OAKLAND — An emotionally taxing criminal case over the deaths of 36 people trapped in a fire inside a San Francisco Bay Area warehouse nearly three years ago will continue after a jury acquitted one defendant and deadlocked on the other. Jurors deliberated over a two-week period before they acquitted...
US Contractor Sentenced in Iraq Shooting Seeks New Trial
WASHINGTON — A former State Department contractor sentenced to life in prison for his role in the 2007 shooting deaths of Iraqi civilians is asking for a new trial because of what he says is newly discovered evidence. Lawyers for former Blackwater employee Nicholas Slatten said they received a State...
Number of US Overdose Deaths Appears to Be Falling
NEW YORK — U.S. overdose deaths last year likely fell for the first time in nearly three decades, preliminary numbers suggest. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday posted data showing nearly 68,000 drug overdose deaths were reported last year. The number may go up as more investigations...
Scientists Seek Beaches Where Dead Whales Can Rot in Peace
PORTLAND, Ore. — So many gray whales are dying off the U.S. West Coast that scientists and volunteers dealing with the putrid carcasses have an urgent request for coastal residents: Lend us your private beaches so these ocean giants can rot in peace. The number of dead whales washing ashore...
New Mexico Little League Park Plagued by Hypodermic Needles
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A New Mexico Little League park is fighting a battle against discarded syringes with attached hypodermic needles amid the region's outgoing opioid epidemic. Atrisco Park, home of the Atrisco Valley Little League, in Albuquerque is racing to clean up syringes littering fields and the grounds to protect...
Cocaine Deaths up in US, and Opioids Are a Big Part of It
NEW YORK — Cocaine deaths have been rising in the U.S., health officials said Thursday in their latest report on the nation's deadliest drug overdose epidemic. After several years of decline, overdose deaths involving cocaine began rising around 2012. And they jumped by more than a third between 2016 and...
Got Old or Unneeded Prescriptions Drugs? Turn Them in Saturday.
Guess how many tons of opioids and other medicines have been turned into the DEA's San Francisco division on National Prescription Drug Take Back Day? DEA-San Francisco says it has collected nearly 233 tons — or 446,000 pounds — of expired, unused and unwanted prescription medications from Northern California and Central Valley...
Mapping US Counties Where Traffic Air Pollution Hurts Kids the Most
In the U.S., over 6 million children had ongoing asthma in 2016. Globally, asthma kills around 1,000 people every day – and its prevalence is rising. This condition has a high economic cost. Each year in the U.S., more than US$80 billion is lost because of asthma. This is mainly...
Some Polls Show Parents' Growing Fears of Dangers at School
The deadly attack at Columbine High School in 1999 seemed to usher in a new era of school shootings. Two decades later, polls consistently capture growing fears among American parents that their children face imminent danger whenever they go to school. Those fears have only intensified since attacks at an...
Two-Wave US Flu Season Is Now the Longest in a Decade
NEW YORK — Three months ago, this flu season was shaping up to be short and mild in the U.S. But a surprising second viral wave has made it the longest in 10 years. This flu season has been officially going for 21 weeks, according to reports collected through last...