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Human error blamed for New York subway crash that hurt 34

New York City's Wednesday morning rush-hour trains were jammed with riders after some services were rerouted following a derailment on Tuesday caused by unsecured replacement track. A preliminary investigation found the southbound A train, a line that runs through Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens, struck a tunnel wall and derailed in Harlem because a replacement rail stored on the tracks was not properly bolted down, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said in a statement. Transit inspectors are checking "every inch of rail to ensure that each and every replacement part is properly stored and secured," the MTA said.

Meat processor cuts deal with ABC in 'pink slime' defamation case

BPI had claimed that ABC, a unit of Walt Disney Co , and Avila defamed the company by calling its ground-beef product “pink slime” and making errors and omissions in a 2012 report. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

Prosecutor, governor spar over death penalty in Florida's top court

Aramis Ayala, a Democrat who took office in January, sued the Republican governor this spring over his decision to take her off two dozen murder cases. Scott says Florida state attorneys should "prosecute individuals to the fullest extent of the law," including the death penalty.

Man smashes Arkansas Capitol Ten Commandments monument: police

A newly installed Ten Commandments monument on Arkansas state Capitol grounds was toppled on Wednesday by a man police said drove his vehicle into the granite slab and posted the incident on Facebook. "It was shattered into a lot of pieces," Chris Powell, a spokesman for the Secretary of State and Capitol Police, said in an interview. The suspect, identified as Michael Reed, 32, was arrested on three charges, including a felony of defacing an object of public interest.

Trump says Senate Republicans likely to pass healthcare bill

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday expressed confidence that the Republican-led Senate would ultimately prevail in passing legislation aimed at repealing and replacing the 2010 healthcare law passed under his predecessor, former Democratic president Barack Obama.

Control of biggest U.S. school system weighed by New York lawmakers

New York state lawmakers returned to the legislature on Wednesday for a special session to consider granting New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio a one-year extension to control the city's public school system, the largest in the United States. Unless the New York State Legislature acts, control of the education system that serves 1.1 million students reverts on Friday to the state's Board of Education. Governor Andrew Cuomo called vacationing lawmakers back to the statehouse in Albany a week after they adjourned their regular 2017 session.

China frees on bail activists who probed Ivanka shoe factories

Three activists detained while investigating Chinese factories that have made shoes for Ivanka Trump's brand have been released on bail awaiting trial, their rights group said on Wednesday. China Labor Watch said the families of Su Heng, Li Zhao and Hua Haifeng had been notified by police in Ganzhou in southeast China they could go to the city and pay bail for their release. The activists' lawyers said their actions were not criminal and they hoped Chinese courts would conduct a fair trial, the U.S.-based China Labor Watch said.

Suspect in Michigan airport stabbing to remain in detention

A man charged with stabbing an airport police officer in an attack federal investigators are probing as an act of terrorism will remain in detention until a hearing next week, his lawyers said on Wednesday. Amor Ftouhi, 49, of Quebec, Canada, was charged in federal court with violence at an international airport for stabbing officer Jeff Neville at the Bishop International Airport in Flint on June 21.

Yes he can: 'Clever boy' Obama returns to Indonesia for family vacation

From white water rafting in Bali to visiting temples on Java, former U.S. President Barack Obama's private family holiday is being closely tracked in Indonesia where he spent four years as a child. Obama was six when he moved to Jakarta after his American mother, Ann Dunham, married an Indonesian man following the end of her marriage to Obama's Kenyan father. "I feel proud that my friend became a president," said Sonni Gondokusumo, 56, a former classmate of Obama at the Menteng 01 state elementary school in Jakarta.

Utah wildfire levels 13 homes, forces evacuation of 1,500 people

A fierce wildfire that has destroyed more than a dozen homes and forced the evacuation of 1,500 residents raged largely unchecked in southwestern Utah for an 11th day, as an army of firefighters struggled to corral the flames. As of Tuesday morning, the blaze had scorched nearly 50,000 acres, the bulk of that in the Dixie National Forest, with crews managing to carve containment lines around just 10 percent of the fire's perimeter, officials said. The fire erupted on June 17 near the ski resort of Brian Head, Utah, about 30 miles northeast of Zion National Park, and spread quickly as high winds drove flames into dense forests, threatening homes in nearby communities.

Judge reopens case of Colorado 'intersex' veteran denied passport

A federal judge on Tuesday agreed to review the constitutionality of a U.S. State Department policy of refusing to grant passports to people who identify as neither male nor female. In November, U.S. District Judge R. Brooke Jackson directed the State Department to reconsider its "binary-only gender passport policy," in the case of Navy veteran Dan Zzyym, an “intersex” Colorado resident who sued the federal government for refusing to issue a passport because it requires an applicant to denote either male or female gender. After conducting its court-ordered review, the State Department last month again denied Zzyym’s application, according to a motion filed on the plaintiff's behalf by the Lambda Legal Defense Fund asking Jackson to reopen the case.

'Pharma bro' Martin Shkreli's notoriety slows New York jury selection

Jury selection in the New York trial of former drug company executive Martin Shkreli will enter its third day Wednesday, after some potential jurors said they could not be fair to a man who gained notoriety by raising the price of a life-saving drug more than 5,000 percent. U.S. prosecutors have accused Shkreli, dubbed the "pharma bro," of running a Ponzi-like scheme at his former hedge fund and a drug company he once ran. Shkreli has pleaded not guilty to charges of securities and wire fraud.

Illinois House Democrats push new budget plan to end impasse

Staring down the start of a new fiscal year, Illinois House Democrats offered a budget on Tuesday that would spend less than the Republican governor's plan, but kept their specific revenue-raising proposal under wraps. An impasse between Governor Bruce Rauner and Democrats who control the legislature has left Illinois without complete budgets for an unprecedented two-straight fiscal years. The nearly $36.5 billion general funds budget was the first spending blueprint offered by House Speaker Michael Madigan for the fiscal year that begins Saturday.

Madoff settlements reach $12 billion with new accords

The trustee recouping money for Bernard Madoff's victims on Tuesday announced nearly $371 million of new settlements with two groups of offshore funds that invested with the imprisoned Ponzi schemer, boosting the total recovery to about $12 billion. Irving Picard, the trustee, said Lagoon Investment Ltd agreed to repay $240.7 million from an account through which Hermes International Fund Ltd invested with Madoff, while Thema Fund Ltd and an affiliate agreed to repay $130.1 million. Picard announced the settlements with British Virgin Islands-based Lagoon and Bermuda-based Thema one day after revealing more than $23 million of settlements with the estates of Madoff's late sons Andrew and Mark, and entities affiliated with the Madoff family.

Some would-be immigrants left in limbo after Supreme Court travel ban order

Without close family in the United States, Elly and her husband had few options for getting permission to immigrate to America from Iran. "Since last year, we made all the important decisions in our lives because we hoped we would get a visa," Elly said, declining to give her full name because her visa application is still in process. The couple decided to put off having children and purchasing a home until after their move to the United States.

New York mob suspects admit to vendetta arson, robbery

Three men, including the late mobster John Gotti's grandson, admitted on Tuesday that they torched a car because its driver cut off a reputed Bonanno crime family associate in traffic in April 2012, prosecutors said. Prosecutors said Vincent Asaro, 82, who was cleared in November 2015 of involvement in the famed 1978 Lufthansa airport heist that helped inspire the movie "Goodfellas," became enraged when a motorist moved in front of his car at a traffic light. John J. Gotti, Matthew "Fat Matt" Rullan and Asaro, an alleged member of the Bonanno crime family, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn to charges related to the arson and robbery under an agreement with federal prosecutors, said John Marzulli, a spokesman for Acting U.S. Attorney Bridget Rohde.

Family sues over fatal police shooting of Louisiana black man

The family of a black man killed last year by police in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city and police on Tuesday, alleging a history of excessive-force incidents and racism toward African-Americans. The death of Alton Sterling, 37, was among a series of racially charged police killings that inflamed a national debate over treatment of minorities by law enforcement. The lawsuit, filed in state court on behalf of Sterling's five children, seeks unspecified damages from the city, Police Chief Carl Dabadie Jr. and his department, and the two officers involved in the shooting, among others.

Connecticut will seek solution in Yale gender-neutral bathroom suit

A Connecticut official said on Tuesday the state would reconsider policies that can limit gender-neutral bathrooms in public buildings following a lawsuit by Yale University, the latest skirmish in the broader U.S. fight about gender identity. The Ivy League school said in the lawsuit it wants to designate all single-occupant restrooms at its law school as gender neutral, but the plan runs afoul of the state building code, which does not count gender-neutral bathrooms when it assesses whether a public building has enough toilets.

EPA and Army Corps seek to rescind clean water rule

By Valerie Volcovici WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Army Corps of Engineers released a proposal on Tuesday to repeal the 2015 Clean Water Rule, the latest move by the Trump administration to unwind environmental regulations put in place under former President Barack Obama. The agencies are working to rescind the rule, known as the Waters of the United States rule, and reinstate the language of the rule before it was changed in 2015. The rule updated the federal Clean Water Act to define what waterways - including streams, rivers and other bodies - can be regulated by the federal government, stirring anger by the agriculture and energy industries, which said it gave regulators too much authority.

North Carolina man gets life in prison for plotting Islamic State attack

Justin Sullivan, 21, of Morganton, was sentenced in federal court in Asheville on one count of attempting to commit an act of terrorism transcending national boundaries, the Justice Department said in a statement. Sullivan had pleaded guilty in November 2016, and the agreement with prosecutors called for the life sentence. Prosecutors said Sullivan conspired with Junaid Hussain, a British hacker who was an online recruiter of people to carry out attacks on behalf of the militant group Islamic State.

Ten Commandments monument installed in Arkansas; ACLU vows court fight

Arkansas installed a Ten Commandments monument on the state's Capitol grounds on Tuesday, and a civil liberties group pledged a court challenge, saying it showed an unconstitutional government preference for a certain religion. Legislators approved the act for the monument in 2015, and whether it was appropriate for the public grounds has been debated since. At the installation ceremony for the some 3,000-pound (1,360 kg) granite slab in Little Rock, state Senator Jason Rapert noted that the Ten Commandments were chiseled into the portals of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Supreme Court tosses ruling against religious school subsidies

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday threw out a lower court's ruling prohibiting the use of public funds to pay for children to attend private religious schools, a day after it issued a major ruling narrowing the separation of church and state. The justices ordered Colorado's top court to reconsider the legality of school "voucher" programs in light of Monday's ruling that churches and other religious entities cannot be categorically denied public money even in states whose constitutions explicitly ban such funding. In that ruling, which could bolster the case for vouchers and other subsidies to religious schools, the justices sided with a Missouri church that objected to being denied access to public grant money for a playground improvement project because the state's constitution bans public funding of religious entities.

New York City subway train derails, 34 injured

A New York City subway train derailed in upper Manhattan on Tuesday, causing minor injuries to 34 people and forcing the evacuation of passengers from dark, smoke-filled carriages, officials and witnesses said. Authorities said the southbound train struck a tunnel wall just before 10 a.m., causing two cars to derail near the 125th-street station in Harlem. The crash was being investigated, the city's Office of Emergency Management said.

Evangelical Christians becoming less opposed to gay marriage, poll finds

U.S. groups who traditionally have opposed same-sex marriage, including Republicans and white evangelical Christians, have become much less steadfast in their objections, according to a new Pew Research Center poll. Sixty-two percent of U.S. respondents now approve of same-sex marriage, up from 57 percent when the Supreme Court legalized it in all 50 states two years ago and from 37 percent in 2007, according to the survey, which was released on Monday. The survey found rising support for same-sex marriage across affiliations with political parties, race and religion, with support strongest among younger Americans born after 1980 and Democrats.

Watchdog group sues EPA to access communications with Icahn

A U.S. watchdog group filed a lawsuit in a federal court on Tuesday to force the Environmental Protection Agency to release communications with billionaire investor Carl Icahn, who it says tried to influence biofuels policy for personal gain. American Oversight, which has filed nearly a dozen lawsuits against the Trump administration on a range of issues, filed the suit after it did not get an "adequate" response from two Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for communications between Icahn and representatives of his oil refining company CVR Energy Inc and EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt and senior agency officials.

Maine governor warns of partial government shutdown in budget fight

Maine Governor Paul LePage warned residents on Tuesday that parts of the state's government could shut down as soon as Friday if lawmakers are unable to reach an agreement on the next two-year budget of roughly $7 billion. LePage said he and legislative leaders are $145 million apart in their negotiations over the budget, with Democrats seeking additional funding for schools while LePage is urging cuts elsewhere in the budget to offset spending.

U.S. judge halts deportation of Iraqis nationwide

By Steve Friess DETROIT (Reuters) - A federal judge halted late on Monday the deportation of all Iraqi nationals detained during immigration sweeps across the United States this month until at least July 10, expanding a stay he imposed last week. The stay had initially only protected 114 detainees from the Detroit area. U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith sided with lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union who filed an amended complaint on Saturday seeking to prevent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from deporting Iraqis from anywhere in the United States.

California to list herbicide as cancer-causing; Monsanto vows fight

(Reuters) - Glyphosate, an herbicide and the active ingredient in Monsanto Co's popular Roundup weed killer, will be added to California's list of chemicals known to cause cancer effective July 7, the state's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) said on Monday.

California to list glyphosate as cancer-causing; Monsanto vows fight

Glyphosate, an herbicide and the active ingredient in Monsanto Co's popular Roundup weed killer, will be added to California's list of chemicals known to cause cancer effective July 7, the state's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) said on Monday. Monsanto vowed to continue its legal fight against the designation, required under a state law known as Proposition 65, and called the decision "unwarranted on the basis of science and the law." The listing is the latest legal setback for the seeds and chemicals company, which has faced increasing litigation over glyphosate since the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer said that it is "probably carcinogenic" in a controversial ruling in 2015.

Texas sanctuary city law could lead to immigration police state: lawyer

A small border town and some of the largest cities in Texas told a federal judge on Monday a new state law aimed at punishing sanctuary cities could lead to an immigration police state and asked him to halt it because it was unconstitutional. The Republican-backed law in Texas, the U.S. state with the longest border with Mexico, takes effect on September 1. It is the first of its kind since Republican Donald Trump became president in January, promising to crack down on illegal immigration.