- HOME
- NEWS
- SPORTS
- BUSINESS
- FYI/LIVING
- ENTERTAINMENT
- OPINION
- JOBS
- CARS
- REAL ESTATE
- RENTALS
- CLASSIFIEDS
- SHOPPING
- EXTRAS
After four hours of questions from senators about his decision to send the self-described mastermind of the Sept. 11 terrorist strikes to New York for trial, Attorney General Eric Holder on Wednesday submitted to one more round of interrogation from people who lost loved ones in the Sept. 11 attacks.
CHICAGO | “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” an iconic broadcast that began as a local Chicago talk show and grew over two decades into the foundation of a media empire worth billions, will end its run in 2011 after 25 seasons on the air, Winfrey’s production company said Thursday night. Winfrey, who from a seat on the couch of her set in Chicago’s West Loop neighborhood became a billionaire and one of the most powerful women in entertainment, plans to announce the final date for her show during a live broadcast today, said Harpo Productions Inc.
WASHINGTON | The Pentagon said Thursday it will scour its procedures for identifying volatile soldiers in the ranks following the Fort Hood shooting rampage and lapses that might allow others to slip through bureaucratic cracks. “It is prudent to determine immediately whether there are internal weaknesses or procedural shortcomings in the department that could make us vulnerable,” Defense Secretary Robert Gates said.
WASHINGTON | Army Lt. Col. Dominic “Rocky” Baragona was killed in Iraq on the very day he was going home. He was en route from Baghdad to Kuwait City when a tractor-trailer jackknifed across the highway and crushed his Humvee.
A federal judge on Wednesday ordered compensation for a Los Angeles couple whowere denied spousal benefits by the federal government because they are gay. Stephen Reinhardt, a judge with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, deemed the denial of health care and other benefits to the spouse of federal public defender Brad Levenson to be a violation of the Constitution’s guarantee of due process and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, which is prohibited by California law.
WASHINGTON | Women should continue getting regular mammograms starting at age 40, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Wednesday, moving to douse confusion caused by a task-force recommendation two days earlier. Sebelius issued her statement following a government panel’s recommendation on Monday that said most women don’t need mammograms in their 40s and should get one every two years starting at 50.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. | A police officer in a small Arkansas town used a stun gun on an unruly 10-year-old girl after he said her mother gave him permission to do so. Now the town’s mayor is calling for an investigation into whether the Taser use was appropriate. According to a report by Officer Dustin Bradshaw, obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press, police were called to the Ozark home Nov. 11 because of a domestic disturbance. When he arrived, the girl was curled up on the floor, screaming, the report said.
WASHINGTON | President Barack Obama saluted Sen. Robert C. Byrd, a West Virginia Democrat, for becoming history’s longest-serving member of Congress on Wednesday, saying the one-time segregationist had become a touchstone for constitutional values and a role model. “Countless colleagues — myself included — have looked to him for advice, guidance and leadership over the years,” Obama, who represented Illinois in the Senate, said in a prepared statement.
WASHINGTON | Senate health care legislation expected this week is likely to include a new long-term care insurance program to help the elderly and the disabled avoid going into nursing homes, Democratic officials say. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, is expected to incorporate the voluntary program in legislation to be unveiled as early as today, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because a final decision has not been made.
WASHINGTON | More than 15 million taxpayers may owe the government $250 or more because of how the IRS last spring set up President Barack Obama’s tax break designed to help consumers spend the U.S. economy out of recession. Individuals with more than one job and married couples in which both spouses work may have to repay the government $400, either through a smaller tax refund or a larger tax bill, according to a report released Monday by the Treasury Department’s inspector general for tax administration. Social Security recipients who also earn taxable wages might have to repay $250.
U.S. researchers say they have located the remains of two high-tech Japanese submarines that were scuttled by the U.S. Navy off Hawaii in 1946 to prevent the technology from falling into the hands of the Soviet Union at the beginning of the Cold War. One of the vessels was the largest non-nuclear submarine ever built and had the ability to sail 1½ times around the globe without refueling. Called the I-14, the behemoth was 400 feet long and 40 feet high and carried a crew of 144. It was designed to launch folding-wing bombers on kamikaze missions against U.S. cities such as New York and Washington, but World War II’s end prevented such attacks.
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. | The molesters drank blood, the children said, and hung them from hooks after forcing them to have sex with their parents. They murdered babies, prosecutors told jurors, and snapped photographs as the horror unfolded. Ed Jagels, renowned as one of California’s toughest district attorneys, built his career on the Kern County child molestation cases of the 1980s, putting more than two dozen men and women behind bars to serve decades-long sentences for abusing children.
Glynndana Shevlin awoke Oct. 30 with a runny nose and scratchy throat, worried she might have the flu. But the full-time food and beverage concierge at Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim, Calif., has no paid sick days, and if her absences stack up, she faces discipline.
Pelosi’s predicament Love her or hate her, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is at the peak of her political power, and she seems to be reveling in the high drama of the moment.
The Colorado parents of three children could wind up in jail after admitting in court they fabricated a story about their son in a runaway balloon to gain publicity for a possible reality TV show.
KAILUA, Hawaii | Jenn Boneza remembers when the white sandy beach near the boat ramp in her hometown was wide enough for people to build sand castles. “It really used to be a beautiful beach,” said the 35-year-old mother of two.
The latest U.S. Defense Department identification of casualties: •Marine Lance Cpl. Justin J. Swanson, 21, of Anaheim, Calif., died Nov. 10 supporting combat in Helmand province, Afghanistan.
MILAN | In a decade-long journey, the Tunisian went from drug pusher on the streets of Milan, to Islamic militant trained in Afghanistan to kill Americans, to potential key witness against Guantanamo Bay detainees. Prosecutors said Lazhar Ben Mohamed Tlil may hold the key to prosecuting Guantanamo Bay prisoners in Italy and may be crucial to U.S. prosecutions, too.
John J. O’Connor III, the husband of retired Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O’Connor, died in Phoenix of complications arising from Alzheimer’s disease. He was 79. John O’Connor, himself a lawyer, was diagnosed with the disease nearly two decades ago. His condition deteriorated markedly in mid-decade. When Justice O’Connor announced her retirement in 2005, she cited the need to care for her husband.
WOODLAND PARK, N.J. | A decades-long conflict among residents of this community over what their town should be called has been resolved — for now, at least. The borough of Woodland Park — formerly known as West Paterson — sealed its new name in a referendum on Nov. 3. A final count of provisional ballots last week found voters chose to keep the Woodland Park name by a 32-vote margin.
For the birds LA MARQUE, Texas | Police say a low-flying pelican distracted a driver, causing him to veer off a road and drive his million-dollar sports car into a salt marsh.
news.mcclatchy.com headlines
Officials say dozens of people occupying a campus building at the University of California, Berkeley, in a protest over fee hikes and budget cuts have been arrested.
The son of a late San Francisco pornography mogul will stand trial on accusations that he crushed his ex-girlfriend's skull with a baseball bat.
The parents of an 8-year-old Liberian girl who was allegedly raped by four boys have been arrested on felony child abuse charges.
A 5-year-old North Carolina girl was raped and killed the same day she was taken from her home, according to an arrest warrant released Friday. Shaniya Davis was sexually assaulted and asphyxiated Nov. 10, the day her mother reported her missing from the trailer park where she was staying, according to the warrant. Authorities embarked on a nearly weeklong search that ended when the girl's body was found dumped off a rural road.
Police are investigating after a woman lost control of her car and struck 10 children and an adult outside a middle school in Alabama.
The mother of the man former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's daughter Bristol had planned to marry has been sentenced to three years in prison.
Two congressional Republicans say federal prosecutors rushed into a settlement with a nonprofit operated by Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson that had been accused of misspending government grants.
Federal officials say they arrested a man who strapped 15 live lizards to his chest to get through customs at Los Angeles International Airport.
As of Friday, Nov. 18, 2009, at least 842 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department. The department last updated its figures Friday at 10 a.m. EST.
As of Friday, Nov. 20, 2009, at least 4,364 members of the U.S. military had died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
A bus carrying 35 elementary school children on an outing has caught fire on a New York City bridge, but the children and their escorts have been rescued.
A black school teacher charged with assaulting white police officers, resisting arrest and disturbing the peace has agreed a plea deal with prosecutors convicting her of two misdemeanor counts.
Police say they have arrested a third person in the shooting death of an off-duty Las Vegas police officer in his garage.
The U.S. Army said Friday it would open Sarah Palin's appearance on Fort Bragg to media, a reversal from earlier in the week when the military wanted the event closed out of fears it would prompt political grandstanding against President Barack Obama.
The Oregon Court of Appeals has rejected a request by a high school English teacher to carry a handgun at school, the latest legal setback for the teacher who says she needs the gun for protection from her former husband.
Thieves shot to death five Arkansas family members and burned their bodies for the meager bounty of a set of wheel rims and some flat-screen televisions, court documents said Friday.
A teenager accused of killing a 9-year-old neighbor should be sent to a psychiatric hospital because she shows signs of severe depression and anxiety, her attorney said.
Three Democratic moderates to decide fate of health bill - for now - in crucial Saturday vote
Arun Kumar was born to disabled parents, beaten by his grandparents, ran away from home, got a job in a garment factory and had all his savings stolen by the police.
A billboard showing President Barack Obama wearing a turban has sparked a lot of attention at the suburban Denver used car dealership that put it up.
Marines treated at Camp Lejeune for post-traumatic stress had to undergo therapy for months in temporary trailers where they could hear bomb blasts, machine-gun fire and war cries through the thin walls, according to servicemen and their former psychiatrist.
A former Marine was charged Friday with six counts of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of four people whose bodies were found in a burning home, including a prostitute featured on the HBO reality series "Cathouse."
The state of Wyoming filed a federal lawsuit Friday seeking to block the National Park Service from further restricting snowmobile numbers in Yellowstone National Park.
A former Marine has been charged with six counts of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of four people whose bodies were found in a burning home, including a prostitute featured on the HBO reality series "Cathouse."
A jury is deliberating the fate of a black school teacher charged with assaulting white police officers in Missouri
