Government may help marijuana shops get banking services
WASHINGTON — U.S. law enforcement agencies are in talks about steps they may take, under federal law, to allow legal marijuana businesses to have access to bank accounts.Although the Justice Department in August gave states new leeway to experiment with legalized marijuana, the drug remains illegal under federal law. As a result, under...Abercrombie’s discriminatory ‘look policy’ gets slammed by judge
SAN FRANSICO — This week, a federal judge ruled against the Abercrombie & Fitch, Co. for allegedly firing a Muslim woman for wearing a headscarf at work. Hani Khan, a former stockroom worker at an Abercrombie & Fitch location, had filed a lawsuit in 2011 for being fired after refusing to remove her headscarf when a...32 million Americans tune in to Obama’s Syria speech
More than 32 million U.S. television viewers watched President Barack Obama outline his policy toward Syria in a speech aired live on 13 broadcast and cable networks, according to Nielsen ratings data on Wednesday.The Tuesday night address attracted a smaller audience than the 56 million who tuned in to see the president announce the...Over 1,100 people have 9/11 related cancer
NEW YORK CITY — Health officials confirmed that about 1,140 people, who lived or worked near ground zero, including first-hand responders on September 11, 2001, have been diagnosed with cancer, as a result of the attacks. That number could possibly grow. According to the WTC Responder Medical Program, there could be hundreds more who...Arkansas cop placed on leave after killing 107-year-old man in shootout
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — An Arkansas police officer has been placed on paid leave, after killing a 107-year-old man in a weekend shootout, authorities said on Tuesday, Sept. 10.Police responded to reports on Saturday night that an armed man had allegedly threatened two people at a home in Pine Bluff, a city of 48,000 people, about 45 miles...Nevada sued by San Francisco for dumping mental patients into their area
SAN FRANCISCO —The City of San Francisco is suing the State of Nevada for busing patients, many of them indigent and mentally ill, from a public hospital in Las Vegas, and dumping them in the Bay Area without plans for continued care.The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday in San Francisco Superior Court, seeks $500,000 in reimbursement of...George Zimmerman dropped by lawyer
SANFORD, Fla. — Mark O'Mara, the attorney who successfully defended George Zimmerman in his second-degree murder trial, will no longer be representing him."I am not representing George Zimmerman in his recent domestic altercation case, or his impending divorce case," O'Mara told CNN, on Tuesday Sept. 10.O'Mara's announcement comes a...Montana newlywed faces murder charge for shoving husband off cliff
MONTANA — A Montana woman was charged this week for killing her husband of eight days, by pushing him off a cliff at Glacier National Park, after he expressed doubts about their marriage during a hike.Jordan Graham, 22, was charged with second-degree murder in U.S. District Court in Missoula, stemming from the July 7 death of her...
Leaked document: NSA ‘routinely’ shares Americans’ data with Israel
September 13th, 20130 The National Security Agency (NSA) regularly shares raw U.S. intelligence data with Israel without even removing information about American citizens, according to the latest revelation published by the Guardian. The report is based on a document leaked by Edward Snowden.On Tuesday, Sept. 11, the Guardian published a previously...Wyoming NAACP leader meets with KKK activist
CASPER, Wyo. — The head of a Wyoming office of the NAACP is defending talks with a Ku Klux Klan activist, the first known meeting between the oldest civil rights group in the United States and a branch of the white supremacist network.Jimmy Simmons, president of the NAACP in Casper, Wyoming, said on Wednesday, Sept. 4, he opened...U.S. to grant $474 million in transportation infrastructure
WASHINGTON — The federal government will contribute $474 million in discretionary grants to transportation projects in 37 states, with a heavy emphasis on projects in rural areas, the Department of Transportation said on Thursday, Sept. 4.The 52 projects will be funded under the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery,...64-year-old woman sets record with Cuba-to-Florida swim
KEY WEST, Fla. — American 64-year-old long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad on Monday, Sept. 2, became the first person to swim across the Florida Straits from Cuba without a shark cage, succeeding on her fifth attempt at the feat.Her face sunburned and lips swollen, with barely enough energy to speak, Nyad waded ashore at Key West...White greeters only, church pastor says
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — An African American North Carolina pastor is facing backlash, after she requested "only white people" work as greeters at the church she leads.In an email, Pastor Makeda Pennycooke of Freedom House in Charlotte said "first impressions matter," and the church wants "the best of the best on the front doors." Pastor...California high court to decide if illegal immigrant can practice law
California Supreme Court justices on Wednesday, Sept. 4, sharply questioned attorneys asking that an illegal immigrant who has earned a law degree and passed the state bar exam be granted a law license over the objections of the U.S. Justice Department.Arguments for and against Sergio Garcia, an undocumented Mexican immigrant, seeking to...Tennessee teen pleads guilty to stabbing school principal to death
NASHVILLE — A Memphis teenager on Tuesday, Sept. 3 apologized and pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the stabbing death of his principal in 2011. Eduardo Marmolejo, 18, accepted a plea that will send him to prison for 35 years, without the possibility of parole."I apologize for my bad behavior," he told the court. "It was wrong......
Cleveland kidnapper commits suicide in prison cell
CLEVELAND — Ariel Castro, the former school bus driver who made national headlines for abducting three women and keeping them in the dungeon-like confines of his house, committed suicide by hanging himself with a bed sheet on Tuesday, Sept. 3. Castro.Castro, 53,who pleaded guilty to 937 counts in July, had been taken off suicide watch...Not a ‘slam dunk’: U.S. intelligence can’t prove Assad used chemical weapons
Only days after the White House suggested it was all but certain Syrian President Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons to gas hundreds of civilians, United States intelligence officials briefed on the situation say the evidence isn’t all there.Despite recent remarks from President Barack Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry and other...Massive wildfire prompts road blockage in California national park
SAN FRANCISCO — Firefighters, determined to keep a massive blaze from raging into the heart of California's Yosemite National Park, have shut down half of its main east-west corridor, just days before a holiday weekend, marking the end of the peak summer tourist season.A long stretch of Tioga Road through the western half of the park...Federal government allocates $2.5 million for Sandy Hook massacre costs
WASHINGTON — The federal government will give Connecticut $2.5 million to offset costs related to the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, Attorney General Eric Holder said Wednesday, Aug. 28.Holder said the money from the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Assistance will go to the Connecticut State Police, the Newtown,......
Fort Hood shooter sentenced to death for 2009 killings
FORT HOOD, Texas — A military jury on Wednesday, Aug. 28, sentenced a U.S. Army psychiatrist to death for the 2009 mass murder of 13 people, mostly unarmed soldiers, at Fort Hood, Texas. The convicted gunman said he carried on the killings in retaliation for U.S. wars in the Muslim world.Major Nidal Hasan, who said he wanted to...Fast food workers protest across U.S. over wages
NEW YORK — Fast-food workers staged strikes at McDonald's and Burger Kings and demonstrated at other stores in sixty U.S. cities on Thursday, Aug. 29, in their latest action in a nearly year-long campaign to raise wages in the service sector. The strikes spread quickly across the country and have shut down restaurants in New......
IRS: Michael Jackson estate owes $702 million in taxes
WASHINGTON — The estate of pop music legend Michael Jackson owes $702 million in federal taxes and penalties, according to the Internal Revenue Service, which accused the estate of undervaluing some of the star's assets by hundreds of millions of dollars.The dollar amounts in dispute had not been previously disclosed in the court...NFL, former players in $765 million deal to settle concussion suit
BOSTON — The National Football League has agreed to pay $765 million to settle a lawsuit brought by thousands of former players, many suffering from dementia and health problems, who accused the league of hiding the dangers of brain injury while profiting from the sport's violence.The deal announced on Thursday ,Aug. 29, comes a week......