National News

By RUSS BYNUM and BRENDAN FARRINGTON, Associated Press PANAMA CITY, Fla. (AP) — Residents of hurricane-ravaged communities in Florida’s Panhandle turned to volunteers and each other for help Monday, the fifth day without cell service, electricity or, in many cases, shelter. Trevor Lewis, a member of a six-person search-and-rescue unit, said he watched storm victims…

By JAY REEVES and TAMARA LUSH, Associated Press MEXICO BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Residents of Mexico Beach that stayed during the storm are emerging from the debris with harrowing tales. Others, who evacuated, are coming to grips with the fact that much of their community was destroyed by Hurricane Michael. Hit head-on by the storm,…

By JAY REEVES and BRENDAN FARRINGTON, Associated Press PANAMA CITY, Fla. (AP) — Linda Marquardt rode out Hurricane Michael with her husband at their home in Mexico Beach. When their house filled with surging ocean water, they fled upstairs. Now their home is full of mud and everywhere they look there’s utter devastation in their…

MIAMI (AP) — Florida’s Panhandle is littered with evidence that Hurricane Michael is one of the most powerful storms ever to hit the mainland United States. Roofs and awnings are peeled from buildings, pieces of homes are scattered amid snapped trees and downed power lines, chunks of beaches are washed away. Michael thrashed Georgia as…

By DMITRY LOVETSKY, Associated Press BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (AP) — A booster rocket failed less than two minutes after launching an American and a Russian toward the International Space Station on Thursday, forcing their emergency — but safe — landing on the steppes of Kazakhstan. It was the latest in a recent series of failures for…

By JAY REEVES, Associated Press PANAMA CITY, Fla. (AP) — Gaining frightening fury overnight, Hurricane Michael closed in Wednesday on the Florida Panhandle with potentially catastrophic winds of 145 mph, the most powerful storm on record ever to menace the stretch of fishing towns, military bases and spring-break beaches. With more than 375,000 people up…

SCHOHARIE, N.Y. (AP) — Relatives of the limousine driver involved in a crash that killed 20 people in upstate New York said Tuesday they believe he was unwittingly assigned an unsafe vehicle. The family of Scott Lisinicchia released a statement through a lawyer shortly after another attorney representing the limousine company, Prestige Limousine, said the…

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley is resigning, she and President Donald Trump announced Tuesday, blindsiding many administration officials and stirring speculation in the White House and beyond about the timing and reasons for the latest Trump shake-up just weeks before the November midterm elections. The news was news to many congressional Republicans involved…

By MATTHEW DALY, Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is moving to allow year-round sales of gasoline with higher blends of ethanol, a boon for Iowa and other farm states that have pushed for greater sales of the corn-based fuel. President Donald Trump is expected to announce he is lifting a federal ban…