U.S and World News - Tribune News

U.S and World News (88)

Rate this item

(0 votes)

Bill would expand fertility coverage for veterans

Written by ERIC TUCKER - Associated Press Tuesday, 28 August 2012 15:32

WASHINGTON (AP) — The roadside bomb that exploded outside Andrew Robinson's Humvee in Iraq six years ago broke the Marine staff sergeant's neck and left him without use of his legs. It also cast doubt on his ability to father a child, a gnawing emotional wound for a then-23-year-old who had planned to start a family with his wife of less than two years. The catastrophic spinal cord injury meant the couple's best hope for children was in vitro fertilization, an expensive and time-consuming medical procedure whose cost isn't covered by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Robinson and his wife…

Published in U.S and World News

Tagged under

Rate this item

(1 Vote)

Penn St. riot ends aspiring Army officer's dream

Written by MICHAEL RUBINKAM - Associated Press Monday, 27 August 2012 20:24

Stints in jail. Hefty fines and restitution. Clouded futures. The consequences of their bad behavior have been steep for the Penn State students who took to the streets and rioted in the chaotic aftermath of Hall of Fame coach Joe Paterno's firing last November. Perhaps none have learned a harder lesson than Justin Strine, a young man from central Pennsylvania whose planned career as an Army officer is over before it began — the casualty of his own split-second decision to put his hands on a news van, and a judicial system that considered him as guilty as classmates who…

Published in U.S and World News

Tagged under

Rate this item

(0 votes)

Democrats urge immediate repair of Capitol Dome

Written by ANDREW TAYLOR - Associated Press Monday, 27 August 2012 20:10

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats controlling the Senate pressed Monday for an immediate infusion of money to repair the iconic dome of the U.S. Capitol, which has fallen into disrepair and has at least 1,300 cracks in it. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., says $61 million to fix the leaky Capitol Dome should be added to an upcoming stopgap spending bill to keep the government running into next year. That measure generally won't contain money for new initiatives and will instead freeze spending at current levels for almost every government program. Schumer's statement came in a letter to House Speaker John Boehner,…

Published in U.S and World News

Tagged under

Rate this item

(1 Vote)

British police call off search for supposed lion

Written by RAPHAEL SATTER - Associated Press Monday, 27 August 2012 17:05

LONDON (AP) — So, were the locals lying about the lion? Police said Monday that they've found no evidence to support area residents' claims that they'd spotted a big cat prowling the countryside near the idyllic village of St. Osyth, in the southeastern English county of Essex. Sunday's reported sightings alarmed many of the village's 4,000 people, and authorities sent about 40 officers, tranquilizer-toting zoo experts, and a pair of heat-seeking helicopters to the area in an effort to find the beast. But a police spokeswoman said that, after an extensive search, "we've found no evidence" of a lion. The…

Published in U.S and World News

Tagged under

Rate this item

(0 votes)

US stocks modestly higher as investors look to Fed

Written by CHRISTINA REXRODE - AP Business Writer Monday, 27 August 2012 17:03

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks nosed higher in quiet trading Monday, with many traders still on summer vacation and investors waiting for signals from the Federal Reserve about help for the economy. All three major stock indexes were up, but only slightly. Trading volume was light, typical for August. Investors were looking ahead to Friday, when Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke speaks in Jackson Hole, Wyo. Investors will look for clues about whether the Fed will buy government bonds or take other action to speed the economic recovery. In the absence of major economic developments, investors have been hanging…

Published in U.S and World News

Tagged under

Rate this item

(0 votes)

Insurgents behead 17 Afghan civilians at a party

Written by HEIDI VOGT and MIRWAIS KHAN - Associated Press Monday, 27 August 2012 17:00

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Insurgents attacked a large party in a Taliban-controlled area of southern Afghanistan and beheaded 17 people, officials said on Monday. A local government official initially said the victims were civilians at a celebration late Sunday involving music and dancing in the Musa Qala district of Helmand province. The official, Neyamatullah Khan, said the Taliban killed the party-goers for flouting the extreme brand of Islam embraced by the militants. However, provincial government spokesman Daoud Ahmadi said later that those killed were caught up in a fight between two Taliban commanders over two women, who were among the…

Published in U.S and World News

Tagged under

Rate this item

(0 votes)

American Taliban fighter fights prison prayer rule

Written by CHARLES WILSON - Associated Press Monday, 27 August 2012 16:58

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — American-born Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh says the government is forcing him to sin by denying him the right to pray with other Muslims in the highly restricted Indiana prison unit where he is held. Lindh testified in federal court in Indianapolis Monday as a trial began in his religious-rights lawsuit against the government. The 31-year-old Lindh says the school of Islam to which he adheres requires Muslims to pray together five times a day, if possible, and stipulates that not praying in a group is a sin. Lindh says inmates are allowed to do other things…

Published in U.S and World News

Tagged under

Rate this item

(0 votes)

GOP presses forward with convention despite storm

Written by CALVIN WOODWARD and DONNA CASSATA - Associated Press Monday, 27 August 2012 16:55

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Mitt Romney's Republican National Convention sputters to life Monday with the lonely banging of a gavel in a mostly empty hall, then hits full speed on Tuesday, just as forecasters say Tropical Storm Isaac could reach hurricane strength and make landfall somewhere between Mississippi and New Orleans. "Our sons are already in Tampa and they say it's terrific there, a lot of great friends. And we're looking forward to a great convention," Romney said as he prepared to rehearse his convention speech at a New Hampshire high school auditorium. He suggested there were no thoughts of…

Published in U.S and World News

Tagged under

Rate this item

(0 votes)

Isaac crossing Gulf with New Orleans in crosshairs

Written by MATT SEDENSKY - Associated Press Monday, 27 August 2012 16:24

KEY WEST, Fla. (AP) — Tropical Storm Isaac targeted a broad swath of the Gulf Coast on Monday and had New Orleans in its crosshairs, bearing down just ahead of the seventh anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. The potential for a landfall as a Category 1 hurricane as soon as Tuesday prompted evacuations along a wide area of the Gulf Coast and sent people out to stock up on staples. "I gassed up — truck and generator", John Corll, 59, a carpenter, said as he left a New Orleans coffee shop Monday morning. He went through Katrina in 2005 and was…

Published in U.S and World News

Tagged under

Rate this item

(0 votes)

Isaac aims for vulnerable Haiti

Written by TRENTON DANIEL - Associated Press Friday, 24 August 2012 16:48

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Tropical Storm Isaac strengthened slightly as it spun toward the Dominican Republic and vulnerable Haiti on Friday, threatening to bring punishing rains but unlikely to gain enough steam to strike as a hurricane. Forecasters now expect the storm to stay below hurricane force until it's in the Gulf of Mexico, staying to the west of Tampa, Florida, where the Republican National Convention starts on Monday, though there is still an outside chance it could hit there. Forecaster Eric Blake of the U.S. National Hurricane Center said it is "too early to know" the storm's exact course,…

Published in U.S and World News

Tagged under