BOSTON (AP) — From his first days at Harvard, Merrick Garland’s classmates pegged him as a star. Smartest guy in the room, self-confident, easygoing and thoughtful are some of the compliments they still pay him 40 years later. For Garland, President Barack Obama’s choice to fill a vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court, … Continue reading
CHICAGO (AP) — New research bolsters evidence that a simple blood test may someday be used to detect concussions. It suggests that a protein linked with head trauma may be present in blood up to a week after injury, which could help diagnose patients who delay seeking treatment. The study involved patients at … Continue reading
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Gay and transgender rights supporters wasted little time in challenging a new North Carolina law, filing a federal lawsuit Monday that called it discriminatory and said it singles out LGBT people for “disfavored treatment.” The law, which has also drawn strong opposition from major corporations including Apple and … Continue reading
CLEVELAND (AP) — Hundreds of police officers, Secret Service agents and private security guards in cars, on foot and on horseback blanketed the area around Donald Trump’s campaign rally Saturday afternoon. Dozens of protesters would soon be ejected from the event. And that was the calmest rally in the past several days thrown … Continue reading
MADISON TOWNSHIP, Ohio (AP) — Teachers and staff greeted students as they arrived Wednesday and uniformed police stood by as classes resumed in a southwest Ohio district two days after authorities say a 14-year-old boy shot students in a cafeteria. Madison Local Schools officials said staff members joined students on their bus rides … Continue reading
WASHINGTON (AP) — Anglican scholar N.T. Wright says the Bible contains many overlooked truths, but it doesn’t necessarily tell believers how to vote. The retired bishop says some modern political and cultural issues don’t present a clear biblical choice. But other matters are clear, such as Jesus’ concern for the poor. Wright took … Continue reading
HONOLULU (AP) — On a farm in the heart of Hawaii’s ongoing dengue outbreak, coffee grows wild among the ferns, and vanilla vines climb guava trees. It’s hard to know where nature ends and the farm begins, and that’s the way organic farmers there like it. But state efforts to combat the outbreak … Continue reading
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) — The hazing of four high school freshmen on a basketball trip has outraged authorities in their hometown: Police said three older teammates repeatedly shoved a pool cue at their backsides and into one boy’s rectum, causing internal injuries that required emergency surgery. But a police detective three hours away in … Continue reading
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Hollywood’s diversity crisis has loomed large over awards season and the big question going into the 88th annual Academy Awards was whether it would dominate the ceremony, too. It did, of course, but it wasn’t alone. The evening turned out to be a platform not just for racial representation … Continue reading
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The University of Missouri on Thursday fired an assistant professor who had been suspended after run-ins with student journalists during protests last year, including a videotaped confrontation where she called for “some muscle” to remove a videographer from the Columbia campus. Melissa Click’s actions were “not compatible with … Continue reading
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama’s nominee for Education Secretary told senators Thursday that the focus of decision-making on elementary and secondary education is “rightly shifting” to the states and away from the federal government. John B. King Jr. is poised to oversee the Education Department as it is losing some of its authority. … Continue reading
HOUSTON (AP) — Marco Rubio waged an all-out verbal assault on Donald Trump Friday morning as his allies prepared to spend millions on new attack ads in key states, promising an aggressive and well-funded takedown effort the morning after the Republican front-runner was knocked on his heels on the debate stage. Rubio, the leading aggressor … Continue reading
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama urged the Republican-run Senate on Wednesday to fulfill its “constitutional responsibility” and consider his Supreme Court nominee, pushing back on GOP leaders who insist there will be no hearing or vote when he names a successor to the late Justice Antonin Scalia. Obama, in a post on the legal … Continue reading
NEW YORK (AP) — Harper Lee, the elusive novelist whose child’s-eye view of racial injustice in a small Southern town, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” became standard reading for millions of young people and an Oscar-winning film, has died. She was 89. Lee died peacefully Friday, publisher HarperCollins said in a statement. It did not give … Continue reading
Harper Lee was an ordinary woman as stunned as anybody by the extraordinary success of “To Kill a Mockingbird.” “It was like being hit over the head and knocked cold,” Lee — who died Friday at age 89, according to publisher HarperCollins — said during a 1964 interview, at a time when … Continue reading
Spartan Echo 