Nation
Obama and Putin fail to resolve differences over Syria
By Scott Wilson, The Washington Post on June 17, 2013, at 10:33 p.m.
ENNISKILLEN, Northern Ireland — President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, failed to resolve on Monday their significant differences over how to bring about an end to Syria’s civil war, as each leader steps up military support for opposite sides in the worsening conflict. Meeting for two hours ...
Supreme Court nixes law requiring voters prove citizenship
By Lawrence Hurley, Reuters on June 17, 2013, at 9:32 p.m.
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday struck down an Arizona law that required people registering to vote in federal elections to show proof of citizenship, a victory for activists who said the law had discouraged Native Americans and Latinos from voting. In a 7-2 vote, the court, in ...
Edward Snowden, in Web chat, says he can’t get a fair trial in the US
By Ellen Nakashima and Sari Horwitz, The Washington Post on June 17, 2013, at 9:31 p.m.
Edward Snowden, who acknowledged leaking top-secret documents about extensive U.S. surveillance of telephone calls and Internet communications, claimed in an unusual live Web chat Monday that he sees no possibility of a fair trial in the United States and suggested that he would try to elude authorities as long as ...
U.S. top court says FTC can sue over deals that delay generic drug sales
By Lawrence Hurley and Diane Bartz, Reuters on June 17, 2013, at 8:11 p.m.
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday regulators can challenge deals between brand-name drug companies and generic rivals that delay cheaper medicines from going on sale, which regulators say increase costs to consumers by billions of dollars. But the court, in a 5-3 vote with Justice Samuel Alito ...
Walter Mess, ‘taxi driver’ of World War II spies, dies at 98
By Stefanie Dazio, The Washington Post on June 17, 2013, at 7:54 p.m.
WASHINGTON — Walter Mess, an American spy who captained a speedboat that ferried agents to and from secret missions in the China-Burma-India theater of World War II, died May 26 in Alexandria, Va. He was 98. The cause was end-stage chronic renal failure, said his son, Walter Mess Jr. Mess, ...
FBI digs up field near Detroit in search for Jimmy Hoffa’s body
By Joseph Lichterman, Reuters on June 17, 2013, at 1:46 p.m.
OAKLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich., — The latest search for former Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa, who disappeared in 1975 in what law enforcement officials believe might have been an organized crime hit, brought investigators on Monday to an overgrown vacant field in suburban Detroit. A bulldozer drove onto the property and video ...
Supreme Court bars lawyers from using drivers’ database to find potential plaintiffs
By Lawrence Hurley, Reuters on June 17, 2013, at 12:04 p.m.
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday that lawyers cannot gather personal information about drivers from state databases when seeking plaintiffs for potential lawsuits. The court held in a narrow 5-4 vote that the federal Drivers Privacy Protection Act of 1994 does not allow lawyers to seek the ...
Veterans hike Appalachian Trail to heal from recent wars
By Bob Stuart, The News Virginian on June 17, 2013, at 8:12 a.m.
Hiking the Appalachian Trail takes months, and includes its fair share of encounters with creatures of the wild such as bears and snakes. But for a group of veterans of recent wars, hiking the trail means a time to heal and raise money for others to make the journey of ...
Years after foreclosures, lenders seeking debt from former homeowners
By Kimbriell Kelly, The Washington Post on June 17, 2013, at 7:08 a.m.
For Jose Santos Benavides, the ordeal of losing his home was over. The Salvadoran immigrant had worked for years as a self-employed landscaper to make a $15,000 down payment on a four-bedroom house in Rockville, Md.. He had achieved a portion of the American dream, earning nearly six figures. Then ...
China asks U.S. to explain Internet surveillance, says NSA leaker not a Chinese spy
BEIJING — China made its first substantive comments on Monday to reports of U.S. surveillance of the Internet, demanding that Washington explain its monitoring programs to the international community. Several nations, including U.S. allies, have reacted angrily to revelations by an ex-CIA employee over a week ago that U.S. authorities ...
Former bookie says he lied to protect ‘Whitey’ Bulger
By Scott Malone and Svea Herbst-Bayliss, Reuters on June 17, 2013, at 5:56 a.m.
BOSTON — A former bookmaker testified at the trial of accused Boston mob boss James “Whitey” Bulger on Monday that he lied to a grand jury in 1995 about his relations with Bulger’s gang, saying he did so out of fear. Bulger, accused of leading Boston’s “Winter Hill” gang in ...
ANALYSIS
State photo-ID databases become troves for police
By Craig Timberg and Ellen Nakashima, Washington Post on June 17, 2013, at 5:54 a.m.
Systems honed on the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq now help police find murderers, bank robbers and drug dealers.
FBI: Chicago hospital kept patients too sedated to breathe on their own, then ordered unneeded tracheotomies for them, reaping $160,000 from Medicare per case
By Charles R. Babcock, Bloomberg on June 16, 2013, at 3:22 p.m.
WASHINGTON – A surgeon at Chicago’s Sacred Heart Hospital cut a hole in Earl Nattee’s throat on Jan. 3, the day before he died. It’s not clear why. The medical file contained no explanation of the need for the procedure, called a tracheotomy, according to a state and federal inspection ...
Paul Soros, shipping titan and older brother to George Soros, dies at 87
NEW YORK — Paul Soros, a shipping magnate, philanthropist and older brother of billionaire investor George Soros, died Saturday at age 87, his son said. Paul Soros passed away at his New York City home, his son, Jeffrey Soros, said. The New York Times said Soros had been treated for ...
Sarah Palin lampoons Washington at Faith and Freedom Coalition conference
By Lyndsey Layton, The Washington Post on June 16, 2013, at 7:55 a.m.
"The IRS says it can't figure out how it managed to spend more than $4 million on training conferences because it didn't keep its receipts," she said to uproarious laughter. "Really?"
Patriots owner Kraft did not want to give Putin his Super Bowl ring
By The Sports Xchange on June 16, 2013, at 6:10 a.m.
Foxborough, Mass. — Remember back in 2005 when New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft announced that he had given his Super Bowl XXXIX ring to Russian president Vladimir Putin as a goodwill gesture? Eight years later, Kraft said that wasn’t the real story. Putin apparently was impressed enough with the ...
‘Working vacation’: Florida couple volunteer to be lighthouse keepers in Cutler
By Kari C. Barlow, Northwest Florida Daily News on June 16, 2013, at 5:45 a.m.
NICEVILLE, Fla. — Marilyn Turk has never packed for a summer vacation quite like the one she will take in July. Turk and her husband, Chuck, have volunteered to be lighthouse keepers for 11 days in Cutler, Maine. “It’s a vacation, but it’s a working vacation,” she said. “We don’t ...
Iran elects moderate cleric president to replace contentious Ahmadinejad
By Jason Rezaian, The Washington Post on June 15, 2013, at 3:28 p.m.
TEHRAN — Hassan Rouhani, a moderate Shiite cleric known as one of Iran’s leading foreign policy experts, has won the election to succeed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the Islamic Republic’s next president, Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar announced Saturday evening. With results from all the precinct in, Rouhani had won 50.7 percent ...
Famed Milwaukee tavern rehangs bras on ceiling despite fire hazard
By Brendan O'Brien, Reuters on June 15, 2013, at 2:25 p.m.
MILWAUKEE — Standing on a foot ladder, Jeff Scanell bent down, pinched his girlfriend’s red lace brassiere between his thumb and index finger and gently lifted it out of the front of her shirt as a cowbell wildly rang and a raucous crowd roared. The 37-year-old Milwaukee tool and die ...
Magnitude 6.5 earthquake hits off Pacific coast of Nicaragua, says USGS
MANAGUA — A magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck on Saturday off the Pacific coast of the central American nation of Nicaragua, the U.S. Geological Survey said, but there were no immediate reports of damage. “Thank God, so far we haven’t heard of any damage,” government spokeswoman Rosario Murillo told local television ...
Riders finish trek marred by tragic crash
Drug use continues to drive Portland, Bangor rates of violent and property crimes
University of Maine at Presque Isle grad overcomes obstacles, heads to medical school
Conservatives likely to write most remaining decisions in Supreme Court’s term
25 things to do this summer — boats, barbecue, the Bard and everything else
UMPI solar system model expanding into Canada