www.washingtontimes.com stories: National

1 winning ticket for $590M Powerball jackpot sold in Fla.

Barbara Rodriguez — Sun, 19 May 2013 09:40:35 -0400

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — It's all about the odds, and one lone ticket in Florida has beaten them all by matching each of the numbers drawn for the highest Powerball jackpot in history at an estimated $590.5 million, lottery officials said Sunday.

The single winner was sold at a ...

Hofstra student killed by police during break-in

Frank Eltman — Sun, 19 May 2013 11:53:46 -0400

MINEOLA, N.Y. (AP) — In what police are describing as a crime of opportunity, a wanted man with a criminal history dating back nearly 15 years entered a front door that had been left open at a New York home near Hofstra University.

A short time later, the intruder, ...

Rail operator: Connecticut train outage expected for days

John Christoffersen — Sun, 19 May 2013 12:13:44 -0400

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (AP) — Tens of thousands of commuters are bracing for a difficult trip around southwest Connecticut and into New York City beginning Monday as workers repair the Metro-North commuter rail line crippled by a derailment and crash.

Crews will spend days rebuilding 2,000 feet of track, overhead wires ...

Official: Va. driver who injured dozens of parade hikers likely had medical condition

Sun, 19 May 2013 12:25:58 -0400

DAMASCUS, Va. (AP) — Authorities believe the driver who plowed into dozens of hikers marching in a Virginia mountain town parade suffered from a medical condition and did not cause the crash intentionally, an emergency official said Sunday.

Officials did not have a formal confirmation or any specifics on ...

FBI searches Washington state apartment in ricin letter case

Nicholas K. Geranios — Sun, 19 May 2013 12:35:37 -0400

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Authorities in hazardous-materials suits searched a downtown Spokane apartment Saturday, investigating the recent discovery of a pair of letters containing the deadly poison ricin.

Few details have been released in the case, and no arrests have been made. Federal investigators have been searching for the person ...

AP CEO calls Justice Department's records seizure unconstitutional

Philip Elliott — Sun, 19 May 2013 13:51:59 -0400

WASHINGTON (AP) — The president and chief executive officer of The Associated Press on Sunday called the government's secret seizure of two months of reporters' phone records "unconstitutional" and said the news cooperative had not ruled out legal action against the Justice Department.

Gary Pruitt, in his first television ...

N.Y. 'frisk' judge calls criticism 'below the belt'

Larry Neumeister — Sun, 19 May 2013 14:00:27 -0400

NEW YORK (AP) — The federal judge presiding over civil rights challenges to the stop-and-frisk practices of the New York Police Department has no doubt where she stands with the government.

"I know I'm not their favorite judge," U.S. District Judge Shira A. Scheindlin said during an Associated Press interview ...

Discrimination suits for disabilities could rise with new list of psychiatric disorders

Luke Rosiak — Sun, 19 May 2013 21:36:06 -0400

As a new edition of the manual of mental disorders used to diagnose psychiatric conditions hits publishers, employers are concerned that the expansion of definitions for some types of disabilities will open them to more lawsuits and complaints of disability discrimination.

The long-awaited revised American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical ...

Republicans weigh risks, benefits of select committee on Benghazi

Guy Taylor — Sun, 19 May 2013 21:41:04 -0400

The Benghazi terrorist attack has stormed back onto the front pages, and as the attention grows, so do calls from House Republicans who want their party leaders to name a special investigative committee to take control of the inquiry.

More than 150 House Republicans have signed on to a resolution ...

Seizure of AP phone records on Capitol Hill raises concerns about separation of powers

Susan Crabtree — Sun, 19 May 2013 21:51:05 -0400

News organizations are convinced that the Obama administration trampled on freedom of the press when the Justice Department seized Associated Press phone records in pursuit of a government source who leaked details of a thwarted terrorist plot last year.

But some congressional analysts also are raising concerns that Justice violated ...

WILLIAMS: A week of scandals proves the incompetence of liberalism

Armstrong Williams — Sun, 19 May 2013 21:58:04 -0400

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

Scandals are nothing new in Washington. Just about every president has faced an accusation of misconduct, whether moral or criminal. It should be no surprise that the Obama administration finds itself in the midst of one (well actually three).

Many Republicans have been quick to declare this the end ...

Vote fraud is easy with 13,000 in Maryland still on D.C. records

Jeffrey Anderson and Luke Rosiak — Sun, 19 May 2013 22:07:07 -0400

The District has failed to remove from its voting rolls as many as 13,000 former residents who years ago moved to Prince George's County and cast ballots there, making fraud by voting in two jurisdictions as easy as going to the polls in their old neighborhoods, The Washington Times found ...

Magpul joins Colorado sheriffs in filing lawsuit against gun-control bills

Valerie Richardson — Sat, 18 May 2013 09:14:16 -0400

DENVER — Magpul Industries joined 54 Colorado county sheriffs Friday in filing a federal lawsuit against the state's recently signed gun-control bills.

But even if the lawsuit is successful, the Erie-based firearms company is still planning to leave Colorado.

"Just to clarify, we are still moving, regardless of the outcome ...

National Police Week draws thousands of officers to Washington

Sat, 18 May 2013 09:31:54 -0400

WASHINGTON — Tens of thousands of police officers from around the country are in Washington as part of National Police Week.

Scheduled events include a conference for family members of officers who have died in the line of duty, an honor guard competition and a memorial service.

The memorial service, ...

New top Realtor sees a rebound, but full recovery years away

Patrice Hill — Sat, 18 May 2013 10:01:41 -0400

As a Realtor in Orange County, Calif., Gary Thomas lives at the epicenter of the past decade's epic housing boom and bust that is only now beginning to release the economy from its withering grip.

It was in that county and the broader Los Angeles market that many of the ...

Non-deportation rate drops — to 99.2 percent

Stephen Dinan — Sat, 18 May 2013 10:44:15 -0400

The Homeland Security Department has granted legal status to 99.2 percent of all illegal immigrants who have applied under President Obama's new non-deportation policy for young adults, according to the latest numbers released Friday.

That's a slight drop from the 99.5 percent approval rate reported last month.

The policy, known ...

Treasury officials told of IRS probe in June 2012

Sat, 18 May 2013 11:49:07 -0400

WASHINGTON — Senior Treasury officials were made aware in June 2012 that investigators were looking into complaints from tea party groups that they were being harassed by the Internal Revenue Service, a Treasury inspector general said Friday, disclosing that Obama administration officials knew there was a probe during the heat ...

Mom hunts down child abductor in car chase, rescues daughter

Sat, 18 May 2013 13:01:13 -0400

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Melissa Torrez didn't even think when teenagers in her apartment complex said a man had just grabbed her 4-year-old girl and drove away.

She jumped in her car and began chasing the brown Buick through traffic, zigzagging on Interstate 40 at high speeds and staying with the ...

Car strikes crowd at Va. parade, witnesses say

Sat, 18 May 2013 15:59:50 -0400

Witnesses in southwestern Virginia say a car has driven into a crowd at a parade. Several people appear to be hurt, but the nature of their injuries wasn't immediately known.

The accident occurred around 2:30 p.m. Saturday during the Hikers Parade at the Trail Days festival. The event is celebrates ...

Cigarette-smuggling ring investigated for terror ties

Cheryl K. Chumley — Fri, 17 May 2013 06:29:05 -0400

A $55 million cigarette-smuggling ring that cheated several East Coast states out of sales tax dollars could be tied to terrorist groups, authorities said.

They made the claims during Thursday's indictment of 16 Palestinian men — some of whom have known ties to convicted terrorists, CNN reported. The cigarette-smuggling operation ...