Norwalk

Elton John slams reports on Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's private jet trip

Sir Elton John is slamming media reports about Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, and Prince Harry focused on their use of a private jet while on vacation. "I am deeply distressed by today’s distorted and malicious account in the press surrounding the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s private stay at my home in Nice last week," the musician wrote Monday on Twitter.

Ex-Gov. Kathleen Blanco dies, led Louisiana through Katrina

Even after Hurricane Katrina ended her political career and as cancer ate away her strength, former Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco still described her life as "charmed." With strength in her faith and her family, the state's first elected female governor time and again refused to wallow in disappointment or disaster. Blanco called it an "honor and blessing" to lead Louisiana through the fury and destruction of Katrina. A pioneering woman in Louisiana politics, Blanco died Sunday in hospice care in Lafayette.

Plans detailed for first U.S. mission to land on moon since Apollo

The first American spacecraft expected to land on the moon in nearly 50 years will be a robotic moon lander built by closely held Astrobotic Technology Inc and launched in two years by United Launch Alliance's Vulcan rocket, the companies told Reuters on Monday. Astrobotic was one of nine companies chosen in November to compete for $2.6 billion to develop small space vehicles and other technology for 20 missions to explore the lunar surface over the next decade. Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic picked Vulcan, being developed by a joint venture of Boeing Co and Lockheed Martin Corp, to launch its Peregrine lander from Florida's Cape Canaveral in summer 2021.

NYPD fires officer 5 years after Garner's chokehold death

After five years of investigations and protests, the New York City Police Department on Monday fired an officer involved in the 2014 chokehold death of the black man whose dying cries of "I can't breathe" fueled a national debate over race and police use of force. Police Commissioner James O'Neill said he fired Daniel Pantaleo, who is white, based on a recent recommendation of a department disciplinary judge. Asked whether Mayor Bill de Blasio forced his hand, O'Neill said the dismissal was his choice.

Memorial to victims of Boston Marathon bombing completed

The memorial to the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing is complete. Three stone pillars representing the three people who died at the race's Boylston Street finish line were installed early Monday, marking the final step of the $2 million project, which took four years to plan and develop. Bolivian-born sculptor Pablo Eduardo said before this year's race that it was important that the final work reflect the hopes and expectations of families who lost loved ones.

The Latest: Garner's daughter thankful for officer's firing

A daughter of Eric Garner is thanking New York City Police Commissioner James O'Neill for firing the officer who placed her father in a chokehold that contributed to his death in 2014. Emerald Snipes Garner said Monday she wanted to thank O'Neill "for doing the right thing" in firing Officer Daniel Pantaleo. Garner said her family wants to see action taken against the other officers who were present when Pantaleo tried to arrest her father.

NYPD fires officer who put Eric Garner in chokehold before death

Garner shouted ‘I can’t breathe’ as Daniel Pantaleo placed him in chokehold during arrest, and his words became a rallying cry for the Black Lives Matter movementDaniel Pantaleo leaves his house in Staten Island, New York, on 13 May. Photograph: Eduardo Muñoz/APA New York City police officer involved in the death of Eric Garner, an unarmed African American man killed by police on Staten Island in 2014, has been fired by the department.The decision was announced by New York police department (NYPD) commissioner James O’Neill on Monday after an administrative police judge advised that officer Daniel Pantaleo should lose his job for misconduct during the arrest.“In this case, the unintended consequence of Mr Garner’s death must have a consequence of its own,” O’Neill said, confirming his agreement with the judge’s recommendation.He added: “It is clear that Daniel Pantaleo can no longer effectively serve as a New York City police officer.”Garner, 43, died after Pantaleo placed him in a banned chokehold during a botched arrest over the alleged sale of untaxed cigarettes more than five years ago. The incident was captured on cellphone video that showed Garner shouting “I can’t breathe” 11 times.> Regardless of how you came to your decision, you finally made a decision that should have been made five years ago> > Emerald Snipes-GarnerHis final words became a rallying cry for the Black Lives Matter movement that protested around the US in the wake of Garner’s death and the death of black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri a month later.O’Neill, who served as a uniformed officer in the department for more than three decades, said he had watched the video of Garner’s death a number of times and questioned how he would have behaved if he had been the responding officer. He criticized Garner’s decision to resist arrest as well as Pantaleo’s decision to use the banned chokehold.“Every time I watch that video I say to myself, as probably all of you do, to Mr Garner, ‘Don’t do it, comply.’ Officer Pantaleo: ‘Don’t do it.’ I say that about the decisions made by both officer Pantaleo and Mr Garner. But none of us can take back our decisions, most especially when they lead to the death of another human being.”Last month, the US justice department declined to indict Pantaleo on federal civil rights charges, meaning the former officer will face no criminal proceedings.In 2015 the Garner family settled a civil lawsuit with the city for $5.9m after a grand jury on Staten Island declined to bring criminal charges.Family members have long been frustrated at the slowness of the internal NYPD process. Pantaleo remained employed, earning more than $100,000 a year.Speaking after the decision, Emerald Snipes-Garner, Garner's daughter, said the family would now pursue statewide legislation to make police chokeholds illegal, and would pursue a congressional investigation into why the US justice department did not pursue civil rights charges. “For Commissioner O’Neill, I thank you for doing the right thing,” Snipes-Garner said. “I truly, and sincerely thank you for firing the officer. Regardless of how you came to your decision, you finally made a decision that should have been made five years ago.”On Monday Fred Davie, chair of the New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board [CCRB], the independent body that brought the disciplinary prosecution against Pantaelo, said: “This process took entirely too long.“And the tragic reality is that neither a verdict from a judge nor a decision by a police commissioner can reverse what happened on 17 July 2014. Officer Daniel Pantaleo’s termination from the New York City police department does not make the death of Eric Garner any less harrowing. But it is heartening to know that some element of justice has been served.“Given the evidence the CCRB’s prosecutors presented at trial, the police commissioner had no option but to dismiss Pantaleo from the department. While 17 July is and always will be a somber day for the city of New York, today we can rest assured that Daniel Pantaleo will never patrol our streets again.”O’Neill’s decision instantly ignited further tension between the city’s powerful police unions, which have lobbied for Pantaleo, and the city’s executive, including New York City’s mayor, Bill de Blasio.Patrick Lynch, president of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, said in a statement O’Neill had “chosen politics and his own self-interest over the police officers he claims to lead”.Lynch advised his 23,000 NYPD members to “proceed with the utmost caution in this new reality, in which they may be deemed ‘reckless’ just for doing their job”.Although de Blasio has never publicly called for Pantaleo to lose his job the mayor, who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination, told a debate last month he wanted justice to be served.O’Neill said his decision to fire the officer had been based on the recommendations from the trial, and not pressure from City Hall.

Georgia-based Colonial sues contractor over Alabama spill

Georgia-based Colonial Pipeline Co. has sued an Alabama contractor over a spill that threatened gasoline supplies along the East Coast three years ago. The pipeline operator contends faulty work by the Birmingham-based Ceco Pipeline Services caused a crack that spilled at least 250,000 gallons of gasoline in rural Shelby County in September 2016. The spill shut down a major pipeline for weeks, tightening gasoline supplies along the Eastern Seaboard.

A woman tries to rob Family Dollar — and the cashier responds: ‘Not today,’ cops say

Employees at the Family Dollar in the 5000 block of 14th Street West thwarted a robbery attempt just after 9 p.m. on Sunday, according to the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office.

After shooting at cops, man slips out the back door during 2-hour standoff, NC cops say

The officers were responding to a noise complaint.

'Codfather' settlement means magnate will never fish again

The federal government says it has settled its civil case against a fishing magnate known as the Codfather, saying he will never be allowed to return to U.S. fisheries. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Monday its settlement with Carlos Rafael and his fishing captains will clear the way for Rafael's assets to be divested.

Trump is 'not happy' with Fox News over poll results

After a series of unfavorable polls from Fox News’ polling unit, President Trump has stepped up his complaints about the network, which he no longer considers a reliable ally.

U.S. prisons chief removed after Epstein’s death

Hugh Hurwitz’s reassignment comes amid mounting evidence that guards abdicated their responsibility to keep financier Jeffrey Epstein from killing himself.

New York police officer fired for deadly chokehold on Eric Garner

The New York Police Department on Monday fired the white officer who used a deadly chokehold on Eric Garner, an African American, while trying to arrest him in 2014 as Garner repeatedly said "I can't breathe." The incident helped fuel the "Black Lives Matter" movement in response to multiple incidents of white police killing unarmed black men across the United States. The officer, Daniel Pantaleo, was suspended earlier this month after a departmental judge ruled that the officer should be fired. He had previously been on desk duty since he was seen in widely viewed cellphone videos using a banned chokehold on Garner on a Staten Island sidewalk during an attempted arrest. Police believed Garner was selling loose, untaxed cigarettes. Commissioner James O'Neill said he struggled with the decision, which he made in recent days, after considering how Garner resisted arrest and, in his view, Mr Pantaleo acted properly up until the moment he applied the chokehold after the two men fell to the ground. Former New York City Police Officer Daniel Pantaleo has been dismissed Credit: AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez, File Mr O'Neill repeatedly returned to the empathy he had for Mr Pantaleo, having himself been a uniformed officer for 34 years. "That could possibly be me," he said. He also said he understood some police officers would be angry with him for not supporting one of their own. "I've been a cop a long time, and if I was still a cop, I'd probably be mad at me, I would, for not looking out for us," he said. But in the end, Mr O'Neill said, he could not overlook that Mr Pantaleo applied the chokehold despite having received sufficient police training that such a hold was barred, resulting in what he called a tragedy. Garner's repeated dying cries of "I can't breathe," widely viewed on social media, became a rallying cry for the Black Lives Matter movement, which protests what its leaders call the disparate use of excessive force against black people across the United States. His death, and the slow-moving investigations that followed, have generated some of the harshest criticisms of Mayor Bill de Blasio during his tenure and have spilled over into his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Lots to sample on a weekend visit to Pittsburgh dining scene

When celebrity chef Lidia Bastianich decided to open a restaurant in Pittsburgh's Strip District in 2001, she arrived in a neighborhood filled with warehouses and factories. This narrow stretch of streets in the shadow of the city's downtown office towers had long been home to food purveyors like Wholey's Fish Market and the Pennsylvania Macaroni Company, known to locals simply as Penn Mac. Nearly two decades later, as Bastianich's eponymous Pittsburgh restaurant is set to close in September, the neighborhood around it has changed dramatically.

Russian panel eyes alleged foreign interference in protests

Russia's lower house of parliament on Monday set up a commission to examine alleged cases of foreign interference in connection with a series of protests against the Moscow city council election, while President Vladimir Putin defended the harsh police crackdown on some of the demonstrations. The commission established by the State Duma holds its first session on Aug. 30. This summer, thousands of people have demonstrated -- in both authorized and unsanctioned protests -- against the election board's exclusion of some opposition and independent candidates from the Sept. 8 election.

Putin says Russian nuclear explosion poses no threat

Russian President Vladimir Putin says there is no threat from a deadly explosion at a secretive naval weapons testing range that has prompted international concern about radiation leaks. Putin said Monday in France that experts sent to the site on the White Sea are "controlling the situation" and no "serious changes" have been reported. Russian authorities have given contradictory information about what happened.

I've treated suicidal prisoners — Jeffrey Epstein's death is a medical, security disgrace

No matter what happened in Jeffrey Epstein's cell, medical personnel and prison authorities clearly failed in their duty to monitor and treat him.

Fate of legalized marijuana in Connecticut remains hazy

After coming close this year, Connecticut lawmakers have yet to decide when to make another attempt at legalizing and taxing recreational marijuana. Several bills that addressed such aspects cleared various committees during the recent legislative session, but they did not come up for a vote on the floor of the House and Senate, despite support from Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont.

Zimbabwe court bans anti-government protest in Bulawayo

Zimbabwe's courts upheld a police order banning an anti-government demonstration Monday in Bulawayo, the country's second largest city. Police prevented representatives the Movement for Democratic Change, the opposition party that had tried to organize the protest, from addressing supporters outside the courthouse where the ban was upheld. Armed police maintained heavy presence on Bulawayo's streets throughout the day and few demonstrators were seen.