Articles written by Jason Dearen
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 29
Tech tool offers police 'mass surveillance on a budget'
Local law enforcement agencies from suburban Southern California to rural North Carolina have been using an obscure cellphone tracking tool, at times without search warrants, that gives them the power to follow people's movements months back in...
Inside a KKK murder plot: Grab him up, take him to the river
PALATKA, Fla. (AP) — Joseph Moore breathed heavily, his face slick with nervous sweat. He held a cellphone with a photo of a man splayed on the floor; the man appeared dead, his shirt torn apart and his pants wet. Puffy dark clouds blocked the sun...
White House puts 'politicals' at CDC to try to control info
NEW YORK (AP) — The Trump White House has installed two political operatives at the nation's top public health agency to try to control the information it releases about the coronavirus pandemic as the administration seeks to paint a positive...
200,000 dead as Trump vilifies science, prioritizes politics
NEW YORK (AP) — "I did the best I could," President Donald Trump said. Huddled with aides in the West Wing last week, his eyes fixed on Fox News, Trump wasn't talking about how he had led the nation through the deadliest pandemic in a century. In...
Pepcid-COVID study raised red flags weeks after $21M grant
Two months after the Trump administration awarded $21 million to study whether a common heartburn drug was effective against COVID-19, government health officials raised serious concerns about patient safety and scientific integrity, according to...
Officials release edited coronavirus reopening guidance
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. health officials on Thursday released some of their long-delayed guidance that schools, businesses and other organizations can use as states reopen from coronavirus shutdowns. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention...
APNewsBreak: Key design change stymied bridge cost, schedule
MIAMI (AP) — Construction of the pedestrian bridge that collapsed and killed six people in the Miami area was behind schedule and millions over budget, in part because of a key change in the design and placement of one of its support towers....
Bridge collapse puts spotlight on rapid building technique
As the 950-ton concrete bridge section was swung into place over a highway last weekend, Florida International University officials were beaming with pride. The pedestrian bridge on the edge of the Miami-area campus was a signature achievement of...
Florida man yells 'murderers!' as he's executed for slaying
STARKE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida inmate convicted of raping and killing a college student decades ago screamed and yelled "murderers!" three times, thrashing on a gurney as he was being put to death Thursday. The governor's office said Eric Scott...
Civil disobedience: Teen shooting survivors shake up Capitol
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Holding hand-scrawled signs and wearing black "Parkland Strong" T-shirts, the 40 teenagers filed warily into a committee room at Florida's state Capitol on Wednesday. They hadn't been invited and the lawmakers they were...
School shooting videos could scar kids _ or galvanize them
PARKLAND, Fla. (AP) — When two teenagers slaughtered 12 students and a teacher at Columbine High School in Colorado 19 years ago, young people across the country learned the news the old-fashioned way: largely on television and in newspapers. It...
Students shaken by shooting focus on stopping gun violence
PARKLAND, Fla. (AP) — Chris Grady was a theater kid counting down the days until he reported for duty in the U.S. Army this summer when a gunman opened fire at his Florida school. As he huddled in his classroom at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High...
Young shooting survivors stepped from school into gun debate
PARKLAND, Fla. (AP) — Dead bodies were still inside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School when survivors of this week's shooting began speaking out about gun violence. It seemed as if the teens had stepped straight from the bullet-scarred school...
Pre-teens arrested for cyberbullying before girl's suicide
Two 12-year-olds in Florida were arrested for cyberbullying in connection with the death of a middle-school student who police say hanged herself two weeks ago. The circumstances around the death of 12-year-old Gabriella Green on Jan. 10 led to the...
Florida wants to remove virus-excreting wild monkeys
ON THE SILVER RIVER, Fla. (AP) — Wildlife managers in Florida say they want to remove roaming monkeys from the state in light of a new study published Wednesday that finds some of the animals are excreting a virus that can be dangerous to humans....
Superfund work touted by Trump EPA was completed years ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency is touting cleanups at seven of the nation's most polluted places as a signature accomplishment in the Trump administration's effort to reduce the number of Superfund sites, even though records...
Watchdog to investigate flood risks to Superfund sites
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal government watchdog agency will investigate the threats from flooding and other natural disasters to the nation's most polluted places. The Government Accountability Office told members of Congress it was assigning...
NTSB cites weak safety culture by owner of sunken El Faro
The owner of the sunken cargo ship El Faro had a weak corporate safety culture that contributed to the vessel's demise and the deaths of 33 mariners, federal accident investigators said on Tuesday. The National Transportation Safety Board said that...
White nationalist Spencer drowned out by protesters
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Counter demonstrators greatly outnumbered white nationalist Richard Spencer's supporters on Thursday at the University of Florida, their chants drowning Spencer out during his speech. Outside, hundreds more people...
3 arrested after shooting following white nationalist speech
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — A man who fired a shot at anti-Nazi protesters following a speech at the University of Florida by a white nationalist has been charged with attempted murder, police in Gainesville said Friday. Two men who allegedly urged...
Yellow wristbands, segregation for Florida homeless in Irma
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. (AP) — Shelby Hoogendyk says that when she, her husband and her 17-month-old son arrived at an emergency shelter as Hurricane Irma closed in, they were separated from others by yellow wristbands and told to stay in an area with...
AP Exclusive: Toxic sites in likely path of Irma
MIAMI (AP) — Dozens of personnel from the Environmental Protection Agency worked to secure some of the nation's most contaminated toxic waste sites as Hurricane Irma bore down on Florida. The agency said its employees evacuated personnel, secured...
Residents who evacuated for Harvey come home to devastation
CROSBY, Texas (AP) — Silvia Casas' eyes welled with tears Friday as she surveyed the damage from Harvey to what was once a working class, mostly Hispanic neighborhood near Crosby, Texas. Large trees with their roots reaching into the air were...
AP EXCLUSIVE: Toxic waste sites flooded in Houston area
HIGHLANDS, Texas (AP) — As Dwight Chandler sipped beer and swept out the thick muck caked inside his devastated home, he worried whether Harvey's floodwaters had also washed in pollution from the old acid pit just a couple blocks away. Long a...
Joel Osteen's Houston megachurch opens doors as shelter
HOUSTON (AP) — Joel Osteen opened his Houston megachurch to those seeking shelter from floodwaters Tuesday after social media critics slammed the televangelist for not offering to house people in need while Harvey swamps the city. Among those who...