President Donald Trump on Tuesday was set to sign an executive order that will direct government departments to try to prevent suicide among military veterans by treating mental health problems before they become more serious. Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin told reporters on a conference call that Trump wants to address an alarming trend, that of 20 veterans a day taking their own life. "That is just an unacceptable number and we are focused on doing everything we can to try to prevent these veteran suicides," Shulkin said.
Heavy downpours that could produce more than 1 inch (2.5 cm) of rain per hour were expected through Tuesday evening, forcing officials to order or advise Ventura, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles county residents who live near where wildfires burned to evacuated their homes. "Recent burn areas will be especially vulnerable where dangerous mud and debris flows are possible," the National Weather Service said in a statement. Several December wildfires, included a blaze known as the Thomas Fire which was the largest in the state's history, burned away vegetation that holds the soil in place and baked a waxy layer into the earth that prevents water from sinking deeply into the ground.
A U.S. spy satellite that was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, aboard a SpaceX rocket on Sunday failed to reach orbit and is assumed to be a total loss, two U.S. officials briefed on the mission said on Monday. The classified intelligence satellite, built by Northrop Grumman Corp, failed to separate from the second stage of the Falcon 9 rocket and is assumed to have broken up or plunged into the sea, said the two officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The satellite is assumed to be "a write-off," one of the officials said.
By Yeganeh Torbati WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Some 200,000 Salvadoran immigrants allowed to live and work in the United States since 2001 will lose their right to remain in the country in 2019, officials said on Monday, marking the Trump administration's latest move to tighten immigration enforcement. The United States will end the Salvadorans' temporary protected status (TPS) on Sept. 9, 2019, giving them 18 months to leave or seek lawful residency, and for El Salvador to prepare for their return, administration officials said. The status was granted in the wake of two devastating 2001 earthquakes in El Salvador that left hundreds of thousands in the country homeless.
A Pennsylvania court on Monday sentenced four members of a national college fraternity to a maximum of two years in prison and banned the group from operating in the state for 10 years because of the 2013 death of a student during hazing incident. The court also fined Pi Delta Psi $112,500 for the death of Chun "Michael" Deng, a 19-year-old freshman from New York's Baruch College, who was knocked unconscious by fraternity members who waited an hour before taking him to a hospital. A jury in November found Pi Delta Psi, an Asian-American cultural fraternity, guilty of aggravated assault and involuntary manslaughter, marking what prosecutors and defense lawyers called the first time a U.S. fraternity was criminally convicted in a pledge hazing death.
Led by a sharp drop in pedestrian deaths, overall traffic fatalities in New York City fell for the fourth consecutive year in 2017 to their lowest on record, thanks at least in part to an ongoing safety improvement program, city officials said on Monday. The number of pedestrians, motorists and cyclists killed in accidents on New York City streets last year fell by 7 percent to 214 and by 28 percent from 2013 when officials began implementing a safety program known as Vision Zero.
By John L. Smith LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - A federal judge on Monday threw out a criminal case against a Nevada rancher and three other men over a 2014 militia standoff with federal agents, saying prosecutors had repeatedly withheld evidence from the defense. U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro dismissed the case "with prejudice," meaning that rancher Cliven Bundy, two of his sons and a militia member will not face another trial. Navarro had declared a mistrial last month.
Massachusetts' top federal prosecutor will not rule out prosecuting businesses dealing in marijuana, he said on Monday, less than a week after the Trump administration rescinded an Obama-era policy easing enforcement in states that legalized the drug. Massachusetts is one of eight states whose voters have legalized use of recreational marijuana, which remains illegal under federal law. Legal retail sales of the drug were to begin in Massachusetts this year under the terms of a voter initiative passed in 2016.
Republican Mitt Romney, strongly considering a run for a U.S. Senate seat from Utah, underwent successful treatment for prostate cancer last year, a source close to Romney said on Monday. Romney, who lost the 2012 U.S. presidential race to Barack Obama, was treated surgically by Dr. Thomas Ahlering at UC Irvine Hospital in California and his prognosis is good, the source said. Romney advisers say the 70-year-old former governor of Massachusetts is weighing a run in the November congressional election for a Senate seat from Utah, a Republican-dominated state where Romney has a home.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday paved the way for a black Georgia inmate to challenge his 1991 death sentence for killing his sister-in-law after he argued the case was tainted by a racist white juror who questioned whether black people have souls. The justices, in a 6-3 unsigned decision, threw out a lower court's decision that had rejected his biased jury assertion. Keith Tharpe was found guilty and sentenced to death by a jury of 10 white people and two black people in Georgia's Jones County.
The enrollment number represents an increase of at least 400,000 from the third quarter ended Sept. 30 and over 200,000 since last year, Evercore ISI analyst Michael Newshel said in a note. Newshel predicted Centene's announcement, made during a presentation at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, would get a mixed reaction as it was likely to boost the company's 2018 forecast but also further increase Centene's exposure to "the most volatile product segment" while others pull back.
Weather and climate-related disasters cost the United States a record $306 billion in 2017, the third-warmest year on record, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said on Monday. The report from the federal agency underscores the economic risks of climate change, even as President Donald Trump's administration casts doubts on the causes of it and has started withdrawing the U.S. from a global pact to combat it. NOAA said western wildfires and hurricanes Harvey, Maria, and Irma contributed to making 2017 the costliest year on record.
Three people were injured in an early-morning fire at the top of Trump Tower in midtown Manhattan, the New York Fire Department said on Monday, as the city's workday rush began. U.S. President Donald Trump was in Washington at the time. Trump's primary residence was in the building before his election victory and inauguration nearly a year ago.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ended the first legal challenge to a Republican-backed Mississippi law that permits businesses and government employees to refuse to serve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people because of their religious beliefs. The justices left in place a June ruling by the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the plaintiffs - same-sex couples, civil rights advocates including the head of the state NAACP chapter, a church and others - did not have legal standing to bring the lawsuit. The law, passed by the Republican-controlled state legislature and signed by Republican Governor Phillip Bryant with the backing of conservative Christian activists, has not yet been implemented and more legal challenges are expected, according to gay rights lawyers.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has asked Republican leaders in Congress to lift the federal government's debt ceiling by Feb. 28, Bloomberg News reported on Monday, citing two sources familiar with the talks.
(Reuters) - U.S. specialty metals makers Arconic Inc said on Monday it would freeze defined benefit pension plans for all 7,900 of its U.S.-based salaried and non-bargained hourly employees, effective April 1.
The Pierce County Sheriff's Department said on Twitter that the officer, who has not been identified, was dispatched along with other deputies to a house in Frederickson, about 18 miles south of Tacoma, shortly before midnight. Deputies were chasing them when the shooting erupted and one officer was struck by gunfire, the Tacoma News Tribune newspaper reported. "White male suspect found deceased at the scene, black male suspect remains unidentified and on the loose," the sheriff's office said.
Flooding from a water main break forced the temporary suspension of some flights at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport on Sunday, adding to the misery of travelers after a winter storm canceled or delayed hundreds of flights in recent days. Water poured from the ceiling onto a check-in counter and covered large areas of the floor of Terminal 4, video on CNN showed. The disruption occurred while the U.S. Northeast continued to endure bone-chilling weather with the New York temperature at 17 degrees Fahrenheit (-8 Celsius).
U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers on Friday found a lack of evidence that Starbucks cheats customers by making its cups too small, using "fill-to" lines on baristas' pitchers that are too low, and instructing baristas to skimp on ingredients, such as by leaving a quarter-inch of space atop drinks. The Oakland, California-based judge also rejected a claim that milk foam added to lattes and mochas should not count toward advertised volumes. "Accordingly, plaintiffs fail to show that lattes contain less than the promised beverage volume represented on Starbucks' menu boards," Rogers wrote.
Six people were killed on Sunday when a vehicle going the wrong direction on a northern California highway collided with another vehicle, causing a fire that engulfed both cars, police said. The female driver of the 2013 Chevrolet going the wrong way on Interstate 5 as well as the five people in the other vehicle, a 2013 Dodge, were all pronounced dead at the scene, the California Highway Patrol said.
The head of the Central Intelligence Agency said on Sunday that Russia and others are trying to undermine elections in the United States, the next major one being in November when Republicans will try to keep control of Congress. U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election to try to help President Donald Trump win, in part by hacking and releasing emails embarrassing to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and spreading social media propaganda. CIA Director Mike Pompeo told CBS that the Russian interference is longstanding, and continues.
(Reuters) - One Powerball ticket purchased in New Hampshire matched all six numbers for Saturday's estimated $570 million jackpot drawing, the fifth largest grand prize in the game's 15-year history, lottery officials said. The winning numbers drawn were 12, 29, 30, 33, 61 and Powerball 26. The odds of a single ticket hitting all six numbers in the Powerball are 292 million to 1, according to the Multi-State Lottery Association.
Government officials across the United States try to maintain accurate voter rolls by removing people who have died or moved away. The justices will hear arguments in Republican-governed Ohio's appeal of a lower court ruling that blocked its policy of erasing from voter registration lists people who do not regularly cast a ballot. Under the policy, such registration is deleted if the person goes six years without either voting or contacting state voting officials.
By Steve Holland WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday rejected an author's accusations that he is mentally unfit for office and said his business career and election victory showed he is "a very stable genius." Michael Wolff, who was granted unusually wide access to the White House during much of Trump's first year, has said in promoting his book that Trump is unfit for the presidency. Trump said Democratic critics and the U.S. news media were bringing up the "old Ronald Reagan playbook and screaming mental stability and intelligence" since they have not been able to bring him down in other ways. "Actually, throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart," said Trump, a former reality TV star and developer.
By Scott Malone and Gina Cherelus BOSTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - A shroud of bone-chilling arctic air covered the U.S. East Coast and Midwest on Saturday, creating dangerous conditions as tens of millions of people struggled to clean up from a blizzard that dumped deep, drifting snow in many areas earlier this week. Wind chill and freeze warnings stretched from New England to Ohio and Pennsylvania, while the National Weather Service warned of freezing rain in Missouri and areas to the northeast. In some of those places, exposed skin could freeze within 30 minutes, said meteorologist Dan Petersen of the National Weather Service's Maryland-based Weather Prediction Center.
Gun violence in major U.S. cities fell in 2017 as police used the latest crime-fighting software combined with a revival of old-fashioned community policing to build trust with a skeptical public. Law enforcement officials and criminologists credit that dual approach with helping extend the decades-long reduction in crime in New York City and reducing gun violence in Chicago by 20 percent in 2017. Chicago became a symbol of U.S. gun violence after homicides soared nearly 60 percent in 2016, drawing frequent criticism from Donald Trump during his campaign for the presidency and after he was elected.
U.S. astronaut John Young, who walked on the moon in 1972 and even smuggled a corned beef sandwich into orbit during a career that made him the only person to fly with three NASA space programs, has died at age 87, officials said on Saturday. Young, who went to space six times, died on Friday night at his home in Houston following complications from pneumonia, National Aeronautics and Space Administration spokesman Allard Beutel said in an email. The former U.S. Navy test pilot was the ninth person to set foot on the moon, an experience shared by three others after Young.
The author of a book that is highly critical of Donald Trump's first year as U.S. president said his revelations were likely to bring an end to Trump's time in the White House. Michael Wolff told BBC radio that his conclusion in "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House"-- that Trump is not fit to do the job -- was becoming a widespread view. Trump has dismissed the book as full of lies.
One ticket matching all six numbers was sold in Florida in the Mega Millions lottery jackpot of an estimated $450 million, the fourth largest in the game's history, the lottery said after Friday's drawing. The identity of the ticket holder or holders was not announced by lottery officials. The Mega Millions drawing has a $281-million payout if the winner selects a lump-sum payment.
By Lesley Wroughton and Hyunjoo Jin WASHINGTON/SEOUL (Reuters) - The United States and South Korea on Friday completed the first round of review talks on a bilateral trade deal with Washington saying there was "much work to do" to reach a new pact. Since taking office in 2017, President Donald Trump has pulled the United States out of talks on a 14-nation Asia-Pacific trade pact, started negotiations on a new deal for the North American Free Trade Agreement between the U.S., Mexico and Canada and initiated a review of the 2012 Korea deal. Washington has taken a hard line in the NAFTA talks, which appear stalled with just two rounds of negotiations left, saying that concessions are the only way for Canada and Mexico to keep the deal.
(Reuters) - Mega Millions numbers were drawn on Friday for estimated an $450 million jackpot, the fourth largest jackpot prize in the game's history, according to the California Lottery.
By Scott Malone and Gina Cherelus BOSTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Street crews dug out snow-clogged roads across the U.S. Northeast on Friday after a powerful blizzard, as temperatures plunged during a brutal cold spell that has already killed at least 18 people. Extreme cold will reach from New England to the Midwest and down to the Carolinas, forecasters warned. Temperatures were expected to be 20 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit below average across the northeastern United States for the next several days.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said after talks with South Korean trade officials in Washington on Friday that there is "much work to do" to reach agreement on a revamped trade deal. "We have much work to do to reach an agreement that serves the economic interests of the American people," Lighthizer said in a statement. "Our goals are clear: we must achieve fair and reciprocal trade between our two nations.
The 45-year-old Mexican national, Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, has been held behind bars since his arrest in the July 2015 shooting death of Kate Steinle, and was fully credited for the three-year sentence, a spokesman for the San Francisco district attorney's office said. The San Francisco Sheriff's Department handed Garcia Zarate over to U.S. Marshals on Friday on warrants stemming from federal gun charged related to the Steinle incident, sheriff's department spokeswoman Nancy Crowley said.
By Scott DiSavino and Jarrett Renshaw NEW YORK (Reuters) - A severe winter storm in the U.S. Northeast brought plunging temperatures on Friday, driving regional natural gas prices to all-time highs, disrupting refinery operations and causing electrical outages. Power outages fell to 123,000 from the 235,000 knocked out by the storm over the past couple of days and were largely concentrated in Canada, with 85,100 in Nova Scotia, 16,600 in New Brunswick and 5,100 in Quebec. Refiners in the Philadelphia region were battling severe cold that has slowed crude deliveries and forced the largest plant on the U.S. Coast to significantly cut production.
"The ongoing investigation does not lead us to believe that the fire is in any way related to Roy Moore or allegations made against him," the Etowah County Sheriff's Office said in a statement. The home in Gadsden belonged to Tina Johnson, who told AL.com, an Alabama news site, that Moore had groped her while she was in his Alabama law office on legal business in 1991. Johnson, who was 28 at the time, said she visited Moore's office with her mother, who had hired Moore in a custody case involving Johnson's 12-year-old son.
Jurors found him guilty of being a felon in possession of a firearm. A San Francisco judge on Friday sentenced Garcia Zarate to three years in prison on the firearms charge, said San Francisco District Attorney's Office spokesman Alex Bastian.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers has announced plans to retire this spring and has said he expected a successor to be nominated and approved by the U.S. Senate this month, according to a report on Friday. Rogers, who heads the U.S. Cyber Command, made the announcement to agency staff, a Washington Post reporter said in a post on Twitter. NSA did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (Reporting by Doina Chiacu and Susan Heavey)
A Kansas businessman and race car driver was sentenced to 16 years and 8 months in prison on Friday for crimes related to his online payday lending business, which prosecutors said made more than $3.5 billion as it exploited millions of cash-strapped consumers. Scott Tucker, 55, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel in Manhattan. Tucker did not make a statement at his sentencing, referring instead to a letter he submitted to the court in December.
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 3-0 that the law violated the First Amendment free speech rights of the Greater Baltimore Center for Pregnancy Concerns, a Christian nonprofit that provides prenatal services and counsels women on abortion alternatives. Friday's decision in the nearly eight-year-old case followed dozens of court submissions from abortion rights, anti-abortion and religious freedom advocates, and came as the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to consider a similar case from California.
Democratic U.S. Representative Elijah Cummings was treated on Friday for a bacterial infection in his knee at a Maryland hospital, his office said in a statement. Cummings, 66, has represented Maryland's 7th Congressional District since 1996 and is the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Last spring, Cummings was absent from Congress for several months after undergoing heart surgery.
Massachusetts on Friday asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a transgender woman who claimed the state is violating her rights by housing her in a men's prison while she serves a three- to four-year sentence for a drug charge. The woman sued the state Department of Corrections in federal court in Boston in November, claiming that it was violating her rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by refusing to house her with women and subjecting her to strip searches by male guards. It also said she did not show that the state denied her any services because of her gender dysphoria, noting that she is receiving treatment including counseling sessions, hormone therapy and facial hair removal.
By Scott Malone BOSTON (Reuters) - In the common room of Boston's Pine Street Inn homeless shelter, dozens of blue vinyl pads and folded-up cots stood ready on Friday for another night's rush of people fleeing the deadly cold that has gripped the region for almost two weeks. The four-story building, whose 160-foot (49-meter) Tuscan-style tower is an icon of the Boston skyline, is filled with enough beds to sleep close to 500 people. The cold snap has been blamed for the death of at least three homeless men, in Texas and North Carolina, according to officials and local news media.
BOSTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Street crews dug out snow-clogged roads across the U.S. Northeast on Friday after a powerful blizzard, with temperatures set to plunge further during a brutal cold spell that has already killed at least 18 people. From Baltimore to Caribou, Maine, workers battled to clear snow and ice as wind chills were forecast to fall as low as minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 40 degrees Celsius) in some areas after sundown, according to the National Weather Service. In the latest fatality blamed on the harsh conditions, a driver slid off an icy road, killing a pedestrian, early on Friday in North Charleston, South Carolina, city officials said.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's election security unit has no immediate plans to probe allegations of electoral fraud, despite President Donald Trump's announcement this week he was giving the issue to the agency, according to administration officials. Trump said on Wednesday that he had asked the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to review voter fraud and determine appropriate courses of action, as he announced he was disbanding a presidential commission dedicated to the matter.
U.S. lottery players on Friday and Saturday night will get two shots at record Powerball and Mega Millions jackpots that together topped $1 billion after going months without a winner. At stake in Friday's 11 p.m. EST (0400 GMT Saturday) Mega Millions drawing is a $450 million prize, the fourth-largest in its history with a $281 million payout if the winner selects a lump-sum payment. Long odds have not stopped "lottery fever" from spreading, with people lining up at retailers to buy the $2 tickets, said Jeff Lenard, spokesman for the National Association of Convenience Stores, whose members sell about 60 percent of the nation's lottery tickets.
By Steve Friess and John Shiffman DETROIT (Reuters) - The warehouse of a Michigan man who sold donated body parts to researchers was littered with dead flies, dog bowls and human remains “frozen together in flesh-on-flesh chunks,” a federal agent testified Friday. The grisly description came during the opening day in the federal trial of businessman Arthur Rathburn, who sold or leased donated body parts, including human heads, to medical researchers for two decades. Rathburn, however, is charged with defrauding customers by selling them body parts infected with hepatitis and HIV, and with lying to federal agents about shipments.
One of the largest patient assistance charities in the United States said it will not provide financial aid in 2018 after the government revoked its approval to do so because of concerns that drugmakers had improper influence over the charity. Caring Voice Coalition's decision prompted the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General on Friday to announce it would allow drugmakers to provide free drugs in 2018 to patients the charity had helped.
By Scott DiSavino and Jarrett Renshaw NEW YORK (Reuters) - A severe winter storm in the U.S. Northeast brought plunging temperatures on Friday, driving regional natural gas prices to all-time highs, disrupting refinery operations and causing electrical outages. Power outages fell to 123,000 from the 235,000 knocked out by the storm over the past couple of days and were largely concentrated in Canada, with 85,100 in Nova Scotia, 16,600 in New Brunswick and 5,100 in Quebec. Refiners in the Philadelphia region were battling severe cold that has slowed crude deliveries and forced the largest plant on the U.S. Coast to significantly cut production.
A nephew of former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon pleaded guilty on Friday to U.S. charges that he took part in a scheme to bribe an official at a sovereign wealth fund in order to sell a building complex in Vietnam. Joo Hyun "Dennis" Bahn, 39, pleaded guilty to violating a U.S. foreign corruption law and to conspiracy before U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos in Manhattan. Bahn admitted that in 2014 and 2015, he tried to arrange a bribe to secure the sale of Hanoi's Landmark 72 building complex, owned by Korean construction company Keangnam Enterprises Co Ltd. Bahn's father, Ban Ki-sang, was an executive at the company.