Star witness in Illinois double-murder trial recounts robbery plan
JOLIET Ill. (Reuters) – The star witness in the trial of a grisly double murder that shocked veteran police officers in the Chicago suburb of Joliet testified on Thursday how she and her friends planned to rob their two male victims.
Embattled NCAA lets richest colleges play their own game
(Reuters) – U.S. college sports took a first step in addressing broad criticism about treatment of student-athletes with a vote Thursday to grant some autonomy to rich athletic conferences, a tacit acknowledgement of their unrivaled economic clout.
Obama administration setting up group on experimental Ebola drugs
WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – The Obama administration is forming a special Ebola working group to consider setting policy for the potential use of experimental drugs to help the hundreds infected by the deadly disease in West Africa, U.S. officials …
Florida lawmakers propose minor changes to congressional maps
TALLAHASSEE Fla. (Reuters) – Florida lawmakers proposed on Thursday new congressional maps that made minimal changes to the boundaries a judge had found unconstitutional, in a ruling that raised the possibility of election delays in upcoming midterm ra…
Florida researchers identify body found at notorious reform school
ORLANDO Fla. (Reuters) – George Owen Smith, a 14-year-old caught with an older boy in a stolen car, was sent in 1940 to a reform school in the Florida Panhandle, never to be seen again by his family.
U.S. Army ends questioning of ex-POW Bergdahl on capture by Taliban
SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) – The military completed its questioning of freed U.S. prisoner of war Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl on Thursday and a U.S. Army general must now recommend whether he should face charges over the circumstances that led to his capture by …
Child’s body found in search for missing Washington state girl
(Reuters) – Searchers looking for a 6-year-old girl last seen in her bedroom on Saturday evening and reported missing when she failed to turn up for dinner the following day have found a child’s body near the family’s Washington state mobile home park,…
Hundreds evacuated from path of fast-growing Oregon wildfire
PORTLAND Ore. (Reuters) – A wind-whipped Oregon brush fire forced the evacuation of 600 people and shut a highway by Thursday as firefighters struggled against steady winds to tame the growing blaze and tamp down others across the U.S. Pacific Northwes…
Massive red tide bloom washing off Florida’s Gulf of Mexico coast
TAMPA Fla. (Reuters) – The largest red tide bloom seen in Florida in nearly a decade has killed thousands of fish in the Gulf of Mexico and may pose a greater health threat if it washes ashore as expected in the next two weeks, researchers said on Thur…
New Mexico truck explosion forces evacuation of Navajo community
ALBUQUERQUE N.M. (Reuters) – A semi-tractor trailer carrying hazardous materials crashed and exploded on a New Mexico highway on Thursday, officials said, forcing authorities to evacuate temporarily hundreds of people from a nearby Navajo Nation reserv…
