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Solemn service to mark 20th anniversary of Columbine High massacre

A week-long series of events commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre culminates on Saturday with a remembrance ceremony celebrating the lives of the 13 victims slain in the rampage. Betty Shoels, the aunt of murdered student Isaiah Shoels, said her 18-year-old nephew was a fun-loving athlete who was always smiling, despite feeling out of place as one of the school's few African-American students. This year's remembrances were marred this week when a Florida teenager, who authorities said was "obsessed" with Columbine, traveled to Colorado where she died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot.

Mexico warns of 'deep concern' over armed groups on U.S. border

Mexico said on Saturday it had "deep concern" about armed groups that intimidate and extort migrants on the border, shortly after the ACLU and Democratic senators called for a probe into such citizen efforts to block migrants from crossing. "These types of practices can drive human rights abuses of people who migrate or request asylum or refuge in the United States," Mexico's Foreign Relations Ministry said in a statement, referring to "militia groups" in New Mexico. On Thursday, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico condemned the United Constitutional Patriots, which patrols the southern U.S. border in New Mexico, as a "fascist militia organization" operating outside the law.

Vulnerable House Democrats tread carefully in wake of Mueller report

The party's chances of keeping control of the U.S. House of Representatives likely hinge its ability to defend those seats. In the report released on Thursday, Special Counsel Robert Mueller said Trump may have obstructed justice and portrayed a president bent on stopping the probe into Russian meddling.

Democrats make legal bid for all Russia probe evidence, Trump poll numbers drop

Congressional Democrats took legal action on Friday to gain access to all of U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller's evidence from his inquiry into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, as the probe's findings dented President Donald Trump's poll ratings. The number of Americans who approve of Trump dropped by 3 percentage points to the lowest level of the year following the release of a redacted version of Mueller's report on Thursday, according to a Reuters/Ipsos online opinion poll. While Mueller ultimately decided not to charge Trump with a crime such as obstruction of justice, he also said the investigation did not exonerate the president, either.

Seagram heiress Clare Bronfman pleads guilty in New York sex cult case

Seagram liquor heiress Clare Bronfman pleaded guilty on Friday to harboring an illegal immigrant and enabling credit card fraud as part of an alleged sex cult based in upstate New York.     Bronfman, 40, entered her plea to the two criminal counts before U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis in federal court in Brooklyn, New York.

Mueller report strengthens resolves on both sides of political spectrum

"Hmm, seems like there's a lot of gray area here," said Eileen O’Brien, 65, of Clearwater, Florida, reading aloud a line about the findings falling short of a criminal case. "Legally wrong and morally wrong are two different things." The release of the long-anticipated report by Special Counsel Robert Mueller on his inquiry into Russia's role in the 2016 election landed in a stridently divided America: one side convinced Trump acted improperly, the other adamant that the investigation was a politically driven farce. Mueller built an extensive case that Trump committed obstruction of justice but stopped short of concluding he had committed a crime, though he did not exonerate the president.

Trump approval drops 3 points to 2019 low after release of Mueller report: Reuters/Ipsos poll

The number of Americans who approve of President Donald Trump dropped by 3 percentage points to the lowest level of the year following the release of a special counsel report detailing Russian interference in the last U.S. presidential election, according to an exclusive Reuters/Ipsos public opinion poll. The poll, conducted Thursday afternoon to Friday morning, is the first national survey to measure the response from the American public after the U.S. Justice Department released Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s 448-page report that recounted numerous occasions in which Trump may have interfered with the investigation. In his report, Mueller said his investigation did not establish that the Trump campaign had coordinated with Russians.

California couple sentenced to life in prison in severe child abuse case

David Turpin, 57, and his wife Louise Turpin, 50, had agreed to be sentenced to 25 years to life in prison as part of an agreement with Riverside County prosecutors that saw them plead guilty in February to torture, child abuse and false imprisonment charges. The couple cried during the sentencing hearing, where they listened to statements from their children and delivered statements of their own, according to video footage from ABC News. "I'm sorry for everything I've done to hurt my children.

Man who mailed white powder to Trump's sons gets probation

A Massachusetts man was sentenced on Friday to five years of probation after admitting he mailed threatening letters filled with a suspicious white powder to several prominent people, including U.S. President Donald Trump's sons. Federal prosecutors in Boston had sought three years in prison for Daniel Frisiello, 25, of Beverly, Massachusetts, whose hoax letters included one in February 2018 addressed to Donald Trump Jr. Trump's then-wife, Vanessa, opened the letter and was taken to the hospital. Investigators later determined the powder sent to Trump's eldest son's home was harmless, as was the substance contained in an earlier letter Frisiello sent during the 2016 presidential campaign to the Republican president's son Eric Trump.

Supreme Court girds for fight over Trump census citizenship question

A sign on its front door in a heavily Hispanic neighborhood of the borough of Queens warns law enforcement officers not to enter without a warrant. Its colorful lobby is filled with butterfly-shaped placards made for protests against the hardline immigration policies of President Donald Trump, a fellow New Yorker. Its latest fight is to contest the Trump administration's contentious plan to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, which the group has called a "racist attempt to intimidate, undercount immigrants." The plan's legality will be tested on Tuesday in arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court, which has a 5-4 conservative majority.

Foxconn says it remains committed to Wisconsin investment project

Taiwan's Foxconn said on Friday it remains committed to its contract to build a display plant and tech research facilities in Wisconsin, days after the U.S. state's governor said he wanted to renegotiate the deal. Democratic Governor Tony Evers, who inherited a deal to give Foxconn $4 billion in tax breaks and other incentives when he took office in January, said on Wednesday he wanted renegotiation because the firm is not expected to reach its job creation goals for the state. Foxconn's proposed 20-million-square-foot Wisconsin campus, announced at a White House ceremony in 2017, marks the largest greenfield investment by a foreign-based company in U.S. history and was praised by President Donald Trump as proof of his ability to revive American manufacturing.

Rapper Kodak Black arrested in New York on drug, weapons charges

Black, 21, was stopped on Wednesday evening by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents at the Lewiston-Queenston International Bridge headed back into the United States from Canada, the New York State Police said in a release. Black's real name is Bill Kapri, and he is a resident of Miramar, Florida. Black was released on Thursday afternoon from the Niagara County Jail on $20,000 bail, multiple media accounts have reported, including CNN.

Judge upholds New York City's mandatory measles vaccination order

A Brooklyn judge on Thursday ruled against a group of parents who challenged New York City's recently imposed mandatory measles vaccination order, rejecting their arguments that the city's public health authority exceeded its authority. In a six-page decision rendered hours after a hearing on the matter, Judge Lawrence Knipel denied the parents' petition seeking to lift the vaccination order, imposed last week to stem the worst measles outbreak to hit the city since 1991. The judge sided with municipal health officials who defended the order as a rare but necessary step to contain a surge in the highly contagious disease that has infected at least 329 people so far, most of them children from Orthodox Jewish communities in the borough of Brooklyn.

Banks ordered to disclose bondholder information to Puerto Rico board

A judge on Thursday ordered banks to comply with a request from Puerto Rico's federally created financial oversight board to disclose customer information related to certain debt issued by the bankrupt U.S. commonwealth. The ruling boosts a potential effort by the board to recover billions of dollars in payments made to bondholders should a federal court hearing Puerto Rico's bankruptcy cases choose to invalidate disputed debt issued by the government and its agencies. U.S. Magistrate Judge Judith Gail Dein's order said "good cause exists" to grant the board's motion, which seeks to compel banks to submit bondholder names and addresses along with Puerto Rico debt payments the bondholders received between 2013 and 2017.

For Notre-Dame, lessons from a fire-damaged New York cathedral

Before the restoration of Notre-Dame de Paris can begin, engineers may have to tap nearly every stone in the cathedral and listen for subtle sounds of damage, according to specialists who repaired one of the largest cathedrals in the world in New York after a devastating 2001 fire. French President Emmanuel Macron's vow to restore the Paris landmark within five years after a fire consumed Notre-Dame's roof and toppled its spire on Monday may prove unrealistic, they said. "Everything is done in 'cathedral time,'" said James Patterson, director of facilities and capital projects at St. John's on Manhattan's Upper West Side near Columbia University.

In unflattering detail, Mueller report reveals Trump actions to impede inquiry

(Advisory: Story includes language that might offend some readers.) By Sarah N. Lynch and Andy Sullivan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report on his inquiry into Russia's role in the 2016 U.S. election described in extensive and sometimes unflattering detail how President Donald Trump tried to impede the probe, raising questions about whether he committed the crime of obstruction of justice. The release of the 448-page report on Thursday after a 22-month investigation marked a milestone in Trump's tumultuous presidency and inflamed partisan passions ahead of his 2020 re-election bid. Democrats said the report contained disturbing evidence of wrongdoing by Trump that could fuel congressional investigations, but there was no immediate indication they would try to remove him from office through impeachment.

Judge upholds New York City's mandatory measles vaccination order

In a six-page decision rendered hours after a hearing on the matter, Judge Lawrence Knipel denied the parents' petition seeking to lift the vaccination order, imposed last week to stem the worst measles outbreak to hit the city since 1991. The judge sided with municipal health officials who defended the order as a rare but necessary step to contain a surge in the highly contagious disease that has infected at least 329 people so far, most of them children from Orthodox Jewish communities in the borough of Brooklyn. Another 222 cases have been diagnosed elsewhere in New York state, mostly in a predominantly ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Rockland County, northwest of Manhattan.

Explainer: Five ways Trump's moves to stem border surge have hit hurdles

On Wednesday, the acting director of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Kevin McAleenan visited the Texas border to underscore the administration's concerns about a growing crisis. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection confirmed Thursday that the agency would set up two temporary tent facilities in Texas to process migrants, each with a capacity to hold up to 500 people. Such camps have been criticized by Congress members for holding migrants too long and not providing adequate places to sleep or shower.

U.S. court upholds most of California's 'sanctuary' migrant laws

The U.S. Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment. California's Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in a statement, "We continue to prove in California that the rule of law not only stands for something but that people cannot act outside of it." Scores of Democrat-controlled cities and counties have adopted policies to limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, making them a target for President Donald Trump.

U.S. launches four-state study to find ways to reduce opioid overdose deaths

The National Institutes of Health will award grants to research sites in Kentucky, Massachusetts, New York and Ohio, NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins said at a news conference to unveil the plan. Prescription opioid pain treatments and drugs like heroin and the more potent fentanyl were responsible for 47,600 U.S. deaths in 2017, according to government figures, with only a small decline last year, according to provisional data. The plan calls for the research centers to work with at least 15 communities hard hit by the crisis to measure how integrating prevention, treatment and recovery interventions can reduce overdoses.

Key quotes from U.S. Special Counsel Mueller's report

The following are some key quotes from Mueller's 448-page report: "When (former Attorney General Jeff) Sessions told the President that a Special Counsel had been appointed, the President slumped back in his chair and said, 'Oh my God. You gotta call Rod ...," Trump told former White House Counsel Donald McGahn during a June 17, 2017, phone call in which he asked McGahn to remove Mueller due to conflicts of interest. "Call Rod, tell Rod that Mueller has conflicts and can't be the Special Counsel," Trump said during a second phone call that same day.

Banks ordered to disclose bondholder information to Puerto Rico board

A judge on Thursday ordered banks to comply with a request from Puerto Rico's federally created financial oversight board to disclose customer information related to certain debt issued by the bankrupt U.S. commonwealth. The ruling boosts a potential effort by the board to recover billions of dollars in payments made to bondholders should a federal court hearing Puerto Rico's bankruptcy cases choose to invalidate disputed debt issued by the government and its agencies. U.S. Magistrate Judge Judith Gail Dein's order said "good cause exists" to grant the board's motion, which seeks to compel banks to submit bondholder names and addresses along with Puerto Rico debt payments the bondholders received between 2013 and 2017.

Factbox: New revelations from the Mueller report

U.S. President Donald Trump believed the appointment of a special counsel to take over an active federal investigation would spell the end of his presidency, according to Mueller's report. When then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions told Trump of Mueller's appointment on May 17, 2017, the report said, Trump slumped back in his chair and said: "Oh my God. Trump asked Sessions, whom he had berated for months for recusing himself from the investigation of Russian interference in the election: "How could you let this happen, Jeff?" and told Sessions he had let him down.

Man who carried gas cans into NY cathedral charged with attempted arson

Wednesday's incident occurred two days after a massive fire severely damaged the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, causing global shock and sorrow. A New York City Police Department official said Marc Lamparello, a New Jersey resident, was charged with second-degree attempted arson, second-degree reckless endangerment and trespassing after he entered the Roman Catholic cathedral in midtown Manhattan just before 8 p.m. on Wednesday and was confronted by a security guard. As Lamparello turned to leave the cathedral, police said, gasoline spilled from the cans he was carrying, causing cathedral staff to alert police officers stationed outside the church.

Senate leader calls for raising minimum age to buy tobacco products to 21

McConnell said https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=C7912202-0742-4404-8775-8836F261DDEF the bill would be introduced in May. Shares of Marlboro maker Altria Group Inc, which owns a 35 percent stake in e-cigarette maker Juul, fell 3 percent on the news. Philip Morris International and U.S-listed shares of British American Tobacco were also trading lower.

In campaign against gun violence, Columbine students aim to shock with final photos

“In the event that I die from gun violence, please publicize the photo of my death,” the pledge reads. The group's website, http://www.mylastshot.org, says the public should not be shielded from the gruesome scenes of mass shootings. A Florida teenager who authorities said was armed, dangerous and "infatuated" with the Columbine massacre became the latest victim of the Columbine tragedy on Wednesday.

Barr says Mueller did not uncover evidence Trump obstructed Russia probe

U.S. Attorney General William Barr said on Thursday that Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation did not uncover evidence that President Donald Trump obstructed the probe of whether he or members of his campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential election. "The deputy attorney general and I concluded that the evidence developed by the special counsel is not sufficient to establish that the president committed an obstruction of justice offense," Barr said during a media conference.