At least five people have died in severe rain and snowstorms that blanketed parts of California with at least five feet of snow in the Sierra Nevada mountains this week, besides triggering flooding and mudslides, officials said. Forecasters expect the bitter weather to push eastwards into the Rockies and US Midwest through the weekend, while the California Highway Patrol said rain-slicked highways led to two fatal accidents that killed four people. A family of three, including a one-year-old baby, died in El Dorado County on Tuesday, after their car spun across a rain-soaked freeway to hit another car, the San Francisco Chronicle said.

Thu, 17 Jan 2019 07:18:48 -0500

Trump nominated EPA Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler last week to run the agency permanently, seeking a strong advocate for his pro-fossil fuels agenda - a choice that cheered business interests and drawn scorn from environmentalists. "I would not call it the greatest crisis," Wheeler said at his confirmation hearing when asked if he believed the increasingly urgent warnings from scientists about the threats from global warming. Wheeler's confirmation is expected to sail through the Republican-controlled Senate despite Democratic opposition.

Thu, 17 Jan 2019 05:27:30 -0500

A Covina woman has been charged with stabbing her own 2-year-old son to death, officials said Wednesday.

Thu, 17 Jan 2019 05:02:47 -0500

Senators voted 57-42 to end debate on the measure, as 11 of Trump's fellow Republicans broke from party leaders to join Democrats in favor of the resolution, amid questions about Trump's relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. To keep the administration from lifting the sanctions, the measure must pass both the House and Senate and muster the two-thirds majority needed in both chambers to override an expected Trump veto. Many members of Congress have been questioning the U.S. Treasury Department's decision in December to ease sanctions imposed in April on the core businesses of Deripaska - Rusal, its parent, En+ , and power firm EuroSibEnergo - watering down the toughest penalties imposed on Russian entities since Moscow's 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

Wed, 16 Jan 2019 21:57:07 -0500

Turkish prosecutors are seeking the arrest and extradition of New York Knicks enter Enes Kanter, accusing him pf being a member of an "armed terrorist group". Mr Kanter is accused of ties to Fethullah Gulen, who Turkish authorities allege is behind the failed coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2016, the Daily Sabah reported. Mr Gulen has repeatedly denied any involved in the failed coup.

Wed, 16 Jan 2019 19:20:00 -0500

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Defense attorneys for the man accused of kidnapping a Wisconsin teenager and killing her parents acknowledged Wednesday that they're starting the case at a disadvantage after their client gave detectives a detailed confession and said they're not sure he can get a fair trial in the state.

Wed, 16 Jan 2019 16:37:20 -0500

NEW YORK (AP) — The latest on developments in financial markets (all times local):

Wed, 16 Jan 2019 16:07:32 -0500

The famous Large Hadron Collider, an insanely massive particle accelerator that's helped scientists crack some of the most deeply hidden mysteries of the universe, is about to be dwarfed by an atom smasher that's much bigger and more powerful. European physicists have just unveiled their proposal for the construction of a new particle smasher that calls for a 62-mile circular collider costing roughly the equivalent of $10 billion. Plans for the so-called Future Circular Collider were revealed Tuesday in a report by officials associated with the European Organization for Nuclear Research, better known by its acronym of CERN. Among other things, they're proposing that the collection of 23 member nations which currently comprise CERN would likewise oversee this next-generation accelerator. An accelerator, we should note, that would be four times bigger and up to 10 times more powerful than today's Large Hadron Collider, which is part of a particle accelerator facility on the French-Swiss border and which helped scientists in 2012 confirm the existence of the so-called God particle, the Higgs boson. It's a particle that gives mass to electrons and protons, which scientists regard as a kind of building block for the world as part of their so-called Standard Model. That's a body of knowledge describing some of the most basic forces at work in the physical world. Ironically, this highly sought after class of particles can reveal such depth of understanding about the world around us -- but the particles are also so small that it takes insanely massive machines to wrench them loose, in a manner of speaking, enough for scientists to be able to study them. The way the Large Hadron Collider works involves a loop of superconducting magnets that shoot streams of protons at each other fast enough for these key particles to emerge from the impact. And among the questions scientists hope these kinds of machine can answer are things like why gravity is so weak compared to other forces. As if on cue, meanwhile, China has plans to build its own version of one of these machines. According to a report from ScienceAlert, its creation could be operational by the 2030s and present "a head start (on) the multiple collisions needed to amass the enormous bank of statistics necessary for finding flaws in the Standard Model. Japan is also taking a look at building a particle collider." The ScienceAlert report also makes clear that there's no guarantee this new collider in Europe will ever get built. The Large Hadron Collider apparently hasn't produced enough fodder for scientific discoveries yet to satisfy some officials that the need is there and investment is warranted for the development of a new collider.

Wed, 16 Jan 2019 15:32:08 -0500

U.K. leader Theresa May survived an attempt to oust her government and immediately opened talks with rival political parties in an attempt to break the Brexit deadlock, as time runs out to reach a deal. The prime minister fought off the threat of a national election and won the right to continue running the country when the House of Commons voted 325 to 306 against a motion of “no confidence” in her administration. May invited other party leaders, who back keeping much closer ties to the European Union, for talks tonight to discuss how to forge a compromise Brexit plan that Parliament can support.

Wed, 16 Jan 2019 15:21:38 -0500

Police are investigating after a 51-year-old man was caught on camera pushing and punching a girl in the face outside of Asheville Mall on Saturday.

Wed, 16 Jan 2019 15:12:30 -0500