News you can use
News you can use
Sorted by date Results 251 - 275 of 2469
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — A long line of cars and trucks collided one after another early Sunday on a dark Florida highway so shrouded in haze and smoke that drivers were instantly blinded. At least 10 people were killed. When rescuers first arrived, they could only listen for screams and moans because the poor visibility made it difficult to find victims in wreckage that was strewn for nearly a mile, police said. Authorities were still trying to determine what caused the pileup south of Gainesville on Interstate 75, which had b...
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama returned to the White House on Thursday from a vacation shortened by government gridlock while Democrats and Republicans snarled across a partisan divide and showed no sign of compromise to avoid year-end tax increases and spending cuts. Adding to the woes confronting the middle class was a pending spike of $2-per-gallon or more in milk prices if lawmakers failed to pass farm legislation by year's end. AP Photo/Charles Dharapak President Barack Obama waves to reporters as he steps off t...
WASHINGTON — Retired Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, who topped an illustrious military career by commanding the U.S.-led international coalition that drove Saddam Hussein's forces out of Kuwait in 1991 but kept a low public profile in controversies over the second Gulf War against Iraq, died Thursday. He was 78. Schwarzkopf died in Tampa, Fla., where he had lived in retirement, according to a U.S. official, who was not authorized to release the information publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. AP Photo/David L...
GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer says she meant no disrespect when she pointed a finger at President Barack Obama during an intense discussion on an airport tarmac. But the Republican governor says the Democratic president showed disrespect for her by abruptly ending their conversation. The brief encounter — out of earshot of observers but captured on camera — was a highly visible demonstration of the verbal and legal skirmishing that has regularly occurred between Brewer and Obama's administration over illeg...
WASHINGTON — District of Columbia police say they are investigating an incident in which NBC News reporter David Gregory displayed what he described as a high-capacity ammunition magazine on "Meet the Press." Gun laws in the nation's capital generally restrict the possession of high-capacity magazines, regardless of whether the device is attached to a firearm. "NBC contacted (the Metropolitan Police Department) inquiring if they could utilize a high capacity magazine for their segment. NBC was informed that possession of a h...
WASHINGTON — The applause rolled through the big chamber, growing ever louder as hundreds of Republicans and Democrats suddenly realized Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was back in the House. But this time she had come to say goodbye. Fellow lawmakers gave her a fitting send-off: cheers, hugs, a cascade of tributes and plenty of tears in a rare moment of political unity. AP Photo/House Television This video image provided by House Television shows Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz. on the floor of the House on Capitol Hill in Washingto...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Declaring the American dream under siege, President Barack Obama called Tuesday night for a flurry of help for a hurting middle class and higher taxes on millionaires, delivering a State of the Union address filled with re-election themes. Restoring a fair shot for all, Obama said, is "the defining issue of our time." Obama outlined a vastly different vision for fixing the country than the one pressed by the Republicans challenging him in Congress and fighting to take his job. He pleaded for an active govern...
CORVALLIS (AP) — A western Montana agricultural research center is losing its only scientist, leaving some concerned about the future of the 106-year-old center despite assurances that Montana State University intends to re-staff it. Mal Westcott will retire Jan. 4 from the Western Agricultural Research Center after 26 years on the staff, and it is unknown when a replacement will come on board. The research center east of Corvallis is one of seven in the state operating under Montana State University's Montana Agricultural E...
BOCA RATON, Fla. — President Barack Obama sharply challenged Mitt Romney on foreign policy in their final campaign debate Monday night, accusing him of "wrong and reckless leadership that is all over the map." The Republican coolly responded, "Attacking me is not an agenda" for dealing with a dangerous world. AP Photo/Pool-Michael Reynolds President Barack Obama speaks as Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and moderator Bob Schieffer listen during the third presidential debate at Lynn University, Monday in Boca R...
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Friday nominated Sen. John Kerry as his next secretary of state, elevating the longtime lawmaker and foreign policy expert to the top diplomatic job he had coveted. "He is not going not need a lot of on-the-job training," Obama said, standing alongside Kerry at the White House. "Few individuals know as many presidents and prime ministers or grasp our policies as firmly as John Kerry." AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite Senate Foreign Relations Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., leads a hearing Thur...
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Presidential contender Newt Gingrich on Thursday angrily denied that he asked his second wife for an "open marriage" that would allow him to have a mistress as she claims in an interview broadcast two days before the South Carolina primary. "Let me be quite clear. The story is false," Gingrich said at a debate, without elaborating. AP Photo/David Goldman Republican presidential candidate former House Speaker Newt Gingrich stands with his wife Callista at the end of the Republican presidential c...
MCLEAN, Va. (AP) — Robert H. Bork, who stepped in to fire the Watergate prosecutor at Richard Nixon's behest and whose failed 1980s nomination to the Supreme Court helped draw the modern boundaries of cultural fights over abortion, civil rights and other issues, has died. He was 85. Son Robert H. Bork Jr. confirmed his father died Wednesday at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, Va. The son said Bork died from complications of heart ailments. AP Photo/Charles Tasnadi U.S. Supreme Court nominee Robert H. Bork testifies b...
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama says he's denying an application for a Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline because a GOP-mandated deadline didn't allow time for a full review. AP Photo/Susan Walsh White House Press Secretary Jay Carney speaks during the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, Wednesday. Obama says his decision isn't a judgment on the merits of the proposed $7 billion pipeline. Rather, he's citing the "arbitrary nature" of the Feb. 21 deadline that was set by a GOP-written provision in a recent tax bill...
NEWTOWN, Conn. — A grief-stricken Newtown on Monday began burying the littlest victims of the school massacre, starting with two 6-year-old boys — one of them a big football fan, the other a mischievous, whip-smart youngster whose twin sister survived the rampage. Family, friends and townspeople streamed to two funeral homes to say goodbye to Jack Pinto, who loved the New York Giants and idolized their star wide receiver, and Noah Pozner, who liked to figure out how things worked mechanically. AP Photo/Mary Altaffer Bar...
WASHINGTON — Sen. Daniel Inouye of Hawaii, the influential Democrat who broke racial barriers on Capitol Hill and played key roles in congressional investigations of the Watergate and Iran-Contra scandals, died Monday. He was 88. Inouye, a senator since January 1963, was currently the longest serving senator and was president pro tempore of the Senate, third in the line presidential succession. His office said Monday that he died of respiratory complications at a Washington-area hospital. AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File S...
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Jon Huntsman staked his presidential campaign on New Hampshire and his bid to become a legitimate competitor on distinguishing himself from front-runner Mitt Romney. But less than a week after a disappointing third-place finish in the Granite State's GOP primary, Huntsman decided to quit the race and back Romney. Huntsman will endorse Romney, officials said Sunday, because he believes Romney is the best candidate to beat President Barack Obama in November. Campaign manager Matt David said Huntsman w...
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — Jon Huntsman abandoned his once-promising campaign for the Republican presidential nomination on Monday and endorsed Mitt Romney as the man "best equipped to defeat Barack Obama'" in the fall. The former Utah governor coupled his announcement with an appeal to the remaining contenders to stop attacking one another in television commercials. "At its core, the Republican Party is a party of ideas, but the current toxic form of our political discourse does not help our cause," he said. AP Photo/David G...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration raised concerns Saturday about efforts in Congress that it said would undermine "the dynamic, innovative global Internet," urging lawmakers to approve measures this year that balance the need to fight piracy and counterfeiting against an open Internet. White House officials said in a blog post that it would not support pending legislation that "reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk" or undermines the global Internet, cautioning the measure could discourage i...
LIMA, Peru (AP) — A Peruvian court on Friday sentenced Joran van der Sloot to 28 years in prison for murder of a young woman he met at a Lima casino, even as the family of U.S. teenager Natalee Holloway sought to have him prosecuted in the U.S. over her disappearance in 2005. The decision comes two days after the young Dutchman pleaded guilty to killing Stephany Flores, a 21-year-old business student. AP Photo/Karel Navarro Joran van der Sloot arrives to the courtroom for his sentence at San Pedro prison in Lima, Peru, F...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Susan Rice, the embattled U.N. ambassador, abruptly withdrew from consideration to be the next secretary of state on Thursday after an ugly standoff with Republican senators who declared they would vigorously oppose her nomination. The move elevates Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry as the likely choice to be the nation's next top diplomat when Hillary Rodham Clinton departs soon. AP Photo/ Evan Vucci, File UN Ambassador Susan Rice is seen leaving a meeting on Capitol Hill on Nov. 28. Rice has withdrawn from c...
PORTLAND, Ore. — The gunman who killed two people and himself in a shooting rampage at an Oregon mall was 22 years old and used a stolen rifle from someone he knew, authorities said Wednesday. Jacob Tyler Roberts had armed himself with an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle and had several fully loaded magazines when he arrived at a Portland mall on Tuesday, said Clackamas County Sheriff Craig Roberts. AP Photo/The Oregonian, Bruce Ely Onlookers observe the scene outside Clackamas Town Center in Portland, Ore., where a shooting occurre...
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Mitt Romney cruised to a solid victory in the New Hampshire primary Tuesday night, improving on his first-place finish in the lead-off Iowa caucuses and firmly establishing himself as the man to beat for the Republican presidential nomination. "Tonight we made history," Romney told cheering supporters before pivoting to a stinging denunciation of President Barack Obama. "The middle class has been crushed," in the past three years, he said, "our debt is too high and our opportunities too few" — rem...
WASHINGTON — Ron Paul cited a staggering number in the Republican presidential debate Sunday — $15 trillion supposedly spent by the Fed "bailing out their friends." Like Mitt Romney and his claims about creating jobs in the private sector, Paul came up with that shocker by presenting an unbalanced look at balance sheets. A look at some of the claims in a pair of lively GOP debates on the weekend and how they compare with the facts: AP Photo/Charles Krupa Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, and for...
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — Hundreds of people packed a massive Tucson cathedral on Sunday for a service to remember a bloody morning one year ago when a gunman's deadly rampage shook a community and shocked a nation. Girls in white dresses and red sashes danced down the aisle as a song called "Hero in the Dark" played, and a pastor called on everyone to celebrate the lives of the people lost and those who acted heroically during the shooting. The names of the six people killed were read as a bell rang for each of them, and their f...
DENVER (AP) — Recreational marijuana use became legal in Washington state Thursday, but Colorado could have to wait almost a month before the state constitution allows people to legally smoke pot in private. Colorado's elections chief planned Thursday to certify last month's vote to allow recreational marijuana use. The certification sets up a 30-day window for Gov. John Hickenlooper to declare the amendment part of the state constitution. AP Photo/Ted S. Warren Medical marijuana is packaged for sale in 1-gram packages at t...
