Clinton, Trump target two different Americas in final push
Clinton, Trump target two different Americas in final push
ATKINSON, N.H. (AP) — Hillary Clinton sped across battleground states Friday trying to energize minority and female supporters and seal a historic presidential victory, while Donald Trump traveled to small-town America to fire up the white, working-class voters he insists will bring the crown to his outsider campaign.
Clinton and Democratic allies used star power and stark warnings as they addressed her base of African-American, Hispanic and female voters. She was campaigning in urban centers of Detroit, Pittsburgh and Cleveland while President Barack Obama made her case in Charlotte, North Carolina — all cities where minority voters are crucial.
In Pittsburgh, a city where one in three people is not white, Clinton hammered Trump as “someone who demeans women, mocks people with disabilities, insults African-Americans and Latinos and demonizes immigrants and Muslims.”
“Everywhere he goes he leaves people behind,” Clinton told rowdy supporters. She is hoping to be elected next Tuesday as the nation’s first female president.
Trump, meanwhile, was on a tour of rural areas, hoping to boost turnout among the voters drawn to his promise to bring back a lost America. He started his day in Atkinson, New Hampshire, population 6,800 and almost 98 percent white, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. From there, he was bound for Wilmington, Ohio, another overwhelmingly white town where just 13 percent of residents have a college degree.
Questions about Christie role swirl after ex-allies’ conviction
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Two former aides to Gov. Chris Christie were convicted Friday of causing epic traffic jams for political revenge near the nation’s busiest bridge, a verdict that further damaged the Republican governor’s legacy and raised anew questions about why Christie and his inner circle escaped prosecution.
Bridget Kelly, Christie’s former deputy chief of staff, and Bill Baroni, Christie’s appointee to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, were found guilty of all counts against them. Kelly cried as the verdict was read; Baroni showed no emotion. Both defendants announced plans to appeal.
Testimony during the seven-week trial contradicted Christie’s statements about when he knew about the four days of gridlock in the town of Fort Lee in September 2013. The traffic jams were aimed at retaliating against Democratic Mayor Mark Sokolich for not endorsing Christie’s re-election, prosecutors alleged.
Other testimony described some of Christie’s top advisers and confidants either knowing about the plan ahead of time or soon afterward, and being aware of the purported political motivation, well before Christie told reporters in December 2013 that none of his staff was involved.
Baroni’s attorney, Michael Baldassare, called the case “a disgrace” and said the U.S. attorney’s office should be “ashamed” of where it drew the line on who to charge.
Heavy fighting as Iraqi troops drive deeper into Mosul
MOSUL, Iraq (AP) — Iraqi special forces launched a two-pronged assault deeper into Mosul’s urban center on Friday, unleashing the most intense street battles against Islamic State militants since the offensive began nearly three weeks ago.
Smoke rose across eastern neighborhoods of Iraq’s second-largest city as heavy fighting continued after sundown, with explosions and machine gun fire echoing in the streets as mosques called for evening prayer.
More than 3,000 Iraqi troops took part in the assault under heavy U.S.-led coalition air support, but the pace of the fight also slowed as Iraqi forces moved from fighting in more rural areas with few civilians to the tight, narrow streets of Mosul proper. Sniper fire repeatedly stalled the advance, as commanders called in airstrikes or artillery support after coming under fire.
As the operation got underway, columns of armored vehicles wound through the desert, pushing through dirt berms and drawing heavy fire as they closed in on the middle-class Tahrir and Zahara districts. The area was once named after former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
Seven suicide attackers in explosives-laden vehicles barreled toward the troops, with two getting through and detonating their charges, Lt. Col. Muhanad al-Timimi told The Associated Press. The others were destroyed, including a bulldozer that was hit by an airstrike from the U.S.-led coalition supporting the offensive.
Jury: Rolling Stone’s rape story defamed university official
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Rolling Stone magazine, its publisher and a reporter defamed a University of Virginia administrator who sued them for $7.5 million over a discredited story about a gang rape at a fraternity house, a federal jury said Friday.
The 10-member jury in Charlottesville sided with administrator Nicole Eramo, who claimed the article portrayed her as a villain. Jurors found that journalist Sabrina Rubin Erdely was responsible for libel, with actual malice, and that Rolling Stone and its publisher were also responsible for defaming Eramo.
Eramo claimed the November 2014 article falsely said she discouraged the woman identified only as Jackie from reporting the incident to police. A police investigation found no evidence to back up Jackie’s claims about being raped.
Rolling Stone’s attorneys contended during the trial that Jackie appeared to be an entirely credible source and that the reporter fell victim to an elaborate ruse. The magazine stood by its criticism of the university’s handling of sexual assault cases despite problems with Jackie’s story.
In a statement Friday, the magazine apologized to Eramo and others impacted by the article.
For Obama, Clinton rallies a chance to reflect on his legacy
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — President Barack Obama likes to say that historians, not he, will evaluate his legacy with the perspective only hindsight can provide. Yet as he campaigns across the country for Hillary Clinton, Obama is offering his own first draft of the way he hopes his eight years in office will be remembered.
For Obama, the final stretch of the campaign has been a nagging reminder that his presidency is about to close, and an opportunity for self-reflection that the president has seized. After all, Obama’s chief argument for Clinton is that only by electing her over Donald Trump can his supporters protect his accomplishments.
“It’s been hard work, and there have been times where we’ve had setbacks,” Obama told roughly 4,500 people packed in a gymnasium Friday in North Carolina. “But I’ll tell you why I didn’t get discouraged. I didn’t get discouraged because of you.”
Lest the country forget his accomplishments, he used his speech to revisit what he considers his greatest hits: 20 million Americans who have gained health coverage, unprecedented steps on climate change, the death of Osama bin Laden. He touted higher graduation rates and the legalization of gay marriage as signs of major progress.
The president seemed particularly pleased to have spotted a road sign advertising $1.99-a-gallon gas, despite his naysayers’ predictions in 2008 that it would climb to many times that if he were elected.
Body found where woman was found chained up ‘like a dog’
SPARTANBURG, S.C. (AP) — A woman who was “chained up like a dog” for weeks in a dark storage container was lured to her captor’s South Carolina property for a cleaning job with her boyfriend, a family friend said Friday as search teams digging up the area found one body and looked for more.
Authorities were “trying to make sure that we don’t have a serial killer on our hands,” the sheriff said. Investigators were told the property could hold as many as three other corpses.
Prosecutor Barry Barnette said the woman saw her captor shoot and kill her boyfriend. The body discovered Friday was not immediately identified.
The couple disappeared around Aug. 31 when they went to do the work on the suspect’s nearly 100-acre property in a rural area near the community of Woodruff, said Daniel Herren, a friend who sat with her in her hospital room after she was rescued Thursday.
“They were going to do some work, help cleaning up the property. And he pulled out a gun and took them hostage,” Herren said, adding that the abduction happened quickly.
2 New York police sergeants shot, 1 killed; suspect dead
NEW YORK (AP) — Authorities say a New York City police sergeant has been fatally shot and another has been wounded in an exchange of gunfire with a suspect in the Bronx.
Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo (KWOH’-moh) announced the sergeant’s death Friday. He says the other officer was shot in the leg and is undergoing treatment.
Authorities say the gunman was killed. They say he had fired on officers who had stopped his car near a ballfield following a brief pursuit.
A law enforcement official identifies the suspect as 35-year-old Manuel Rosales. The official says a woman called 911 after Rosales broke into her home, violating an order of protection.
The official wasn’t authorized to discuss an ongoing case and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Fox apologizes for inaccurate Hillary Clinton report
NEW YORK (AP) — Fox News Channel apologized Friday for an inaccurate report this week that Hillary Clinton would likely be indicted as a result of an investigation by the FBI into the Clinton Foundation.
Fox’s Bret Baier, who initially reported on the case Wednesday, said Friday that “it was a mistake, and for that I’m sorry.”
Clinton’s critics accused her family of giving donors special access to the State Department when Clinton was secretary of state.
The Associated Press reported this week that FBI agents seeking an investigation into the foundation talked to Justice Department lawyers last winter about allegations they wanted to pursue, but prosecutors were wary about the strength of the information they presented. It’s unclear whether FBI agents are still looking into the foundation.