More legal wrangling ahead over flow of gasoline in Laurel Pipeline
The Texas-based owner of a petroleum pipeline that serves Western Pennsylvania is trying once again to move refined product in an easterly direction — to the continued chagrin of Giant Eagle, GetGo, Sheetz and other gasoline retailers. Houston-based Buckeye Partners LP and its subsidiary, Laurel Pipe Line Co., which operates...
Barr could expose secrets, politicize intelligence with review of Russia probe, current and former officials fear
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump’s new executive order giving the attorney general broad authority to declassify government secrets threatens to expose U.S. intelligence sources and could distort the FBI and CIA’s roles in investigating Russian interference in the 2016 elections, current and former U.S. officials said. On Thursday, Trump allowed...
Evidence tells grim story of the night a police officer killed Justine Damond
MINNEAPOLIS — In plastic evidence bags lay Justine Rusczcyk Damond’s pajamas from that night: the pink top emblazoned with the words “Koala Australia,” stained and ripped from when the paramedics tried to save her that night. Next to it was the iPhone she used to summon the police officer who...
US challenges part of ruling that blocked grizzly bear hunts
BILLINGS, Mont. — U.S. officials asked a federal appeals court on Friday to overturn part of a judge’s ruling that blocked the first grizzly bear hunts in the Lower 48 states in almost three decades. The case before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals involves more than 700 grizzly...
Suspect in Utah shooting found in Idaho after 2-day manhunt
BOISE, Idaho — Idaho police captured a man Friday afternoon suspected of shooting and killing a motorist in northern Utah earlier this week after a two-day manhunt. Officers arrested 45-year-old Jonathan Llana about 3:15 p.m. in an area of southern Idaho outside of Pocatello about 10 miles from where the...
Tensions flare in Texas Capitol over new Sandra Bland video
AUSTIN, Texas — Texas authorities on Friday denied withholding a cellphone video of Sandra Bland’s confrontational traffic stop, responding to a Democratic legislator’s heated questions about why the 39-second clip never publicly surfaced until now. Bland, a 28-year-old black woman from outside Chicago, had used her phone in 2015 to...
‘Here we go again’: Judge blocks Mississippi abortion ban
JACKSON, Miss. — A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked a Mississippi law that would ban most abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected, at about six weeks of pregnancy. “Here we go again,” U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves wrote in his order. “Mississippi has passed another law banning abortions...
FDA approves $2M medicine, most expensive ever
U.S. regulators have approved the most expensive medicine ever, for a rare disorder that destroys a baby’s muscle control and kills nearly all of those with the most common type of the disease within a couple of years. The treatment is priced at $2.125 million. Out-of-pocket costs for patients will...
Greensburg man saw life despite blindness
John Dallo was blind from childhood, but he didn’t let that handicap bring him down. “He was an inspiration to everybody who saw him,” said his wife, Carol Dallo. “He did not just let life go by. He would be right in there helping with whatever.” Mr. Dallo became blind...
Bill would assist grandparents raising children in the wake of opioid epidemic
A coalition of Midwestern and Northeastern senators from some of the states hardest hit by the opioid epidemic want to open additional resources to grandparents and other relatives who have taken on child rearing duties in the wake of the addiction crisis. Citing the needs of more than 100,000 children...
Police: Allentown student brought loaded gun, knife to middle school
ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Police in Pennsylvania say a middle school student brought a loaded gun and a knife to school. The Allentown School District said in a Facebook post Friday that it received a report that a Harrison Morton Middle School student had weapons. Officials identified and searched the student...
Man gets up to 20 years for bank robbery that netted $106
HOWELL, Mich. — A Michigan man has been sentenced to up to 20 years in prison for a bank robbery that netted $106. Robert Joseph Markus of Brighton was given his punishment Thursday in a Livingston County courtroom after earlier pleading guilty to bank robbery and armed robbery in a...
Longtime Georgia mail carrier retires, and strangers are sending him to Hawaii
Longtime mail carrier Floyd Martin retired from his neighborhood route in Marietta, Georgia, on Thursday, which might have called for a handshake or even a cake to send him off. Instead, the Atlanta suburb made a show of love and respect so big for Martin, it trended on social media,...
5 former Michigan Catholic priests charged with sex crimes
DETROIT — Michigan prosecutors announced the filing of sexual abuse charges Friday against five former Catholic priests as part of a state attorney general’s investigation into clergy abuse going back decades. Attorney General Dana Nessel said the priests served in dioceses in Detroit, Lansing and Kalamazoo, and that they’ve been...
Trump administration moves to revoke transgender health protection
The Trump administration proposed revoking Obama-era discrimination protections for transgender people in health care on Friday, a move LGBT groups fear will result in some Americans being denied needed medical treatment. The Health and Human Services Department released a proposed regulation that in effect says “gender identity” is not protected...
Students’ pro-Trump hats blurred from Pa. high school yearbookVideo
Someone assembling the yearbook at an Adams County high school wiped the MAGA slogan from students’ hats. Two students at Littlestown High School wore caps with “Trump: Make America Great Again” across the front during spirit week in October, reports FOX43. A photo of the pair made it into the...
Ambulance called after House Judiciary Chairman Nadler appears to swoonVideo
NEW YORK — U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler was getting medical attention after he appeared to swoon during a news conference in New York City. The chairman of the House Judiciary committee had given remarks at an event about speed enforcement cameras in school zones when he slumped in his chair...
Construction set to begin to make White House fence taller
WASHINGTON — The White House is getting a taller fence for the first time in about a century as part of improvements beginning this summer for the perimeter of the grounds. Crews will replace the existing fence with a structure that will be about 13 feet tall, an increase of...
Korean War era tank near park turns lemon-lime yellow
BLUEFIELD, W.Va. — A Korean War era tank near the entrance to a Bluefield park turned bright lemon-lime yellow thanks to a mix up with paint colors. The Bluefield Daily Telegraph reports city officials were initially unable to explain the color change. Then the sponsor of a Bluefield State College...
$19.1B in disaster aid stalls in House after single Republican objects
WASHINGTON — A House Republican lawmaker blocked a $19.1 billion disaster aid package on Friday, delaying a bill that would send federal funding to disaster affected areas across the country. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, voted to block the legislation, which has the support of President Donald Trump and passed the...
Police arrest man in hit-and-run death of girl at bus stop
CAPE CORAL, Fla. — Investigators say they’ve arrested a 19-year-old man who they say drove away after his pickup truck struck and killed an 8-year-old girl at a school bus stop in southwest Florida. Logan Tyler Heatherington was arrested Thursday, almost two months after the death of Layla Aiken. He...
Someone breaks into home, takes nothing, gives it good scrub
MARLBOROUGH, Mass. — Whoever broke into a Massachusetts man’s home last week didn’t take a thing. They did, however, leave the house spotless. Nate Roman tells The Boston Globe that when he returned to his Marlborough home from work May 15, he could tell a stranger had been there. Nothing...
Mississippi rep charged with punching wife could be removed
JACKSON, Miss. — The Mississippi House speaker said Friday that he is asking lawyers to research how to remove a lawmaker if it’s true that the man punched his own wife and does not resign voluntarily. Second-term Republican Rep. Doug McLeod of Lucedale was arrested and charged with misdemeanor domestic...
CEOs averaged $800,000 pay raise in 2018, workers not so much
NEW YORK — Pay for CEOs at the biggest U.S. companies climbed 7% last year, widening the gap between chief executives and their workers, whose pay did not rise as quickly. Chief executives at S&P 500 companies earned a median of $12 million last year, roughly $800,000 more than the...
Trump approves sending more forces to the Middle East amid tensions with Iran
The Trump administration, facing rising tensions with Iran, plans to reinforce its military presence in the Middle East by sending another few thousand forces to the region to step up missile defense and surveillance, according to U.S. officials. The decision to send the additional forces to U.S. Central Command, which...
