOP
MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin Democratic Gov. Tony Evers tried for months to get the Republican-controlled Legislature to take up a pair of gun control bills, holding news conferences and touting polls showing strong public support. When Republicans wouldn’t budge, Evers turned up the heat by turning to other powers of...
2 dead, 12 injured in shooting at college party in TexasVideo
GREENVILLE, Texas — A gunman opened fire at an off-campus college party in Texas, leaving two people dead and 12 others injured before he escaped in the ensuing chaos, authorities said Sunday. Authorities believe the shooter may have been targeting just one person at the party of about 750 people...
Trump says Islamic State leader dead after U.S. raid in Syria
WASHINGTON — The shadowy leader of the Islamic State group who presided over its global jihad and became arguably the world’s most wanted man, is dead after being targeted by a U.S. military raid in Syria, President Donald Trump said Sunday. “Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead,” Trump announced at the...
Ex-Trump aide wants judge to decide on impeachment testimony
WASHINGTON — An ex-White House adviser who’s supposed to testify before House impeachment investigators on Monday has asked a federal court whether he should comply with a subpoena or follow President Trump’s directive against cooperating in what he dubs a “scam.” After getting a subpoena Friday, former deputy national security...
Census bureau to fight misinformation
CHICAGO — Worried about internet trolls and foreign powers spreading false news, census officials are preparing to battle misinformation campaigns for the first time in the count’s 230-year history. The stakes are huge. Who participates in the 2020 census count could influence how U.S. congressional seats and billions of federal...
Bill could usher Pennsylvania elections into new era
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania lives in a cave when it comes to modern elections, critics say, but fast-tracked legislation that was quietly negotiated behind closed doors could usher in some advancement. The bill, should it pass, didn’t come easily: Partisan jockeying, 11th-hour blowups and brinksmanship dogged what could be the most...
Trump defense narrative unfolds as conservative supporters gird for impeachment
President Trump’s supporters in Western Pennsylvania seeking solace from the unfolding impeachment inquiry got a harsh dose of reality and strategy from political commentator Dinesh D’Souza. While Senate Republicans condemned the process and a group of House Republicans stormed a hearing room where impeachment witnesses were testifying, D’Souza joined a...
Critics gear up for response to lease sale in Arctic refuge
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Opponents of oil drilling in America’s largest wildlife refuge have a message for oil drillers and the people who finance them: Don’t become the company known for the demise of America’s polar bears. The Department of the Interior hopes to conduct a lease sale in the Arctic...
Scandal brings election risk for rising Democratic star
AGUA DULCE, Calif. — California U.S. Rep. Katie Hill has apologized to friends and supporters for engaging in an affair with a campaign staffer, but Susan Slates still feels let down by the 32-year-old Democrat who arrived in Congress just this year. Slates is a beauty salon owner in Hill’s...
Trump intends to uphold tradition of presidents and baseball
NEW YORK — President Donald Trump’s plan to attend Game 5 of the World Series on Sunday will continue a rich tradition of intertwining the American presidency with America’s pastime. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s limousine drove onto to the field ahead of the 1933 World Series, the last time the nation’s...
Hong Kong bans posting of police officers’ personal details
HONG KONG — Hong Kong authorities have won a temporary court order banning anyone from posting personal details or photos of police officers online, in their latest effort to clamp down on the city’s protest movement. The government said Saturday that the High Court granted the Department of Justice’s request...
Lawsuit: Flight attendant caught pilots livestreaming bathroom in cockpit during flight from Pittsburgh
A Southwest Airlines flight attendant said she witnessed two pilots streaming live voyeur-camera footage from the airplane’s bathroom into the cockpit, according to a lawsuit filed Friday. The attendant, Renee Steinaker, alleged she discovered the sneaky surveillance during a 2017 flight from Pittsburgh to Phoenix, according to Arizona Central. The...
More Vietnamese fear relatives are among 39 dead in truck
LONDON — More Vietnamese families came forward Saturday with information that their relatives may be among the 39 people found dead in the back of a container truck in southeastern England. British police had initially said they believed the victims were Chinese but have acknowledged this is a “developing picture.”...
Medication lockers help Miami’s homeless living with HIV
MIAMI — Ivette Naida says keeping tabs on her HIV medication can be a daunting task. Naida lives underneath a Miami highway overpass with several other homeless men and women. She has no safe place to keep her belongings. HIV-positive people who live on the streets are less likely to...
ERA activists are eyeing a win in Virginia. Is now the time?
RICHMOND, Va. — As Carol Jenkins sees it, a nearly 100-year push to add the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is closer to reality now than it’s ever been. That’s why there’s a “tremendous effort” underway to elect supporters of the long-stalled gender equality measure in Virginia’s elections...
Georgia inmate maintains innocence, won’t seek clemency ahead of execution
ATLANTA — Ray “Jeff” Cromartie met with Georgia officials to ask them to halt his execution. In the private meeting, the 52-year-old told the Board of Pardons and Paroles what he’s long said: he did not kill anyone. Cromartie, scheduled to be killed Wednesday, didn’t deny involvement in the April...
South Dakota inmate on death row loses 2 appeals in 1 day
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — A convicted killer in South Dakota who is scheduled to be executed early next month for the fatal stabbing of a young doughnut shop worker lost two appeals on Friday. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed a request by Charles Russell Rhines, 63, to...
Pentagon hands Microsoft $10B ‘war cloud’ deal, snubs Amazon
SAN FRANCISCO — The Pentagon has awarded Microsoft a $10 billion cloud computing contract , snubbing early front-runner Amazon, whose participation drew criticism from President Donald Trump and its business rivals. Bidding for the huge project, known as Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, or JEDI, pitted leading tech titans Microsoft, Amazon,...
