Hero’s welcome at White House

WASHINGTON -- A U.S. military dog that played a starring role in the raid that killed Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi seemed oblivious to the praise that President Donald Trump heaped on it Monday at the White House. Conan, a Belgian Malinois, seemed much more interested in the head scratches it was getting from Mike Pence, repeatedly looking up at the vice president in search of more attention. Trump used a slew of adjectives to describe Conan, which was injured when it was exposed to electric wires in the late October raid while chasing al-Baghdadi at the terrorist's compound in northwest Syria. "Incredible." "Brilliant." "Smart." "Ultimate fighter." "Very special." "Tough cookie." "So this is Conan," Trump said. "Right now, probably the world's most famous dog." Trump said he bestowed a medal on Conan and presented the dog with a plaque. First lady Melania Trump stood a few feet away. The president said initially Conan was going to be muzzled for the appearance, but Trump said he thought that would put the dog in attack mode. "He's not in a bad mood today," Trump told dozens of reporters, cameramen and members of TV crews gathered in the Rose Garden. "So you're safe." Trump said he asked members of the U.S. special forces who met with him Monday if an unarmed man would stand a chance against Conan. He said the special forces, who could not appear in public, told him 'No." "Conan is really a hero," Pence said, patting the dog on the head.

Bodybuilder, 82, clobbers intruder

ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- An intruder didn't count on an 82-year-old woman living alone being an award-winning bodybuilder with nerves of steel. Willie Murphy was getting ready for bed Thursday at her home in Rochester, New York, when a man pounded on the door and said he needed an ambulance, Murphy told WHAM. She called police but wouldn't open the door. Then, she said, the man broke in and skulked through the dark house. "He picked the wrong house to break into." She clobbered him with a table, poured shampoo in his face and was beating him with a broom when police arrived. "I was whaling on that man," Murphy told the Democrat and Chronicle. "'Cause I said to myself, 'If it's my time to go to hell, I'm taking him with me!'" The man got his ambulance ride, after all. He was sent to a hospital, and police tweeted a selfie with Murphy, calling her "tough as nails." Murphy works out almost daily at Rochester's Maplewood YMCA and said she can deadlift 225 pounds -- more than twice her weight. She can do one-handed pullups and one-handed pushups. She won the World Natural Powerlifting Federation Lifter of the Year award in 2014.

Man served as agent for China

OAKLAND, Calif. -- A former San Francisco Bay Area tour operator agreed Monday to plead guilty to serving as an unregistered agent for China in exchange for a possible reduced prison sentence. Xuehua Edward Peng agreed in court to a four-year prison term and a fine of $30,000 in a plea deal negotiated with prosecutors after they charged him with being an illegal foreign agent who delivered U.S. national security information to officials in China. U.S. District Judge Haywood S. Gilliam Jr., however, declined to accept the plea deal until sentencing, which is scheduled in March. Peng, 57, is a naturalized U.S. citizen who has been in federal custody since late September, when he was arrested at his Hayward residence to the surprise of neighbors, who knew him as a nice person with a taste for luxury cars. Prosecutors said Peng, under orders from a handler in China, left cash in hotel rooms in exchange for classified national security information on small electronic storage devices. The U.S. was never at risk since the information left for Peng was provided by an FBI double agent who had also been approached for spy-work by the Chinese government but decided to inform the U.S. government instead, prosecutors have said.

May have been dead for 3 years

DESOTO, Texas -- Doris Stevens' son, a Navy veteran who traveled the world for work and pleasure, suddenly stopped answering her phone calls in 2016. Stevens said she spent years trying to find out what happened, appealing to authorities to no avail. Earlier this month, Stevens received a grim answer when maintenance workers found Ronald Wayne White dead on the floor of his apartment in a Dallas suburb. The condition of his body indicated White had been dead for an "extended period," according to the Dallas County Medical Examiner's Office, possibly since around the time his mother last heard from him three years ago. Police in DeSoto, where White was found, are continuing to investigate but they suspect White's death may be linked to his diabetes and have found no indication of foul play, Detective Pete Schulte said. White's third floor, corner apartment was locked from the inside and there was no odor in the hallway White appears to have died soon after moving into the DeSoto Town Center Apartments on a month-to-month lease in November 2016. White worked as an independent defense contractor and his rent was withdrawn from an account linked to his Navy retirement.

Students fought censorship

BURLINGTON, Vt. -- Four Vermont high school journalists have won an award for fighting and conquering censorship. The Burlington High School student newspaper, The BHS Register, was awarded the Courage in Student Journalism Award on Saturday. It is sponsored by the Student Press Law Association, the Center for Scholastic Journalism at Kent State University and the National Scholastic Press Association. In fall 2018, the students broke a story online about a school employee facing unprofessional conduct charges. The students had sought the information through a public records request. The principal asked the students' adviser to take it down. The students removed it reluctantly but maintained links to it on social media that led to a page saying the story had been censored by the school administration. The students talked to legal experts, and the newspaper cited its rights under a law passed in Vermont in 2017 that protects the First Amendment rights of student journalists. Senior Julia Shannon-Grillo flew to Washington last week to attend the National High School Journalism Convention and accepted the award Saturday.

Grocery robots are coming

BOSTON -- The first cargo-carrying robot marketed directly to consumers is on sale this holiday season. But how many people are ready to ditch their second car to buy a two-wheeled rover that can follow them around like a dog? Corporate giants like Amazon, FedEx and Ford have already been experimenting with sending delivery robots to doorsteps. Now Piaggio, the Italian company that makes the Vespa scooter, is offering a stylish alternative to those blandly utilitarian machines -- albeit one that weighs 50 pounds and costs $3,250. It's named the Gita (JEE'-tah) after the Italian word for a short, pleasurable excursion -- the kind you might take to pick up some lacinato kale and gourmet cheese at the farmers market. Its creators have such trips in mind for the "hands-free carrier" that can hold produce and other objects as it follows its owner down a sidewalk. "We're trying to get you out into the world and connected to that neighborhood you decided to move to because it was so walkable," said Greg Lynn, CEO of Piaggio's tech-focused subsidiary, Piaggio Fast Forward. Tech industry analysts are already declaring the Gita as doomed to fail unless it finds a more practical application, such as lugging tools around warehouses, hospitals or factory floors.

McDonald's settles with workers

LOS ANGELES -- McDonald's has agreed to a $26 million settlement of a long-running class-action lawsuit over wages and work conditions at corporate-run locations in California. The agreement, which estimates the settlement covers about 38,000 individuals, requires the approval of a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge. The lawsuit filed nearly seven years ago against McDonald's Restaurants of California Inc. made an array of claims including failure to pay minimum and overtime wages and to provide required meal and rest breaks. One aspect involved overnight shifts that began on one day and ended the next day but had all hours attributed to the day the shift started, avoiding overtime payments.

Trooper was never charged

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- West Virginia State Police determined that one of its own troopers sexually assaulted two women, yet was never charged. The Charleston Gazette-Mail reported Friday that the case is just one example of how the state spends millions in taxpayer money to settle lawsuits. An internal state police investigation found the women's allegations against trooper Newton Higginbotham to be credible. Both were vulnerable -- one was on probation, and the other sought protection from domestic violence by her husband. Higginbotham admitted using his status as a trooper to get them alone. The first settled for $150,000, the second lawsuit is ongoing. The FBI determined the first encounter was consensual. State police say the FBI never interviewed the second victim. Higginbotham resigned, but wasn't prosecuted.

Man's body found in freezer

SALT LAKE CITY -- The body of a man found in a dead Utah woman's freezer had been there for at least one year and maybe as long as a decade. Officers went Friday to an apartment complex in a city west of Salt Lake City to check on a 75-year-old woman who hadn't been seen in two weeks. They found the deceased woman on a bed and called detectives to come assess the scene. While looking through the apartment, the detectives discovered an unidentified man inside a chest freezer. They couldn't tell from looking at the fully intact body how he died, but suspect foul play. Detectives have suspicions about who the man is and his relationship to the woman but are waiting to say publicly until the medical examiner completes the autopsy. The woman has been identified as Jeanne Souron-Mathers. She had lived in the apartment since 2007. Her death is not considered suspicious.

8 months for Mar-a-Lago trespass

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- A federal judge on Monday sentenced a Chinese businesswoman to eight months in prison for trespassing at President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago club and lying to Secret Service agents. U.S. District Judge Roy Altman also ordered that 33-year-old Yujing Zhang be turned over to immigration officials for deportation upon her release. Because she received nearly eight months' credit for being jailed since her arrest March 30, she has about a week more to serve. Sentencing guidelines called for a sentence of zero to six months, but the law allowed for up to six years. Altman said trespassing on a government property, particularly one where the president is staying, is a "serious offense." He also said "the evidence was overwhelming" that Zhang lied to Secret Service agents to get into Mar-a-Lago and when they confronted her. "She lied time and time again," Altman said. Zhang told Altman she went to Mar-a-Lago "to meet the president and family and just make friends." When an incredulous Altman questioned her about whether she thought she could really meet the Trumps, Zhang laughed loudly and said she hoped to meet other people, too. Zhang then told Altman that the president told reporters that he had invited Zhang to Mar-a-Lago. That never happened, and Altman called that another lie.

Remains probably stepdaughter

AUBURN, Ala.-- An Alabama district attorney said Monday that authorities have "good reason" to believe human remains found in a wooded area belong to the missing stepdaughter of a UFC heavyweight fighter. The remains were found on a county road in neighboring Macon County, Lee County District Attorney Brandon Hughes told The Associated Press. "I can confirm that human remains have been found in Macon County on County Road 2 and we have good reason to believe they are that of Aniah Blanchard," Hughes said. Police arrested a third person Monday in connection with the disappearance of Blanchard, 19. She was last seen Oct. 23 in Auburn. Her stepfather is UFC fighter Walt Harris. After she disappeared, Blanchard's black Honda CRV was found abandoned more than 50 miles (90 kilometers) away at an apartment complex in Montgomery, Alabama. Auburn police detective Josh Mixon testified at a hearing last week that Blanchard's blood was found in the car and it appeared she had suffered a life-threatening injury.

Two paroled for 1985 slayings

FALLS CHURCH, Va. -- Virginia granted parole on Monday to a German diplomat's son who was serving a life sentence for the 1985 killings of his girlfriend's parents. Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam's office said the state parole board granted Jens Soering parole for the murders of Nancy and Derek Haysom. The board had rejected his 14 previous parole requests. In a statement to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, board chair Adrianne Bennett said "the parole board has determined that releasing Jens Soering and Elizabeth Haysom … is appropriate because of their youth at the time of the offenses, their institutional adjustment and the length of their incarceration. "The release and permanent expulsion from the United States is an enormous cost-benefit to the taxpayers of the Commonwealth of Virginia and we have determined that their release does not pose a public safety risk to the community," Bennett said. Soering initially confessed to the killings but later recanted, saying he was covering for girlfriend, Elizabeth Haysom. She also was granted parole Monday. She had been serving a 90-year sentence after pleading guilty to being an accessory to murder and testifying against Soering at is trial.

Sportsmen oppose national park

FAYETTEVILLE, W.Va. -- West Virginia sportsmen's groups are not happy they could lose about 4,800 acres of hunting land if the New River Gorge National River is designated a national park and preserve. The proposal by U.S. Sens. Shelley Moore Capito and Joe Manchin would designate about 8,000 acres as a national park, with hunting restricted. Some of that land already has hunting restrictions but more than half does not. Another 64,000 acres would become a national preserve, where hunting would be allowed.

West Virginia Wildlife Federation President Jerod Harmon said his group won't support additional restrictions on hunters, anglers or trappers. "We could have considered support only if sportsmen would get increased access or something of benefit," he said. West Virginia Bear Hunters Association President Eric Beck agreed, saying, "We've never been for it at all."

Trump stoped SEAL review board

WASHINGTON-- Defense Secretary Mark Esper declared on Monday that President Donald Trump ordered him to stop a disciplinary review of a Navy SEAL accused of battlefield misconduct, an intervention that raised questions about America's commitment to international standards for battlefield ethics. Esper, who initially favored allowing the Navy to proceed with a peer-review board for Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher, which could have resulted in him losing his SEAL status, said he was obliged to follow Trump's order. But he also directed the Pentagon's legal office to review how service members are educated in the laws of armed conflict and trained to wartime behavioral standards. "I can control what I can control," Esper told reporters when asked whether Trump sent the right message to U.S. troops by intervening to stop the Gallagher review. "The president is the commander in chief. He has every right, authority and privilege to do what he wants to do." Gallagher was acquitted of murder in the stabbing death of an Islamic State militant captive but convicted by a military jury of posing with the corpse while in Iraq in 2017. In yet another twist to the Gallagher saga, Esper also made an extraordinary accusation against Richard V. Spencer, whom he fired on Sunday as the civilian leader of the Navy.

Work begins on impeachment report

WASHINGTON-- The witnesses have spoken, the politics are largely settled. Now impeachment investigators will make the case for public opinion. On Monday, hundreds of pages from Democratic Chairman Adam Schiff's intelligence committee were being compiled into an exhaustive report that will begin to outline whether President Donald Trump engaged in "treason, bribery or high crimes and misdemeanors" by withholding $400 million in aid as he pushed Ukraine to investigate Democratic rival Joe Biden. The report may come as soon as next week. There are rising political stakes for all sides. Americans remain deeply split over the impeachment question, despite hours of sometimes riveting testimony, and the country's polarization now seems to foreshadow an outcome: Democrats are poised to vote to impeach the president while Republicans stand firmly with Trump. Sending the case on to the Judiciary Committee, which is ready to start its own round of hearings in December, provides yet another chance to sway public opinion before a House vote expected by Christmas and a Senate trial in 2020. "The evidence of wrongdoing and misconduct by the President that we have gathered to date is clear and hardly in dispute," Schiff told colleagues in a letter Monday. "What is left to us now is to decide whether this behavior is compatible with the office of the Presidency, and whether the Constitutional process of impeachment is warranted."

Iran's Guard threatens US, allies

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates-- The head of Iran's Revolutionary Guard threatened the U.S. and its allies Monday as he addressed a pro-government demonstration attended by tens of thousands of people denouncing last week's violent protests over a fuel price hike. Gen. Hossein Salami, echoing other Iranian officials, accused the U.S., Britain, Israel and Saudi Arabia of stoking the unrest. He said the rise in gasoline prices was a "mere pretext" for an attack on the nation. "If you cross our red line, we will destroy you," he said. "We will not leave any move unanswered." He said if Iran decides to respond, "the enemy will not have security anywhere," adding that "our patience has a limit." Amnesty International said late Monday that at least 143 people have been killed in the protests since Nov. 15, updating an earlier toll. The London-based rights group said it had "clear evidence" that Iranian security forces used firearms against unarmed protesters. "The rising death toll is an alarming indication of just how ruthless the treatment of unarmed protesters has been by the Iranian authorities and reveals their appalling assault on human life," said Philip Luther, Amnesty's research and advocacy director for the Middle East and North Africa.

McGahn must comply with subpoena

WASHINGTON-- A federal judge has ordered former White House counsel Donald McGahn to appear before Congress in a setback to President Donald Trump's effort to keep his top aides from testifying. The outcome could lead to renewed efforts by House Democrats to compel testimony from other high-ranking officials, including former national security adviser John Bolton. Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson ruled Monday in a lawsuit filed by the House Judiciary Committee. McGahn was a star witness in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation and Democrats wanted to question McGahn about possible obstruction of justice by Trump. That was months before the House started an impeachment inquiry into Trump's effort to get Ukraine to announce an investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden. An appeal is likely.

Rabbis urge teaching of empathy

NEW YORK-- At a time when anti-Semitic incidents are on the rise worldwide, schools should take steps to teach empathy as an antidote to racism and religious hatred, several rabbis attending an international conference said. The religious leaders praised a pilot project in El Paso, Texas, that requires students to pause each day to consider others. Children are given a small box shaped like Noah's Ark. They collect money in it daily and give it to charities chosen by their classes. "If you want to change the trajectory of the way things are going, you have to nip hatred in the bud," Rabbi Levi Greenberg said at the International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Emissaries, a branch of Hasidism. The annual event ended Monday. "Every child is a potential hater but is also is a potential lover. You have to make sure you cultivate that potential love that they have within them," Greenberg said. Greenberg, who lives in El Paso, approached the El Paso Community Foundation in 2018 with an idea after seeing a similar program initiated by colleagues in South Africa. The theory is that daily giving connects the students emotionally to others outside their normal environment. They become more compassionate and empathetic to other cultures and circumstances, Greenberg said.

Pete Buttigieg aimed high early

SOUTH BEND, Ind.-- It was a running joke in his AP U.S. history class at Saint Joseph High School: Would Peter Buttigieg -- the smartest kid in class, language whiz and devotee of John F. Kennedy -- use his unusual last name in his eventual run for president of the United States? Or would he have a better shot of winning the voters of the future if he went by Montgomery, his middle name? It was the late 1990s, Bill Clinton was in the White House, and a round-faced teenager in South Bend, Indiana, was viewed by many around him as an eventual successor. As early as grade school, Buttigieg exhibited an attention-grabbing combination of brains and curiosity, the sort of kid with a reputation -- among kids and teachers. He would be named high school valedictorian, voted senior class president and chosen Most Likely to be U.S. President. He sat at the adults table. Now, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg -- not Montgomery -- is indeed running for the highest office in the land. It's an audacious leap. No mayor has ever gone straight to the White House (let alone from a city of just over 100,000). No president has ever been so young (he'll be 39 on Inauguration Day). And no commander in chief has ever been openly gay (or had a husband). But people who have known Buttigieg since his Indiana boyhood say it all feels predictable.

Pig flown to animal hospital

DANVILLE, Va. -- A deformed baby pig that was born on a farm in Virginia has been flown to a veterinary hospital in Pennsylvania for medical treatment. The black female pig named "Hope" was born with deformed rear legs on a farm near the western Virginia town of Floyd. The 3-week-old pig was set to be euthanized. But Ziggy's Refuge Farm Sanctuary in nearby Providence, North Carolina, adopted her. Volunteers flew Hope on a private plane to the New Bolton Center at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Veterinary Medicine in Kennett Square outside of Philadelphia on Nov. 16. Its staff will determine whether her legs can be repaired. Even if Hope's legs can't be fixed, she will return to the animal sanctuary in North Carolina.