Minnesota forecasts bigger FY 2016-17 budget surplus
(Reuters) – Minnesota expects to end its fiscal 2016-17 biennium with a $1.87 billion budget balance, more than double the $865 million surplus projected earlier this year, the state reported on Thursday.
Republicans press for refugee limits in U.S. spending talks
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Conservative Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives pushed ahead on Thursday with an effort to attach a crackdown on Middle Eastern refugees to a $1 trillion spending bill that must pass within days to avert a governmen…
Kerry says peace ‘within reach’ on Cyprus
NICOSIA (Reuters) – Peace is within reach in Cyprus, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Thursday as he watched children from both sides of the divided island play basketball together.
Republican Christie: Convinced Calif. shooting was terrorist attack
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Republican presidential hopeful Chris Christie said on Thursday he was convinced the shooting in San Bernardino, California, was a terrorist attack.
After 20-year sentence in Peru, Lori Berenson returns to New York
NEW YORK (Reuters) – New Yorker Lori Berenson, who was convicted of aiding leftist rebels in Peru 20 years ago, returned to her hometown on Thursday.
U.S. House approves highway bill that revives EXIM bank
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. House on Thursday passed a five-year transportation bill that would fund America’s roads, bridges and mass-transit systems and also revive the charter of the U.S. Export-Import Bank, which had been allowed to expire in t…
Explosion rocks Anadarko Texas natgas plant, two hurt
HOUSTON (Reuters) – An explosion and fire rocked the Ramsey natural gas plant in West Texas on Thursday, injuring at least two people and prompting evacuations, according to a company official and media reports.
Puerto Rico fundraiser, officials indicted on corruption charges
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation has charged 10 Puerto Rico officials and businessmen, including a leading fundraiser for the governing party, with corruption, extortion, bribery, and wire fraud.
Jury mulls case of Arizona couple accused of imprisoning girls
TUCSON, Ariz. (Reuters) – A jury in Arizona was deliberating on Thursday the fate of a mother and stepfather accused of holding three girls in prison-like conditions, regularly beating them, depriving them of sleep, and subjecting them to strange ritua…
Jury finds Detroit man guilty of murder of French street artist
(Reuters) – A jury on Thursday found a Detroit man guilty of felony murder in the death of a French street artist whose body was found in a vacant building near downtown Detroit in 2013, prosecutors said.
