Could coastal mansions become eligible for disaster aid?
OLD SAYBROOK, Conn. — On an exclusive Connecticut peninsula, where signs warn outsiders to stay off private roads, eight multimillion-dollar homes with sprawling yards along the Long Island Sound are poised to become eligible for taxpayer-funded disaster aid. That’s despite the fact that the Fenwick neighborhood of Old Saybrook is...
Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rosselló will not seek re-election, leaves his party
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló said Sunday evening that he will not resign in the face of public furor over an obscenity-laced leaked online chat, but he will not seek re-election or continue as head of his pro-statehood political party. Protesters said they were not...
1960s prankster Paul Krassner, who named Yippies, dies at 87
LOS ANGELES — Paul Krassner, the publisher, author and radical political activist on the front lines of 1960s counterculture who helped tie together his loose-knit prankster group by naming them the Yippies, died Sunday in Southern California, his daughter said. Krassner died at his home in Desert Hot Springs, Holly...
Reading mayor reverses course, will allow LGBTQ rainbow flag to fly
READING — The mayor of the eastern Pennsylvania city of Reading has reversed course and says he will allow the LGBTQ rainbow flag to fly over City Hall for the first time. Mayor Wally Scott last week called off a scheduled ceremony to raise the “pride flag,” calling it a...
Great white shark leaps from water to snatch fish off lineVideo
ORLEANS, Mass. — A family fishing in Cape Cod Bay had an up close and personal encounter with a great white shark that leaped out of the water to snatch a fish they had caught right off the line. Doug Nelson, of Franklin, who caught the leaping shark on video...
U.S. hotels caught up in fight over housing detained migrants
DETROIT — There’s a new target in the clash over immigration: hotels. Advocacy groups and unions are pressuring Marriott, MGM and others not to house migrants who have been arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. For decades, the U.S. government has occasionally detained migrants in hotels, and Acting ICE...
Jerry Nadler: Mueller hearing to air evidence of Trump wrongdoingVideo
WASHINGTON — The House Judiciary Committee chairman said Sunday that the hearing this week with Robert Mueller will air “very substantial evidence” of wrongdoing by President Trump and make a public case for impeachment. Republicans pledged sharp questioning of the special counsel about what they see as a “one-sided” Russia...
Trump aide: Trump criticism of U.S. different from 4 Democrats
BERKELEY HEIGHTS, N.J. — A top White House adviser on Sunday claimed there was a “huge difference” between Donald Trump’s criticisms of America during the 2016 presidential campaign and the critiques by four Democratic congresswomen of color with whom Trump is feuding over the direction of the country. Trump’s words,...
Tennessee banker wins annual Hemingway Look-Alike contest
KEY WEST, Fla.— Persistence paid off for a retired Tennessee banker who won the weekend’s Hemingway Look-Alike Contest on his eighth try. Joe Maxey, 68, of Cedar Hill, triumphed during the three-round contest that concluded Saturday night at Key West’s Sloppy Joe’s Bar, a frequent hangout for Nobel Prize-winning author...
Feeling blue? Oregon students can take ‘mental health days’
SALEM, Oregon — Oregon will allow students to take “mental health days” just as they would sick days, expanding the reasons for excused school absences to include mental or behavioral health under a new law that experts say is one of the first of its kind in the U.S. But...
ESPN reasserts political talk policy after attack on TrumpVideo
NEW YORK — ESPN is making sure that its employees know there is no change in the network’s policy to avoid talking about politics unless it intersects with sports after radio talk show host Dan Le Batard criticized President Donald Trump and his recent racist comments and ESPN itself on...
Hong Kong police launch tear gas in latest mass protest
HONG KONG — Hong Kong police launched tear gas at protesters Sunday after a massive pro-democracy march continued late into the evening. The action was the latest confrontation between police and demonstrators who have taken to the streets for over a month to protest a proposed extradition bill and call...
Miss Michigan stripped of crown over ‘offensive’ tweets
Just four days into her reign as Miss Michigan, Kathy Zhu was stripped of her title over her offensive social media tweets. Zhu, 20, got the crown June 14, but by Thursday she was out. This is insane. @MissWorldLtd Beauty Queen @PoliticalKathy stripped of her Miss Michigan title for...being a...
What consumers can do as regulators weigh compounds’ risks
WASHINGTON — At first, Tomas Monarrez didn’t notice the labels when he went shopping for pots and pans. “Completely toxin free!” said a big green message on a line of nonstick frying pans in the cookware aisle at a store in the nation’s capital. “No PFOA!” boasted the label on...
Florida ‘pill mills’ were ‘gas on the fire’ of opioid crisis
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Florida survives on tourism, but a decade ago thousands of visitors made frequent trips to the state not to visit its theme parks or beaches. Instead, they came for cheap and easy prescription painkillers sold at unscrupulous walk-in clinics. For a while, few in authority did...
Some asylum seekers forced to wait in Mexico help each other
SAN LUIS RIO COLORADO, Mexico — A small group of asylum seekers finds space under a canopy on the side of a road leading into the United States, chatting to pass the time as a blazing desert sun pushes the heat into triple digits and fumes roll in from dozens...
Monsoon flooding death toll climbs to 164 in South Asia
GAUHATI, India — The death toll in monsoon flooding in South Asia has climbed past 160 as millions of people and animals continue to face the brunt in three countries, officials said Saturday. At least 90 people have died in Nepal and 62 in northeastern India’s Assam state over the...
American crocodiles thriving outside nuclear plant
MIAMI — American crocodiles, once headed toward extinction, are thriving at an unusual spot — the canals surrounding a South Florida nuclear plant. Last week, 73 crocodile hatchlings were rescued by a team of specialists at Florida Power & Light’s Turkey Point nuclear plant and dozens more are expected to...
Mt. Pleasant woman, mother of 7, known for ‘can-do’ attitude
When the future Nellie Kalp was first chatting with Donald Kalp, the man who would become her husband, the pair passed a group of children playing baseball. A stray ball landed near her. Having played plenty of ball with her brothers, she didn’t give her response much thought. “She reached...
Space under Vatican college holds bones of dozens, expert says
VATICAN CITY — A genetics expert retained by the family of a girl who went missing in 1983 said Saturday that a cavernous underground space near a Vatican cemetery holds thousands of bones that appear to be from dozens of individuals, both “adult and non-adult.” The expert, Giorgio Portera, said...
‘Got the Spider!’ joke on demolished house goes viral
A spray-painted joke on a demolished house is putting Renner, South Dakota, on the map. Jeff Hopkins, 51, and his girlfriend, Dawn Cronk, 49, decided to have a little fun with their extra house they had just torn down, reports the Argus Leader. The couple agreed that “Got the Spider!”...
War-weakened South Sudan tries to prepare for Ebola
JUBA, South Sudan — With the deadly Ebola outbreak in Congo now an international emergency , neighboring South Sudan and its war-weakened health system is a major concern, especially after one case was confirmed near its border. Health experts say there is an urgent need to increase prevention efforts. The...
Serbia’s president says Kosovo PM’s resignation is a ‘trick’
BELGRADE, Serbia — The surprise decision by Kosovo’s prime minister to step down over a call for questioning from a Hague-based court has been slammed as a “political trick” by Serbia’s president. Aleksandar Vucic said Saturday that Ramush Haradinaj’s resignation the day before was designed to rally popular support and...
Cat filter accidentally added to double murder news conference
Sometimes funny accidents show up at the most inopportune times. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police in British Columbia were live streaming on Facebook with an update and public appeal for help about a double homicide from earlier in the week, Vancouver’s online newspaper The Daily Hive reports. The only problem?...
Elections experts say cybersecurity threats demand federal funding
Unfunded cybersecurity needs are leaving state and local election officials to stand on the front lines of threats from sophisticated international interests, a new report asserts. “Defending Elections,” a report from the Brennan Center for Justice, highlights growing concerns that myriad unmet security needs pose a threat to fair elections....
