Mail.com

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — San Francisco named a new police chief, an African-American police veteran who officials and community activists hope can reform a troubled department marred by fatal police shootings of minorities.

The 27-year police veteran’s appointment comes at a critical time for the San Francisco Police Department, which faces a daunting list of reforms recommended by the Department of Justice. Like other law enforcement agencies around the country, the department has poor relations with minority communities.   Continue reading “San Francisco names LAPD veteran as new police chief”

Mail.com

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — Security forces in Congo have killed at least 26 demonstrators and arrested scores more amid protests against President Joseph Kabila’s hold on power, Human Rights Watch said, as talks on the political crisis caused by delayed elections were resuming Wednesday.

A heavy military and police presence remained in the capital, Kinshasa, and across the country. The remains of barricades littered the streets after protesters burned the headquarters of the ruling party on Tuesday, the first day after Kabila’s mandate expired.  Continue reading “At least 26 killed in Congo protests, rights group says”

RT

Lead contamination in low-income communities is an even more of a severe problem across the US than initial reports from Flint, Michigan, indicated, according to new analysis from Reuters.

It has been over a year since lead contamination in Flint’s drinking water became national news. The issue is nowhere near fixed, as residents continue to battle with the state over bottled water deliveries. Since the Michigan city fell under the spotlight, the issue of lead contamination and subsequent testing has grown considerably nationwide. Reuters found that five communities have even more widespread lead poisoning than Flint.   Continue reading “Beyond Flint: Lead poisoning a nationwide epidemic, report concludes”

Mail.com

SYDNEY (AP) — For two years, a handful of ships have diligently combed a remote patch of the Indian Ocean west of Australia in a $160 million bid to find Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. On Tuesday, investigators made what was surely a painful admission: They have probably been looking in the wrong place.

The latest analysis by a team of international investigators concluded the vanished Boeing 777 is highly unlikely to be in the current search zone and may instead be in a region farther north. But though crews are expected to finish their deep-sea sonar hunt of the current search area next month, the possibility of extending the search to the north appeared doubtful, with Australia’s transport minister suggesting the analysis wasn’t specific enough to justify continuing the hunt.   Continue reading “After 2 years, experts say MH370 likely north of search area”

Mail.com

A Nevada Army veteran who died without knowing he won the nation’s highest medal of bravery received the honor he’s been owed for nearly 140 years in a ceremony on Monday. Nevada Rep. Mark Amodei held an event at his Reno office to present a new Medal of Honor to Jerry Reynolds, the 82-year-old grandson and closest surviving relative of the late Private Robert Smith.

Smith fought in a battle against American Indian tribes in the Dakota Territory on Sept. 9, 1876, when he was 29. Then-President Rutherford B. Hayes approved the Medal of Honor for Smith in 1877 for showing “special bravery in endeavoring to dislodge Indians secreted in a ravine,” according to Army records.   Continue reading “140 years late, Nevada veteran lauded with US Medal of Honor”

Mail.com

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina lawmakers appear poised to repeal a controversial law widely derided as the “bathroom bill” because it requires transgender people to use restrooms corresponding with the sex on their birth certificate in many public buildings.

As part of the deal, the Charlotte City Council voted Monday to repeal the local nondiscrimination ordinance that first prompted legislators the pass the state law. Opposition to the state law, called HB2, cost the state hundreds of jobs, several high-profile sports events and perhaps Gov. Pat McCrory a second term.   Continue reading “North Carolina’s ‘bathroom bill’ set on fast path to repeal”

Mail.com

BEIRUT (AP) — The Security Council on Monday approved the deployment of U.N. monitors to Aleppo as the evacuation of fighters and civilians from the last remaining opposition stronghold in the northern city resumed after days of delays.

France said the monitors were needed to prevent “mass atrocities” from being committed by Syrian government forces, especially militias. But thousands have already been evacuated and the operation will likely be over before the observers arrive.   Continue reading “UN approves sending monitors to Aleppo as evacuations resume”

Mail.com

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California is installing nearly 1,000 sophisticated metal detectors, scanners and secret security cameras at its prisons in its latest attempt to thwart the smuggling of cellphones, thousands of which continue to flood the prisons despite previous efforts.

Officials say the phones can be used to coordinate everything from attacks in prison to crimes on the street, yet they have thus far been unable to prevent even high-security inmates like cult killer Charles Manson from repeatedly getting the devices that are illegal behind bars.   Continue reading “California tries again to thwart prison cellphone smuggling”

Mail.com

BEIJING (AP) — U.S. assertions that China is the top source of the synthetic opioids that have killed thousands of drug users in the U.S. and Canada are unsubstantiated, Chinese officials told the Associated Press.

Both the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy point to China as North America’s main source of fentanyl, related drugs and the chemicals used to make them.   Continue reading “Beijing denies US claim that China is synthetic drug king”

Mail.com

A Milwaukee police officer charged with killing a black man in August fired the fatal shot after the man had thrown his gun away and was unarmed, according to court documents. Dominique Heaggan-Brown, who is also black, was set to appear in court Friday on a charge of reckless homicide in the Aug. 13 death of Sylville Smith, which sparked two days of riots on Milwaukee’s north side. In the days after the shooting, both the police chief and the mayor had said that police video clearly showed Smith had a gun and was turning toward officers when he was shot. Thursday’s criminal complaint echoed that, but went on to describe a second shot, fired into Smith’s chest after Smith no longer had his gun.   Continue reading “Ex-officer to appear in court in fatal Milwaukee shooting”

RT

A third of the oil has been cleaned-up a week after a spill the Ash Coulee Creek in North Dakota, up to 5 miles of which were polluted.

“An estimated 4,200 barrels of oil have leaked from the pipeline. Of that amount, 3,100 barrels of oil flowed into Ash Coulee Creek,”said Bill Seuss, a spill investigator with the North Dakota Department of Health.   Continue reading “5.4 miles of creek polluted by North Dakota oil pipeline spill”

Mail.com

LAREDO, Texas (AP) — Donald Trump’s only visit to the U.S.-Mexico border while running for president was a stop in Laredo that lasted less than three hours. On some days, that’s not long enough for 18-wheelers hauling foreign-made dishwashers and car batteries to lurch through the gridlocked crossing.

Trump’s campaign promise to tear apart the North American Free Trade Agreement helped win over Rust Belt voters who felt left behind by globalization. But the idea is unnerving to many people in border cities such as Laredo and El Paso or Nogales in Arizona, which have boomed under the 1994 treaty.   Continue reading “Border cities worry that ending NAFTA would hurt economies”

Mail.com

BOSTON (AP) — Having spent nearly three decades crusading for relaxed marijuana laws in Massachusetts, Bill Downing is greeting the state’s new recreational marijuana law with a mix of satisfaction and trepidation.

The voter-approved measure took effect on Thursday, making it legal for adults to possess, grow and use limited amounts of pot. “I am both celebrating and worrying that the law might not be implemented properly,” said Downing, member liaison for the Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition.   Continue reading “Recreational marijuana law takes effect in Massachusetts”

Mail.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hounded to abandon Donald Trump, Republican electors appear to be in no mood for an insurrection in the presidential campaign’s last voting ritual. This most untraditional of elections is on course to produce a traditional outcome Monday — an Electoral College ticket to the White House for the president-elect.

Whether they like Trump or not, and some surely don’t, scores of the Republicans chosen to cast votes in the state-capital meetings told AP they feel bound by history, duty, party loyalty or the law to rubber-stamp their state’s results and make him president. Appeals numbering in the tens of thousands — drowning inboxes, ringing cell phones, stuffing home and office mailboxes with actual handwritten letters — have not swayed them.   Continue reading “The electoral voters speak, and they’re not out for a revolt”

RT

Carnival Cruise Line’s slogan is ‘Fun for all, all for fun’, but its employees aren’t having a good time after reportedly being told their positions will be replaced by foreign workers – and that they will be responsible for training them.

Although the holidays are a time when many workers expect a few perks from their employer, that wasn’t the case for between 200 and 300 IT workers who were told they soon wouldn’t have a job with Carnival.   Continue reading “Carnival Cruise Line forces fired employees to train foreign replacements – reports”

New York Daily News

A New Jersey state trooper has been criminally charged and suspended without pay after investigators learned he was pulling over women to ask them out on dates.

Thirty-seven-year-old Marquice Prather was arrested last Friday on charges that he falsified and tampered with public records to cover up his behavior.   Continue reading “New Jersey state trooper arrested for pulling over female drivers and asking them out on dates”

Mail.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve is expected to raise its key interest rate for the first time in a year when its policy meeting ends Wednesday. The move would lift the rate by a quarter point to a range between 0.5 percent and 0.75 percent, likely nudging up the cost of some consumer and business loans. The Fed last increased rates in December a year ago, when it hiked its benchmark rate from a record low set at the depths of the 2008 financial crisis.   Continue reading “Fed expected to raise rates for first time in a year”

Mail.com

BEIRUT (AP) — A cease-fire deal between rebels and the Syrian government in the city of Aleppo effectively collapsed on Wednesday, with fighter jets resuming deadly air raids over the opposition’s densely crowded enclave in the east of the city.

The attacks threatened to scuttle plans to evacuate rebels and tens of thousands of civilians out of harm’s way, in what would seal the opposition’s surrender of the city. The evacuation was supposed to begin at dawn but shelling resumed in the morning hours and buses meant to be used in the pullout of rebels and civilians returned to their depots empty. Activists and fighters trapped in the opposition’s last sliver of territory in Aleppo said pro-government forces had struck their district with dozens of rockets since mid-morning.   Continue reading “Aleppo cease-fire collapses, threatening evacuation plans”

RT

A pipeline in North Dakota spilled over 176,000 gallons of oil before it was shut down, state officials say. The spill happened 150 miles from the Dakota Access pipeline protests, with thousands of people rallying against the construction for months.

The data initially came from the state’s Department of Health spokeswoman Jennifer Skjod.   Continue reading “176,000 gallons of oil spilled at North Dakota pipeline”

Courier Post – by Wayne Perry

ATLANTIC CITY – New Jersey gambling regulators have seized more than $69,000 in unclaimed jackpots won by gamblers at three casinos who couldn’t prove they were old enough to gamble legally, or who left the premises without cashing in.

The move by the state Division of Gaming Enforcement has a long reach: it included seizures from two casinos that are now closed, Trump Plaza and the Trump Taj Mahal, which accounted for most of the seized money. The third seizure came from the Tropicana.  Continue reading “NJ seizes $69K in unclaimed AC casino jackpots”