National News
March US home construction jumps to fastest pace since 2006
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. housing construction rebounded strongly in March to the fastest pace since 2006 as home builders recovered from an unusually frigid February that shut down projects. Builders began construction on new homes and apartments at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.74 ...
AP FACT CHECK: Biden hails record job growth, skips caveats
WASHINGTON (AP) — Taking a page from his predecessor's boastful ways, President Joe Biden is claiming credit for two months of record job creation as employers bring back many workers sidelined by the pandemic. Though his numbers are right, it's a misleading portrait. BIDEN: "The first two ...
Justice Department sues Roger Stone over $2M in unpaid taxes
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department sued Donald Trump's ally Roger Stone on Friday, accusing the conservative provocateur and his wife of failing to pay nearly $2 million in income tax. The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It alleges the couple underpaid ...
Air Force One subcontractor countersues Boeing over delays
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — A subcontractor working on the new Air Force One aircraft for Boeing countersued the Chicago-based aircraft giant Friday over Boeing's allegations of missed deadlines for work on the presidential aircraft. In a seven-page lawsuit filed in state district court in Fort ...
Princely letter: Philip apologized to Nixon for ‘lame’ toast
WASHINGTON (AP) — Throughout his decades in public life, Prince Philip was known for putting his royal foot in his mouth with occasional off-the-cuff remarks that could be embarrassing. But his faux pas at a White House dinner with President Richard Nixon in 1969 was enough for Philip to ...
US setting up $1.7B national network to track virus variants
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. is setting up a $1.7 billion national network to identify and track worrisome coronavirus mutations whose spread could trigger another pandemic wave, the Biden administration announced Friday. White House officials unveiled a strategy that features three ...
51 West Point cadets caught cheating must repeat a year
Most of the 73 West Point cadets accused in the biggest cheating scandal in decades at the U.S. Military Academy are being required to repeat a year, and eight were expelled, academy officials said Friday. The cadets were accused of cheating on an online freshman calculus exam in May while ...
Ex-NYPD cop admits to obstruction in murder-for-hire plot
CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. (AP) — A former New York City police officer pleaded guilty Friday to an obstruction of justice charge in a murder-for-hire plot that authorities say sought the death of her husband and her boyfriend's teenage daughter. Valerie Cincinelli, 36, entered the plea in Central ...
What to expect in closings for ex-cop’s trial in Floyd death
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — For three weeks, prosecutors at the trial of a former Minneapolis police officer charged with killing George Floyd played and replayed video, supplementing the bystander video that shocked the world with multiple other angles of Floyd's arrest. And over and over, Derek ...
Retired Ohio sheriff and tiny K-9 partner die the same day
CLEVELAND (AP) — The Ohio county sheriff and his tiny police dog were inseparable, their lives unwaveringly intertwined. It thus seems fitting that retired Geauga County Sheriff Dan McClelland, 67, and his crime-fighting partner Midge, 16, would both die on Wednesday — McClelland, at a ...