U.S. Catholic priest found guilty in child abuse case

U.S. Catholic priest found guilty in child abuse case
Sandusky found guilty of most sex abuse charges
Moroccan man pleads guilty to U.S. Capitol bomb attempt
Wind-whipped Utah wildfire forces 8,000 people from homes
FAA fire, storms cancel, delay flights
Hog wild: Feral pig population explodes in U.S
Oklahoma forest ranger sentenced to prison for arson
Rodman's ex-wife keeps restraining order against former NBA star
Mount Rainier ranger falls to death during rescue
Rising sea levels to hit California hard by 2100
California tobacco tax hike narrowly defeated at polls
Oil companies shut in Gulf production on storm threat
Advocates sue NYC police over marijuana arrests
Utah wildfire forces evacuation of over 1,000 homes
Dry weather puts late U.S. soy plantings in jeopardy
NYC unionized utility workers threaten to strike
Analysis: What takes so long? Behind the scenes at top U.S. court
Labor unions sue over Rhode Island pension reform
Arkansas high court blocks use of death penalty
U.S. Coast Guard ends search for missing millionaire
Top Massachusetts court limits foreclosure relief
Analysis: Sizing up Penn State's liability in abuse scandal
Rhode Island judge denies bid to block pension reform
High chance of cyclone over Gulf of Mexico: NHC
Fund for bullied grandmother tops $500,000
Muslim man sentenced after threatening TV show
Arkansas high court strikes down state's execution law
U.S. Coast Guard ends search for missing millionaire
Citing drought, Wyoming governor seeks disaster declaration
Sandusky found guilty of most sex abuse charges
Wind-whipped Utah wildfire forces 8,000 people from homes
Factbox: Letters in Sandusky sex abuse trial to alleged victim
Rodman's ex-wife keeps restraining order against former NBA star
FAA fire, storms cancel, delay flights
Oklahoma forest ranger sentenced to prison for arson
Mount Rainier ranger falls to death during rescue
Rising sea levels to hit California hard by 2100
Advocates sue NYC police over marijuana arrests

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 04:37 PM PDT

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - A monsignor who oversaw hundreds of priests in the Philadelphia Archdiocese was found guilty on Friday of one count of endangering the welfare of a child, making him the first senior U.S. Roman Catholic Church official to be convicted for covering up child sex abuse. The jury acquitted Monsignor William Lynn on two other counts - conspiracy and another charge of child endangerment -after 10 weeks of testimony in a trial that raised questions about personal responsibility and institutional constraints within the church hierarchy. ...

Sandusky found guilty of most sex abuse charges

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 07:23 PM PDT

BELLEFONTE, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - A jury found former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky guilty on 45 out of 48 counts in his child sex abuse trial on Friday. Sandusky was seen escorted out of the courthouse in handcuffs. He could be sentenced to hundreds of years in prison. The decision came after about 21 hours of deliberation over two days by a jury of seven women and five men. Nine of the 16 jurors and alternates had ties to Pennsylvania State University, and the final days of the trial drew large crowds to the Centre County Courthouse. ...

Moroccan man pleads guilty to U.S. Capitol bomb attempt

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 03:02 PM PDT

ALEXANDRIA, Virginia (Reuters) - A Moroccan illegal immigrant pleaded guilty on Friday to attempting a suicide bombing of the U.S. Capitol building in Washington in a deal with prosecutors that could see him sentenced to up to 30 years in prison. Amine El Khalifi, 29, was arrested in a sting operation in a parking garage near the Capitol on February 17 with an automatic weapon and wearing a vest he believed was full of explosives supplied by al Qaeda, according to U.S. officials. He intended to shoot bystanders before detonating a bomb inside the building, which is home to Congress, they said. ...

Wind-whipped Utah wildfire forces 8,000 people from homes

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 06:51 PM PDT

SALT LAKE CITY (Reuters) - More than 8,000 people had to flee their homes in two small Utah communities on Friday as winds whipped up a raging wildfire triggered by target shooters and pushed the flames toward an explosives factory, fire officials said. Hundreds of miles to the east in Colorado, swirling winds and triple-degree heat also conspired to stir up a two-week-old blaze north of Denver, causing more property damage and forcing more evacuations a day after firefighters had gained new ground. ...

FAA fire, storms cancel, delay flights

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 06:07 PM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A fire at an air traffic facility in New Jersey on Friday knocked out electronics that help coordinate flights into and out of airports, and airlines said the glitch worsened a day of heavy delays and cancellations triggered by storms in the eastern United States. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said the early afternoon (EDT) fire at its technical center in Atlantic City knocked out servers and left some automated systems used to efficiently communicate the status of airport ground operations temporarily unavailable. ...

Hog wild: Feral pig population explodes in U.S

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 02:11 PM PDT

UNION SPRINGS, Alabama (Reuters) - Until the shot rang out, the air was so quiet the circling bumblebee sounded like a chain saw and the woodpecker its construction crew. Clambering down from the 16-foot-high deer stand, hunters walked over to the pig wallow they had been staring at for the last four hours. A large boar rushed past at a speed unimaginable for an animal its size. The hunt was on. Fast, smart and dangerous, the wild boar was once the most prized hunter's catch in ancient Greece. Now it is becoming a popular target of hunters in the United States. ...

Oklahoma forest ranger sentenced to prison for arson

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 04:14 PM PDT

OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - A former state forest ranger who set dozens of wildfires has been sentenced to 10 years in prison and must help make a training video to help others spot the triggers that lead firefighters to commit arson, a prosecutor said Friday. Mike Malenski, 39, pleaded guilty to arson and endangering human life for a series of fires that destroyed thousands of acres in a wildlife management area of northeast Oklahoma in 2010 and 2011. ...

Rodman's ex-wife keeps restraining order against former NBA star

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 06:20 PM PDT

ORANGE, California (Reuters) - A California court on Friday extended a restraining order against former basketball star Dennis Rodman and told him to stay away from his ex-wife who testified he showed up drunk at her apartment. The decision comes as Rodman, 51, and his former spouse, Michelle, continue to battle in court over unpaid child support payments that her attorneys say total about $800,000. It was a busy day for the former couple, who after the ruling on the restraining order also had a separate hearing on child support. ...

Mount Rainier ranger falls to death during rescue

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 04:03 PM PDT

SEATTLE (Reuters) - A ranger at Mount Rainier National Park in Washington state fell over 3,000 feet to his death while trying to rescue stranded climbers who had fallen into a crevasse on the frigid mountain, park officials said on Friday. Rescuers had lifted one climber into a helicopter and were preparing to lift a second when ranger Nick Hall, 34, fell to his death on Thursday as high winds whipped through the area. ...

Rising sea levels to hit California hard by 2100

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 03:56 PM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Seas could rise higher along the California coastline this century than in other places in the world, increasing the risk of flooding and storm damage, dune erosion and wetland destruction, the U.S. National Research Council reported Friday. Rising sea levels have long been seen as a consequence of climate change, because as the world warms, glaciers melt and contribute water to the Earth's oceans. At the same time, ocean waters tend to expand as they heat, pushing sea levels higher. The report looked at how much seas could rise by 2100 along the U.S. ...

California tobacco tax hike narrowly defeated at polls

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 03:01 PM PDT

SACRAMENTO (Reuters) - California will not raise cigarette taxes by $1 a pack after vote results posted on Friday showed a ballot initiative on the matter narrowly failed, and proponents of the tax on tobacco products conceded defeat. The measure, known as Proposition 29, was defeated 50.3 percent to 49.7 percent, according to full precinct count results posted on Friday by California's Secretary of State. Some absentee and other ballots remained to be counted. ...

Oil companies shut in Gulf production on storm threat

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 01:59 PM PDT

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Energy companies began shutting in production and evacuating personnel from operations in the Gulf of Mexico on Friday as a weather system threatened to form into the first tropical cyclone to hit the oil and gas producing region this year. BHP Billiton evacuated all workers from its platforms and shut in 170,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil output and 100 million cubic feet per day of natural gas production in preparation. BHP operates two platforms, Shenzi and Neptune. The U.S. ...

Advocates sue NYC police over marijuana arrests

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 03:28 PM PDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A legal aid group sued the New York City Police Department on Friday, saying officers had illegally arrested thousands of people for small quantities of concealed marijuana instead of issuing them tickets as required by law. The lawsuit by the Legal Aid Society, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court on behalf of five New Yorkers arrested in April and May, wants the court to declare such arrests unlawful and issue an injunction to stop officers from making them. ...

Utah wildfire forces evacuation of over 1,000 homes

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 03:29 PM PDT

SALT LAKE CITY (Reuters) - More than 1,000 homes were evacuated from two small Utah communities on Friday as high winds whipped up a brush fire triggered by target shooters and pushed the flames toward houses and a nearby explosives factory. The so-called Dump fire erupted on Thursday in the Kiowa Valley near a landfill for Saratoga Springs, a town of 18,000 on the west shore of Utah Lake, about 35 miles south of Salt Lake City. ...

Dry weather puts late U.S. soy plantings in jeopardy

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 03:26 PM PDT

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Kelly Robertson jammed a screwdriver into the hard, dry ground on his farm in southern Illinois, carved out six inches of soil and could not find any moisture. Because of the dry conditions, Robertson, who grows corn, soybeans and wheat near Benton, Illinois, did not begin planting soybeans until last week, fearing the seeds would not have enough moisture to germinate. "We sit here and wait for a rain. More correctly, we sit and wait on multiple rain events because one rain ... is not going to be enough," Robertson said in a recent interview. ...

NYC unionized utility workers threaten to strike

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 01:35 PM PDT

(Reuters) - Unionized workers for New York City's Consolidated Edison on Friday threatened to strike on July 1 if they do not reach a new contract, as the utility worked to return power to Brooklyn and other areas that were blacked out in a heat wave. ""The fact is that Con Ed Chairman and CEO Kevin Burke, who takes in $18 million a year, can't keep the power on. We can," Harry Farrell, president of Local 1-2, said in a statement. The union represents 8,500 workers whose contract ends at midnight on June 30. A ConEd strike in 1983 lasted nine weeks. ...

Analysis: What takes so long? Behind the scenes at top U.S. court

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 11:56 AM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - During a break from the crush of last-minute opinion-writing, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg told an audience of 1,000 people last week at a Washington legal convention: "It is flood season at the court." For the rest of the country it has been more like a drought, a stretch of weeks without any word in the most closely watched cases - the blockbuster challenges to President Barack Obama's healthcare plan and Arizona's crackdown on illegal immigration. ...

Labor unions sue over Rhode Island pension reform

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 12:07 PM PDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Labor unions sued the state of Rhode Island on Friday over sweeping public pension reforms passed last year, putting the July 1 implementation date at risk of delay. The unions claim that state officials violated employment contracts and did not first try less severe measures before enacting pension reforms, according to Robert Walsh, executive director of the National Education Association's Rhode Island chapter. ...

Arkansas high court blocks use of death penalty

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 01:14 PM PDT

LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (Reuters) - The Arkansas Supreme Court on Friday ruled unconstitutional the law allowing the state to carry out the death penalty, siding with 10 Death Row inmates who argued that only the legislature, and not the prison system, can decide the method of execution. The ruling effectively barred the state from carrying out the death penalty. Arkansas has 40 men on Death Row but the state has not executed anyone since November 28, 2005, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. ...

U.S. Coast Guard ends search for missing millionaire

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 12:58 PM PDT

MIAMI (Reuters) - The U.S. Coast Guard has ended its search for a Brazilian-born multimillionaire whose fishing boat washed up on a south Florida beach this week. The Coast Guard said it called off the search late Thursday for Guma Aguiar, the 35-year-old founder of a Texas oil and gas company that he sold for a reported $2.55 billion in 2006. The air-and-sea search spanned a 1,523-square-mile (3,944-sq-km) area, roughly the size of Rhode Island. But it yielded no trace of Aguiar, whose 31-foot (9.4-meter) fishing boat, the T.T. ...

Top Massachusetts court limits foreclosure relief

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 01:15 PM PDT

(Reuters) - The highest court in Massachusetts ruled that lenders must have proper paperwork to conduct foreclosures but said its decision applies only to future property seizures, averting a potential flood of problems for banks trying to take possession of homes. Friday's unanimous decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, in a case that had drawn national attention, avoids the prospect that title could be clouded on thousands of recently foreclosed properties in the state. ...

Analysis: Sizing up Penn State's liability in abuse scandal

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 12:48 PM PDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Jerry Sandusky trial has been loaded with detailed allegations of child sex abuse against the one-time Penn State assistant football coach, but it has revealed little about the university's potential liability in the scandal. That is likely to change in a related prosecution of two former university officials: athletic director Tim Curley and finance official Gary Schultz. ...

Rhode Island judge denies bid to block pension reform

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 12:31 PM PDT

(Reuters) - A Rhode Island superior court judge on Friday denied a bid by labor unions to block public pension reforms from going into effect July 1. Judge Sarah Taft-Carter issued the order in a closed-door hearing among lawyers just hours after the unions filed suit, court spokesman Craig Berke said. (Reporting by Hilary Russ)

High chance of cyclone over Gulf of Mexico: NHC

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 08:43 AM PDT

(Reuters) - A low pressure system in the Gulf of Mexico just north of the Yucatan Peninsula still has a 70 percent chance of becoming a tropical cyclone over the next 48 hours, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said on Friday. "Interests along the entire United States Gulf Coast should monitor the progress of this disturbance through the weekend," the NHC said. About 6 percent of U.S. gas production and just over 20 percent of U.S. oil production come from the Gulf of Mexico. ...

Fund for bullied grandmother tops $500,000

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 09:16 AM PDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Only 48 hours after a video of 68-year-old grandmother Karen Klein being bullied went viral on the Internet, an online fund for her has topped $500,000 in donations. Just before noon on Friday, the fund for the bus monitor with eight grandchildren, bullied by middle school students until she cried in the video, passed half-a-million dollars in donations. The fund, on indiegogo.com, will continue to collect donations until July 20, after which the money will be given to Klein. ...

Muslim man sentenced after threatening TV show

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 09:33 AM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Muslim convert from New York was sentenced on Friday to 11-1/2 years in prison after pleading guilty to threatening the writers of the satirical "South Park" television show for their depiction of the Prophet Mohammad and to other criminal charges. Jesse Curtis Morton, 33, who is also known as Younus Abdullah Muhammed, was put on three years of probation after he completes his prison term. The sentence was handed down in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, the U.S. Justice Department said. ...

Arkansas high court strikes down state's execution law

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 08:27 AM PDT

(Reuters) - The Supreme Court of Arkansas on Friday struck down that state's execution law in a split decision that sided with a group of 10 Death Row inmates who had argued only the state legislature can set execution policy. The decision came in a lawsuit filed in 2010 by Death Row inmate Jack Harold Jones against the head of the Arkansas Department of Correction. ...

U.S. Coast Guard ends search for missing millionaire

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 07:36 AM PDT

MIAMI (Reuters) - The U.S. Coast Guard has ended its search for a Brazilian-born multimillionaire whose fishing boat washed up on a south Florida beach earlier this week. The Coast Guard said it called off the search for Guma Aguiar, the 35-year-old founder of a Texas oil and gas company that he sold for a reported $2.55 billion in 2006, late Thursday evening. The air-and-sea search spanned a 1,523-square-mile (3,944 sq km) area, roughly the size of Rhode Island. But it yielded no trace of Aguiar, whose 31-foot (9.4 meter) fishing boat, the T.T. ...

Citing drought, Wyoming governor seeks disaster declaration

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 07:44 PM PDT

CODY, Wyoming (Reuters) - Wyoming's governor, citing drought conditions, has asked for a federal disaster declaration after dwindling runoff from meager winter snowpack combined with an especially dry spring and early summer hit ranchers hard, his office said on Friday. The request, if successful, could help farmers qualify for federal assistance based on poor grass and hay production that has driven many to sell off cattle in the face of persistent dry weather. ...

Sandusky found guilty of most sex abuse charges

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 07:23 PM PDT

Wind-whipped Utah wildfire forces 8,000 people from homes

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 06:51 PM PDT

Factbox: Letters in Sandusky sex abuse trial to alleged victim

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 06:22 PM PDT

(Reuters) - The following are excerpts from some of the six letters and a "story" entered as evidence in the child sex abuse trial of former Pennsylvania State University assistant football coach. All were handwritten by Sandusky and addressed to an accuser known in court documents as Victim 4. Sandusky is charged with five counts of sexual abuse against Victim 4, who was the first witness called by the prosecution. The letters were undated. Reuters policy is not to identify the victims of sexual crimes. "The (Victim 4)-J story" "Very few people know about this story and probably less care. ...

Rodman's ex-wife keeps restraining order against former NBA star

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 06:20 PM PDT

FAA fire, storms cancel, delay flights

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 06:07 PM PDT

Oklahoma forest ranger sentenced to prison for arson

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 04:14 PM PDT

Mount Rainier ranger falls to death during rescue

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 04:03 PM PDT

Rising sea levels to hit California hard by 2100

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 03:56 PM PDT

Advocates sue NYC police over marijuana arrests

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 03:28 PM PDT