North America

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — More Florida classroom teachers could carry guns in school under a bill passed Wednesday by state lawmakers, the latest response to last year’s mass shooting at a Parkland high school.

The Republican-led House voted 65-47 on Wednesday to send the bill to GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is expected to sign it. The measure expands an existing school “guardian” program to allow any teacher to volunteer to carry a weapon if their local school district approves.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says calls from some Democratic lawmakers for Attorney General William Barr to resign are “so ridiculous.”

Trump tells Fox Business Network’s Trish Regan that he heard Barr “performed incredibly well” in testimony Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The president noted that three of the senators who questioned Barr are running for the presidency and accused them of “ranting and raving like lunatics, frankly.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — Private tensions between Justice Department leaders and special counsel Robert Mueller’s team broke into public view in extraordinary fashion Wednesday as Attorney General William Barr pushed back at the special counsel’s “snitty” complaints over his handling of the Trump-Russia investigation report.

NEW YORK (AP) — “The Mueller Report” is now officially a best-seller.

A published edition of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into alleged ties between Russian officials and Donald Trump’s presidential campaign sold just under 42,000 copies last week, NPD BookScan reported Wednesday.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Riley Howell had an athlete’s physique and loved working outdoors on his family’s farm. Ellis Parlier studied computer technology and liked video games.

Both of them were wrapping up the semester in the same anthropology class at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte when a gunman opened fire in the classroom. Howell and Parlier were killed in the attack Tuesday, and four other students were wounded.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General William Barr has informed lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee that he will skip a hearing on special counsel Robert Mueller’s report, escalating an already acrimonious battle between Democrats and the Justice Department.

1 May 2019; AFP: New York Mayor Bill de Blasio issued an executive order Tuesday banning alcohol advertising from city property, citing public health concerns.

The ban would include bus shelters, newsstands and Wi-Fi kiosks and would take effect immediately for new ads, though existing ads would be allowed to remain until their contracts run out.

CHICAGO (AP) — A multiday sentencing hearing began Monday in Chicago and focused on whether FBI agents manipulated a mentally fragile teenager to participate in a terrorist plot or whether he had long before shown an eagerness to kill.

Prosecutors called an FBI agent to the witness stand to tell Adel Daoud’s sentencing judge that Daoud posted social media comments inquiring about attacking non-Muslims more than a year before undercover agents ever engaged him as part of a sting.

GREECE, N.Y. (AP) — The arrest of three young men and a teen on charges of plotting to attack a Muslim settlement in upstate New York has raised a number of questions. Here’s what we know about suspects Vincent Vetromile, Andrew Crysel, Andrew Colaneri and a 16-year-old The Associated Press is not naming because of his age. All have pleaded not guilty. Their families declined comment, and defense lawyers did not return calls for comment.

VETROMILE:

1 May 2019 (AP) - A Michigan college student says pro-Trump agitators recruited him to falsely claim he was raped by Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, then published the smear without his permission.