UK exit poll: Conservatives may fall short of majority
LONDON (AP) — An exit poll projection suggested Thursday that British Prime Minister Theresa May’s gamble in calling an early election has backfired spectacularly, with her Conservative Party in danger of losing its majority in Parliament.
An opposition Labour Party that had been written off by many pollsters surged in the final weeks of a campaign that was marred by deadly attacks in Manchester and London. If accurate, the result will confound those who said Labour’s left-wing leader, Jeremy Corbyn, was electorally toxic.
The survey predicted the Conservatives will get 314 seats and the Labour Party 266. It projected 34 for the Scottish National Party and 14 for the Liberal Democrats.
Based on interviews with voters leaving polling stations across the country, the poll is conducted for a consortium of U.K. broadcasters and regarded as a reliable, though not exact, indicator of the likely result.
If confirmed, the result will be humiliating for May, who called a snap election in the hope of increasing her majority and strengthening Britain’s hand in exit talks with the European Union. If she has failed, she could face pressure to resign.
Supermarket massacre shooter left chilling online trail
(AP) A man who police say trapped and killed three co-workers inside a closed northeast Pennsylvania grocery store overnight Thursday left an online trail behind that includes praise for the 1999 Columbine High School shooters and expressions of deep frustration about the world around him.
Wyoming County District Attorney Jeff Mitchell said a Twitter feed that includes a 42-minute film about a violent massacre, posted about the time of the killings, is believed to have belonged to 24-year-old Randy Stair of Dallas, Pennsylvania.
In that film, Stair praised Columbine shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold as heroes and kissed and fondled a loaded shotgun.
Police say Stair brought two pistol-grip shotguns to work at the store in rural Tunkhannock, about 150 miles northwest of New York City, blocked store exits and began shooting shortly before 1 a.m. A fourth co-worker eventually escaped unharmed and called police. Stair also killed himself.
“This is really a mental health situation that utterly spiraled out of control,” Mitchell said. “I think he had longstanding mental health issues that resulted in this horrible tragedy.”
House poised to roll back post-2008 financial rules
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has said he wants to do “a big number” on the Obama-era financial rules devised after the Great Recession, and House Republicans were poised to fulfill that goal Thursday.
The GOP-controlled House was on track to vote for legislation that would wipe away much of the financial law created to head off economic meltdowns like the one that caused millions of Americans to lose their jobs and homes during the 2008-09 collapse.
Republicans say many requirements imposed under what is known as the Dodd-Frank Act, named after its Democratic sponsors, have harmed economic growth by making it harder for consumers and businesses to get loans.
“Let’s lower the cost of financial services for everyday consumers. Let’s bring an end to the anti-growth policies of the last eight years and move into a much brighter, more prosperous future for everyone,” said Rep. Keith Rothfus, R-Pa.
Added House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis.: “We need relief.”
SKorea leader warns North after latest missile launch
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — North Korea’s latest launches of several suspected anti-ship missiles were short-range and landed well short of past efforts, but they still served as a defiant message for its enemies that Pyongyang will continue to pursue a weapons program that has rattled its neighbors and Washington.
The projectiles were fired Thursday from the North Korean eastern coastal town of Wonsan and likely flew about 200 kilometers (125 miles), South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said. They landed in waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan, where U.S. aircraft carriers USS Carl Vinson and USS Ronald Reagan participated in joint exercises with the South Korean navy that ended earlier this week.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in, a liberal who has expressed a desire to reach out to Pyongyang, said during a National Security Council meeting he “won’t back off even a single step and make any compromise” on the issue of national security. He warned that North Korea could only face further international isolation and more economic difficulties.
The North’s missile tests present a difficult challenge to Moon. North Korea, which could have a working nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missile in the next several years, may also be the most urgent foreign policy concern for the Trump administration, which has been distracted by domestic political turmoil and has insisted China do more to rein in the North’s weapons activities.
South Korean military spokesman Roh Jae-cheon said the launch was intended to show off Pyongyang’s widening arrange of missiles and also its “precision strike capabilities” on ships in response to the joint drills.
First black to be chief pilot at a major airline retires
DALLAS (AP) — Nobody at Southwest told Louis Freeman he would be the first black pilot in the airline’s history when he was hired in 1980.
“It never occurred to me,” Freeman says, “but when I got here I was the only pilot of color — it didn’t take long to figure out.”
Freeman went on to become the first black chief pilot — a management job — at a major U.S. airline. His most memorable flight carried the body of civil rights icon Rosa Parks to her final resting place. The NAACP had asked the airline to put together an African-American crew.
Freeman made his last flight as a Southwest Airlines captain on Thursday, a few days before turning 65, the federal retirement age for airline pilots.
As he strode toward the gate at Dallas Love Field, Freeman donned his captain’s cap for the last time and reminisced about joining Southwest after six years flying for the Air Force.
Detective: DA ended Cosby probe as police were working case
NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) — A prosecutor who decided more than a decade ago not to bring sexual assault charges against Bill Cosby shut the investigation down while police were still working the case, a detective testified Thursday at the comedian’s trial.
District Attorney Bruce Castor abruptly closed the probe in 2005 hours after police met to review their next steps, Cheltenham police Sgt. Richard Schaffer told jurors in testimony that could blunt efforts by Cosby’s lawyers to argue that Castor, long out of office, saw no case.
“We had been discussing investigative leads and where they were going,” Schaffer, a witness for the prosecution, said on Day 4 of Cosby’s trial.
Cosby, 79, could spend the rest of his life in prison if convicted of drugging and molesting Andrea Constand, a former employee of Temple University’s women’s basketball program, at his suburban Philadelphia home. He has said the 2004 sexual encounter was consensual.
Cosby acknowledged in a 2005 police interview that he fondled Constand after giving her what he said were cold-and-allergy pills to help her relax, according to a statement introduced in court on Thursday. But he said that they had a romantic relationship and that she did not object to his advances.
