Over 1,000 quarantined in measles scare at LA universities
LOS ANGELES — More than 1,000 students and staff members at two Los Angeles universities were quarantined on campus or sent home this week in one of the most sweeping efforts yet by public health authorities to contain the spread of measles in the U.S., where cases have reached a...
Washington passes bill to become first state to compost human bodies
It may soon be legal for the dead to push daisies, or any other flower, in backyard gardens across Washington state. The state legislature recently passed a bill that, if signed by the governor, allows human bodies to be composted - and used for mulch. As the nation ages, U.S....
Lancaster County Amish population grows despite urban sprawl
LANCASTER, Pa. — The Amish population in Pennsylvania’s Lancaster County is continuing to grow each year, despite the encroachment of urban sprawl on their communities. Some experts are concerned that a planned 75-acre housing and commercial project will make it more difficult for the county to accommodate the Amish. U.S....
Death sentence upheld in Pennsylvania troopers’ ambush
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s highest court Friday upheld the death sentence and conviction of a sniper who killed a state trooper and wounded another in a nighttime ambush outside their barracks in a heavily wooded area. The state Supreme Court’s decision upholds lower court decisions in the case of Eric Frein,...
Elite service members compete for ‘Best Ranger’
FORT BENNING, Ga. — There’s tough, there’s Army Ranger tough and then there’s the toughest of the tough, the handful named Best Ranger. Earlier this month, 106 elite members of the U.S. military spent 60 grueling hours competing as two-member teams for the Best Ranger title. Sleep-deprived and sometimes soaking...
New study says universe expanding faster, is younger
WASHINGTON — The universe is expanding faster than it used to, meaning it’s about a billion years younger than we thought, a new study by a Nobel Prize winner says. And that’s sending a shudder through the world of physics, making astronomers re-think some of their most basic concepts. At...
Pilot rescued from plane that crash-landed atop Idaho tree
MCCALL, Idaho — A pilot who was trying to crash-land this week in an Idaho field instead brought his small plane to rest at the top of a 60-foot tree, officials said. Pilot John Gregory was not hurt in the Monday night crash, which happened when his single-engine Piper Cub...
West Newton woman enjoyed faith, food and home-making
There was always something good in the oven at Catherine Lash’s home. The mouth-watering scent of raspberry pie or one of her cakes filled her West Newton kitchen on a daily basis. Visitors knew they’d be treated to fresh baked goods and coffee when they visited, said her son, Richard...
Meth smoking Florida man attacks mattress in jealous rage
FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. — An apparently hallucinating Florida man used a bedpost to attack a mattress where he thought a man was hiding. In a Facebook post , The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s office quotes the girlfriend of 37-year-old Felipe Oquendo as saying that he began acting erratically early Friday....
Record 250 herpes cases reported per day near Coachella Festival
Music fans apparently caught more than some great tunes at a California music festival this month. The annual Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival draws about 250,000 people to the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, across two weekends in April. In addition to the impacts that any large event...
Judge turns jail into house arrest for 2 in Penn State frat death
BELLEFONTE — A judge is letting two former Penn State fraternity brothers serve sentences on house arrest for convictions related to the death of a pledge. WTAJ-TV said this week that Joshua Kurczewski and Michael Bonatucci had faced minimums of three months and one month in jail, but instead they’re...
Pentagon set to expand military’s role along southern border
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is preparing to approve a loosening of rules that bar troops from interacting with migrants entering the United States, expanding the military’s involvement in President Donald Trump’s operation along the southern border. Senior Defense Department officials have recommended that acting defense secretary Patrick Shanahan approve a...
Men’s beards are dirtier than dogs’ fur, study says
Talk about a romantic mood killer. Before you go in close for a kiss with that hirsute dude, you might want to look at a new study out of Zurich, Switzerland, that found men’s beards contain more bacteria than a dog’s fur. The Hirslanden Clinic looked at the “bacterial load...
Puppy stolen from Pa. pet store by armed man is found unharmed
WILKES-BARRE — Authorities say Rottweiler puppy stolen from a Pennsylvania pet store by a man armed with a gun has been found safe. The 9-week-old dog named Remus was found Thursday on a Wilkes-Barre street. It had been taken Wednesday by a man who allegedly displayed a gun tucked in...
Multiple fatalities after tractor-trailer slams into traffic near Denver
Multiple people were killed Thursday near Denver after a tractor-trailer roared down a hill and into a traffic jam, incinerating a dozen cars and three trucks in a chain-reaction fireball. The aftermath left a smoldering apocalyptic stretch of highway in Lakewood, Colorado, with towering orange flames belching columns of black...
Uber looks to raise up to $9B in initial public offering
NEW YORK — Uber is planning to sell 180 million shares for between $44 and $50 each, valuing the ride-hailing giant lower than previous estimates in a sign of that some of the excitement around ride-hailing has cooled. That would raise up to $9 billion for the San Francisco-based company,...
Trump to address a divided National Rifle Association
WASHINGTON — The nation’s largest gun rights organization played a pivotal role in President Donald Trump’s victory in 2016. Three years later, the National Rifle Association is limping toward the next election divided and diminished. It’s a reversal that has stunned longtime observers and that is raising questions about the...
Report: Nearly 100,000 undocumented immigrants graduate from U.S. high schools each year
Nearly 100,000 undocumented immigrants are estimated to graduate from U.S. high schools every year, a new report says, although many do not have the same protection against deportation and other benefits that the “dreamers” do. The report, based on census data, was published by the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute, a...
Yemen’s al-Qaida branch vows revenge over Saudi executions
SANAA, Yemen — Al-Qaida in Yemen is vowing to avenge beheadings carried out by Saudi Arabia this week — an indication that some of the 37 Saudis executed on terrorism-related charges were members of the Sunni militant group. Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, as the branch is called, posted a...
Rod Rosenstein fires back at critics over Mueller report
NEW YORK — Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein hit back hard against politicians and the press Thursday night, and warned that hacking and social media manipulation are “only the tip of the iceberg” when it comes to Russian efforts to influence American elections. Speaking at the Public Servants Dinner of...
Judge gives U.S. 6 months to identify children split at border
SAN DIEGO — The federal government has six months to identify potentially thousands of children who were separated from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border early in President Trump’s term, a judge said Thursday. Trump administration officials said they had a goal of six months but opposed any deadline, saying...
Trump administration hits pause on offshore oil plans as a result of court ruling
A recent federal court decision appears to have struck a blow to President Trump’s plans to expand offshore oil and natural gas drilling across the U.S. continental shelf, with the aim of turning the United States into an energy-exporting behemoth. In his first interview since being confirmed to Trump’s Cabinet,...
Former FBI agent, Derry teacher remembered
As a young man, Michael G. Christoff was an FBI special agent in Pensacola, Fla., and Mobile, Ala. The former South Greensburg and Unity resident had risen from being a personal secretary to one of the FBI assistant directors during the reign of legendary Director J. Edgar Hoover to a...
Trump won’t make immigration adviser Stephen Miller available to Congress
WASHINGTON — The White House blocked adviser Stephen Miller from testifying before congressional committees on immigration and a staff shakeup at the Department of Homeland Security, prompting lawmakers on Thursday to demand internal communications on the topic from Homeland Security officials. In a letter dated Wednesday, the White House counsel...
DA: New York man ran prostitution ring out of parents’ basement
NEW YORK — A Long Island man ran a prostitution ring out of his elderly parents’ sprawling suburban home, enticing women with drugs and locking them in a basement where he forced them to use a bucket instead of a bathroom, prosecutors said Thursday. Raymond Rodio III, 47, used social...
