WASHINGTON For U.S. presidents, meeting the families of military personnel killed in war is about as wrenching as the presidency gets. President Donald Trump’s suggestion Monday that his predecessors fell short in that duty brought a visceral reaction from those who witnessed those grieving encounters. “He’s a deranged animal,” Alyssa Mastromonaco, a former deputy chief […]

TALLAHASSEE, FLA. Citing past clashes and protests, Florida Gov. Rick Scott on Monday declared a state of emergency in advance of a speech white nationalist Richard Spencer is scheduled to give at the University of Florida. The state’s Republican governor warned in an executive order Monday that a “threat of a potential emergency is imminent” […]

SANTA ROSA, Calif. A week after fleeing wildfires, tens of thousands of Californians are drifting back into their neighborhoods. Some will face the prospect of destroyed homes. All will face the possibility of lasting emotional damage. “It’s never going to be the same,” said Rob Brown, a supervisor in Mendocino County, where all 8,000 evacuees […]

LAS VEGAS The day after a gunman opened fire on a country music festival from a high-rise Las Vegas hotel, a local landscaper was at City Hall with an idea for remembering the 58 people killed in the deadliest shooting in modern U.S. history. Jay Pleggenkuhle of Stonerose Landscapes said he thought the people of […]

WASHINGTON Top Republicans coping with a razor-thin majority as they try pushing a partisan agenda through the Senate are running smack into another complication — the sheer age and health issues of some senators. When the office of the ailing Sen. Thad Cochran announced Monday that it was the Mississippi Republican’s “intention to return to […]

BEIJING Having bested his rivals, Chinese President Xi Jinping is primed to consolidate his already considerable power as the ruling Communist Party begins its twice-a-decade national congress on Wednesday. From meetings largely cloaked in secrecy, powerful players will emerge publicly in new roles, and Xi will address the nation to lay out his political and […]

PORTLAND (AP) — The price of gasoline is down a few cents in the northern New England states. GasBuddy’s daily survey of more than 1,200 gas outlets in Maine says prices have fallen 3.1 cents per gallon in the past week and were averaging $2.42 per gallon on Sunday. The price in Vermont slipped 4.3 […]

PORTLAND (AP) — The University of Southern Maine is adding a new prayer room to better accommodate Muslim students and students of other faiths. The Portland Press Herald reports the $100,000 project includes a gender neutral bathroom with a foot-washing station Muslim students can use for ritual washing. University officials say the new prayer room […]