MIAMI (AP) — Diabetes, arthritis and open-heart surgery have kept Sherice Bennett from working, but she can’t afford her medicine and became homeless while waiting more than two years for a chance to convince a judge that she qualifies for federal disability benefits. Maria Ruiz also is waiting to appeal her denial; meanwhile, she’s been … Continue reading
COMPTON, Calif. (AP) — Los Angeles County sheriff’s officials asked for the public’s help Saturday in gaining information about a newborn baby deputies rescued after finding her buried beside a popular Compton bike path. The girl was believed to be only 24 to 36 hours old when she was found Friday afternoon near a creek … Continue reading
CLEVELAND (AP) — Prosecutors in Ohio on Saturday released a frame-by-frame analysis of the surveillance camera footage first made public a year ago that shows a white Cleveland police officer fatally shooting a black 12-year-old boy who had a pellet gun. The additional images taken from surveillance video at a recreation center where Tamir Rice … Continue reading
NEW YORK (AP) — Tens of millions of Americans returning home after the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend Sunday had cooperative weather and mostly efficient airport operations to thank for smooth traveling conditions. Other than a winter storm that is bringing freezing rain and snow to the central Plains Sunday night and into Monday, and flood … Continue reading
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Just days before she died with Dr. Jack Kevorkian’s assistance, Merian Frederick could not speak or hold up her head without help from her daughter, Carol Poenisch. On a video recorded by Kevorkian in 1993, Poenisch steadies Frederick’s Lou Gehrig’s disease-ravaged body as she signs a form requesting help to … Continue reading
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — The man accused of killing three people, including a police officer, at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs lived a troubled, isolated life in the Carolinas and Colorado, but acquaintances said he never hinted that he would target the organization. Robert Lewis Dear, 57, Is accused of shooting a … Continue reading
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Five months after nine black parishioners were gunned down at a Charleston church, volunteers continue the laborious job of sorting and cataloguing thousands of letters, mementos and gifts that poured in after the tragedy. For weeks following the June 17 shootings, the sidewalk in front of Emanuel AME Church was a … Continue reading
ODESSA, Del. (AP) — An emu whose escape more than 60 days ago prompted lockdowns at two Delaware elementary schools has been captured. Daniel Shortridge is a spokesman for the state Department of Agriculture. He is quoted by The News-Journal of Wilmington as saying that private parties and state officials netted the flightless bird Thursday … Continue reading
FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — Democratic U.S. Rep. Sam Farr of California will retire at the end of his term in 2017, ending a career in Congress spanning nearly a quarter-century, he announced Thursday in Salinas. Farr, 74, said he decided not to run next year because he has spent more than half his life in … Continue reading
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — New Mormon church rules targeting gay members and their children have triggered a firestorm of backlash from church members of all political backgrounds. Mormon scholar Patrick Mason said the symbolism of targeting kids has riled up even conservative, orthodox Latter-day Saints who don’t usually get on the LGBT bandwagon or … Continue reading
Rite Aid is giving patients a chance to peek over their doctor’s shoulder with genetic tests that help determine the effectiveness of some prescriptions. The drugstore chain said Thursday that it is selling Harmonyx testing kits at nearly all of its stores. The kits cost between $49 and $89 without a prescription, and customers can … Continue reading
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — One of the University of Missouri’s first black law school graduates was appointed Thursday to lead the four-campus system through a tumultuous period of racial unrest, drawing praise from students who said he’s well-equipped to confront the problems they felt his predecessor largely ignored. Michael Middleton, 68, has spent 30 years … Continue reading
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks slipped Thursday after the U.S. said economic growth slowed more than expected in the summer. A mixed batch of third-quarter earnings reports didn’t inspire investors. Companies including restaurant chain Buffalo Wild Wings and camera maker GoPro plunged after releasing weak results. The market was lower all day after the Commerce … Continue reading
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A somber Albuquerque police chief stood surrounded by dozens of law enforcement officials Thursday as he described a well-liked, highly decorated officer who was gunned down outside a pharmacy last week. Officer Daniel Webster died early Thursday at University of New Mexico Hospital, a little more than a week after he … Continue reading
SEATTLE (AP) — A football field in Washington state has become more than a battleground for athletes as the suspension of an assistant coach for praying at midfield after games divided people around the country over the religious rights of school employees. District officials put Joe Kennedy, Bremerton High School’s assistant football coach, on paid … Continue reading
SPARKS, Nev. (AP) — Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump emerged Thursday from a debate in which he appeared to take a back seat to his rivals by lashing out at the media as he continues to adjust to a race in which he is no longer the undisputed front-runner. Trump told more than 3,000 supporters … Continue reading
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — In a case that scandalized an institution known for educating some of America’s top political and literary leaders, a graduate of an elite prep school was sentenced to a year in jail for sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl as part of a sexual conquest competition. Twenty-year-old Owen Labrie of Tunbridge, Vermont, … Continue reading
PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — A jury found late Thursday that a Utah cemetery association was not negligent in the death of a 4-year-old boy who was crushed by a historic headstone, one of a handful of similar deaths around the country in recent years. Jurors delivered their decision in a family lawsuit over the … Continue reading
PITTSBURGH (AP) — A woman who appeared with Bill Cosby on an educational children’s TV show as a teenager has sued saying he defamed her after she gave an interview claiming he sexually abused her in the 1980s. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday by 48-year-old Renita Hill, of Baldwin, a Pittsburgh suburb, says the incidents occurred … Continue reading
NEW HARTFORD, N.Y. (AP) — Parents charged with beating their teenage son to death inside a church are giving diverging versions of what happened, though lawyers for both said Thursday the couple hadn’t intended the brutality that unfolded. An attorney for the mother, Deborah Leonard, said she felt helpless to stop an “intervention” that spiraled … Continue reading
LOS ANGELES (AP) — It was a honeymoon that Dr. Angelica Zen likely won’t ever forget, and not just because of the romantic Bali vacation. On her way home to Los Angeles last week, the UCLA physician made her first unassisted delivery of a newborn baby when a passenger suddenly went into labor over the … Continue reading
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A jury watched intently Thursday as a prosecutor showed video from multiple angles of perhaps the most stunning scenes of carnage ever on the Las Vegas Strip: A vehicle-to-vehicle shooting, a high-speed crash that sent cars spinning, and a fireball that left three people dead — including two who burned to … Continue reading
CINCINNATI (AP) — While an Ohio man was on electronic monitoring in an abduction case, he had a 14-year-old girl dropped off at his home by taxi, held her captive for months and raped her, according to criminal charges and court records. Cody Lee Jackson, 20, fled the state without the girl after pleading guilty … Continue reading
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Flash flooding sent water, mud and rocks rushing across Interstate 5 north of Los Angeles Thursday, stranding hundreds of vehicles and closing the major north-south thoroughfare. The flooding at Fort Tejon, about 75 miles north of downtown Los Angeles, was part of a storm system that brought downpours across a wide … Continue reading
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — An Oklahoma appeals court on Monday narrowly denied a death row inmate’s last-minute request for a new hearing and ordered that his execution may proceed. In a 3-2 decision, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals denied Richard Glossip’s request for an evidentiary hearing and an emergency stay of execution. The court … Continue reading
Spartan Echo 