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• Influential Rabbi Harold Schulweis dies at 89 in California
• Obama says U.S. blacks overall better off than when he began presidency
• NY police officer apparently punches teen in video, probe underway
• Child becomes fourth to die from California crash outside church
• FBI blames North Korea for Sony hack
• Boy found dead in New York after false kidnap report, police say
• Hackers' latest message to Sony
• Painting sells for staggering sum
• Two deaths in Minnesota tied to tainted caramel apples: officials
• 'A human being gripped by a severe mental illness'
• In North Dakota, countdown looms for $5.3 billion oil tax break
• Lawyers for two friends of accused Boston bombers due in court
• 8 children killed, mother stabbed, in Australia
• U.S. green groups sue EPA over stormwater regulations
• Pakistan: 67 militants killed after school massacre
• Pakistan military kills 32 militants after school massacre
• White House releases snapshot of plan to rate U.S. colleges
• 8 children killed in home in northern Australia
• Massive Los Angeles construction fire was arson, authorities say
• Report: Death sentences, executions continue to drop
• Uber's fight of California data-sharing rule highlights its bumpy road
• Accused Boston marathon bomber makes first appearance since 2013
• Report: Secret Service needs more, better-trained agents
• Obama to set up panel to boost trust between police and communities

Influential Rabbi Harold Schulweis dies at 89 in California Posted: 19 Dec 2014 12:48 PM PST By Alex Dobuzinskis LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Rabbi Harold Schulweis, a tireless innovator who implored followers to fight against genocide and see Judaism as a religion with universal significance, has died at age 89 at his Los Angeles home, his synagogue said in a statement. Schulweis, who was regarded as one of the most influential rabbis of his generation, died on Thursday after a struggle with heart disease, his congregation Valley Beth Shalom said in a statement. ...

Obama says U.S. blacks overall better off than when he began presidency Posted: 19 Dec 2014 12:13 PM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Friday said U.S. blacks are better off now than they were when he began his presidency in 2009, but that the gap between blacks and whites remains. "Like the rest of America, Black America, in the aggregate, is better off now than it was when I came into office ... the gap between income and wealth of white and black America persists, and we've got more work to do on that front," he told reporters in an end-of-year news conference. (Reporting by Gabriel Debenedetti; Editing by Chris Reese)

NY police officer apparently punches teen in video, probe underway Posted: 19 Dec 2014 11:07 AM PST NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York City police are investigating a plainclothes officer who appears to punch a teen-aged black boy during an arrest that was captured on video and widely circulated on the Internet, the department said on Friday. The posting of the footage follows days of U.S. protests over recent cases of police violence toward unarmed black men, including one in which a New York City man died after an officer placed him in a banned chokehold. ...

Child becomes fourth to die from California crash outside church Posted: 19 Dec 2014 10:34 AM PST LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A 6-year-old boy has become the fourth person to die from a crash earlier this week that saw a driver plow into a group of pedestrians leaving a church in Southern California, a coroner's official said on Friday. Samuel Gaza, who was hospitalized with head trauma and a bruised lung, died just before midnight on Thursday, said Los Angeles County Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter. The cause of death is pending an autopsy. ...

FBI blames North Korea for Sony hack Posted: 19 Dec 2014 09:43 AM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration on Friday formally accused the North Korean government of being responsible for the devastating hacking attack against Sony Pictures Entertainment, providing the most detailed accounting to date of a hugely expensive break-in that could lead to a U.S. response.

Boy found dead in New York after false kidnap report, police say Posted: 19 Dec 2014 09:11 AM PST NEW YORK (Reuters) - The body of a 5-year-old boy was found near his home in upstate New York on Thursday night hours after a relative told police two men in ski masks had kidnapped him, a report the local sheriff said on Friday appeared to have been a lie. Kenneth White lived with his aunt, his legal guardian, in a trailer home in Berne, a town near Albany, according to the Albany Times Union. ...

Hackers' latest message to Sony Posted: 19 Dec 2014 08:54 AM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The hackers who launched a cyberattack on Sony Pictures praised the company's decision to cancel the release of "The Interview" and said its data will be secure if they continue to comply, CNN reported on Friday, quoting the message.

Painting sells for staggering sum Posted: 19 Dec 2014 08:03 AM PST GROSSE POINTE SHORES, Mich. (AP) — The Edsel & Eleanor Ford House kept secret its 2013 sale of an oil painting by French post-impressionist Paul Cezanne to a private buyer for $100 million to help protect Detroit-owned artworks under threat due to the city's bankruptcy.

Two deaths in Minnesota tied to tainted caramel apples: officials Posted: 19 Dec 2014 07:31 AM PST (Reuters) - Minnesota health officials say that two people have died and two others were hospitalized in recent weeks after eating listeria-tainted caramel apples. The four people in Minnesota were adults between the ages of 59 and 90 who became ill in late October and November from caramel apples contaminated with the bacteria, Minnesota Department of Health spokesman Doug Schultz said on Friday. "Anytime we have two cases or more that match by pathogen and by time and space, that to us indicates there may be an outbreak," Schultz said. ...

'A human being gripped by a severe mental illness' Posted: 19 Dec 2014 06:10 AM PST James Holmes's parents pleading for him to be spared the death penalty.

In North Dakota, countdown looms for $5.3 billion oil tax break Posted: 19 Dec 2014 04:33 AM PST By Ernest Scheyder BISMARCK, N.D. (Reuters) - Tumbling U.S. oil markets hit an important if obscure milestone on Thursday, closing for the first time at a price that could trigger a $5.3 billion, two-year tax break for North Dakota oil drillers as soon as next summer. Under a decades-old law, the state at the heart of the U.S. shale oil boom would waive its 6.5 percent oil extraction tax once the average monthly price of benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude at Cushing, Oklahoma, falls below a certain threshold for five consecutive months. For next year, that price is $55.08 per ...

Lawyers for two friends of accused Boston bombers due in court Posted: 19 Dec 2014 04:18 AM PST BOSTON (Reuters) - Lawyers for two friends of the accused Boston Marathon bombers are due in court on Friday for separate hearings as the city braces for the January start of a trial focused on the attack that killed three people and injured more than 260. Attorneys for Khairullozhon Matanov, a cab driver from Kyrgyzstan who was charged with lying to investigators by downplaying his relationship with the accused bombers after calling police to offer information on them, are expected to ask a judge to crack down on leaks about their client from law-enforcement sources. ...

8 children killed, mother stabbed, in Australia Posted: 19 Dec 2014 04:00 AM PST SYDNEY (AP) — Eight dead children and a woman suffering from stab wounds were found inside a home in a northern Australian city on Friday, police said.

U.S. green groups sue EPA over stormwater regulations Posted: 19 Dec 2014 03:11 AM PST By Ayesha Rascoe WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two environmental groups have sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for what the groups said was failing to comply with a court order requiring the agency to strengthen regulations preventing pollution from storm water runoff. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Environmental Defense Center (EDC) said in a statement that they filed the suit on Thursday in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. The EPA did not immediately respond to a request for comment. ...

Pakistan: 67 militants killed after school massacre Posted: 19 Dec 2014 12:02 AM PST ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistani jets and ground forces killed 67 militants in a northwestern tribal region near the Afghan border, officials said Friday, days after Taliban fighters killed 148 people — most of them children — in a school massacre.

Pakistan military kills 32 militants after school massacre Posted: 18 Dec 2014 11:46 PM PST Pakistan's military said on Friday it had killed 32 militants in clashes in a troubled tribal region near the Afghan border, days after a Taliban massacre killed 148 people at a school.

White House releases snapshot of plan to rate U.S. colleges Posted: 18 Dec 2014 09:18 PM PST By Elvina Nawaguna WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Friday released a draft of its plan to rate U.S. colleges and tie federal aid to performance as a way to coax institutions to pull up their socks. The U.S. Education Department will rate institutions on their performance, intake of low-income students, completion rates, affordability, employment prospects and student loan repayment rates. ...

8 children killed in home in northern Australia Posted: 18 Dec 2014 07:57 PM PST SYDNEY (AP) — Eight dead children and a woman suffering from stab wounds were found inside a home in a northern Australian city on Friday, police said.

Massive Los Angeles construction fire was arson, authorities say Posted: 18 Dec 2014 07:25 PM PST By Dan Whitcomb LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A construction fire that gutted an entire city block of downtown Los Angeles and caused up to $30 million in damages was an act of arson, authorities said on Thursday. Los Angeles Fire Department officials have previously said the blaze, one of the largest structure fires in the city's recent history, was likely arson but no suspects have been arrested or charged. The conflagration erupted at about 1:30 a.m. on Dec. 8 and quickly destroyed a seven-story luxury apartment complex under construction near the junction of two freeways. ...

Report: Death sentences, executions continue to drop Posted: 18 Dec 2014 05:16 PM PST The Death Penalty Information Center says the number of executions in 2014 was the lowest it's been in 20 years.

Uber's fight of California data-sharing rule highlights its bumpy road Posted: 18 Dec 2014 04:44 PM PST By Sarah McBride SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Uber argued Thursday that it should not have to turn over ride data in a California regulatory standoff that shows how the transportation service is falling afoul of officials who could threaten its expansion. The issue, which is being heard in a California administrative court and whose outcome will not be known until next year, pits Uber against the California Public Utilities Commission. ...

Accused Boston marathon bomber makes first appearance since 2013 Posted: 18 Dec 2014 02:49 PM PST The scene that unfolded in a federal courtroom in Boston on Thursday was Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's first public appearance in 17 months. The surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings, said just five words in the final hearing before his trial begins in January on charges that he, along with his older brother, set off two deadly bombs near the marathon finish line in April 2013.

Report: Secret Service needs more, better-trained agents Posted: 18 Dec 2014 02:32 PM PST After a prostitution scandal and consternation over how a fence-jumper at the White House got deep into the presidential mansion before he was stopped, the Secret Service needs to make sweeping changes like building a taller fence, hiring many more agents, and stepping up their training, an independent commission says.

Obama to set up panel to boost trust between police and communities Posted: 18 Dec 2014 02:16 PM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Thursday will set up a task force to draw up recommendations to strengthen trust between law enforcement and local communities, following protests over several instances of police killings of unarmed people this year. "There is a sense of urgency," White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett told reporters before Obama was to sign an executive order setting up the Task Force on 21st Century Policing. She said the order directs the 11-member panel to submit recommendations to the president by March 2. Obama had said on Dec. ...

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