Thousands of railcars need updating after crude crashes: Greenbriar CEO
HOUSTON (Reuters) – Some 80,000 tank cars that don’t meet current industry safety standards need to be replaced or retrofitted after several crashes of trains carrying crude oil, the head of railcar maker The Greenbriar Companies said on Wednesday.
Former top U.S. transportation officials head to private sector
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Two former leading U.S. transportation officials who left the Obama administration in recent months were named on Wednesday to new private-sector posts.
Insurers push Obamacare payment deadline to late January
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Some top U.S. health insurers are giving consumers more time to pay their Obamacare premiums, extending the deadline to the end of January for benefits that begin retroactively from January 1.
Charge dropped against principal in Ohio rape case investigation
STEUBENVILLE, Ohio (Reuters) – Prosecutors will drop a misdemeanor charge against an Ohio school principal indicted by a grand jury in November as part of a larger investigation into the rape of a teenage girl that drew national attention.
N.Y. court allows ‘close friends’ to adopt child
NEW YORK (Reuters) – In a decision that could make it easier for a broader category of people to adopt in New York state, a Manhattan judge has allowed the adoption of a child by two “close personal friends.”
Half of black males in U.S. arrested by age 23, study finds
CHARLESTON, South Carolina (Reuters) – Almost half of black males and almost 40 percent of white males are arrested in the United States by the time they are 23 years old, according to a study released this week.
Outspoken Strine nominated to lead Delaware Supreme Court
WILMINGTON, Delaware (Reuters) – Leo Strine, the outspoken chief judge of Delaware’s nationally important business court, has been nominated to lead the state’s Supreme Court, Governor Jack Markell said on Wednesday.
U.S. general who overturned sex assault conviction to leave military
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. Air Force general who sparked outrage last year when he overturned a fighter pilot’s sexual assault conviction said on Wednesday he had decided to leave the military.
Gabrielle Giffords skydives on shooting anniversary
(Reuters) – Former U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who is still recovering from a shooting rampage that left the Arizona Democrat badly wounded with a gunshot to the head, went skydiving on Wednesday to mark the third anniversary of the attack, …
‘Jihad Jamie’ gets eight years in Jihad Jane case
(Reuters) – A Colorado woman who converted to Islam and went to Ireland to join a man she believed was training for terrorist operations was sentenced to eight years in prison Wednesday.
