National News - The Morning Sun

FILE - This undated photo provided by the Bulloch County Sheriff's Office shows Marc Wilson, of Sharpsburg, Ga. Wilson was charged with killing a 17-year-old girl in a highway shooting after opening fire from his car in self-defense after the pickup truck in which the girl was a passenger tried to force him off the road, a defense attorney told a jury as his murder trial opened on Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2022. (Bulloch County Sheriff's Office via AP, File)

Georgia man sentenced to 10 years in teen girl's road death

A biracial man who says he was fending off a racist attack on a Georgia highway when he fired into a pickup truck and killed a teenage passenger has been sentenced to 10 years in prison. A judge in … more

9/20/22

Coalition of leaders: Urgent action needed for food security

Leaders from Europe, the Americas and Africa are calling for urgent action and funding to ease a growing global food security crisis. It's one that has been exacerbated by Russia’s war with Ukraine … more

By MATTHEW LEE | 9/20/22

FILE - South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem speaks during the Family Leadership Summit, July 16, 2021, in Des Moines, Iowa. A South Dakota ethics board is keeping it a secret what action they have taken after finding that there was evidence Gov. Noem improperly intervened in her daughter’s application for a real estate appraiser license. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)

Ethics board keeps 'action' secret on complaint against Noem

A South Dakota ethics board is keeping it a secret what action it took after finding there was evidence Gov. Kristi Noem improperly intervened in her daughter’s application for a real estate … more

By STEPHEN GROVES | 9/20/22

FILE - This 2009 colorized microscope image made available by the Sickle Cell Foundation of Georgia via the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows a sickle cell, left, and normal red blood cells of a patient with sickle cell anemia. A study of U.S. children with sickle cell disease found fewer than half get a needed screening for stroke, a common complication. And only about half or fewer get a treatment that can help with pain and anemia, the study found. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the study Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022, and called for more screening and treatment. (Janice Haney Carr/CDC/Sickle Cell Foundation of Georgia via AP, File)

Study: Too few kids with sickle cell get stroke screen, care

A study of U.S. children with sickle cell disease found fewer than half get a needed screening for stroke, a common complication. The research also found about half or fewer get a treatment that can … more

By MIKE STOBBE | 9/20/22

FILE - Two women pause along a fence outside the dormant landmark Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh's Squirrel Hill neighborhood on Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2021. The long-delayed capital murder trial of Robert Bowers in the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue massacre will begin in April, 2023 a federal judge has ruled. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)

April trial set for man charged in synagogue massacre

The long-delayed capital murder trial of Robert Bowers in the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue massacre will begin in April. A federal judge issued the ruling Monday. Bowers has pleaded not guilty and could … more

9/20/22

This image made from video provided by KVII shows a police officer stands beside a police car near a shooting scene in Amarillo, Texas Monday, Sept. 19, 2022. A gunman shot a few people, including first responders, at the Tri-State Fair & Rodeo in Texas, before he was shot and wounded by sheriff's deputies, authorities said.(KVII via AP)

Gunman shoots 3 at Texas fair before being shot by deputies

Authorities say a gunman shot three people, including two first responders, at the Tri-State Fair & Rodeo in Texas, before he was shot and wounded by sheriff’s deputies. Potter County Sheriff Brian … more

9/20/22

British Prime Minister Liz Truss speaks during the State Funeral of Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey in central London, Monday, Sept. 19, 2022. The Queen, who died aged 96 on Sept. 8, will be buried at Windsor alongside her late husband, Prince Philip, who died last year. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein, Pool)

Leader Truss says queen's death is 'difficult moment' for UK

British Prime Minister Liz Truss says the death of Queen Elizabeth II is a “very difficult moment” for the country," and dealing with it has been a challenge for her untested new government. … more

By JILL LAWLESS | 9/20/22

FILE - Officials escort murder suspect Alan Eugene Miller away from the Pelham City Jail in Ala., on Aug. 5, 1999. Miller, scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection on Sept. 22, 2022, for a workplace shooting rampage in 1999 that killed three men, says the state lost the paperwork he turned in selecting an alternate execution method. (AP Photo/Dave Martin, File)

Judge blocks upcoming lethal injection in Alabama

A U.S. judge on Monday blocked Alabama from executing an inmate who says the state lost his paperwork requesting an alternative to lethal injection. U.S. District Judge R. Austin Huffaker, Jr. issued … more

By KIM CHANDLER | 9/19/22

FILE - A giant tarp, bottom, covers a section of rubble where search and rescue personnel have been working at the Champlain Towers South condo building in Surfside, Fla., on July 4, 2021. Lawyers who secured a $1.1 billion settlement in the deadly collapse last year of the beachfront Florida condominium building were awarded more than $70 million in fees Monday, Aug. 29, 2022 by a judge. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)

Developers, family discuss memorial for collapse victims

Developers and city officials are pushing back on family members’ expectations for a memorial for 98 people who died last year when a beachfront Florida condominium building collapsed. Surfside … more

9/19/22

FILE - A security guard watches from a tower around a detention facility in Yarkent County in northwestern China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region on March 21, 2021. As world leaders gather in New York at the annual U.N. General Assembly, rising superpower China is also focusing on another United Nations body that is meeting across the Atlantic Ocean in Geneva. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File)

On sidelines of UN, a push for China's abuses to be punished

Diplomats and human rights advocates speaking on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly are calling for forceful action on China's alleged persecution of ethnic minorities. Abuses in … more

By MATT SEDENSKY | 9/19/22

Dawn McIntosh hugs O'Fallon, Missouri, Detective Jodi Weber on Monday, Sept. 19, 2022, after a news conference announcing that a man has been charged for killing four women in the St. Louis area in 1990 in Clayton, Mo. McIntosh's mother, Donna Reiteyer, was one of the victims. Authorities say Gary Muehlberg, who is already in prison for an unrelated murder, has confessed to killing the women. Weber is credited with reopening the case. (AP Photo/Jim Salter)

Prosecutors: Inmate confessed to killing 4 women in 1990

St. Louis-area prosecutors say a convicted murderer serving a life sentence for killing a man in 1995 has confessed to strangling four women five years earlier. Prosecutors from Lincoln, St. Charles … more

By JIM SALTER | 9/19/22

A home that was knocked off its foundation and floated down Snake River during a severe storm in Nome, Alaska, is caught under a bridge Saturday, Sept. 17, 2022. Much of Alaska's western coast was battered by the storm, which was the remnant of Typhoon Merbok, causing the most damage of any storm in the last half century. (AP Photo/Peggy Fagerstrom)

Damage assessments begin in flooded remote Alaska villages

Authorities are making contact with some of the most remote villages in the United States to determine the need for food and water and assess damage from a massive weekend storm that flooded … more

By MARK THIESSEN | 9/19/22

Q&A: James Cameron on the return of 'Avatar'

Thirteen years after James Cameron plunged moviegoers into the cosmic world of “Avatar,” the lush, distant moon of Pandora is finally orbiting back into view. Cameron’s “Avatar” industrial … more

By JAKE COYLE | 9/19/22

Judge Elizabeth Scherer is shown on the bench during a hearing in the penalty phase of the trial of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter Nikolas Cruz at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale on Monday, Sept. 19, 2022. The defense filed a motion asking Judge Elizabeth Scherer to recuse herself based on comments she made in court when lead defense attorney Melisa McNeill announced the defense's intention to rest their case last week. The motion was denied. Cruz previously plead guilty to all 17 counts of premeditated murder and 17 counts of attempted murder in the 2018 shootings. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel via AP, Pool)

Judge in Florida school shooter case refuses to step down

The judge overseeing the penalty trial of Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz has rejected a motion by his attorneys that she step down. Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer turned down the request on … more

By TERRY SPENCER | 9/19/22

This undated photo released by NASA shows craters that were formed by a Sept. 5, 2021, meteoroid impact on Mars, the first to be detected by NASA’s InSight. Taken by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, this enhanced-color image highlights the dust and soil disturbed by the impact in blue in order to make details more visible to the human eye. NASA lander on Mars has captured the vibrations and sounds of four meteorites striking the planet's surface. Scientists reported Monday, Sept. 19, 2022, that Mars InSight detected seismic and acoustic waves from a series of impacts in 2020 and 2021. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona via AP)

NASA Mars lander captures strikes by 4 incoming space rocks

A NASA lander on Mars has captured the vibrations and sounds of four meteoroids striking the planet's surface. Scientists reported Monday that Mars InSight has detected seismic and acoustic waves … more

By MARCIA DUNN | 9/19/22

This 1966 microscope photo made available by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows a tissue sample with the presence of numerous, corkscrew-shaped, darkly-stained, Treponema pallidum spirochetes, the bacterium responsible for causing syphilis. U.S. health officials on Monday, Sept. 19, 2022, are calling for a new push to prevent sexually transmitted diseases — spurred in part by a 26% increase in syphilis cases last year. (Skip Van Orden/CDC via AP)

'Out of control' STD situation prompts call for changes

Sharply rising cases of some sexually transmitted diseases are prompting U.S. health officials to call for new prevention and treatment efforts. Infections rates for some STDs, including gonorrhea … more

By MIKE STOBBE | 9/19/22

FILE - Emergency crews work the scene of a fatal crash in Campbell County, Ky., Jan. 25, 2020. The number of people killed on U.S. roadways continued to rise in the first half of 2022, but the government’s highway safety agency says they declined from April through June. Still, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration called highway deaths a national crisis. The agency said Monday, Sept. 19, 2022 that early estimates show that 20,175 people died in crashes from January through June, an increase of 0.5% over the same period last year. (Albert Cesare/The Cincinnati Enquirer via AP, File)

US traffic deaths fall slightly in Q2 but remain high

The number of people killed on U.S. roadways fell slightly from April through June, the first decline in two years. But the government says traffic fatalities are still at a crisis level. Estimates … more

By TOM KRISHER and HOPE YEN | 9/19/22

FILE - Evidence markers dot the scene, Aug. 10, 2022, on Richmond, Ind., where Richmond Police Department Officer Seara Burton was critically wounded and a man was injured in a shootout following a traffic stop. Burton died Sunday, Sept. 18, 2022 at a Reid Health facility surrounded by her family, the department said in a statement posted to Facebook. (Mike Emery/The Palladium-Item via AP, File)

Officials: Indiana police officer shot in August has died

Authorities say an eastern Indiana police officer who was shot in the head during a traffic stop in August has died more than two weeks after being removed from life support. The Richmond Police … more

9/19/22

FILE - Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is joined by daughter Chelsea Clinton and husband, former President Bill Clinton, during a late-night campaign rally at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, N.C., Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2016. The first Clinton Global Initiative since 2016 is set to kick off Monday, Sept. 19, 2022, in New York City, with top international leaders from politics, business, and philanthropy set to attend and collaborate to tackle world issues. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome, File)

Bill Clinton: 'The world's on fire,' but teamwork can help

President Bill Clinton says he is amazed by the massive response to the return of the Clinton Global Initiative. That's the meeting of international leaders from politics, business and philanthropy … more

By GLENN GAMBOA | 9/19/22

Photograph shows two white men overseeing African American men hammering boulders as others walk with wheelbarrows in a shallow pit phosphate mine, Dunnellon, Florida, 1890. (Library of Congress via AP)

Locked Up: The prison labor that built business empires

In a joint investigation, reporters from the Associated Press and Reveal at the Center for Investigative Reporting spent months unearthing the history of convict leasing that built business empires. … more

By MARGIE MASON and ROBIN McDOWELL | 9/19/22