By John Shiffman and Mark Hosenball (Reuters) WASHINGTON - U.S. intelligence officials on Tuesday identified two of the more than 50 classified cases in which they say National Security Agency eavesdropping helped thwart terrorist plots including a planned attack on the New York Stock Exchange. The other, a San Diego money laundering investigation tied to financing for a Somali militia, is among the 27 cases cited in a Reuters report Tuesday in which the U.S. government filed public notice that it used a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant. ...
OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - Oklahoma executed on Tuesday a man who was convicted of stabbing an elderly couple to death during a robbery at their home that netted $73, some of which he and convicted accomplices used to buy tacos. James Lewis DeRosa, 36, was pronounced dead at 6:07 p.m. CDT (1907 ET) after a lethal injection at a state prison, a spokesman for the Oklahoma Department of Corrections said. DeRosa was convicted of killing Poteau couple Curtis Plummer, 73, and Gloria Plummer, 70, during a robbery in 2000. (Reporting by Heide Brandes)
SAN JUAN (Reuters) - The FBI is investigating allegations that high-ranking bank officials in Puerto Rico conspired to have a former Doral Bank executive killed after he claimed he uncovered fraud, the U.S. attorney for the district of Puerto Rico said on Tuesday. Maurice Spagnoletti, 56, was shot multiple times while driving home from work to the fashionable Condado beachfront district in rush-hour traffic in June 2011. Authorities have described the shooting as an apparent contract killing, but have made no arrests. "We have had some leads, but not enough to bring charges. ...
Larry Swilling has been on a months-long quest: He's searching for a kidney for his wife. The 78-year-old, who has been looking for a compatible kidney donor for 76-year-old Jimmie Sue since last September, has caught the attention of the Web. But almost a year later, and despite lots of good will and plenty of [...]
For Spanish businessman Paco Santos, the safest place to keep money is still under a mattress—or rather, inside it. Santos, according to NPR, who was laid off from Spain’s largest mattress manufacturer three years ago, is the inventor of the Caja de ahorros Micolchon, or “My Mattress Safe." It's a plush, padded mattress with a [...]
A pair of California teens were rescued by helicopter from atop an 8,600-foot cliff after they became stranded and were unable to climb down, CNN reports. The California Highway Patrol dispatched a helicopter and a small plane to retrieve them. With winds gusting up to 30 mph and the teenage boys, 16 and 17, perched [...]
The FBI and the New York City Police Department announced on Tuesday an award of up to $65,000 for information leading to the identification and arrest of the suspect or suspects behind the unsolved 2008 bombing of the U.S. Armed Forces Recruiting Station in Times Square. Additionally, the FBI released videos of the key suspect [...]
The man who engraved former New York City Mayor Ed Koch's tombstone has apologized for putting on the wrong birth date. Tommy Flynn, the owner of Flynn Funeral and Cremation Memorial Services, told NBC's New York affiliate that he inadvertently listed Koch's birth year as 1942 instead of 1924. Flynn says he feels "terrible" and [...]
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — Dish Network Corp. says a number of factors have made it impracticable for it to submit another offer to buy Sprint Nextel Corp. in time to beat a deadline set by the phone company.
PHOENIX (AP) — A Texas congressman who was choking on a piece of popcorn is thanking a fellow Republican from Arizona and a House staffer who is also a doctor for stepping in to help.
By Keith Coffman and Alex Dobuzinskis DENVER/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The number of homes destroyed by a Colorado wildfire rose above 500 on Tuesday as rain dampened the flames and allowed damage assessment teams to enter charred neighborhoods, as other threatening blazes grew in Alaska and elsewhere in the West. Authorities said the so-called Black Forest Fire, which has killed at least two people and has burned in the rolling hills outside Colorado Springs for the past week, was 85 percent contained by Tuesday. ...
BOSTON (AP) — The Cape Wind offshore wind project has secured a $200 million investment from a Danish pension fund in what the wind farm's president said Tuesday is a milestone for the long-delayed project.
McLEAN, Va. (AP) — For the second time in as many months, a Muslim civil rights group is pursuing criminal charges on behalf of a taxicab driver who was subjected to an anti-Islamic rant caught on tape.
DETROIT (AP) — A judge declared a mistrial Tuesday after jurors failed to reach a verdict in the trial of a Detroit police officer who fatally shot a 7-year-old girl during a chaotic search for a murder suspect that was recorded by a reality TV crew.
DENVER (AP) — Radar indicated a tornado briefly touched down Tuesday over the east runways of Denver International Airport, where thousands of people took shelter in bathrooms, stairwells and other safe spots until the dangerous weather passed, officials said.
DETROIT (AP) — After initially defying federal regulators, Chrysler abruptly agreed Tuesday to recall some older-model Jeeps with fuel tanks that could rupture and cause fires in rear-end collisions.
PLANADA, Calif. (AP) — A California couple is facing prison time after juries convicted them of luring an acquaintance to their home and strangling her to kidnap her 2-month-old boy.
WASHINGTON (AP) — An Internal Revenue Service manager and self-described conservative Republican said the close scrutiny of tea party groups' tax forms originated in his Cincinnati IRS office and not in Washington, according to a full transcript of his interview by congressional investigators released Tuesday.
FAIRPORT, Mich. (AP) — A wooden beam embedded at the bottom of northern Lake Michigan appears to have been there for centuries, underwater archaeologists announced Tuesday, a crucial finding as crews dig toward what they hope is the carcass of a French ship that disappeared while exploring the Great Lakes in the 17th century.
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — A spokeswoman for Maine Gov. Paul LePage says the administration will no longer comment for stories published in three of Maine's daily newspapers.
CLEVELAND (AP) — An attorney says slavery charges against three people in Ohio are ludicrous and says the woman at the center of the alleged forced-labor plot moved in and out as she pleased.
OGDEN, Utah (AP) — A Utah man shot in the head during a Father's Day Mass was upgraded to fair condition Tuesday — just a few hours after his son-in-law was charged with attempted homicide in the shooting.
By Joseph Lichterman OAKLAND TOWNSHIP, Michigan (Reuters) - FBI agents in suburban Detroit widened their search of an overgrown field on Tuesday for the remains of former Teamsters union boss Jimmy Hoffa, who disappeared nearly 38 years ago and is thought to have been murdered by mobsters. But after two days of searching, there was no indication that any remains had been found. Agents broke for the night early Tuesday evening and were due to resume the search on Wednesday morning, officials said. ...
By Don Bolding FORT HOOD, Texas (Reuters) - The trial of a U.S. Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people in a shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009 will be delayed by at least a month and start in early August, a military judge ruled on Tuesday. Major Nidal Hasan, 42, who could face the death penalty for the shooting at the Army post, has been allowed to represent himself at the trial, which will open no earlier than August 6, the judge, Colonel Tara Osborn, ruled. ...
NEW YORK (AP) — The mayors of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and 15 other cities are reviving a push against letting food stamps be used to buy soda and other sugary drinks.
A woman from the ritzy New York City suburb of Scarsdale who is accused of raising thousands of marijuana plants was compared Tuesday to Colombian cocaine lords.
TULSA, Okla. (AP) — An engineer killed in a fiery train collision in the Oklahoma Panhandle last year suffered from serious vision problems for much of his life, underwent several corrective procedures in the years leading up to the crash and even complained that he couldn't distinguish between red and green signals, a doctor told a federal oversight board Tuesday.
CLEVELAND (AP) — An attorney says slavery charges against three people in Ohio are ludicrous and says the woman at the center of the alleged forced-labor plot moved in and out as she pleased.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Farm-state lawmakers are scrambling to win bipartisan support for a five-year, half-trillion-dollar farm bill on the House floor this week.
OAKLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — The latest possible resting place of Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa is an overgrown farm field where the normal calm of chirping crickets is being drowned out by a beeping backhoe, the chop of an overhead news helicopter and the bustle of reporters and onlookers.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A 13-year-old boy from a New Orleans suburb was charged with second-degree murder in the death of his 5-year-old half-sister after investigators said he told them he repeatedly struck her with wrestling moves imitated from TV.
NEW YORK (AP) — FBI agents with jackhammers and shovels were digging Tuesday under a New York City house once occupied by a famed gangster who inspired Robert De Niro's character in the movie "Goodfellas."
MARIPOSA, Calif. (AP) — An unattended campfire near a main route into Yosemite National Park has grown into a blaze that has led to the evacuations of 800 homes and 1,500 people, officials said Tuesday.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Three more employees of the truck stop chain owned by the Cleveland Browns' owner and Tennessee's governor pleaded guilty Tuesday in what authorities call a scheme to cheat trucking firms out of rebates.