Nation and World
February 22, 2012 - 10:16 a.m.•By Laura King — Los Angeles Times
KABUL, Afghanistan (MCT) — Anti-American protests flared up for a second day Wednesday over the inadvertent burning of copies of the Koran by U.S. personnel at a military base north of Kabul, as U.S. officials worked to contain the damaging fallout from the incident.
February 22, 2012 - 10:15 a.m.•By Patrick J. McDonnell and Rima Marrouch — Los Angeles Times
BEIRUT, Lebanon (MCT) — Opposition activists reported scores of people killed Tuesday across Syria, including many in a new round of government shelling of the besieged city of Homs, as the International Committee of the Red Cross called for a "humanitarian pause" in order to aid Syria's expanding ranks of victims.
February 22, 2012 - 10:14 a.m.•By Todd Spangler — Detroit Free Press
WASHINGTON (MCT) — At least one new poll released Tuesday suggested that Mitt Romney has erased Rick Santorum’s lead in Romney’s home state of Michigan.
February 22, 2012 - 10:13 a.m.•By David Sell — The Philadelphia Inquirer
PHILADELPHIA (MCT) — With her 6-year-old son Nate fighting a form of leukemia, Sarah Stuckey was relieved to sit near federal officials and drugmakers Tuesday as they described solutions to two of the hundreds of drug shortages affecting patients in America.
February 22, 2012 - 10:12 a.m.•By Paul Richter and Edmund Sanders — Tribune Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON (MCT) — The Obama administration is bluntly warning Israel about the danger of bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities, but it is far from clear whether the allies are truly at odds over a core policy question or orchestrating an elaborate campaign to wring concessions from the Islamic Republic.
February 22, 2012 - 10:11 a.m.•By Kathleen Hennessey and Michael A. Memoli — Tribune Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON (MCT) — In yet another sign of Rick Santorum’s rising status, President Barack Obama’s campaign is taking aim at the former Pennsylvania senator.
February 22, 2012 - 10:10 a.m.•By Todd Spangler — Detroit Free Press
DETROIT (MCT) — Swarms of political robocalls are sounding private Michigan phones in advance of Tuesday’s Republican presidential primary — and many folks find themselves predictably annoyed.
February 22, 2012 - 10:09 a.m.•By Sara Smith — Cronkite News Service
PHOENIX (MCT) — With polls showing him trailing front-runner Mitt Romney only slightly in Arizona, Rick Santorum told an audience in Phoenix Tuesday that his consistent support of smaller government makes him the best GOP candidate to take on President Barack Obama.
February 22, 2012 - 10:08 a.m.•By Paul West — Tribune Washington Bureau
SHELBY TOWNSHIP, Mich. (MCT) — Suburban mom Judy Dlugosielski is a liberal Republican who favors abortion rights.
February 22, 2012 - 10:06 a.m.•By Nicole Santa Cruz — Los Angeles Times
SANTA ANA, Calif. (MCT) — A man accused of killing six people — four homeless men and a mother and her son — pleaded not guilty Tuesday in a Santa Ana courtroom.
February 22, 2012 - 9:54 a.m.•By Maria L. La Ganga and Molly Hennessy-Fiske — Los Angeles Times
SAN FRANCISCO (MCT) — A retired Presbyterian pastor who spent her career ministering to gay men and lesbians has been censured by her denomination for marrying same-sex couples during the brief time such unions were legal in California.
February 21, 2012 - 3:00 p.m.
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. — Averitt Express associates have once again provided a substantial monetary gift to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Averitt Cares for Kids recently presented St. Jude with a donation of $400,000 during an event held at the Memphis hospital.
February 21, 2012 - 9:38 a.m.•By Kim Murphy — Los Angeles Times
FORT ST. JAMES, Canada (MCT) — The prime minister is talking about being “held hostage” by U.S. interests. Radio ads blare, “Stand up to this foreign bully.” A Twitter account tells of a “secret plan to target Canada: exposed!”
February 21, 2012 - 9:37 a.m.•By Mitchell Landsberg — Los Angeles Times
STEUBENVILLE, Ohio (MCT) — GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum blamed the “radical environmental policies” of the Obama administration Monday for rising gas prices, and said he would promote “responsible environmental stewardship” as president, including support for the coal industry and approval of the Keystone Pipeline.
February 21, 2012 - 9:36 a.m.•By Don Lee and Matt Stevens — Tribune Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON (MCT) — Just as the recovery is finally looking real, surging fuel prices are once again looming as a major threat to the financial health of U.S. consumers and the broader economy.
February 21, 2012 - 9:35 a.m.•By Michael Muskal — Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES (MCT) — Pinal County, Ariz., Sheriff Paul Babeu — recently and publicly accused of threatening to deport a former boyfriend — denied on Monday that he had done anything illegal and said he would continue his bid for a congressional seat.
February 21, 2012 - 9:33 a.m.•By Paul West, Seema Mehta and Mitchell Landsberg — Tribune Washington Bureau
MUSKEGON, Mich. (MCT) — With a new poll hinting at a tightening race in the pivotal Michigan primary, Republican presidential contender Rick Santorum tried to stoke blue-collar resentments Monday in the conservative western part of the state.
February 21, 2012 - 9:32 a.m.•By Melanie Mason, Matea Gold and Ian Duncan — Tribune Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON (MCT) — Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney and a “super PAC” working on his behalf spent more than twice as much as they raised in January, underscoring how persistent challenges by rivals Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum have taxed the former Massachusetts governor’s financial operation.
February 21, 2012 - 9:28 a.m.•By David G. Savage — Tribune Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON (MCT) — Xavier Alvarez told of playing hockey for the Detroit Red Wings, marrying a Mexican starlet, piloting a helicopter in Vietnam and suffering gunshot wounds while rescuing the American ambassador during the Iran hostage crisis. All were lies.
February 21, 2012 - 9:22 a.m.•By Greg Braxton and Meg James — Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES (MCT) — More than 20 years after he last played pro basketball, former Los Angeles Lakers star Magic Johnson is ready for a whole new game: running his own TV network.
February 20, 2012 - 10:25 a.m.•By Jim Brunner and Dominic Gates — The Seattle Times
SEATTLE (MCT) — President Barack Obama called the 2012 election a “make-or-break moment” for the middle class Friday during a campaign swing through the Seattle area, rallying supporters at two pricey Eastside fundraisers and touring Boeing’s Everett plant to promote his plans to revive American manufacturing.
February 20, 2012 - 10:24 a.m.•By Mitchell Landsberg and Melanie Mason — Tribune Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON (MCT) — Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum denied Sunday that he has questioned President Barack Obama’s Christian faith, but said the president holds an environmental belief “that elevates the Earth above man.”
February 20, 2012 - 10:23 a.m.•By Patrick J. McDonnell — Los Angeles Times
BEIRUT (MCT) — Iran said Sunday that it was cutting off oil exports to France and Britain in a pre-emptive strike against European economic sanctions, while top U.S. and British officials warned against a military attack on Iran’s disputed nuclear program.
February 20, 2012 - 10:17 a.m.•By Tina Susman — Los Angeles Times
NEWARK, N.J. (MCT) — In a fitting tribute to a musical life, Whitney Houston was remembered Saturday at the Baptist church where she once sang in the choir, on the gritty streets of Newark where fans belted out her hits, and from the preacher’s podium where a constellation of stars offered memories in words and song as they bid farewell to one of their own.
February 20, 2012 - 10:07 a.m.•By Ricardo Lopez — Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES (MCT) — An Arizona sheriff running for Congress as a Republican denied accusations Saturday that he threatened to deport an alleged ex-lover, a Mexican national. In the process, he also resigned from a volunteer position with Mitt Romney’s Arizona campaign and came out as gay.
February 20, 2012 - 10:06 a.m.•By Brian M. Rosenthal, Craig Welch, Mike Lindblom and Lark Turner — The Seattle Times
STEVENS PASS, Wash. — Her buddy shouted “Avalanche!” but when things started sliding, it felt to professional skier Elyse Saugstad like just a tiny rush of loose snow beneath her skis.
February 20, 2012 - 10:04 a.m.•By Michael Gordon — McClatchy Newspapers
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (MCT) — The past five months have been eventful for Steav Bates-Congdon.
February 20, 2012 - 10:02 a.m.•By David Lightman — McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON (MCT) — Mitt Romney likes to tell people in Michigan he’s one of them — and whether voters see him that way could be crucial in determining his political fate.
February 20, 2012 - 9:58 a.m.•By Ralph Vartabedian and W.J. Hennigan — Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES (MCT) — In deep, cold space, nearly a million miles from Earth, a giant telescope later this decade will scan for the first light to streak across the universe more than 13 billion years ago.
February 17, 2012 - 6:06 p.m.•By Richard A. Serrano — Tribune Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON (MCT) — An immigrant from Morocco armed with a jammed automatic weapon and wearing a suicide vest packed with what he thought were explosives was arrested Friday near the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, officials announced.
February 17, 2012 - 6:05 p.m.•By Ian Duncan — Tribune Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON (MCT) — Congress gave final approval to payroll tax cut legislation Friday, also maintaining Medicare reimbursement rates for doctors and long-term unemployment benefits.
February 17, 2012 - 6:03 p.m.•By Tina Susman — Los Angeles Times
NEW YORK (MCT) — Anthony Shadid, a journalist who gave voice to those muffled by the turmoil around them — from Iraqi families enveloped in civil war to young Libyans spurred to take up arms against a dictator — died while doing just that: reporting from Syria in defiance of official attempts to limit media coverage of the bloodshed there.
February 17, 2012 - 10:07 a.m.
WASHINGTON (MCT) — Religious leaders of different faiths stoked the national debate over contraception Thursday, converging on Capitol Hill and charging the Obama administration with attempting to violate their religious freedoms.
February 17, 2012 - 10:06 a.m.•By Henry Chu — Los Angeles Times
LONDON (MCT) — In a major embarrassment for Chancellor Angela Merkel, German President Christian Wulff resigned Friday after weeks of a brewing scandal over favors he allegedly received as an elected official before becoming the country’s head of state.
February 17, 2012 - 10:05 a.m.•By Brian Bennett — Tribune Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON (MCT) — The Nigerian who tried to detonate explosives hidden in his underwear aboard a Detroit-bound jetliner on Christmas Day 2009 was sentenced to life in prison in a U.S. District Court in Detroit.
February 17, 2012 - 10:04 a.m.•By Ken Dilanian — Tribune Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON (MCT) — Senior U.S. intelligence officials offered a bleak view of the war in Afghanistan in testimony to Congress on Thursday, an assessment they acknowledged was more pessimistic than that of the military commanders in charge.
February 17, 2012 - 10:03 a.m.•By Dan Weikel and Ari Bloomekatz — Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES (MCT) — A small private plane carrying a load of marijuana strayed into President Barack Obama’s no-fly zone over Los Angeles Thursday and was forced to land at Long Beach Airport after being intercepted by U.S. Air Force jet fighters, authorities said.
February 17, 2012 - 10:02 a.m.•By Lisa Mascaro — Tribune Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON (MCT) — Along the way to deciding whether to extend President Barack Obama’s payroll tax cut, something damaging happened to the Republican Party’s once-dominant position on tax policy.
February 17, 2012 - 9:56 a.m.•By Jonathan S. Landay — McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON (MCT) — Al-Qaida’s Iraqi affiliate appears to have infiltrated Syrian opposition groups and was probably responsible for recent suicide bombings in Damascus and the industrial capital of Aleppo, senior U.S. intelligence officials told Congress Thursday.
February 17, 2012 - 9:49 a.m.•By Ken Dilanian — Tribune Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON (MCT) — A Israeli bombing attack might set back Iran’s nuclear development program by one to two years, America’s top intelligence official told a Senate committee Thursday, indicating that viable military options are far more limited than Israeli leaders have suggested.
February 17, 2012 - 9:49 a.m.
LOS ANGELES (MCT) — A man accused of a “serial thrill-kill spree” of four homeless men and a woman and her son was indicted Thursday by the Orange County, Calif., grand jury.
February 17, 2012 - 9:44 a.m.•By Andrew Blankstein, Robert J. Lopez and Ruben Vives — Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES (MCT) — A confrontation between federal law enforcement agents erupted in gunfire Thursday evening in Long Beach, leaving one dead and another seriously injured, authorities said.
February 17, 2012 - 9:44 a.m.•By Eryn Brown — Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES (MCT) — It can be swallowed, injected, inhaled or delivered to the bloodstream through a time-release implant. Now scientists say they have devised a new way to give patients their medicine: through a fingertip-size microchip embedded in the body that doctors can control remotely via a wireless connection.
February 17, 2012 - 9:41 a.m.•By Matea Gold — Tribune Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON (MCT) — President Obama raised $29.1 million in the first month of 2012 for his reelection campaign and the Democratic National Committee, kicking off what is expected to be a record-setting fundraising year.
February 16, 2012 - 9:36 a.m.•By Kathleen Hennessey and Michael Finnegan — Tribune Washington Bureau
LOS ANGELES (MCT) — While acknowledging that “change is hard,” President Barack Obama touted the nation’s economic progress on his watch during a celebrity-studded fundraising stopover Wednesday night in Los Angeles.
February 16, 2012 - 9:35 a.m.•By Michael Finnegan — Los Angeles Times
ATLANTA (MCT) — Day after day, Mitt Romney sketches a bleak portrait of America under President Barack Obama and vows to dismantle his programs. Romney would undo Obama’s health care overhaul, scrap Obama’s plan to scale back the military and lift Obama’s restraints on banks and Wall Street investment firms — to name a few.
February 16, 2012 - 9:34 a.m.•By Lisa Mascaro — Tribune Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON (MCT) — Despite discomfort in the Republican ranks, House and Senate negotiators reached a deal in principle early Thursday to extend a payroll tax break, continue unemployment benefits and ensure that Medicare doctors do not get a pay cut this year.
February 16, 2012 - 9:34 a.m.•By Jonathan S. Landay — McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON (MCT) — Nuclear advances trumpeted Wednesday by Iran were not unexpected and their announcement may have been driven by domestic Iranian politics, but they still could add to tensions over that country’s nuclear program, U.S. officials and experts said.
February 16, 2012 - 9:33 a.m.•By Andrea Chang — Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES (MCT) — Those aggravating automated telemarketing calls will be interrupting your dinner a lot less often.
February 16, 2012 - 9:33 a.m.•By Richard Winton and Andrew Blankstein — Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES (MCT) — The Los Angeles County coroner’s office said Wednesday that investigators have made contact with “a number” of doctors as they try to determine how Whitney Houston died.
February 16, 2012 - 9:29 a.m.•By David Siders — McClatchy Newspapers
PALO ALTO, Calif. (MCT) — Hopscotching throughout the state this week, Newt Gingrich insisted first that he is staying in the Republican presidential race and second that he may soon take the lead.
February 16, 2012 - 9:28 a.m.•By Paul West — Tribune Washington Bureau
SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (MCT) — Mitt Romney left his native Michigan behind 46 years ago. He has returned repeatedly during a presidential pursuit that is now in its sixth year, but rarely with the desperation evinced now.
February 16, 2012 - 9:24 a.m.•By Rafael A. Olmeda and Linda Trischitta — Sun Sentinel
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (MCT) — Two teenagers accused of setting schoolmate Michael Brewer on fire in a Florida parking lot more than two years ago pleaded no contest to second-degree attempted murder Tuesday, throwing themselves on the mercy of a Broward County judge instead of taking their chances with a jury.
February 16, 2012 - 9:21 a.m.•By Christopher Goffard — Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES (MCT) — An Orange County civil jury on Wednesday rejected an Irvine couple’s claim that they were improperly placed on California’s child abuse registry for punishing their adopted daughter by cutting her hair each time she got in trouble.
