Trump targets Pell Grant money for NASA’s budget boost
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is hoping to shift money for Pell Grants for college education to fund new spending, including a $1.6 billion bump for NASA. Under a budget amendment sent Monday evening to Congress, the administration would use an additional $1.9 billion in surplus Pell Grant money to...
Analysis: Trump’s go-it-alone approach on trade, immigration poses economic risks
WASHINGTON — President Trump has moved dramatically to pull free from Congress in recent weeks by slapping huge trade penalties on Chinese imports and directing the construction of a wall along the Mexico border, looking to solve issues that dogged Democrats and Republicans for decades in a way that could...
Mt. Pleasant fixture owned service station, founded ambulance service
Jack Caruso Jr. is fairly certain that almost everyone in Mt. Pleasant knew his father, Jack Sr. “He was a figurehead in Mt. Pleasant forever,” he said. “You could ask anyone in town and they’d have their own little story about my dad.” As the owner of a longtime service...
Rod Rosenstein defends handling of Mueller probe; criticizes Comey as ‘partisan pundit’Video
WASHINGTON — Former deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein on Monday defended his role in the firing of James Comey from the FBI and criticized the bureau’s former director as a “partisan pundit” — offering one of his most detailed public accounts of the hectic events which led to the appointment...
Boy calls 911 to report he was left in hot car with 6 kids
WALDORF, Md. — A boy called 911 to report that he and six other children had been left in a car in Maryland with the windows rolled up and the engine not running. The Charles County Sheriff’s Office tells news outlets that the children ranged in age from 2 to...
Mother of missing Texas girl Maleah Davis heckled after canceled hearingVideo
HOUSTON — The mother of a missing 4-year-old Texas girl was heckled outside a courtroom on Monday by people who questioned if she had done enough to protect her daughter before her disappearance. Brittany Bowens, Maleah Davis’s mother, along with her spokesman, community activist Quanell X, showed up for a...
Former president Jimmy Carter undergoes surgery to repair broken hip after fall
ATLANTA — While leaving to go turkey hunting Monday morning, former President Jimmy Carter fell at his home in Plains, Ga. He was recovering comfortably from surgery to repair a broken hip at Phoebe Sumter Medical Center in Americus, according to information from Deanna Congileo, the press secretary for the...
Here’s where Franklin Regional school board candidates stand on the issues
As the primary election nears, 13 candidates are jockeying for general-election ballot spots in the Franklin Regional school board race. Below are Q&A responses and biographical information for each candidate. RICHARD ARNOLD • Age: 74 • Education: Bachelor’s degree from Slippery Rock University; master’s degree from West Virginia University; doctorate...
Judge blocks release of Coast Guard officer Christopher Hasson
GREENBELT, Md. — A federal judge in Maryland on Monday blocked the release of a Coast Guard lieutenant accused of stockpiling combat gear and compiling a hit list of prominent Democrats and TV journalists. U.S. District Judge George Hazel agreed to revoke a magistrate’s order to free 50-year-old Christopher Hasson...
Massachusetts man accused of killing hiker with machete on Appalachian Trail
A Massachusetts man is accused of assaulting two hikers with a machete, killing one of them, over the weekend on the Appalachian Trial in Virginia, federal prosecutors said. James L. Jordan, 30, was arrested early Saturday and charged with one count of murder and one count of assault with the...
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio says he’ll decide this week on presidential run
NEW YORK — New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio staged a chaotic press event Monday in the lobby of Trump Tower in which he said he will announce this week whether he’s running for president. Speaking at a podium steps from the spot where President Donald Trump announced his...
Condom company’s plugin blocks baby photos on Facebook
Your friends just can’t stop posting photos of their new babies on Facebook. And it’s infuriating. Well condom maker Skyn is here to rescue you — with a “social media contraceptive.” They’ve come up with a Google Chrome extension that filters out those annoying photos on your Facebook feed and...
New York City officer in ‘I can’t breathe’ death is scapegoat, lawyer says
NEW YORK — The New York City police officer accused of using a banned chokehold in the July 2014 death of Eric Garner is being made a scapegoat in a politically charged atmosphere, a defense lawyer said Monday. Video evidence shows Officer Daniel Pantaleo used an approved technique for restraining...
Ex-Michigan trooper gets prison for teen’s Taser crash death
DETROIT — A former Michigan state trooper was sentenced to at least five years in prison Monday for causing the death of a Detroit teen who crashed an all-terrain vehicle after he was shot with a Taser. Judge Margaret Van Houten said Mark Bessner, a lawyer and experienced officer, used...
Canada increases protections for Pacific Northwest orcas
SEATTLE — Canada has approved measures designed to protect endangered orcas in the Pacific Northwest, with some policies going further than laws recently enacted by Washington state. The Seattle Times reports Canadian agencies last Friday announced the policies aimed at improving access to food for orcas, including reducing chinook salmon...
Trump joins GOP criticism of Rep. Tlaib over remarks on Holocaust, Israel
President Donald Trump on Monday joined prominent House Republicans in condemning Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., for recent comments on the Holocaust and Israel that the freshman lawmaker says have been deliberately distorted to ignite attacks against her. “Democrat Rep. Tlaib is being slammed for her horrible and highly insensitive statement...
Supreme Court says 1 state can’t be sued in another’s courts
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court decided Monday that one state cannot unwillingly be sued in the courts of another, overruling a 40-year precedent and perhaps, foreshadowing an argument over the viability of other high court decisions. The outcome left one dissenting justice wondering “which cases the court will overrule next.”...
Arkansas police K9 Mya smiles wide for high school yearbook photo
That’s a good girl. A police K9 was pictured in the yearbook of the Arkansas high school where she doubles as a school resource officer. And she sure looks happy about it. Mya, a 2-year-old Belgian malinois who works with the Bryant Police Department about 20 miles southwest of Little...
Florida woman missing for 6 years found in warehouse freezer
MARGATE, Fla. — The body of a Florida woman who had been missing for six years was found inside a freezer at a scrap warehouse. The business owner said Friday she opened the freezer and found the body of 35-year-old Heather Lacey last month. Lacey’s father told the Sun Sentinel...
President Trump boasts that Red Sox swept a sub-.500 team thanks to him
There’s a particular subset of Donald Trump tweets in which he tries to take credit for things for which he obviously deserves no credit. This is different than that genre of tweets in which Trump claims, retroactively, to have been right about something, a prolific genre of its own. Here,...
U.S. measles cases still climbing, topping 800 for year
NEW YORK — U.S. health officials say this year’s count of measles cases has surpassed 800, a growing tally that is already the nation’s highest in 25 years. A total of 839 cases were reported as of last week. That’s the most since 1994, when 963 were reported for the...
Roman numerals, anyone? Poll suggests bias against Arabic numerals
Who knows exactly what a new poll says about mathematics in America, but the reactions to a recent poll on the topic are a little alarming. When CivicScience, a Pittsburgh-based market research firm, polled more than 3,200 Americans on the issue of mathematics instruction last week, 56% of the respondents...
Iranian students protest mandatory headscarf rule
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s semi-official ISNA news agency says university students have held a campus protest against authorities’ increasing pressure on women to wear mandatory headscarves in public. The report says the students — both men and women — briefly scuffled with another group of Tehran University students who support...
With measles still rising, what religion has to say about vaccination
Each new update in the nationwide surge of measles cases takes Dr. Paul Offit back to the battlefield that was Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia during a regional outbreak that began in 1990. By the time it ended the following year, more than 1,400 city and suburban residents had contracted the...
Trump says China will be ‘hurt very badly’ if no trade deal
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is warning Chinese President Xi Jinping that China “will be hurt very badly” if they don’t agree to a trade deal. Trump tweeted Monday after the countries failed to reach a deal in recent talks. The Trump administration has raised tariffs on $200 billion of...
