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Nearly a decade after pleading guilty, 'Fat Leonard' is sentenced in massive Navy bribery scandal

Current News / News & Features /

SAN DIEGO — The Malaysian contractor known as “Fat Leonard,” who bribed dozens of high-ranking U.S. Navy officers in the Navy’s worst-ever corruption scandal, was sentenced Tuesday in San Diego federal court to 15 years in prison.

The sentence means that Leonard Glenn Francis, 60, will spend about 8½ more years in federal prison when ...Read more

Carline Jean/South Florida Sun-Sentinel/TNS

Election Day 2024 has arrived. Here's what you need to know

Current News / News & Features /

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — We’ve reached Election Day, the final day of voting in the 2024 presidential election after millions of Floridians already have cast their votes.

Neighborhood polling places will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday.

Those heading to the polls are less likely to face rain earlier in the day: The rain chances are ...Read more

Frank Kummer/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS

After a series of wildfires, Pa. bans fires at campgrounds, asks homeowners to comply

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PHILADELPHIA — The Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources said Tuesday it has banned campfires at state parks and forests, and is asking residents to avoid burning at home too because of the prolonged drought.

The ban comes on the heels of 100 wildfires reported statewide during the past week, including one at Blue ...Read more

Texas singer shot onstage by audience member, woman arrested

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Texas singer Jada Arnell Thomas was shot in the chest onstage during a meet-and-greet with audience members after a show in Dallas over the weekend, authorities said.

The 26-year-old was signing autographs at the Black Academy of Arts and Letters in the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center when the shooting occurred Saturday, according to ...Read more

Allison Robbert/AFP/GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/TNS

Police arrest man who had torch, flare gun at Capitol entrance

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WASHINGTON — Capitol Police arrested a man Tuesday afternoon who was stopped during a screening at the Capitol Visitor Center because he smelled like fuel and had a torch and a flare gun, the department announced.

The visitor center was closed to tours as Capitol Police investigate, according to a social media post. A Capitol Police ...Read more

NHC/TNS

Tropical Storm Rafael forecast to become hurricane on path to Gulf of Mexico

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ORLANDO, Fla. — The National Hurricane Center forecasts Tropical Storm Rafael to grow into the season’s 11th hurricane on Tuesday as it moves toward Cuba with winds and storm surge expected to only sideswipe Florida as it moves into the Gulf of Mexico.

As of the NHC’s 7 a.m. advisory, Rafael was located about 80 miles south-southwest of ...Read more

NHC/TNS

Tropical Storm Rafael forecast to become hurricane, warnings issued for Florida Keys

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ORLANDO, Fla. — The National Hurricane Center forecasts Tropical Storm Rafael to grow into the season’s 11th hurricane on Tuesday as it moves toward Cuba with winds and storm surge expected to affect the Florida Keys this week.

As of the NHC’s 10 a.m. EST advisory, Rafael was located about 65 miles southwest of Montego Bay, Jamaica and ...Read more

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images North America/TNS

Looking beyond Election Day, Capitol Hill is on edge

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WASHINGTON — Blanca de Leon won’t be closing up shop or boarding up the windows of her beauty parlor on Pennsylvania Avenue Southeast because of fears about the election, even as other businesses around the city brace for the worst.

That doesn’t mean de Leon, who owns Capitol Hair Salon a block away from the Capitol, isn’t nervous.

“...Read more

HYOSUB SHIN / AJC/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution/TNS

6 charged in alleged plot to kill Georgia jail officers to protect drug ring

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ATLANTA — Six people, including a Fulton County Jail officer and several members of the Goodfellas gang, have been indicted on charges of conspiring to kill two detention officers, the U.S. Department of Justice said Tuesday.

The alleged plot was attempted in exchange for money and to protect a drug ring inside the jail, officials said, and ...Read more

David Dee Delgado/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

NYC Election Day glitches hit Queens voting machines

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NEW YORK — The NYC Board of Elections is sending out technicians to polling sites across Queens Tuesday after reports that machines at several locations have been rejecting ballots.

Vinnie Ignizio, BOE’s deputy executive director, confirmed to the Daily News that some scanners in the borough have been “kicking ballots out,” requiring ...Read more

Alex Wroblewski/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Officials ask for patience in waiting on election results

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It’s Election Day in America.

Voters are heading to the polls in one of the most consequential elections in American history. In a politically polarized country, potential delays in reporting results might further fuel conspiracy theories that have spread widely.

Across the country, more than 77 million voters already cast their ballots ...Read more

Girl hospitalized after shooting self on school bus in St. Petersburg

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A 13-year-old girl was hospitalized Tuesday after she shot herself on a school bus in St. Petersburg, police said.

The shooting happened when the bus was near the intersection of 49th Street North and 18th Avenue North, according to the St. Petersburg Police Department.

Pinellas County’s 911 call site shows the call came in at 9:22 a.m.

The...Read more

Brian Krista/Baltimore Sun/TNS

Republicans vow to bar federal election monitoring in key states. What do monitors do?

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Republican leaders in several key states are vowing to keep federal election monitors away from voting sites in the name of election integrity, spurring anger from many who say the party is doing the opposite of protecting voters’ rights.

In Texas, Democrats are calling for the involvement of federal election monitors as an added layer of ...Read more

AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post/TNS

Denver City Council rejects eight amendments to city's tight 2025 budget

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DENVER — The Denver City Council voted down eight proposed amendments to the city’s 2025 budget on Monday night, including rejecting a request to give another $2.5 million to the Denver Basic Income Project, a program that is gauging the impact of providing direct cash assistance to homeless or formerly homeless Denverites.

The final vote ...Read more

How you can help veterans every day

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As the nation celebrates our 16 million living veterans, it is also important to know that the chance these heroes will end their own lives prematurely is still higher than among civilians.

Among veterans with PTSD, suicide is the fourth most common cause of death. Among veterans younger than 35, it’s second.

Over the past ...Read more

Battlefields around the world are finding new purpose as parks and refuges

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The horrors of war are all too familiar: lives lost, homes destroyed, entire communities forced to flee. Yet as time passes, places that once were sites of death and destruction can become peaceful natural refuges.

One of the deadliest battles fought on U.S. soil, for example, was the Battle of Gettysburg. Tens of thousands of men ...Read more

Is Miami-Dade's corruption watchdog getting quietly pushed out by county commissioners?

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MIAMI — The top investigator in Miami-Dade County government, Inspector General Felix Jimenez, wants another four years on the job but says he can’t get a response from the County Commission.

In a memo last week, Jimenez said the commission’s chair, Oliver Gilbert, for months has not responded to Jimenez’s request for a vote on a four-...Read more

Orland Park Police Department/Orland Park Police Department/TNS

Illinois man arrested for punching 74-year-old election judge at polling station

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A man was arrested at a polling station in Illinois after he tried to cut the line to cast his vote, then punched an election judge who ordered him to wait his turn, police said.

Approximately 100 people were waiting to cast an early ballot at the Orland Park Township Office when the chaos erupted Sunday morning, CBS Chicago reported. Officers ...Read more

Carline Jean/South Florida Sun-Sentinel/TNS

Election Day 2024 has arrived. Here's what you need to know

Current News / News & Features /

FORT LAUDERDALES, Fla. — We’ve reached Election Day, the final day of voting in the 2024 presidential election after millions of Floridians already have cast their votes.

Neighborhood polling places will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday.

Those heading to the polls are less likely to face rain earlier in the day: The rain chances are ...Read more

Are famous people more likely to die at 27, or does dying at 27 make them more famous?

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LOS ANGELES — Their deaths have fueled the notion that 27 is a lethal age for musicians and other notable artists.

Amy Winehouse, the iconoclastic singer-songwriter, was that age when she died of alcohol poisoning in 2011. So was grunge rocker Kurt Cobain when he died of suicide in 1994 and rock 'n' roll queen Janis Joplin when she succumbed ...Read more