Canada grounds Boeing 737 Max 8 and 9; U.S. last major user of plane
Canada said Wednesday that it is grounding all Boeing 737 Max 8 airplanes over safety concerns arising from the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines flight earlier this week. The news leaves the United States and its carriers as the last major users of the aircraft. Transport Minister Marc Garneau said...
Actress Lori Loughlin surrenders as admissions fallout spreads
BOSTON — Fallout from a sweeping college admissions scandal swiftly spread Wednesday, with actress Lori Loughlin surrendering ahead of a Los Angeles court hearing and a Silicon Valley hedge fund replacing its leader. Loughlin and fellow actress Felicity Huffman headline the list of some 50 people charged in documents unveiled...
Trump says late-night shows ‘one-sided’ and ‘unwatchable’
President Donald Trump is often the target of hosts on late-night shows. He’s often mocked or ridiculed, or both. On Wednesday the president longed for the days when Jay Leno sat in the comfy seat on the “Tonight” show on NBC. On Twitter he shared, “‘Jay Leno points out that...
DEA warns of scam phone calls after increase
The Drug Enforcement Administration issued a warning Wednesday after an “alarming” rise in scam phone calls relating to the agency. The phone calls involve a caller posing as a DEA agent or other law enforcement official threatening arrest for drug-related offenses or legal action over an exorbitant fine that doesn’t...
Sudan cancels flogging of 9 women arrested in protests
CAIRO — A Sudanese opposition group says an appeals court has overturned a sentence of flogging and imprisonment against nine women who took part in anti-government protests. The Democratic Lawyers Alliance says Wednesday the court ordered their release the previous day. The women were arrested Saturday and an emergency court...
Officials: 2 attackers kill 6, themselves at Brazil school
SAO PAULO — Authorities say hooded teenagers opened fire at a school in southern Brazil, killing six people before taking their own lives. Wednesday’s shooting happened in a public school in Suzano, a suburb of Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest city. The state government of Sao Paulo says two youths armed...
Germany to compensate gay men investigated after WWII
BERLIN — German authorities on Wednesday extended compensation payments to more gay men who were investigated under a law criminalizing homosexuality that was enthusiastically enforced in West Germany after World War II. German lawmakers in 2017 approved the annulment of thousands of convictions under the Paragraph 175 law, which remained...
Woman sentenced for stealing donations for young burn victim
WICHITA, Kan. — A 34-year-old Kansas woman who stole charitable donations meant for an 11-year-old burn victim has been sentenced to a year of probation. KAKE-TV reports Cinthia Davis, of Wellington, was sentenced Tuesday and ordered restitution to the victim’s family. Davis was found guilty of felony theft in January....
Ohio man says he’ll sustain himself with just beer for Lent
Commonly Christians give up something for Lent in preparation for the Easter holiday. But one man in Ohio is taking a different tack and deciding to only have beer during the Lenten season. Del Hall, who works at the Fifty West Brewing Company in Cincinnati, has challenged himself to sustain...
Carnival in Spanish towns
ALSASUA, Spain (AP) — Dozens of devil-like figures dance and convulse at the sound of cowbells, chasing onlookers with pitchforks in Alsasua as part of this northern Spanish town’s Carnival. Alsasua is one of several villages in this remote region in the foothills of Pyrenees Mountains that still honor these...
Feds charge dozens in widespread U.S. college admissions scam
BOSTON — A fast-moving college admissions scandal moved from bombshell indictments to guilty pleas in a matter of hours, yet the full fallout from the federal case against the rich and famous could take months or more to unfold. Big names such as actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin headline...
Trump sees advantage in debate over Israel, anti-Semitism
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump can’t get enough of Rep. Ilhan Omar. As Democrats try to turn the page after the freshman lawmaker’s remarks, criticized by some as anti-Semitic, ignited an embarrassing, intra-party fight, the Republican president is trying to prolong and weaponize the issue for his 2020 campaign, asserting...
Compromise seeks to limit president’s emergency declarations
WASHINGTON — The White House and Republican senators sought compromise on limiting presidents’ powers to unilaterally declare national emergencies, as chances improved that President Donald Trump might avoid a long-expected rejection by Congress of his effort to divert billions more for building barriers along the Mexican border. As a Thursday...
New Pentagon transgender rule sets limits for troops
WASHINGTON — The Defense Department has approved a new policy that will largely bar transgender troops and military recruits from transitioning to another sex, and require most individuals to serve in their birth gender. The memo outlining the new policy was obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press, and it comes...
3-story building collapses in Nigeria with children inside
LAGOS, Nigeria — Frantic rescue efforts were underway in Nigeria on Wednesday after a three-story school building collapsed while classes were in session, with scores of children thought to be inside. Witnesses said nearly a dozen students had been pulled from the ruins, but it was not yet clear if...
Traces of weed killer in products like Roundup found in popular beers, wineVideo
The weed-killing chemical found in products such as Bayer AG’s Roundup has been cropping up in some of Americans most popular foods. Now that glass of vino or brew also may be tainted, according to a new report by U.S. Public Interest Research Group. Some wines or beers likely contain...
California’s new governor signs moratorium on executions
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The 737 inmates on the largest death row in the nation got a reprieve from California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday when he signed an executive order placing a moratorium on executions. Newsom also withdrew the lethal injection regulations that death penalty opponents already have tied up...
Vietnam urges Malaysia free 2nd woman in N. Korean killing
HANOI, Vietnam — Vietnam is urging Malaysia to release the second woman accused of killing the estranged half brother of North Korea’s leader. Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh made the plea in a phone call Tuesday with his counterpart, Saifuddin Abdullah. A statement posted on the ministry’s website said Minh...
NYC’s Chrysler Building may become a hotel under its new owners
New York City’s landmark Chrysler Building, which is being bought for about a fifth of what it last sold for, could ultimately be transformed from an aging office tower into a hotel. Aby Rosen’s RFR Holding LLC and Austrian real estate firm Signa Holding GmbH last week agreed to purchase...
Blame the bare-istas: Town’s residents don’t like scantily clad help at this coffee shop
The Northern California town of American Canyon, population about 20,000, is trying to shut down a coffee shop by asking the kind of oddly philosophical question you might contemplate while nursing a cup of joe: Is a cafe still just a cafe if the baristas are wearing close to nothing?...
New concern on college campuses: ‘drunkorexia,’ combination drinking, eating disorder
My college experience included this life-skills lesson: Drink alcohol on a full stomach, so you don’t get inebriated too quickly. Of course, most college students shouldn’t be drinking at all, but we know from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism that close to 60 percent of college students...
Trump lenders subpoenaed by New York attorney general in new probe
NEW YORK — New York’s attorney general opened a new line of inquiry into President Trump’s business dealings, issuing subpoenas to Deutsche Bank AG and Investors Bank over loans for real estate projects and a failed bid to buy the National Football League’s Buffalo Bills, according to a person familiar...
Bones were found in the fireplace. Rare coins may have been the motive for murder, police say.
It was reportedly not a happy home. The couple lived on a tree-shaded street in Silver Spring Township, Cumberland County. The house overlooked a creek that corkscrewed all the way to the Susquehanna River and Harrisburg about 10 miles away to the east. Inside, the relationship between Rabihan and Hap...
New Mexico bill would create first state-run pot shops in U.S.
SANTA FE, N.M. — New Mexico would become the first U.S. state to set up its own government-operated marijuana stores and subsidize medical cannabis for the poor under a bill brokered between Republicans and Democrats, as a new wave of states weighs legislation that would legalize recreational sales and consumption....
Gene-edited food quietly arrives in restaurant cooking oil
NEW YORK — Somewhere in the Midwest, a restaurant is frying foods with oil made from gene-edited soybeans. That’s according to the company making the oil, which says it’s the first commercial use of a gene-edited food in the U.S. Calyxt said it can’t reveal its first customer for competitive...
