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RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The Latest on the shooting of a suspect by a Raleigh police officer (all times local):

2:50 p.m.

The State Bureau of Investigation is confirming the identity of a black man who was fatally shot by a police officer.

The agency says 24-year-old Akiel Denkins, of Raleigh, was killed and that agents have talked to his mother, Rolonda Byrd. She had earlier complained that authorities had not told her that her son had been killed and that they wouldn’t let her see his body.

The news release from the State Bureau of Investigation said its report would be delivered to the Wake County District Attorney’s office upon its completion. It did not release any other details.

Raleigh police said Monday that Senior Officer D.C. Twiddy opened fire on the suspect when he was serving an arrest warrant. Police say a gun was found near Denkins, but it’s not clear if he was armed during the chase.

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11:45 a.m.

The head of the North Carolina NAACP is calling on authorities to conduct a fair and transparent investigation into the fatal police shooting of black man who was being chased on foot.

The Rev. William Barber II said at a news conference Tuesday that if someone is running away, that is not a “license to kill.”

Rolonda Byrd says she is the mother of the man who is believed to have been killed. She says she has talked to the medical examiner and police chief, but they have not told her definitively that her son Akiel Denkins was killed. She also says she hasn’t been allowed to look at the body.

Church pastors and neighborhood residents have said the slain man was Denkins, who was 24.

Police are releasing few details about the case. Raleigh police Chief Cassandra Deck-Brown said Monday an officer was pursuing a man who was wanted on a felony drug charge when the officer opened fire. The chief said a gun was found near the suspect’s body, but she did not say whether it was his.

___

8:40 a.m.

The North Carolina NAACP plans to hold a news conference Tuesday morning on the shooting of a man by a Raleigh police officer.

The civil rights group says the news conference will occur at the site where the man was shot shortly after noon Monday.

The man’s name hasn’t been officially released by authorities. Police have said he was wanted on drug charges.

The officer was Senior Officer D.C. Twiddy, who’s been with the department since 2009. Twiddy is on administrative leave while the State Bureau of Investigation and the Raleigh Police Department investigates the shooting.

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4:20 a.m.

A neighborhood in Raleigh, North Carolina, is awaiting answers about what led an officer to fatally shoot a man wanted on a drug charge as authorities continue investigating.

Eyewitnesses have offered descriptions of what happened to the man after an officer chased him into a backyard, and one woman said she ran down a side street after hearing gunshots.

Police spokesman Jim Sughrue says Senior Officer D.C. Twiddy was the officer involved in the shooting. He says the 29-year-old Twiddy has been placed on administrative leave, in accordance with department policy, while the State Bureau of Investigation looks into the matter.

Sughrue says the identity of the victim could be released Tuesday.___

Associated Press writers Emery P. Dalesio, Allen G. Breed and Martha Waggoner contributed to this report.

The post The Latest: Police ID black man fatally shot by officer appeared first on WTOP.

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SEATTLE (AP) — A man who shot three family members, a neighbor and then himself in rural Washington state had an extensive criminal history, including felony charges that would have made it illegal for him to possess firearms.

David Wayne Campbell, 51, had misdemeanor and felony convictions in Pennsylvania dating to 1996, according to an Associated Press review of court records. He was charged with multiple crimes, mostly related to bad checks, stolen property and forgery.

He served time in prison starting in 2000 on a charge of theft by deception. It was not immediately clear when he moved from the East Coast to Washington state.

Mason County sheriff’s Chief Deputy Ryan Spurling said Monday that he heard about Campbell’s criminal history but had not yet seen the records.

Agents with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives went to the home in a remote, wooded area across the Puget Sound from Seattle where Campbell lived with his wife and her adopted children and were conducting an investigation into Campbell’s firearms, Spurling said.

Campbell had a handgun and a “long gun,” but Spurling didn’t know the model and didn’t know how he acquired the firearms, given his previous convictions.

Authorities are focusing on “taking care of the living victim,” Spurling said. A 12-year-old girl found Friday on the property near Belfair was taken to the hospital for an evaluation and is now in the custody of child welfare officials, he said. Her relation to the other victims has not been released.

“She may or may not be able to tell us what happened,” Spurling said.

Campbell called a sheriff’s office supervisor Friday to say he had shot four people and was suicidal. After hours of negotiations, police tried to flush Campbell out of the house with tear gas, but when he stepped outside, he shot himself in the head, officials said.

Authorities searched the buildings on the property and found the bodies of Campbell’s wife, Lana J. Carlson, 49, and her two adopted sons, Quinn, 16, and Tory, 18. Carlson adopted the boys from Kazakhstan during a previous marriage, authorities said Monday.

Also killed and found in a chicken coop was neighbor Donna Reed, 68, the coroner said.

Reed was a widow who lived alone “with her cats,” another neighbor, Jack Pigott, told The Associated Press. Pigott said Campbell used to keep her supplied with cigarettes.

Pigott said he heard the sound of gunshots coming from the direction of the Campbell house Thursday night, but he wasn’t concerned because they often practiced target shooting.

Autopsies are underway so authorities don’t yet have the time of death for the victims, Spurling said.

Campbell’s most recent conviction was nearly 16 years ago. On Aug. 15, 2000, he was charged with 18 counts: six counts each of theft by deception, receiving stolen property and bad checks. He pleaded guilty to one theft charge and the other counts were dismissed. He was sentenced to two to five years in prison, records show.

Campbell also faced similar charges in 1996 and 1997. In one 1996 case, he was charged with 31 counts, including 12 felony forgery charges. He pleaded guilty to six of those charges, and the others were dismissed.

Messages seeking comment from the prosecutor and lawyer involved in those cases were not immediately returned.

___

Follow Martha Bellisle at https://twitter.com/marthabellisle .

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CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) — The high school freshman’s injuries outraged the Chattanooga prosecutor: Police said three older members of the basketball team shoved a pool cue into the boy’s rectum, causing injuries that required emergency surgery, while hazing him and three other teammates on a trip to a tournament.

But a police detective three hours away in the resort town of Gatlinburg, where the boy was injured, testified that the case was overblown in the media. He called it a “stupid” kids’ misdeed and said it only “happened” to fit the definition of rape.

The jarring disconnect between views of the attack has ignited an unusual public dispute between law enforcement in the two cities, with Chattanooga District Attorney Neal Pinkston going so far as to call in state investigators to probe what he called the “perjurious testimony” of the Gatlinburg detective.

The Chattanooga police chief even posted a Facebook diatribe, saying that “the allegations and charges clearly constitute rape. Period. For anyone, including a police officer, to suggest otherwise minimizes the severity of this incident, the experience of the victim and, ultimately, makes life more dangerous for current and future victims.”

The public display of angry disagreement is a rare instance of a conflict between law enforcement agencies breaking out into the open. Experts say officials ordinarily try to work out their differences behind closed doors.

The conflict also highlights a public debate over hazing, pitting a “boys will be boys” attitude against a growing concern that behavior once dismissed as harmless can cause real damage. Susan Lipkins, a psychologist who has written a book about hazing, said Gatlinburg police detective Rodney Burns is “part of a group of people who want to maintain the status quo,” she said. But she said children should not have to be hazed or sodomized to play on a team.

Gatlinburg and Chattanooga officials agree on some of the basic facts, just not on what they mean. While Gatlinburg authorities filed a single rape charge against the older teammates, Chattanooga officials say they should be charged with assaulting all four boys. The Chattanooga prosecutor is also pursuing charges against three adults who accompanied the team.

Summoned to Chattanooga for a hearing on the case against the adults, the Gatlinburg detective testified that three older boys held down four younger players and pushed a pool cue against their rectums on the outside of their clothes during a tournament in the Smoky Mountains town just before Christmas. The abuse went on for several days, until a freshman player’s pants and underwear ripped and the pool cue tore into him. Police said the teenager needed emergency surgery to repair his rectum, bladder and prostate gland.

In court, Burns testified, “What this case actually is is much smaller than what it’s been blown up to be. To me it was an assault. It wasn’t sexual in nature, his pants weren’t pulled down, they weren’t doing it for sexual gratification, this was something stupid that kids do that shouldn’t have been done, you know?”

The three older players are charged with one count each of aggravated rape. Burns said in court the cases of the other three boys who were held down do not qualify as sexual assault because there was no penetration.

The Chattanooga prosecutor, however, told the judge, “I think it is clear there were four sexual assaults that occurred.”

Pinkston has no authority to pursue charges against the teenage suspects in the three other attacks in Gatlinburg, but he has sought to prosecute the Ooltewah High School basketball coach, assistant coach and athletic director, who accompanied the teens to the tournament. They are accused of failing to report the assaults to proper authorities. The Chattanooga judge has sent these charges to a grand jury.

Chattanooga police Chief Fred Fletcher criticized the Gatlinburg detective’s testimony on his personal Facebook page. In the message, which the Chattanooga Times Free Press posted on its website, Fletcher says, “The allegations being adjudicated against several young men in our community constitute rape. Not simply hazing, or bullying, or teasing, or horseplay. Rape. A violent crime.”

Eugene O’Donnell teaches law and police science at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York and has worked as both a police officer and a prosecutor. He said conflicts like this between law officials are almost always worked out behind closed doors.

“That there’s prosecutor-police tension is not shocking, but it is shocking to have a prosecutor publicly proclaim that an officer is involved in perjury,” he said.

Public outrage could also cost the Chattanooga-based Hamilton County schools superintendent his job after students revealed the attacks were part of an ongoing pattern of abuse that included beatings. Superintendent Rick Smith is negotiating a buyout and could step down as early as next month.

Jimmy Dunn, the district attorney general whose jurisdiction includes Gatlinburg, did not return a call from The Associated Press.

Attorneys for Burns defended the detective, saying he testified appropriately and filed the appropriate charges in consultation with Dunn’s office. Their statement also accused Pinkston of using the case to further unspecified political ambitions.

Pinkston countered that he has no ambition other than to serve the people of his district.

The assaults in Gatlinburg would absolutely be seen as sexual if the same thing had happened to a girl, said Lipkins, the psychologist. And teenage boys are reluctant to admit they have been sexually assaulted.

“It’s the most humiliating thing that could happen,” she said. “And that was why it was done.”

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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Questions about why police shot and critically wounded a 17-year-old Somali refugee in Salt Lake City grew Monday as civil rights groups called for answers and several hundred protesters took the streets holdings signs that read, “Stop killer cops.”

The Monday night rally in Utah — where speakers urged people to stand up to police and demand accountability — highlighted the latest flashpoint in the national discussion about police use of force, especially with minority victims.

Abdi Mohamed, who came to the U.S. with his family in 2004, was shot twice in the torso when officers intervened as he and another person attacked someone with metal sticks, police said.

Police say officers told them to drop their weapons, but the teen instead moved menacingly toward the victim. Mohamed was shot in the torso and remained in critical condition Monday.

The victim of the beating, meanwhile, didn’t need medical attention.

Charley Hyde and Kaylee Peterson came to the rally holding cardboard cutouts in the shapes of guns with the words, “Don’t shoot.” They said they’re fed up with officer’s inability to deescalate or use non-lethal force.

“They need retraining,” Peterson said. “Whatever happened to Tasers? Whatever to rubber bullets? Whatever happened to shooting shots in the sky as a warning?”

Police on Monday declined to offer more details on the incident and refused to release footage from the officers’ body cameras, citing the investigation into the shooting and the possibility that the teenager could face charges in the fight.

That decision drew criticism from the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which called on police to release the body camera footage to avoid making the same mistake Chicago police made in waiting more than a year to release footage of a black teenager shot 16 times by a police officer.

Spokesman Ibrahim Hooper hasn’t been able to talk to Mohamed’s family but has been told they are Muslim.

Nacom Koffi was one of many who chanted “Black lives matter” and speculated that Mohamed’s race played a factor in the shooting. Koffi, a black man from West Africa, joined the chorus of calls for police to release the body camera video.

“Why are police wearing video and we can’t see it?” Koffi said. “If they’re right, let’s see it.”

The shooting ignited unrest Saturday in the city’s bustling downtown. About 100 officers donned riot gear, barricaded four city blocks and closed a light rail stop as bystanders threw rocks and bottles.

The street where the shooting happened is known for drug deals, beatings and overdoses, said employees at a nearby business. At the shooting scene, a makeshift memorial was cobbled together Monday with roses, candles and a beer can.

The city’s primary homeless shelter is located in the area, less than a mile from an outdoor mall and the arena where the NBA’s Utah Jazz play. At the Jazz game Saturday night, officials alerted fans not to drive in the area of the shooting.

Anna Brower, spokeswoman for the ACLU of Utah, said the response by police in riot gear raises real question not only about this incident but the larger issue of whether heavy police mobilization is the best way to handle high-crime areas like this one.

Her organization is calling for city leaders to ensure a complete investigation is done and that the Mohamed’s family is treated fairly and compassionately during the process.

The worst of the protest was over in about 10 minutes, said interim Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown. His eyes filled with tears as he described meeting with the teen’s mother and sitting with her in the hospital.

Bystander Selam Mohammad told The Salt Lake Tribune and Deseret News that he was a friend of the teenager who was shot as he turned to face police.

“He barely even turned around, then boom, boom, boom — and he just dropped,” Mohammad told the Deseret News, saying he was at the scene.

Police said they could not confirm or deny that account.

The union that represents the officers said they were stopping a beating.

“This case is not about race, they acted in defense of an innocent party,” Salt Lake Police Association president Michael Millard in a statement.

Utah law allows the use of deadly force when people, including police officers, fear someone who could badly hurt or kill them. New police training standards, though, tell officers to back off and take cover so they won’t need to shoot, Brown said.

Abdi Mohamed’s family fled Somalia and lived in Kenya before coming to the U.S. when he was just a young boy, said Aden Batar of Catholic Community Services in Salt Lake City.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Can Donald Trump really make good on his promise to build a wall along the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexican border to prevent illegal migration? What’s more, can he make Mexico pay for it?

Sure, he can build it, but it’s not nearly as simple as he says.

Constructing the wall, now a signature applause line at Trump campaign rallies, is a complicated endeavor, fraught with difficulties. Numerous bureaucratic, diplomatic, environmental, monetary and logistical hurdles must be overcome.

And forcing the Mexican government to foot the bill won’t be easy, especially since its president has flat-out refused.

A physical barrier between Mexico and the United States has been tried before.

During President George W. Bush’s second term, Congress authorized $1.2 billion to build several hundred miles of double-layer fencing but the government faced myriad obstacles. Private landowners objecting to buyout offers. There were environmental concerns and lawsuits.

Some 650 miles of border fencing now sits on the border, including roughly 15-foot tall steel fencing in many urban areas that is designed to stop or slow border crossers on foot and vehicle barriers, which are shorter steel posts filled with cement and planted in the ground.

Just getting that built was a challenge and a new, taller wall like the one Trump wants would almost certainly face as much, if not more, opposition.

First, a 1970 boundary treaty governs structures along the Rio Grande and Colorado River at the Mexican border. It requires that structures cannot disrupt the flow of the rivers, which flow across Texas and 24 miles in Arizona and define the U.S.-Mexican border, according to The International Boundary and Water Commission, a joint U.S.-Mexican agency that administers the treaty.

Trump has said his wall will not need to run the full 2,100-mile length of the border, but even excluding those portions blocked by geographic features, there are serious issues.

In some places, treaty obligations and river flood zones would require the wall be built well into the United States, which would be awkward if the Mexican government is paying for it and overseeing the project. In addition to creating a sort of no-man’s land between the wall and the actual border, one government or the other would have to buy large amounts of private property as well as land owned by at least one Indian tribe whose territory straddles the border in southern Arizona.

In areas where the border is defined on dry land across New Mexico, most of Arizona and California, structures have to be built so that the wall doesn’t obstruct natural run off routes or otherwise induce flooding. Building in those areas can be complicated and costly. In sensitive sand dunes in Southern California, for instance, a “floating fence” had to be built to allow the natural movements of the dunes.

Then, there are the conservation issues. Groups such as Defenders of Wildlife and the Sierra Club sued over parts of the existing partial fence. And, federal regulations could prevent or at least significantly delay or increase costs of construction in certain areas.

A total of 18 federally protected species may be found along certain sections of the California border and at least 39 federally endangered, threatened, or candidate species live along the Arizona border, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Presuming Trump can overcome all of these bumps, he must also contend with the cost and the diplomatic consequences.

Numerous fact-checking organizations have taken issue with Trump’s estimate that the wall would be built for $10 billion to $12 billion. And, they have rejected his contention that the wall could be funded by reducing the U.S. trade deficit with Mexico. Figures released by the Army Corps of Engineers and the Congressional Research Service indicate that the total cost of the current 650-mile fence has been $7 billion. And that doesn’t include maintenance and upkeep.

Trump has insisted that Mexico will pay for the wall, perhaps through fees on money that immigrants send home to their families, tariffs or other means. Fees would be wildly unpopular and tariffs would likely run afoul of the North American Free Trade Agreement. The cost of such tariffs would also ultimately be borne by U.S. consumers.

Getting the Mexican government to pay for it outright is almost certainly wishful thinking.

President Enrique Pena Nieto said Monday that “there is no scenario” under which Mexico would pay for the wall and likened Trump’s rhetoric to that of Hitler and Mussolini. Former President Vicente Fox put it more bluntly: “I am not going to pay for that f—ing wall.” Both Fox and another former president, Felipe Calderon, have also compared Trump to Hitler.

So there’s diplomatic ill will, a question the Congressional Research Service raised in 2009.

“Do the gains in border security outweigh the risk of alienating Mexico and Canada?” it asked. “Should the Mexican or Canadian government’s opinions or wishes be taken into account when border fencing is concerned? Given the need to coordinate intelligence and law enforcement activities at the border, should maintaining cordial working relationships with Mexico and Canada take precedence over sealing the border with physical barriers?”

And, on Wednesday, a group of Republican national security community members, including former government officials, blasted the idea.

“Controlling our border and preventing illegal immigration is a serious issue, but his insistence that Mexico will fund a wall on the southern border inflames unhelpful passions, and rests on an utter misreading of, and contempt for, our southern neighbor,” they wrote in an open letter.

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MOUNT HOLLY, N.J. (AP) — A woman pleaded guilty Monday to setting her newborn on fire and leaving her in the middle of a New Jersey street.

Hyphernkemberly Dorvilier pleaded guilty in Mount Holly to aggravated manslaughter. She had previously pleaded not guilty to a murder charge.

The 23-year-old Pemberton Township woman doused her newborn with accelerant and set her on fire in January 2015, investigators said. The baby had third-degree burns over 60 percent of her body and died two hours after she was flown to a Philadelphia hospital.

Prosecutors will recommend that Dorvilier be sentenced to 30 years in prison. She is scheduled to be sentenced April 22.

Prosecutors say she hid her pregnancy from her mother and sister. Investigators say the baby was found with her umbilical cord and placenta attached.

Police responded to a call about a fire on a road in the township, 30 miles east of Philadelphia. When they arrived, they found a neighbor holding Dorvilier down on the ground and the baby wrapped in a smoldering towel and paper, according to the court documents.

Dorvilier was found with a can of WD-40 and a lighter in her jacket pocket, investigators said.

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INDIO, Calif. (AP) — Administrators say students at a Southern California high school have the right to wear anti-gay stickers on their school ID badges, just as other students have the right to wear stickers supporting gay rights.

Shadow Hills High School administrators in Indio emailed The Desert Sun newspaper (http://desert.sn/1RAbJPR) saying both protests were OK, as long as they didn’t escalate.

The anti-gay stickers, a small rainbow inside a circle with a line through it, showed up about two weeks ago.

The administrators warned that students aren’t free to interrupt class to express their beliefs, because students have a right to be educated without fear.

One teacher says some students and staff object because they feel the gay and lesbian community has been targeted.

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CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Lawmakers backing a bill to criminalize women exposing their breasts in public said Monday they’re trying to shield families and children, especially those drawn to New Hampshire’s beaches — a big tourist draw.

“It’s a shame that some folks are more concerned with exposing their breasts in public places than they are concerned about how families and children may be impacted by being forced to experience this evolving societal behavior,” Republican Rep. Brian Gallagher told a legislative committee. “This is about a movement to change the values of New Hampshire society.”

Gallagher is a sponsor of legislation that would make it a misdemeanor for women to show their breasts or nipples in public with “reckless disregard” for whether it would offend someone. It’s partly a response to a “Free the Nipple” movement that led to two women being cited for going topless at a Gilford beach last year. The bill also caused an online spat among several state legislators that drew national attention after a male lawmaker said if women want to show their breasts in public they should be OK with men wanting to “grab” them.

At Monday’s public hearing, backers of the legislation cautioned that allowing women to go topless at beaches will create a slippery slope where women are going topless at public libraries and Little League baseball games. Gallagher and Rep. Peter Spanos, a co-sponsor of the bill, said New Hampshire could lose tourism dollars if women are wandering public places with their breasts uncovered. Both said they brought the legislation in response to concern from constituents over the incident in Gilford.

But opponents charge such a ban violates the constitution by creating different standards for men and women. Kari Stephens, a Hampton resident who said she goes topless at the beach, argued lawmakers shouldn’t be taking away a right that women in New Hampshire already have.

“We are not lunatics, we are not radical, we’re not looking to go to football games topless or libraries or school meetings,” Stephens said. “If there is a man in a public space who is obviously comfortable enough, then why should I not have that same right?”

The New Hampshire chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union also opposes the bill.

In early February, a judge dismissed the Gilford case, saying the town lacked authority for a prosecution because there is no state law that prohibits the exposure of female breasts in public. But the judge also said women’s exposure was not symbolic expression protected by the First Amendment and didn’t find the town’s prohibition violated any constitutionally protected right.

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ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service followed the law when it designated more than 187,000 square miles — an area larger than California — as critical habitat for threatened polar bears in Alaska marine waters and its northern coast, an appeals court ruled Monday.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeal reversed a 2013 lower court decision that the designation was too extensive and not specific.

A spokesman for the Center for Biological Diversity, which petitioned to designate polar bears as a threatened species, called it a victory for the marine mammal.

“The polar bear gets the full protection of critical habitat to which it’s entitled, it deserves and it truly needs,” Brendan Cummings said.

The federal government in 2008 declared polar bears threatened under the Endangered Species Act, citing melting sea ice. Polar bears need ice for hunting, breeding and migrating.

The move made the polar bear the first species to be designated as threatened under the act because of global warming.

A designation of critical habitat is required as part of a recovery plan. The Fish and Wildlife Service set aside acreage along Alaska’s northern coast but 95 percent is in the ocean waters of the Beaufort and Chukchi seas.

The Alaska Oil and Gas Association, the state of Alaska, a coalition of Alaska Native groups and other oil and gas interests sued, calling the designation an overreach.

Former Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell said the critical habitat designation included areas that account for almost half of Alaska’s oil production, and petroleum exploration and production would be delayed or restricted.

U.S. District Court Judge Ralph Beistline ruled that the Fish and Wildlife Service’s designation of sea ice as critical habitat was valid. However, he ruled the agency had not shown that areas on land and barrier islands had features making them appropriate for polar bear dens and he rejected the entire plan.

Appeals court judges said the lower court decision appeared to consider denning habitat but not the need by bears to have undisturbed access to and from sea ice.

The appeals court judges agreed that the agency did not have to prove that existing polar bears actually used certain designated areas, only that those areas were critical to the conservation of the species. They said the agency drew rational conclusions from the best scientific evidence available.

Cummings said specificity in designating habitat is impossible given the dynamic nature of the Arctic, where polar bears move by walking or merely resting on shifting sea ice. Polar bears, he said, are not like salmon that return to the same streams every year to spawn.

“You can’t say the bear will take this specific path to its denning area, and therefore, let’s only protect that narrow corridor,” he said. “You need to protect on the scale of the ecosystem, which is what Fish and Wildlife did.”

Alaska Attorney General’s Office spokeswoman Cori Mills called the decision disappointing. State attorneys are reviewing options for further judicial review, she said by email.

“Alaska originally brought this case because of the overly broad designation of more than 187,000 square miles as critical habitat without a real connection between the area designated and the survival or recovery of polar bears,” Mills said.

Alaska Oil and Gas Association President Kara Moriarty said the critical habitat designation will dramatically increase costs associated with Alaska North Slope projects probably jeopardize future projects.

“Each project will have to undergo an additional level of federal scrutiny that is impossible to predict,” she said.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had not seen the decision.

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MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (AP) — The attorney for a Tennessee woman accused of trying to end her pregnancy with a coat hanger says the woman will not face attempted murder charges.

Public Defender Gerald Melton told a Murfreesboro judge Monday morning that the prosecutor is planning to bring a new indictment against Anna Yocca before the grand jury next week. Melton later told reporters he anticipates the new charge will be aggravated assault.

Assistant District Attorney General Hugh Ammerman declined to comment.

According to a Murfreesboro Police Department report, Yocca filled a bathtub with water and attempted to self-abort last September. After she began bleeding, her boyfriend took her to a hospital where doctors delivered a 24-week-old, 1.5-pound baby. Doctors said the child will need medical support for the rest of his life.

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DAYTON, Ohio (AP) — The Latest on the fatal shooting of an Ohio pastor (all times local):

3:15 p.m.

The man being held in the fatal shooting of his pastor brother at an Ohio church sued the minister over an inheritance dispute five years ago.

Police in Dayton say suspect Daniel Schooler is the brother of the Rev. William B. Schooler. The pastor died Sunday at St. Peter’s Missionary Baptist Church.

Court records show Daniel Schooler sued his brother and church leaders in 2011, saying he was owed money from the real estate value of the church.

A court ruled against Daniel Schooler’s claim.

Police have said they don’t know what led to the shooting.

A relative told the Dayton Daily News that Daniel Schooler has a history of mental illness.

The newspaper also reports that Daniel Schooler shot his nephew in the arm in 2001, but the nephew didn’t want to press charges.

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7:15 a.m.

Authorities investigating the slaying of a southwest Ohio pastor expect to charge his brother in the fatal shooting that occurred at the pastor’s church office as services were winding down.

Dayton police say the Rev. William B. Schooler was shot around 12:30 p.m. Sunday at St. Peter’s Missionary Baptist Church.

The 70-year-old pastor’s brother was arrested at the church and taken to the Montgomery County jail. Police say they expect 68-year-old Daniel Gregory Schooler will face a murder charge Monday.

Jail records don’t list an attorney for Schooler.

Police said they did not know Sunday what led to the shooting, but said the pastor was the only intended victim.

The brothers’ niece, Joyce Napier, told the Dayton Daily News that Daniel Schooler has a history of mental illness.

___

Information from: Dayton Daily News, http://www.daytondailynews.com

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JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A judge Monday ordered four white men convicted in the June 2011 beating and rundown death of a black autoworker in Mississippi to pay his heirs $840,000.

U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves ordered 24-year-old Dylan Wade Butler, 23-year-old Deryl Paul Dedmon, 23-year-old John Aaron Rice and 26-year-old William Kirk Montgomery to make restitution to the beneficiaries of James Craig Anderson.

Anderson’s death came on the last of a series of forays to what the group called “Jafrica” — a combination of Jackson and Africa — to assault black people. It ended in a hotel parking lot where the group spotted Anderson, who appeared to be intoxicated. Rice and Dedmon beat Anderson as Butler, Montgomery and others watched. As Dedmon left in his truck, he ran over Anderson, inflicting fatal injuries recorded on a hotel security camera.

All four pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy and hate crime charges, and the earliest is scheduled to be released in 2018. The men share the liability, but each could be required to pay the whole amount if others make no contributions.

“The purpose of this is to make the estate of James Anderson whole,” Reeves said. “I know it’s been a long, long process, but I certainly hope the healing has begun and certainly hope the healing continues for all.”

Dedmon was also convicted in a Mississippi state court in 2012 on counts of capital murder and hate crime, receiving two life sentences in state prison.

Barbara Anderson Young, Anderson’s sister, declined comment after the hearing.

Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said the money is meant to help Anderson’s family, which included a male partner and a son.

“Although no amount of money will ever be able to account for the true value of James Craig Anderson’s life, we hope that this restitution will help ease the burden on his family,” Gupta said in a statement.

Defense attorneys and federal prosecutors agreed to the amount, saying that was how much Anderson was expected to earn over the rest of his life. Separate reports commissioned by prosecutors and Brumley, a federal public defender representing Butler, attempted to estimate the amount. Reeves sealed the reports, so it’s unclear by how much they differed.

Three people sentenced by another judge also face a restitution hearing. Brumley said the government is likely to seek that they be included in the same amount.

Two other men convicted of assaulting other African-Americans — Joseph Paul Dominick and Jonathan Kyle Gaskamp — won’t have to pay restitution because the government has never found their victims, prosecutor Sheldon Beer told Reeves.

___

Follow Jeff Amy at: http://twitter.com/jeffamy. Read his work at http://bigstory.ap.org/author/jeff-amy

The post Judge: Convicts must pay hit-and-run victim’s heirs $840,000 appeared first on WTOP.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The Latest on the fatal shooting of a Raleigh, North Carolina, man by a police officer (all times local):

10:15 p.m.

Raleigh police have released the identity of the officer who fatally shot a man during a foot pursuit.

Police Department spokesman Jim Sughrue says in a news release that Senior Officer D.C. Twiddy has been placed on administrative duty during the investigation into the incident. He says the 29-year-old officer is assigned to the Field Operations Division.

Police Chief Cassandra Deck-Brown told a news conference earlier Monday that an officer shot and killed a man who was being pursued on foot. She said the man was wanted on a felony drug charge.

___

8:30 p.m.

A group of ministers and community activists has tried to bring a positive message to a vigil remembering the man fatally shot by a police officer in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Before the vigil began Monday evening, some people expressed frustration toward police. Shortly before 7 p.m., about a dozen people gathered around an anti-police sign with an expletive that was hoisted on a utility pole.

Several hundred people gathered to hear speakers address the crowd. Many held candles and signs, including some with the slain man’s name and picture.

The Rev. Chris Jones of Ship of Zion, a church in the neighborhood, said he knew the dead man and asked aloud why the officer had to kill him.

After addressing the crowd, Jones said in a brief interview that he wanted people to remember the slain man as a good person.

By the end of the vigil, the anti-police banner had been taken down.

___

7:15 p.m.

A woman says she saw a Raleigh, North Carolina, police officer shoot a man six times.

Claresa Williams told The Associated Press that she was standing on a curb in front of her apartment early Monday afternoon when the police officer drove up and the man began running from in front of a convenience store.

Williams says the man jumped the fence into the backyard of a house next door. She says the officer jumped the fence, pulled his gun and shot the man six times.

Police Chief Cassandra Deck-Brown told a news conference earlier Monday that an officer shot and killed a man who was being pursued on foot. She said the man was wanted on a felony drug charge.

The State Bureau of Investigation is handling the case.

___

6:35 p.m.

Several dozen people have gathered around a makeshift memorial in downtown Raleigh where a man was fatally shot by a police officer during a foot pursuit.

People had placed flowers and candles at the memorial on Monday, and were writing messages on poster board.

Meanwhile, the minister of a nearby church says he believes the neighborhood will remain calm through the night.

Bibleway Temple is located about a quarter-mile from where authorities say a man wanted on a felony drug charge was killed during a foot pursuit with the officer. Bishop Darnell Dixon says he thinks people are more concerned about what happened than they are angry.

___

5:30 p.m.

A woman who lives in the downtown Raleigh neighborhood where a police officer fatally shot a man says a lot of drug activity takes place in the area at night.

Judith Lewis said Monday afternoon that she blames the activity on buyers coming in from elsewhere, creating “an open-air market” in the neighborhood.

Police Chief Cassandra Deck-Brown said Monday that an officer shot and killed a man who was being pursued for arrest on a felony drug charge. She said the State Bureau of Investigation will review the case, as is typical for fatal shootings by police officers.

It is standard procedure to put officers involved in fatal shootings on administrative leave. Police spokesman Jim Sughrue said he couldn’t confirm whether that had happened in this case.

___

4:20 p.m.

Authorities say a police officer has shot and killed a man in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Police Chief Cassandra Deck-Brown said at a news conference that police were trying to arrest a man on a felony drug charge when he was shot and killed Monday.

She said a firearm was found near the man’s body but provided no other details.

Earlier, police said in a statement that the shooting happened shortly after noon Monday.

Local television coverage showed police forming a line in the street as a number of people gathered at the scene behind yellow crime-scene tape and began chanting “No justice, no peace!”

The chant has been used repeatedly across the nation in recent years to protest the deaths of black men following encounters with law enforcement officers. Deck-Brown did not reveal the man’s race.

___

3:53 p.m.

Authorities say a police officer has shot someone near downtown Raleigh, North Carolina.

The Raleigh Police Department said in a statement that the shooting happened shortly after noon Monday, but provided no details on what led to the shooting, who was shot, or what that person’s condition was.

Local television coverage showed police forming a line in the street as a number of people gathered at the scene behind yellow crime-scene tape and began chanting “No justice, no peace!” Some people shouted obscenities at the officers.

The chant has been used repeatedly across the nation in recent years to protest the deaths of black men following encounters with law enforcement officers.

The post The Latest: Police identify officer who chased, shot man appeared first on WTOP.

DETROIT (AP) — Gil Hill, a former Detroit city councilman and one-time mayoral candidate better known to action movie fans as the salty-tongued police Inspector Douglas Todd in three “Beverly Hills Cop” films, has died.

Hill died Monday afternoon, Detroit’s Sinai Grace Hospital spokeswoman Bree Glenn said. He was 84.

A cause of death was not released.

“Gil had been recently hospitalized and was on the road to recovery,” family spokesman Chris Jackson said. “We are relieved that his passing was peaceful and painless.”

Hill spent 30 years with the Detroit Police Department and about a dozen years on the City Council. He unsuccessfully ran for mayor in 2001.

“He never stopped believing in our city and dedicated his life to making our city a better place for all,” Mayor Mike Duggan said Monday night in a statement.

Hill was head of the Detroit Police Department’s homicide division when he landed the supporting role in 1984’s action-comedy, “Beverly Hills Cop.”

In the film, Todd was boss to Eddie Murphy’s Detective Axel Foley character. Todd, who was killed off early in the third film in the series, often would erupt with expletives due to Foley’s rule-bending investigative methods.

Hill was elected Detroit City Council president in November 1997, unseating incumbent Maryann Mahaffey. It was his third four-year term on the council.

As a councilman, Hill supported casino gambling in the city and helped broker deals for new baseball and football stadiums downtown.

He finished second to then-state Rep. Kwame Kilpatrick in the 2001 Detroit mayoral primary, but lost a close race to Kilpatrick in the November general election.

Funeral service details were not immediately released.

The post Former actor, Detroit councilman Gil Hill dies at 84 appeared first on WTOP.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A melee between KKK members and counter-protesters at a California park has gotten worldwide attention. Three people were stabbed, several others were injured, and seven people face charges of assault with a deadly weapon and elder abuse.

Here are some questions and answers about the brawl:

___

WHAT HAPPENED?

Six Ku Klux Klan members arrived at Anaheim’s Pearson Park to hold an anti-immigration rally and were immediately confronted by an angry mob of about 10 to 20 people, according to police. Authorities say a Klan member stabbed three people in self-defense, one critically. Twelve people were initially detained. All Klan members were later released.

___

WHY WAS THE KKK THERE AND WHO WERE THE COUNTER-PROTESTERS?

Chris Barker, who identified himself as the imperial wizard of the Loyal White Knights, told The Associated Press his members were there to hold a peaceful anti-immigration demonstration. Klan members arrived with signs reading “White Lives Matter.” The counter-protesters appear to have been members of various groups. Police say only one was from Anaheim.

___

DID POLICE KNOW THE PROTEST WAS PLANNED?

Police were aware of the KKK protest and issued a notice to the public Friday stating they would be “monitoring the situation for any violations of law.” According to police, officers were at the park when the violence broke out and immediately called for backup when the melee began. Authorities say additional officers arrived in less than two minutes. However, Brian Levin, director of California State University, San Bernardino’s Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, says he saw no uniformed officers at the park before the brawl started.

___

HOW DID IT TURN VIOLENT?

Anti-Klan protesters waited for KKK members to arrive and attacked them with pipes and two-by-fours shortly after they arrived, according to a witness and police. When one Klansman stabbed a counter-protester, a vicious brawl erupted spanning an entire city block.

___

WHY WERE THE KKK MEMBERS RELEASED?

Police said that five KKK members arrested after the brawl later were released because evidence showed they acted in self-defense. Seven people still in custody were seen beating, stomping and attacking the Klansmen with wooden posts, police Sgt. Daron Wyatt said. The district attorney’s office has until Tuesday to decide whether to file charges against any of the KKK members, Wyatt added, but said it was “clear and convincing” that they were defending themselves.

___

Associated Press writer Amanda Lee Myers contributed to this report.

The post Q&A: Why KKK was at California park, how it turned violent appeared first on WTOP.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Can the FBI force a company like Apple to extract data from a customer’s smartphone? In the fight over an iPhone used by an extremist killer in San Bernardino, some legal experts say Congress has never explicitly granted that power. And now a federal judge agrees in a similar case.

In a New York drug case that echoes the much higher-profile San Bernardino dispute, U.S. Magistrate James Orenstein has ruled the government doesn’t have authority to make Apple pull information off a suspect’s iPhone. The judge said in his ruling that Congress has already considered, but rejected, extending the government’s authority in this fashion.

Orenstein cited the history of a 20-year-old federal law — one that requires phone companies to assist police in conducting court-authorized wiretaps. Congress has resisted attempts over the years to extend that authority to tech companies like Apple, according to experts who have studied the law, known as the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, or CALEA.

Federal prosecutors have argued that a much older law known as the All Writs Act allows courts to compel private parties to assist law enforcement. But Orenstein said that shouldn’t apply when, in his words, “Congress has considered legislation that would achieve the same result but has not adopted it.”

The New York ruling isn’t binding on the magistrate in the San Bernardino case. And federal authorities said Monday they’ll appeal Orenstein’s decision. But a senior Apple executive, who spoke on condition that he wouldn’t be named, said Apple believes Orenstein’s ruling is both persuasive and relevant to the issues at stake in San Bernardino.

In that case, the FBI wants Apple to create software that would bypass some iPhone security features, making it easier to guess the passcode that would unlock it. Prosecutors say they’re only seeking what amounts to routine cooperation; Apple and its supporters say the request is unprecedented and would make other iPhones vulnerable to hacking by authorities and criminals alike.

By contrast, U.S. phone carriers have long been required to design and build their networks in ways that allow federal wiretaps of digital phone calls. That government authority stems from CALEA, a 1994 law that drew heated debate before it passed, and even more controversy on occasions when federal officials sought to expand its scope. Tech industry and civil liberties groups have mostly succeeded in blocking those efforts.

Even before Orenstein’s ruling, some legal experts said in recent weeks that the history of CALEA suggests that authorities are overreaching in the San Bernardino case.

The law was narrowly focused and “the product of years of public debate, with many compromises on both sides of that debate,” said Ahmed Ghappour, a visiting professor who focuses on tech issues at the University of California Hastings law school. “That’s what Congress is for.”

As with the iPhone dispute today, the 1994 law was enacted at a time when the nation’s police agencies were struggling to keep up with new technology. Authorities feared that a switch from old-fashioned copper wire to digital phone networks would hinder their eavesdropping capabilities.

CALEA intentionally covers only telecommunications carriers and specifically excludes “information service providers” — including Internet companies such as Apple and Google. Extensive negotiation produced a law that preserved the wiretapping ability authorities already had without adding new types of surveillance capabilities, said Deirdre Mulligan, co-director of the Center for Law & Technology at the University of California, Berkeley

The Federal Communications Commission updated CALEA-related regulations in 2005 to extend the government’s sway to voice-over-Internet phone services. Moves to expand it further, however, have fizzled, according to a report by the Congressional Research Service, which cited proposals for extending the law to “a wide range of technology services,” including instant messaging and video game chats.

“This is a power that Congress has had numerous opportunities to extend and has chosen not to,” said Mulligan.

Federal authorities argued that CALEA isn’t relevant to either iPhone case. But Apple and its supporters are likely to cite CALEA in the San Bernardino case, said Alex Abdo, an ACLU attorney who is helping draft a “friend-of-the-court” brief on Apple’s behalf. He said the All Writs Act can only be used to enforce authority the government already has, such as a legal search warrant.

The history of CALEA shows that if Congress wanted the government to have the authority it’s invoking against Apple, “it would have given it already,” said Abdo, echoing the New York magistrate’s ruling.

___

You can follow Brandon Bailey at http://twitter.com/BrandonBailey or find his reporting at http://bigstory.ap.org/journalist/brandon-bailey

The post Can the FBI force a company to break into its own products? appeared first on WTOP.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia’s Republican-led Senate will soon consider a bill requiring schools to notify parents if their children will be assigned to read a book that includes sexually explicit material and provide an alternative if the parent objects.

The measure is being pushed by a mother who tried unsuccessfully several years ago to remove Toni Morrison’s ‘Beloved’ from her children’s school. The novel set in the post-Civil War era includes depictions of sex, rape and bestiality.

“All we’re trying to do is just give those students who want an alternative — who don’t want to read books that have graphic sexual content — the opportunity to do so,” said Laura Murphy of Fairfax County in the Washington suburbs.

The legislation is backed by the state House speaker and won unanimous approval in the House earlier this month.

It’s not uncommon for schools to allow parents to opt out if they’re concerned about their child reading a specific book. About half of Virginia school districts that responded to a state survey in 2013 said they require parents to be notified if their children will be exposed to potentially sensitive of controversial material.

But James LaRue, director of the Office for Intellectual Freedom at the American Library Association, said he believes Virginia would be the first state to pass a law forcing schools to notify parents.

LaRue said he thinks supporters want to make it so difficult for teachers to use potentially controversial books that they decide to avoid them altogether.

“It’s kind of a backdoor censorship. It’s a way to get rid of a book that they couldn’t get rid of through direct pressure,” LaRue said. He also questioned how the state would define “sexually explicit content.”

“Does that mean ‘he reached over and held her hand?’ Does that mean ‘then they kissed?'”

The New York-based National Coalition Against Censorship said in a letter to lawmakers this month that the bill could leave schools vulnerable to First Amendment challenges that would distract from their ability to provide a quality education.

“It takes only one person to file a challenge and launch a protracted battle that can disrupt an entire school system and divide a community,” the group said in a letter signed also by the National Council of Teachers of English, among others.

The bill would direct the state Board of Education to create a policy on sexually explicit books for elementary and secondary schools. The measure was introduced by Republican Del. Steve Landes on behalf of Speaker William Howell. It’s expected to be considered by the Senate this week.

A spokesman for Gov. Terry McAuliffe would not say whether the Democrat supports the bill.

The Virginia Board of Education has already been examining putting such a policy in place, but advocates for the bill say the process is taking too long. Supporters dismiss the notion that it’s an attempt to censor certain books and say it strikes a balance that ensures the books can remain in the classroom while protecting the rights of parents who object to them.

“I think there are some folks who just don’t want to have parents involved,” Landes said of critics of the measure. “I think educators know a lot … but it’s also a parent’s responsibility to determine what’s appropriate for their child,” he said.

___

Follow Alanna Durkin Richer on Twitter at twitter.com/aedurkinricher. Her work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/journalist/alanna-durkin-richer.

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Washington Post

National Zoo's Kids' Farm shut down after E. coli found in some animals Washington Post The Smithsonian's National Zoo shuttered its Kids' Farm exhibit Monday after E. coli was found in some animals, the zoo announced. Staff members have not been affected, and the animals, which have since been quarantined, have not shown signs of illness. National Zoo closes, quarantines Kids' Farm after E. coli discoveryWashington Times National Zoo Closes Kids' Farm Following Discovery of E. ColiWashingtonian.com National Zoo Temporarily Closes Kids' Farm Due to E. ColiWashington City Paper (blog) WJLA -DCist.com -WUSA9.com all 10 news articles »

Royal Caribbean cruise ship Anthem of the Seas is not having a good year so far: after getting smacked around by a major storm in February, the vessel had to turn around on another journey due to more bad weather, and, to add to the fun for passengers this time, a norovirus outbreak.

The ship headed back to its home port in New Jersey on Sunday after running into another storm, Royal Caribbean Tweeted over the weekend “to avoid a severe storm and provide guests with a comfortable journey back home.”

“On a recent sailing, Anthem of the Seas experienced bad weather that was much worse than forecast; therefore, we want to be extra cautious about our (guests’) safety and comfort when it comes to weather in the area,” a spokeswoman for the cruise line told WNBC-TV (warning: link has video that will autoplay) in New York City. “That is why we have decided to head back to Cape Liberty immediately so that we can stay a safe distance from the storm.”

John Turell, an executive with The Associated Press who happened to be on the ship said that the ship’s captain and its cruise director have made announcements about the norovirus, CBS News reports. There aren’t any numbers yet on how many people were affected by the illness.

“Sanitation levels on the ship have been boosted,” said Turell. “(Ship) workers are scurrying around like ants, scrubbing down handrails, tables and any other surfaces that can be washed.”

The ship skipped planned stops in Barbados and St. Kitts, Turell said, due to a storm developing off Cape Hatteras. The cruise should return to port by Wednesday.

Anthem of the Seas was on its way to Port Canaveral, FL in February when it experienced “extreme wind and sea conditions, with wind speeds higher than what was forecasted,” the cruise line said at the time. The rough seas prompted the captain to ask guests to stay in their rooms until the weather improved, “in an abundance of caution.”

The bright pink mustaches and the “U” decals used to designate ride-sharing vehicles for Uber and Lyft have found a second purpose: making their owners quick cash on sites like eBay. While selling the insignias might be a good way for former drivers to pad their wallets — sometimes by thousands of dollars, it means the decals might be used for other purposes. For that reason, always be sure to double check the license plate, and driver’s name before getting in a hailed vehicle. [Business Insider]

For more than a year now, Costco has been preparing to take its store-branded credit card business in a new direction. Specifically, it’s transferring its credit card network from long-time partner American Express to Citigroup and Visa. After hitting a few snags in the road, the shopping club now plans to make things official in June. 

USA Today reports that that’s when the retailer will officially transfer its Costco-branded credit portfolio to Citibank and cardholders will receive their new plastic.

Under the deal, which was supposed to close in April but was delayed, Visa will become the exclusive credit-card network for Costco stores, and Citi will be able to issue the retailer-branded cards.

Once the transition is official — a specific date is still to be determined — current American Express cards will no longer work at the retailer.

Current Costco/American Express cardholders will continue to earn rewards on their cards until the deal goes through, USA Today reports, and rewards accrued before the deal is finalized will be paid out.

Of course, customers can still use debit cards from either Visa or MasterCard, as well as Costco cash cards, which can be purchased online.

Costco cardholders will transfer from Amex to Citi in June [USA Today]

Marketers are having a lot of fun with the idea of Leap Day, which is nice: it’s a fun non-holiday that everyone who uses the Gregorian calendar can appreciate, but that a marketer didn’t have to invent. One promotion at Hotels.com seems like a nice idea –– in a virtual drawing, customers can choose a coupon worth up to 29% off their total hotel bill –– but the key question is, which hotel?

That’s an important question, because the list of hotel chains and individual hotels specifically excluded from this promotion puts coupon-exclusion offenders like Macy’s, Babies ‘R’ Us, Petco, and Kmart to shame.

The exclusions are pretty standard, though they make it clear that you wouldn’t want to plan an actual vacation around any bookings that you made with this coupon, considering these items under the terms:

2. Participating hotels are subject to change.

and

7. We reserve the right to change or withdraw the offer at any time and to cancel any bookings made where the coupon has been used to make any speculative, false or fraudulent bookings or any bookings in anticipation of demand.

Fine, they don’t want you booking a room for the next Super Bowl and then reselling it on the side. We get that. The site having the right to change your booking is problematic, though, and so is the list of excluded hotels, which seems to exclude every hotel on the planet, including all the major global chains. We hit “print” just to see how long the document would be if printed out: it would be 39 pages long.

Motel 6? There. Hilton? There. Mariott? Definitely. Days Inn is missing from the exclusion list, but some of their local outposts have excluded themselves. There must be others, but it still seems like a list that would have been a lot shorter if they had listed the hotels where you can use the coupon instead.

We contacted Hotels.com and asked them where this coupon can be used: we’ll update this post if and when we hear anything back from them.

Discount Coupon Property Exclusions and Basic Terms [Hotels.com]

I’ll be the first to admit it, I’m not a breakfast person. I know, that’s crazy. But I married into a breakfast family, and not just plain jane morning meal enthusiasts; we’re talking dedicated waffle fans. The waffle maker sitting in my cupboard is probably the only appliance my husband knows how to use, and finding that machine was a test of patience for yours truly. 

But shopping for the appliance may be a bit easier for you, thanks to our colleagues down the hall at Consumer Reports who so bravely took up the challenge to find the best waffle maker in the land.

CR tested half a dozen of the most popular waffle makers on the market; from all-in-one makers to those that cook on the stove.

The appliances were tested on high and low settings, and scored based on the consistency of browning from side to side, and batch to batch.

Looking for more breakfast tips? Check out three maple syrup facts everyone should know.

The final verdict: sometimes you have to spend a little more dough for a perfect breakfast item. CR found the $100 Cuisinart Breakfast Central consistently turned out evenly cooked waffles, and beeps when it’s done cooking.

Additionally, it has removable griddles for easy cleaning.

Of course, no waffle is complete without a little sweet syrup on top. To that end, CR tested 14 different maple syrups.

Testers found that all were pretty good and suggest customers buy based on price. Top contenders for vale included Costco’s Kirkland’s Signature Organic Maple and Trader Joe’s 100% Vermont Maple Syrup.

via Consumer Reports]

We’ve heard of Airbnb horror stories before — from nightmare renters who refuse to leave, to guests who find hidden cameras watching them — but this might be one of the worst, and saddest: renters staying at a house near Paris discovered the decomposing body of a woman in the home’s garden.

A group of friends staying at the seven-bedroom house with a swimming pool were paying around $435 per night for their party weekend, in a ritzy town 12 miles southwest of Paris, reports The Associated Press.

“Her body was found at the bottom of the property which opens out into a woods,” a police source said, according to The Guardian.

Foul play is suspected. The listing was removed on Sunday.

Airbnb guests shocked by decomposing corpse in garden [The Guardian]
Weekend renters find corpse in Paris garden of Airbnb rental [The Associated Press]

Google has been quick to point out in the past that its self-driving cars haven’t been at fault for any of the accidents they’ve been involved in. In what could be the first incident that’s the driverless car’s fault, a California Department of Motor Vehicles report says a Google Lexus hit a city bus while in autonomous mode.

According to the report [PDF] (first noted by writer Mark Harris on Twitter), the Google autonomous vehicle, or AV, was traveling in autonomous mode in the right-hand lane, as it was attempting to turn right on a red light on Feb. 14.

But the Google AV had to stop and go around sandbags that were positioned around a storm drain in its way, so when the light turned green, the car let a few cars pass and then started to move into the center of the lane to pass the sand bags.

“A public transit bus was approaching from behind,” the report says. “The Google AV test driver saw the bus approaching in the left side mirror but believed the bus would stop or slow to allow the Google AV to continue.”

That wasn’t the case: about three seconds later, the Google AV came into contact with the side of the bus, the report says. The car was going less than 2 mph, while the bus was traveling at 15 mph when they hit each other. The Google vehicle sustained body damage to the left front fender, the left front wheel and one of its driver’s -side sensors. There were no injuries reported at the scene.

In Google’s February monthly report for its self-driving cars, which will be published on March 1, the company will provide further details of the Feb. 14 incident. In the report, which Consumerist has read, the company calls the Valentine’s Day incident a “tricky set of circumstances” that’s helped it “improve an important skill for navigating similar roads.”

The company echoes its report to the DMV, saying that the car and the test driver both predicted that the bus would yield to the vehicle, because they were ahead of it.

“And we can imagine the bus driver assumed we were going to stay put,” the report says. “Unfortunately, all these assumptions led us to the same spot in the lane at the same time,” adding that this isn’t a situation unique to self-driving vehicles, but a type of misunderstanding that humans encounter on the road every day .

Though trying to predict each other’s movements is a normal part of driving, Google says, the company does acknowledge that its car wasn’t blameless.

“In this case, we clearly bear some responsibility, because if our car hadn’t moved there wouldn’t have been a collision,” the report says. “That said, our test driver believed the bus was going to slow or stop to allow us to merge into the traffic, and that there would be sufficient space to do that.”

The company says it’s reviewed the incident in its simulator and has tweaked its software as a result.

“From now on, our cars will more deeply understand that buses (and other large vehicles) are less likely to yield to us than other types of vehicles, and we hope to handle situations like this more gracefully in the future,” the report says.

ABERDEEN, Md. (AP) — Police officials say an officer crashed while rushing to help fellow officers struggling with a man after a traffic stop.

Aberdeen police say in a statement that after officers pulled over a vehicle Monday, a passenger threw something away. Police spokesman Sgt. Will Reiber tells The Baltimore Sun that officers struggled with the man for more than five minutes and radioed for help.

Reiber says Officer First Class Ryan Nelson crashed a mile away while responding, but kept driving the partially disabled vehicle, then ran the last half mile. Police say the trio gained control of 34-year-old Brandon Watson and arrested him. Police say Watson and two officers were released from hospital. Nelson is at Shock Trauma in stable condition.

Watson is charged with assault, resisting arrest and drug offenses.

The post Officers rushing to aid fellow officers crashes, keeps going appeared first on WTOP.

We first heard Disney was considering a new surge pricing model back in October, and thus, it has come to pass: the next time you plan a trip to the mouse’s house, you’re likely going to be paying more, depending when you visit.

The new surge pricing system is in place as of yesterday at U.S parks including Disneyland and Disney World, reports the Los Angeles Times, in a change from the current one-day ticket price of $99. If you decide to hang out at the park on a slow day, like a Wednesday in the middle of September, you’ll pay $95.

But most days of the year will be more expensive, with prices for a “regular” day or “peak” day hiking to $105 and $119, respectively. About 30% of the year will be designated as “value days,” 44% will be “regular” and 26% will be “peak,” which means you’ve got a 70% chance of paying more than you do now.

This is going to be a good thing for crowd management, says Disney, instead of being all about the almighty dollar.

“The demand for our theme parks continues to grow, particularly during peak periods,” a Disneyland spokeswoman told the Los Angeles Times. “In addition to expanding our parks, we are adopting seasonal pricing on our one-day ticket to help better spread visitation throughout the year.”

And besides, other companies are already doing the same thing, Disney says.

“It’s an approach that you are probably familiar with from many other areas, including sports, entertainment and travel,” Disney’s Thomas Smith wrote on the official Disney Parks blog.

In an effort to sooth customers who might be ruffled that they’re probably going to pay more than they used to, Disney is touting new attractions, including a “Star Wars” land that’s in the works, and a new stage show based on Frozen.

Disneyland ‘demand pricing’ will cost you $5 less on slow days and $20 more when it’s busy [Los Angles Times]

NEW YORK (AP) — The New York City Police Department says a person walking in a Manhattan park has found the severed head of a horse and other animal parts in a cardboard box.

Investigators say the person was walking through Harlem River park when he came upon the severed head inside a beer box at about 11 a.m. on Sunday.

The Department of Sanitation removed the head shortly after.

The investigation is continuing.

The post Police: A severed horse head found in box in Manhattan park appeared first on WTOP.