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Protests could derail St. Louis' bid for second Amazon hub: sources

By Brendan O'Brien ST. LOUIS (Reuters) - Protests in St. Louis over the acquittal of a white former policeman who killed a black man could impede the city's bid to attract Amazon.com's second headquarters, academics and business executives said. Marked by scuffles, teargas and property damage, the protests have been unfolding as the city, which has a history of social unrest, is vying for the lucrative Amazon deal. "There is no good timing for something like this and it will have an impact," said Didi Caldwell, founding principal with Global Location Strategies in South Carolina, which helps companies choose locations for new businesses and expansion.

Hurricane Maria skirts Turks and Caicos as Puerto Rico endures fresh flooding

By Dave Graham and Robin Respaut SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (Reuters) - Hurricane Maria, the second major storm to ravage the Caribbean in a month, skirted past the Turks and Caicos Islands on Friday, leaving devastation in its wake that included fresh flooding on Puerto Rico two days after pummeling the U.S. island territory. Maria, which ranked as the most powerful hurricane to strike Puerto Rico in nearly a century, has killed at least six people there and claimed 19 lives on several other Caribbean islands, according to government officials and local news media accounts. Roughly 70,000 people live in the area downstream from the earthen dam that was under evacuation, the island's governor, Ricardo Rossello, said in a late-afternoon news conference.

Corporate donations for Harvey, Irma disaster relief near $225 million

Corporate donations for Hurricanes Harvey and Irma relief funds totaled nearly $225 million by Friday and pledges continued to be made, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation said. Automakers and energy companies, some of them affected by the most powerful storm to hit Texas' Gulf Coast in 50 years, are among the prominent corporate donors. Texas, the biggest oil-producing state, was pummeled by Harvey when it made landfall as a powerful Category 4 hurricane and proceeded to dump more than 50 inches of rain on the Houston region.

Hurricane Maria skirts Turks and Caicos as Puerto Rico endures fresh flooding

By Dave Graham and Robin Respaut SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (Reuters) - Hurricane Maria, the second major hurricane to wreak havoc in the Caribbean this month, skirted by the Turks and Caicos Islands on Friday and was blamed for fresh flooding on Puerto Rico two days after ravaging the U.S. island territory. The storm, which ranked as the most powerful hurricane to strike Puerto Rico in 90 years, has killed at least 25 people there and on other Caribbean islands, according to government officials and local news media accounts. U.S. weather forecasters and Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello warned that a dam on the rain-swollen Guajataca River in northwestern Puerto Rico was failing, causing flash flooding in the area.

St. Louis sued for misconduct toward protesters of white officer's acquittal

The civil rights lawsuit was filed in U.S. district court in St. Louis by the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri. It names Maleeha Ahmad, Alison Dreith and "a class of similarly situated individuals" as plaintiffs.

Storm Maria pitches Puerto Rico barrio into sunken 'Venice'

By Dave Graham and Robin Respaut CATANO, Puerto Rico (Reuters) - Wading through highways swamped by turbid waters that sloshed over scattered, sunken belongings, residents of this Puerto Rican barrio flooded by Hurricane Maria have begun emerging from their shattered homes. Lying southwest of the capital San Juan, the Juana Matos neighborhood in Catano municipality took a huge hit from Maria after the storm slammed winds of up to 155 mph (249 kmh) into Puerto Rico early on Wednesday, destroying or damaging an estimated 80 percent of housing in the working-class barrio. The storm, the second Category 5 hurricane to batter the Caribbean this month, claimed at least 32 lives across the region, including 15 in Puerto Rico, and shut down power and communications across the island of 3.4 million people.

Doomsday sale: U.S. survivalists stock up as disasters roil the planet

Sales of freeze-dried food, gas masks and other survival equipment have spiked in recent weeks as so-called "preppers" get ready to ride out any disaster, whether natural or man-made. People buried in rubble after earthquakes rattled Mexico.

California mass killer sentenced to life in prison for hair salon attack

A California man was sentenced on Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the worst mass killing in Orange County history, the 2011 shooting deaths of eight people at a hair salon where his ex-wife worked. Scott Dekraai, a 47-year-old former tugboat worker, was spared the death penalty in August when a judge ruled that serious misconduct by Orange County prosecutors had violated his rights to a fair trial. “The gates of Hell flew open and you emerged as the face of evil in this community” Superior Court Judge Thomas Goethals told Dekraai before pronouncing the sentence, according to the Orange County Register newspaper.

Former mobster Sammy 'The Bull' Gravano released from prison

Gravano, 72, was freed from federal custody on Monday after completing his sentence for running a drug ring, his New York-based lawyer Thomas Farinella said by phone. Farinella declined to say which facility released his client or where Gravano would live. "Right now, he's just enjoying the fact that he's free after 17 and a half years," Farinella said, adding he was spending time with family.

U.S. mainland Puerto Ricans anguished, unable to reach loved ones

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla./NEW YORK (Reuters) - Deserie Rivera is having difficulty sleeping at night, unable to get through to Puerto Rico to find out if her mother is safe after Hurricane Maria struck. Rivera, a 34-year-old waitress at a Puerto Rican restaurant in the southern Florida city of Sunrise, says that she knows that she is not alone.

Trump administration drops guidance on college sex-crime probes

The Trump administration on Friday reversed Obama-era guidelines on how colleges should handle sexual assault allegations that it said treated the accused unfairly. U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has said the guidelines established under former Democratic President Barack Obama, under the Title IX U.S. education equality rules, led to too many students being falsely charged, and that schools were scared of being accused of ignoring accusations. The Education Department is issuing new "interim guidance" to help schools combat sexual misconduct while treating all students fairly, DeVos said in a statement.

NFL vows 'vigorous' fight against Aaron Hernandez CTE lawsuit

The National Football League on Friday vowed to vigorously fight a lawsuit filed on behalf of former New England Patriots star Aaron Hernandez's family that claimed his severe chronic traumatic encephalopathy led to his suicide. Hernandez, 27, hung himself in April in a Massachusetts jail where he was serving a life sentence for the 2013 murder of an acquaintance. The lawyer who secured his that acquittal, Jose Baez, on Thursday sued the league on behalf of Hernandez's 4-year-old daughter and fiancee, Shayanna Jenkins, saying a severe case of the brain disease CTE that Hernandez developed as a player contributed to his death.

Hurricane-ravaged U.S. cities hit by rising cleanup costs

By Rod Nickel HOUSTON (Reuters) - Communities in Texas and Florida, each swamped by a hurricane within two weeks of one another, are rewriting debris removal contracts and paying millions of dollars more to lure trucks, as subcontractors say costs have jumped. The willingness of communities to renegotiate such contracts in the aftermath of hurricanes Harvey in Texas and Irma in Florida shows the limits of pre-planning for events as unpredictable as back-to-back hurricanes. Higher fees, however, may not be covered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), even after these huge storms brought intense public pressure to clear millions of cubic yards of rubbish from streets and damaged furnishings from flooded homes and businesses.

Accused mobster tied to Boston art heist to undergo psychiatric test

An octogenerian alleged mobster who police believe may be able to help solve the largest art heist in U.S. history will undergo a psychiatric evaluation before being sentenced on gun charges, a federal court judge in Connecticut ruled on Friday. The decision came after Robert Gentile, 81, appeared in court earlier this month for sentencing on charges he pleaded guilty to in April, but claimed to have no memory of entering a plea or of the events involved. "The defendant's counsel has become increasingly concerned about the defendant's ability to understand the charges against him and assist in his defense," defense attorney Ryan McGuigan wrote in a motion asking for the competency hearing.

Comey talks 'real world,' meets protests at black university

Protesters at Howard University chanted and booed on Friday through James Comey's first public address since he testified to Congress about his firing by U.S. President Donald Trump, challenging the former FBI director with a taste of the "real world" he was trying to describe to them. Students protesting the Federal Bureau of Investigation's treatment of black activists began chanting the civil rights song "We Shall Not Be Moved" as Comey stood at the podium, waiting out the demonstrators during a video about the historically black university in Washington, D.C.

U.S. issues fuel waiver for diesel in Florida after Hurricane Irma

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on Thursday it had approved an emergency fuel waiver for diesel in Florida for the response effort to Hurricane Irma. "EPA has waived the highway diesel fuel red dye requirements to allow the use of 15 parts per million sulfur non-road diesel fuel for on-highway vehicles in Florida" through Oct.6, the agency said in a statement. (Reporting by Mohammad Zargham; Editing by Sandra Maler)

NFL star Hernandez's family sues league over 'severe' CTE

By Scott Malone BOSTON (Reuters) - Former New England Patriots player Aaron Hernandez, who killed himself in prison in April, had a "severe case" of the brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a lawyer said on Thursday as he sued the team and NFL on behalf of the athlete's young daughter. Hernandez was a rising star in the National Football League when he was arrested in 2013 and charged with murdering an acquaintance. Days later, he hanged himself in a Massachusetts prison.

U.S. attorney general ties gang violence to immigration

Protesters gathered outside a federal court in Boston on Thursday where U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions came to address law enforcement about what he called the need to tackle transnational gang violence and to secure the Mexican border. Sessions reemphasized what he said was a need to target cross-border criminal organizations, specifically the gang MS-13, which the Justice Department says has more than 30,000 members worldwide and 10,000 members in the United States. Tying the effort to fight the gang and Republican President Donald Trump's administration's efforts to crackdown on illegal immigration, Sessions said the Justice Department was directing more prosecutorial resources to the U.S.-Mexican border.

Puerto Rico, St. Croix devastated by powerful Hurricane Maria

By Dave Graham and Robin Respaut SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (Reuters) - Deadly Hurricane Maria caused flooding in the Dominican Republic as it brushed past the country on Thursday after destroying buildings and knocking out power across the U.S. territories of Puerto Rico and St. Croix. The second major hurricane to rage through the Caribbean this month, Maria has killed at least 17 people and devastated several small islands, including St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands and Dominica.

London's National Gallery prevails in 'stolen' Matisse lawsuit: New York judge

The National Gallery in London on Thursday won the dismissal of a lawsuit in which three grandchildren of a muse of the artist Henri Matisse sought to recover a painting they said was stolen shortly after World War Two. Oliver Williams and Margarete Green, both of Great Britain, and Iris Filmer, of Germany, had accused the National Gallery of ignoring signs that the 1908 painting might have been stolen, and should not profit from "war-related" theft.

Navajo tribe says ready to sue Trump over changes to Utah monument

The Navajo Nation will sue the Trump administration if it tries to reduce the size of the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah, its top lawyer told Reuters on Thursday, ahead of the release of a broad government review of such sites across the country. President Donald Trump had ordered the Interior Department to examine whether 27 national monuments designated by past presidents could be reduced or rescinded to make way for oil and gas drilling and other economic development. The results have not been announced, but a leak of the review obtained by the Washington Post shows the Interior Department will recommend shrinking some sites, including Bears Ears, a 1.35-million-acre wilderness that the Navajo and other tribes consider sacred.

Storm Maria brings fear, pain and shock to Puerto Ricans

By Dave Graham and Robin Respaut SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (Reuters) - Miguel Cruz awoke to the descent of Hurricane Maria on his home on Wednesday morning when the massive storm peeled off most of the roof, sent his belongings flying in all directions, but left intact an icon of Jesus hanging above his bed. Cruz was one of thousands of Puerto Ricans picking through the wreckage left by Maria after the hurricane devastated basic services on the debt-laden U.S. territory, pitching most of its 3.4 million residents into darkness as night fell. Crashing into Puerto Rico as a Category 4 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, Maria flipped the tops off buildings, knocked out phones and electricity across the island and turned low-lying roads into swollen rivers awash with debris.

U.S. safety board says train crash engineers had undiagnosed sleep disorder

By David Shepardson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The engineers in two New York City area commuter train crashes suffered from sleep apnea that had not been diagnosed, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said on Thursday. The NTSB released factual findings on Thursday regarding its investigations into the crashes and said it planned to hold a meeting next February about both incidents and safety recommendations. The NTSB said the brakes were working on the New Jersey Transit train that was traveling at 8 miles (13 km) per hour 38 seconds before the crash.

Death toll from overheated Florida nursing home rises to 10

The resident of the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills died on Wednesday, police in Hollywood, Florida, said in a statement, without giving details. Police have opened a criminal investigation into the deaths at the center, which city officials have said continued to operate with little or no air conditioning after power was cut off by Irma, which struck the state on Sept. 10. Julie Allison, a lawyer for the nursing home, did not respond to a request for comment.

U.S. judge aims to quickly decide lawsuits over DACA

A U.S. judge on Thursday said he wanted to decide quickly lawsuits challenging the Trump administration's decision to end a program that shielded from deportation children brought to the United States illegally by their parents. President Donald Trump this month decided to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, in March 2018. Since it was authorized in 2012 by President Barack Obama, the program has provided protection from deportation and the right to work legally to nearly 800,000 young people.

Illinois high court upholds former cop Peterson's murder conviction

Peterson, 63, who was sentenced to 38 years in prison for the 2004 murder of Kathleen Savio, was given an additional 40 years in 2016 after being found guilty of trying to hire a hit man to kill the prosecutor who argued for his conviction at his first trial. Peterson's attorneys had urged the state's highest court to overturn his conviction of Savio's murder on several technical grounds, including the admission of hearsay statements and the competence of his lawyer for calling as a defense witness Savio's divorce lawyer, Harry Smith.

Former U.S. Attorney Bharara joins CNN as senior legal analyst

Bharara was fired as U.S. Attorney in March by President Donald Trump, after refusing to resign his post when asked to do so by U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Bharara joins CNN, a unit of Time Warner Inc , at a time when the cable network faces numerous accusations of being "fake news" from President Trump on Twitter.

Trump says will be putting more sanctions on North Korea

NEW YORK (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Thursday the United States would be adding more sanctions on North Korea. Tensions have escalated in recent weeks over Pyongyang's missile and nuclear weapons program, despite intense pressure from world powers. "We will be putting more sanctions on North Korea," Trump said in response to a question at a meeting with Afghan president Ashraf Ghani. On Afghanistan, Trump said the U.S. military was doing more leading than fighting. (Reporting by Steve Holland; Writing by Yara Bayoumy; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Trump administration red tape tangles up visas for skilled foreigners, data shows

The more intense scrutiny of the applications for H-1B visas comes after President Donald Trump called for changes to the visa program so that it benefits the highest-paid workers, though he has not enacted any such reforms. Data provided by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services shows that between Jan. 1 and Aug. 31, the agency issued 85,000 challenges, or "requests for evidence" (RFEs), to H-1B visa petitions - a 45 percent increase over the same period last year. The challenges, which can slow down the issuance of visas by months, were issued at a greater rate in 2017 than at any time in the Obama administration except for one year, 2009, according to the USCIS data, which has not been previously reported.

St. Louis approves police body cameras ahead of more protests

St. Louis officials decided on Wednesday to supply police officers with body cameras for a year as the city prepares for a sixth night of protests after a white former police officer was acquitted of killing a black man. The city's Board of Estimate and Apportionment voted 3-0 to have Axon Enterprise Inc, a police body camera company, supply its 1,200 officers with free software, hardware and training for a year.