The Georgia parole board granted clemency to a death row inmate on Thursday, hours before he was to be executed for the murder of a convenience store clerk three decades ago. Georgia’s Board of Pardons and Paroles said in a statement they commuted the death sentence of 58-year-old Jimmy Fletcher Meders to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. He had been scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at 7 p.m. EST.... [Read Full Story]
The Senate formally accepted the articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump shortly after noon on Thursday, House managers, who will act as prosecutors, arrived on the Senate floor after walking silently across the Capitol to present the articles, with House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff taking the lead role.... [Read Full Story]
With the help of DNA technology, the mother of an unidentified baby was found dead in a Connecticut parking lot in 1988 has been identified. The unidentified newborn boy was discovered in a parking lot in South Meriden, Connecticut, back on Jan. 2, 1988. According to the Meriden Police Department, he had died of exposure to the frigid temperatures. Police gave the little boy the name “David Paul.” For years, the police department tried to identify the baby and his mother, but the case wasn’t solved until investigators used forensic genealogy, submitting the mystery baby’s DNA to GEDmatch, a third-party genealogy site.... [Read Full Story]
The House voted Wednesday afternoon to formally send the impeachment charges against President Donald Trump to the Senate later in the day, signaling the third presidential impeachment trial in American history.... [Read Full Story]
Florida police have a suspect in custody following the discovery of four bodies inside a home that were linked to a Connecticut family missing for over a week. Sheriff’s deputies from Osceola County were called to the home in Celebration, Florida after neighbors called police to check on the family, according to local reports. Celebration is a planned gated community designed and built in the 1990s by the Walt Disney Company, located just 4 miles from Walt Disney World.... [Read Full Story]
Federal prosecutors announced charges Tuesday against six New York City correctional officers accused of taking thousands of dollars in bribes to smuggle drugs to inmates at the Rikers Island jail complex. Fifteen other people, including several inmates, also were charged in criminal complaints unsealed in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn.... [Read Full Story]
Authorities state that a man was arrested after allegedly stabbing eight people in and around downtown Colorado Springs early Monday morning. Officers were dispatched to the area of 8th Street and Limit Street for a reported stabbing around 1:30 a.m. local time. According to the Colorado Springs Police Department, two victims were found with injuries, as well as several more victims nearby in the America the Beautiful Park.... [Read Full Story]
On Monday, N.J. Senator Cory Booker announced he is suspending his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, saying he no longer has a path to victory in the race to challenge President Donald Trump.... [Read Full Story]
A man survived three weeks in the Alaskan wilderness after his remote cabin burned down. The man, 30-year-old Tyson Steele, was rescued last week by Alaskan State Troopers who spotted an “SOS” signal stamped in the snow. The troopers said in a news release that Steele was found Thursday at a makeshift shelter at his remote homestead about 20 miles outside of Skwentna, located about 70 miles northwest of Anchorage. Officials were conducting a welfare check on Steele after he had not been heard from for “several weeks” when they arrived in a helicopter in the remote area to find the 30-year-old waving for help and “SOS” stamped in the snow.... [Read Full Story]
A fast-moving storm sweeping across parts of the U.S. Gulf Coast and Southeast has already been blamed for at least 12 deaths throughout the South and Midwest. ... [Read Full Story]
The House passed a resolution Thursday to limit President Donald Trump’s war powers against Iran, as he navigate the tensions in the Middle East. The chamber approved it by a 224-194 vote. Three Republicans and an independent voted for it, while eight Democrats opposed it. ... [Read Full Story]
In a 10-minute White House speech on Wednesday, President President Donald Trump said Tehran “appears to be standing down” after its missile attack on U.S. targets in Iraq. Trump vowed to keep up the pressure on Iran with “punishing” new sanctions on top of the heavy economic restraints already in place, but didn’t suggest the U.S. would be taking any additional military action in response. “Iran appears to be standing down, which is a good thing for all parties concerned and a very good thing for the world,” Trump said. “No American or Iraqi lives were lost because of the precautions taken, the dispersal of forces and an early warning system that worked very well.”... [Read Full Story]
Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan announced on Wednesday that they intend to “step back as senior members of the Royal Family,” and they are making plans to split their time between the U.K. and North America.... [Read Full Story]
More than 50 people were killed in a stampede Tuesday during a massive funeral procession in Iran for a top general assassinated in a US drone strike. As crowds packed the hometown of Revolutionary Guards commander Qasem Soleimani, a hugely popular figure in the Islamic republic, more than 50 people were killed and 212 people injured in a stampede in Kerman.... [Read Full Story]
The estranged husband of a Connecticut woman who has been missing for more than seven months has been arrested and charged with murder, felony murder and kidnapping in connection with the disappearance of his wife, Jennifer Dulos.... [Read Full Story]
Updated 1/7/20 6:20 a.m.: Island-wide power outage after earthquake hits Puerto Rico. A 6.5-magnitude earthquake struck Puerto Rico before dawn on Tuesday, the largest in a series of quakes that have struck the U.S. territory in recent days and caused heavy damage in some areas. Story developing.... [Read Full Story]
Filmmaker Harvey Weinstein was indicted Monday, January 6 for raping one woman and sexually assaulting another in Los Angeles. This indictment came the same day that his sex assault trial commenced in New York City.Weinstein was charged with one felony count each of forcible rape, forcible oral copulation, sexual penetration by use of force, and sexual battery by restraint.... [Read Full Story]
Iran abandoned the nuclear deal between itself and world powers Sunday, following the U.S. killing of Gen. Qasem Soleimani on Friday. Iran said it would no longer abide by any and all “operational restrictions” on its enrichment of uranium, a key part of the terms of the 2015 nuclear accord that prevented Iran from acquiring sufficient material to build a nuclear bomb. A government statement said it would be Iran’s last move away from the deal since the Trump administration exited the agreement in May 2018. Iran said it would return to full compliance with the deal if the U.S. lifts economic sanctions imposed against it. ... [Read Full Story]
At least 5 people were killed in a major crash involving a tour bus and three semi-trucks on the Pennsylvania Turnpike early Sunday in the western part of the state that left nearly 60 others injured, according to officials. The crash happened around 3:30 a.m. Sunday in the highway’s westbound lanes in Mount Pleasant Township, located about 40 miles southeast of downtown Pittsburgh.... [Read Full Story]
Julián Castro, the only Latino in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary race and former Obama housing secretary, ended his campaign on Thursday. Castro said in a video announcing his exit, “I’m so proud of the campaign we’ve run together. We’ve shaped the conversation on so many important issues in this race, stood up for the most vulnerable people and given a voice to those who are often forgotten. But with only a month until the Iowa caucuses, and given the circumstances of this campaign season, I have determined that it simply isn’t our time.”... [Read Full Story]
Federal health officials said Thursday that the Food and Drug Administration is banning a range of flavored e-cigarette products, including fruit and mint, although menthol and tobacco-flavored pods will still be available. The decision comes amid an epidemic of teenagers vaping, but is a major compromise from the Trump administration’s previous promise to ban all flavors.... [Read Full Story]
Five people are missing after a crabbing vessel sank off the coast of the Alaskan peninsula overnight Tuesday. According to the United States Coast Guard, two other people have been rescued since the F/V (Fishing Vessel) Scandies Rose sank near Sutwik Island in the Gulf of Alaska.... [Read Full Story]
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has postponed a five-country trip scheduled to begin this Friday and will remain in Washington, D.C., this following mass protests at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, the State Department said. ... [Read Full Story]
Former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn, who is awaiting trial in Japan on charges of financial misconduct, arrived in Beirut, having apparently jumped bail. It was not clear how Ghosn, who is of Lebanese origins, left Japan where he was under surveillance and is expected to face trial in April 2020.... [Read Full Story]
Sen. Bernie Sanders is “in good health” and “more than fit enough” to be president, his doctors said in letters made public Monday. ... [Read Full Story]
Police have arrested a man who stormed into a rabbi’s home and stabbed five people as they celebrated Hanukkah in an Orthodox Jewish community north of New York City. The stabbings on the seventh night of Hanukkah left one person critically wounded, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. The rabbi’s son was also injured, he said. ... [Read Full Story]
One person was killed and four others injured when a gunman opened fire inside a crowded Texas church on Sunday morning. The gunman was shot to death by two armed parishioners. Officials say the shooting occurred at 10:57 a.m. at the West Freeway Church of Christ in the Fort Worth suburb of White Settlement and was captured on the church’s livestream of the service. Witnesses told reporters that the gunman was wearing a fake beard and sunglasses and had taken communion before launching the attack.... [Read Full Story]
Officials said on Thursday that the 5-year-old Michigan boy who went missing on Christmas Day has been found dead. Beau Brennan Belson was last seen playing with relatives in front of a family member’s home in Six Lakes on Wednesday around 2:30 p.m. when they noticed he went missing. Belson’s family members attempted to find him in the area to no avail, and then contacted the Michigan State Police for assistance. ... [Read Full Story]
On Thursday, President Donald Trump issued a warning to Syrian President Bashar al Assad as well as Russia and Iran amid their assault on the last rebel stronghold in the war-torn country. Trump has previously urged Assad and his allies to halt an operation on the Idlib province since last fall, as Assad tries to use his military to retake the country after nearly nine years of war.... [Read Full Story]
North Korea’s ominous threat to deliver a “Christmas gift” to the U.S. appears to have come and gone, with no reports of military action by Pyongyang as of late Wednesday, Christmas Day. This news comes after a North Korean official earlier this month had accused U.S. negotiatorsof trying to buy time without offering solutions as the U.S. and North Korea worked to reach a nuclear agreement. The official added that such inaction meant that the U.S. was essentially choosing to receive an unspecified gift from North Korea. ... [Read Full Story]
