CHP helps reunite 250-pound tortoise with owners
SANTA YNEZ, Calif. — A 250-pound tortoise that wandered away from its home has been rescued after California Highway Patrol officers found it on the side of a road. And no, they didn’t arrest it for speeding. The CHP says it got a call about the big reptile Sunday evening....
Reports: Plane had engine trouble before landing on Ocean City beach
OCEAN CITY, Md. — Police in Maryland say the pilot of a small plane told them he was experiencing engine trouble before he made an emergency landing in the shallow ocean waters of a Maryland beach. News outlets quote Ocean City police as saying in a news release that 23-year-old...
Rescuers look for survivors after building collapse in India
MUMBAI, India — Rescuers cleared debris and used sniffer dogs Wednesday to find possible survivors under the rubble of a dilapidated building that collapsed in India’s financial capital of Mumbai. At least 12 people were killed, and several are still feared trapped. Dozens of rescuers worked overnight at the site...
Judge formally bans citizenship question from 2020 census
NEW YORK — A federal judge formally banned the citizenship question from the 2020 census on Tuesday, days after President Trump announced his administration would no longer seek to add it. Judge Jesse Furman signed an order after New York State Attorney General Letitia James and the American Civil Liberties...
Former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens dies at 99
WASHINGTON — John Paul Stevens, the bow-tied, independent-thinking, Republican-nominated justice who unexpectedly emerged as the Supreme Court’s leading liberal, died Tuesday in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., after suffering a stroke Monday. He was 99. During nearly 35 years on the court, Stevens stood for the freedom and dignity of individuals, be...
Epstein defense offers explanation for foreign passportVideo
NEW YORK — Defense attorneys told a court Tuesday that financier Jeffrey Epstein obtained a foreign passport decades ago out of fear that he might be kidnapped in the Middle East, seeking to allay concerns over the apparently phony travel document. Prosecutors have said the passport was under an alias....
Robert Wideman begins new life in Pittsburgh halfway house after 44 years in prison
Last winter, after seven unsuccessful appeals to the Pennsylvania Board of Pardons, Robert Wideman had given up hope of ever leaving the state prison system that had been his home for more than four decades. On Wednesday, Wideman, who finally was released from prison last week after a final appeal...
A divided House votes for resolution condemning Trump’s ‘racist’ remarks
WASHINGTON — In a remarkable political repudiation, the Democratic-led U.S. House voted Tuesday night to condemn President Trump’s “racist comments” against four congresswomen of color, despite protestations by Trump’s Republican congressional allies and his own insistence he hasn’t “a racist bone in my body.” Two days after Trump tweeted that...
‘All hands on deck’: Pennsylvania ramps up battle against the spotted lanternfly
Pennsylvania has allocated an additional $3 million in its budget toward the containment of the spotted lanternfly, bringing the total to more than $10 million to protect businesses and agriculture in the state. The funding was announced Tuesday at a joint press conference held by Gov. Tom Wolf, Agriculture Secretary...
Reading mayor calls off ceremony to raise LGBTQ flag at City HallVideo
READING — The mayor of the eastern Pennsylvania city of Reading called off a scheduled ceremony to raise the LGBTQ rainbow flag over City Hall for the first time, calling it a political symbol. Acting Managing Director Osmer Deming said Mayor Wally Scott believes the “pride flag” represents a political...
After New York teen is slain, photos of her corpse circulate online
ALBANY, N.Y. — A 17-year-old girl with a small social media following in upstate New York was killed by a man she’d met recently on Instagram, who then posted photos of her corpse online, police said. The gory pictures were redistributed widely, including by online posters who made light of...
Judge orders R. Kelly held in jail without bond
CHICAGO — A federal judge on Tuesday ordered R. Kelly held in jail without bond after a prosecutor warned that the singer accused of having sex with minors and trying to cover up the crimes would pose an extreme danger to young girls if set free. “If he was attracted...
Should we resurrect the American chestnut tree with genetic engineering?
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — The wild chestnuts around this leafy college town used to grow in such great numbers that locals collected the nuts by the bushel and shipped them off to New York City for a small fortune. These days, though, it can be hard to find a single tree...
Trump aide Kellyanne Conway asks reporter, ‘What’s your ethnicity?’Video
NEW YORK — White House adviser Kellyanne Conway says she meant no disrespect in asking a reporter to reveal his ethnicity. Her question came during an informal press gathering Tuesday when reporter Andrew Feinberg asked her about President Trump’s tweets regarding freshmen Democratic congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley...
Cyberattacks inflict deep harm at technology-rich schools
AVON, Conn. — Over six weeks, the vandals kept coming, knocking the school system’s network offline several times a day. There was no breach of sensitive data files, but the attacks in which somebody deliberately overwhelmed the Avon Public Schools system in Connecticut still proved costly. Classroom lesson plans built...
Too-tall toupee tips police to cocaine smuggler
A man’s toupee looked just a little too big for his head as he landed in Barcelona. Airport officers took the Colombian man aside for a second security screening and found half a kilo of cocaine on his head, reports Reuters. Police said the 65-year-old man arrived on a plane...
Turnpike commission hikes tolls for 12th straight year — and will until 2044
Pennsylvania Turnpike tolls are set to go up, again. The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission on Tuesday approved a 6% hike for all customers, which will take effect Jan. 5. The most common toll for passenger vehicles will rise from $1.40 to $1.50 for E-ZPass users and from $2.30 to $2.50 for...
Video: Divers spot jellyfish bigger than human off Britain’s coastVideo
Divers have encountered a shockingly large jellyfish in the waters off of Britain. Biologist and broadcaster Lizzie Daly was diving in the Atlantic Ocean near Cornwall with cameraman Dan Abbott when they found a barrel jellyfish that appears to be larger than Daly. The pair shared photos and video on...
Fossil found in 1980s in Texas declared new genus, species
BIG BEND NATIONAL PARK, Texas — Experts say fossil remains discovered in the 1980s at the Big Bend National Park in southwest Texas have been identified as a new genus and species of duckbilled dinosaur. The Journal of Systematic Paleontology announced the classification of the Aquilarhinus palimentus last week. It...
Sen. Bob Casey to host live-stream hearing on robocall fraud targeting seniors
Delaware County Sheriff Jerry Sanders knows all too well how sophisticated robocallers and phone scammers are becoming. This spring, con artists began “spoofing” the sheriff’s office phone number to try to scam local residents. U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Scranton and the ranking member of the Senate’s Special Committee on Aging,...
3 dead, 4 missing in float plane crash in Canada
ST JOHN’s, Newfoundland — At least three people died and a search is under way for four others missing after a float plane crashed into a lake in the Eastern Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Air Saguenay President Jean Tremblay said Tuesday the de Havilland DHC-2 Beaver was carrying...
Calif. camper chased by man with knife glad to be back with family
BISHOP, Calif. — A woman missing for three days after disappearing from a remote campground in California’s White Mountains on Tuesday described a man she says chased her with a knife as a burley, bald “big guy” with tanned skin. Sheryl Powell, of Huntington Beach, California, detailed what it was...
Trump abortion rule prompts exit at family planning program
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration’s ban on taxpayer-funded family planning clinics referring women for abortions prompted a major provider in Maine to announce Tuesday it is dropping out of the program after nearly 50 years. Others may follow. “It is objectionable that the federal government is so arrogant as to...
Gas worker’s body recovered after California house explosion
MURRIETA, Calif. — Authorities have recovered the body of a Southern California Gas Co. worker killed in an explosion and fire that destroyed a house and damaged others in the city of Murrieta. Deputy Fire Chief David Lantzer says the utility worker’s body was removed Monday night, hours after the...
Tick removed from Kentucky man’s eye
PRESTONSBURG, Ky. — A Kentucky man who went to the doctor with an irritated eye got the unsavory news that it contained a tick. WYMT-TV reports an optometrist used tweezers to remove the tick from Chris Prater’s eye. Prater works for an electric company and had left a job site...
