Author: Allen G. Breed
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Columbine survivors send kids to schools altered by attack
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DENVER • Dropping her kids off at school used to be the hardest part of Kacey Ruegsegger Johnson’s day. She would cry most mornings as they left the car and relied on texted photos from their teachers to make it through the day. Now, the mother of four — and Columbine shooting survivor — sees mornings…
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Pittsburgh begins burying its dead as Trump faces protesters
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PITTSBURGH • Pittsburgh’s Jewish community began burying its dead Tuesday after the synagogue massacre, holding funerals for a beloved family doctor, a pillar of the congregation, and two fifty-something brothers known as the Rosenthal “boys.” President Donald Trump, meanwhile, arrived in Pittsburgh to pay his respects and encountered hundreds of shouting, chanting protesters with signs…
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Florence pours on the rain amid fears of catastrophic floods; death toll rises to 11
NEW BERN, N.C. — The Marines, the Coast Guard, civilian crews and volunteers used helicopters, boats and heavy-duty vehicles Saturday to rescue hundreds of people trapped by Florence’s onslaught, even as North Carolina braced for what could be the next stage of the disaster: widespread, catastrophic flooding inland. The death toll from the hurricane-turned-tropical storm…
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Unprecedented global ‘ransomware’ attack seeks cash for data
LONDON — A global “ransomware” cyberattack, unprecedented in scale, had technicians scrambling to restore Britain’s crippled hospital network Saturday and secure the computers that run factories, banks, government agencies and transport systems in many other nations. The worldwide effort to extort cash from computer users is so unprecedented that Microsoft quickly changed its policy, announcing…
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Body found on land where woman was chained up ‘like a dog’
SPARTANBURG, S.C. (AP) — A woman who was “chained up like a dog” for weeks in a dark storage container was lured to her captor’s South Carolina property for a cleaning job, a family friend said Friday as search teams digging up the area found one body and looked for more. Authorities were “trying to…
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VA study on whether dogs can heal vets with PTSD has critics
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — Army veteran Joe Aguirre opens a restaurant door, then steps aside to let his golden retriever take point. “Clear,” Aguirre commands, and 3-year-old Munger pivots right, left, then right again, sweeping the room for potential threats. “He’s basically looking for … anything that would be out of the ordinary. A bag. A…
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Katrina-scattered families rebuild separately and together
HOUSTON — Bunk beds dominate the narrow living room of Chevelle Washington’s modest three-bedroom brick townhouse apartment. A large box in the corner is piled high with kids’ shoes. The 51-year-old is raising six of her grandchildren. Her home is a refuge, a haven. It was that way back in her native New Orleans, too…
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Fans of German dog sport ask, ‘Who needs sheep?’
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With shouts of “point” and “drive” from her handler, the 3-year-old German shepherd charges into the triangle of brightly colored rubber orbs, scattering them with her nose like a cue breaking balls on a pool table. Then, zigging and zagging, Riley nudges the big purple one expertly down the field and into the goal. “There’s…
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Opening statements begin in Army general’s sex trial
Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Sinclair leaves the courthouse with his lawyers Richard Scheff, left, and Ellen C. Brotman, following a day of motions Tuesday, March 4, 2014, at Fort Bragg, N.C. Less than a month before Sinclair’s trial on sexual assault charges, the lead prosecutor broke down in tears Tuesday as he told a superior he…
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BP says it will pay for Gulf spill’s cleanup
VENICE, La. — BP PLC said Monday that it will pay for all the cleanup costs from a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that could continue spewing crude for at least another week. The company posted a fact sheet on its website saying it took responsibility for the response to the Deepwater…