AP News in Brief at 12:04 a.m. EDT
Trump proposes car-mileage rollback; states sue in protest
WASHINGTON (AP) - Citing safety, the Trump administration on Thursday proposed rolling back car-mileage standards, backing away from years of government efforts to cut Americans' trips to the gas station and reduce unhealthy, climate-changing tailpipe emissions.
If the proposed rule becomes final, it could roil the auto industry as it prepares for new model years and weaken one of the federal government's chief weapons against climate change - regulating emissions from cars and other vehicles. The result, opponents say, will be dirtier air and more pollution-related illness and death.
The proposal itself estimates it could cost tens of thousands of jobs - auto workers who deal with making vehicles more fuel efficient.
The administration also said it wants to revoke an authority granted to California under the half-century-old Clean Air Act to set its own, tougher mileage standards. California and 16 other states already have filed suit to block any change in the fuel efficiency rules.
"The EPA has handed decision making over to the fossil fuel lobbyists ... the flat-Earthers, the climate change deniers," said Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey.
___
Remains from North Korea 'consistent with being Americans'
WASHINGTON (AP) - The remains handed over by North Korea last week in 55 boxes are "consistent with being Americans," based on an initial examination, although none has been positively identified, a U.S. scientist who has seen the remains said Thursday.
Although President Donald Trump has publicly thanked North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for fulfilling the promise he made at their June 12 Singapore summit to return American war remains, U.S. officials had cautioned that little was known about the remains and that they could not be quickly identified.
John E. Byrd, director of the Defense Department laboratory in Hawaii where the 55 cases arrived on Wednesday, cited several reasons for saying that at least some of the remains appear to be those of Americans missing from the Korean War.
Byrd was present when North Korean officials turned over the 55 boxes at Wonsan airport in North Korea last Friday, and he was among the U.S. government specialists who made a further preliminary examination of the contents after the boxes were flown to Osan air base in South Korea the same day.
A cursory examination at Wonsan confirmed that the remains were human, he said, and a closer look at Osan gave reason to believe they likely are Americans.
___
Trump trashes media as 'fake, fake disgusting burma news' at rally
WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (AP) - Thundering that the media is the "fake, fake disgusting burma news," President Donald Trump unleashed a torrent of grievances Thursday at a Pennsylvania campaign rally in which he cast journalists as his true political opponent.
Trump barnstormed in a state that he swiped from the Democrats in 2016 and that is home to a Senate seat he is trying to place in the Republicans' column this fall. But the race between GOP U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta and two-term incumbent Democratic Sen. Bob Casey took a back seat to Trump's invectives against the media, which came amid a backdrop of antagonism to journalists from the White House and hostility from the thousands packed into a loud, overheated Wilkes-Barre arena.
"What ever happened to the free press? What ever happened to honest reporting?" Trump asked, pointing to the media in the back of the room. "They don't report it. They only make up stories."
Time and time again, Trump denounced the press for underselling his accomplishments and doubting his political rise.
He tore into the media for diminishing what he accomplished at his Singapore summit with North Korea leader Kim Jong Un. He complained about the tough questioning he received in Helsinki when he met with Russia's Vladimir Putin last month. And he began his rally speech with a 10-minute remembrance of his 2016 election night victory, bemoaning that Pennsylvania wasn't the state to clinch the White House for him only because "the fake burma news refused to call it."
___
Reports: Oregon has pot oversupply, Colorado hits the mark
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - Two of the first states to broadly legalize marijuana took different approaches to regulation that left Oregon with a vast oversupply and Colorado with a well-balanced market. But in both states prices for bud have plummeted.
A new Oregon report by law enforcement found nearly 70 percent of the legal recreational marijuana grown goes unsold, while an unrelated state-commissioned Colorado study found most growers there are planting less than half of their legal allotment - and still meeting demand.
The reports offer case studies for California and other pot-friendly states as they ramp up their legal pot industries. They also underscore some key differences in how broad legalization was handled that have helped shape differently evolving markets in each state.
The Oregon study released by the Oregon-Idaho High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area - a coalition of local, state and federal agencies - includes the medical and general-use markets and the illegal market, despite gaps in data on illicit marijuana grows.
It noted Oregon still has a serious problem with out-of-state trafficking and black market grows - and the top federal law enforcement officer in Oregon demanded more cooperation from state and local officials Thursday in a strident statement.
___
US wants ACLU to take lead on reuniting separated families
SAN DIEGO (AP) - The Trump administration and the American Civil Liberties Union on Thursday revealed widely divergent plans on how to reunite hundreds of immigrant children with parents who have been deported since the families were separated at the U.S.-Mexico border.
President Donald Trump's administration puts the onus on the ACLU, asking that the organization use its "considerable resources" to find parents in their home countries, predominantly Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. The U.S. Justice Department said in a court filing that the State Department has begun talks with foreign governments on how the administration may be able to aid the effort.
The ACLU, which sued on behalf of separated parents, called for the government to take "significant and prompt steps" to find the parents on its own.
"Plaintiffs have made clear that they will do whatever they can to help locate the deported parents, but emphasize that the government must bear the ultimate burden of finding the parents," the ACLU said in a filing, pinning blame for "the crisis" on the administration and arguing it has far more resources.
A decision on how to bridge the differences falls to U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw, who has ordered that more than 2,500 children be reunited with their families. He was scheduled to speak with both sides in a conference call Friday.
___
Bredesen, Blackburn win primaries in race for US Senate
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Former Tennessee Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen and Republican U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn have been running their campaigns for a critical U.S. Senate seat like their matchup was assured.
Voters made it official Thursday.
Bredesen and Blackburn disposed of minimal opposition in their primary elections, kicking off what's expected to a bruising, expensive fight that could determine Democrats' chances of overturning the 51-49 Republican Senate majority.
Polls have indicated a close contest to replace retiring Republican Sen. Bob Corker.
A general election win would be historic for Blackburn, who would become the first female U.S. senator ever elected in Tennessee.
___
Financial fruit: Apple becomes 1st trillion-dollar company
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Apple is the world's first publicly traded company to be valued at $1 trillion, the financial fruit of stylish technology that has redefined what we expect from our gadgets.
The milestone reached Thursday marks the latest triumph of a trend-setting company that two mavericks named Steve started in a Silicon Valley garage 42 years ago.
Apple's shares gained $5.89 to close at $207.39, leaving the company's market value a notch above $1 trillion - around $1,001,679,220,000, according to FactSet. Apple sits atop a U.S. stock market that has become dominated by technology-centered companies: Amazon, Google's parent Alphabet, Microsoft and Facebook round out the top five in market value.
The achievement seemed unimaginable in 1997 when Apple teetered on the edge of bankruptcy, with its stock trading for less than $1, on a split-adjusted basis, and its market value dropping below $2 billion.
To survive, Apple brought back its once-exiled co-founder, Steve Jobs, as interim CEO and turned to its archrival Microsoft for a $150 million cash infusion to help pay its bills.
___
Zimbabwe's Mnangagwa wins 1st post-Mugabe election
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa won election Friday with just over 50 percent of the ballots as the ruling party maintained control of the government in the first vote since the fall of longtime leader Robert Mugabe.
Mnangagwa received 50.8 percent of the vote while main opposition challenger Nelson Chamisa received 44.3 percent. The opposition is almost certain to challenge the results in the courts or in the streets.
While election day was peaceful in a break from the past, deadly violence on Wednesday against people protesting alleged vote-rigging reminded many Zimbabweans of the decades of military-backed repression under Mugabe.
Zimbabwe's president says he is "humbled" by his win.
"Though we may have been divided at the polls, we are united in our dreams," Mnangagwa said on Twitter.
___
Ohio State closes ranks as Meyer probe adds new scandal
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Ohio State closed ranks around the rollout of its football season as the university investigates whether coach Urban Meyer failed to report domestic abuse allegations, a scandal hitting a school already accused of not facing up to sexual misconduct allegations against a sports doctor.
The Buckeyes planned to open their first football practice Friday without Meyer, who was put on administrative leave during the probe and also suspended from an endorsement deal by restaurant chain Bob Evans. It's not clear how restrictive the paid leave will be for the coach set to earn $7.6 million for the season after getting a raise this year.
Ohio State officials said Thursday that reporters would be barred from football practices until at least next week, and university trustees announced that a six-member committee will head up the investigation.
Co-offensive coordinator Ryan Day has been named acting head coach.
"Due to the ongoing investigation, football coaches and student-athletes will not be available for interviews until further notice and all practices will be closed," Ohio State spokesman Jerry Emig said in an email.
___
Bookkeeper: Paul Manafort 'approved every penny' of bills
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) - Paul Manafort inflated his business income by millions of dollars and kept his bookkeeper in the dark about the foreign bank accounts he was using to buy luxury items and pay personal expenses, according to testimony and documents during his trial Thursday.
But he otherwise approved "every penny" of the personal bills bookkeeper Heather Washkuhn paid for him, she said during hours on the witness stand.
That testimony is important to special counsel Robert Mueller's team as it looks to rebut defense arguments that Manafort can't be responsible for financial fraud because he left the details of his spending to others. That includes his longtime associate Rick Gates, who pleaded guilty earlier this year and is expected to testify soon as the government's star witness.
"I would say he was very knowledgeable. He was very detail-oriented. He approved every penny of everything we paid," Washkuhn told jurors.
With Washkuhn on the stand, prosecutors showed jurors a series of documents submitted by Manafort to obtain bank loans, including one in which he appeared to inflate the net income of his business by roughly $4 million. Prosecutors say he tried to pass the documents off as coming from her accounting firm.
Advertisement
