Hopes Of Finding Anyone Alive Dwindle In Mud-Stricken Town

By CHRISTOPHER WEBER and BRIAN MELLEY, Associated Press MONTECITO, Calif. (AP) — More than two full days after mudslides ravaged this coastal town, the search for the missing became an increasingly desperate exercise Thursday, with growing doubts about whether anyone would be found alive. Seventeen people were confirmed dead and eight others were unaccounted for. “They’re…

Illinois To Replace Vets’ Plumbing Amid Legionnaire’s Crisis

By JOHN O’CONNOR, AP Political Writer SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner emerged Wednesday from a weeklong stay at a military veterans’ home beset by a deadly Legionnaires’ outbreak and announced the state will replace the plumbing at the sprawling, 130-year-old site. The first-term Republican told reporters that cutting-edge water distribution will quickly advance…

Search Continues For Victims Of California Mudslide

By MARCIO JOSE SANCHEZ and ROBERT JABLON, Associated Press MONTECITO, Calif. (AP) — Hundreds of searchers continued the grueling work Thursday of hunting for survivors and digging up bodies in the sea of mud and wreckage left by flash flooding in this wealthy coastal enclave. Muck-spattered searchers from around the state slogged through knee-deep ooze, poking…

Governor Greitens Acknowledges Affair, Denies Blackmail Allegations

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – Missouri Governor Eric Greitens acknowledges he was “unfaithful” in his marriage but denies allegations that he blackmailed the woman he had an extramarital affair with to stay quiet. The Republican governor and his wife released a statement Wednesday night. It came after St. Louis television station KMOV reported that Greitens…

Immigration Agents Descend On 7-Eleven Stores In 17 states

By ELLIOT SPAGAT and NOMAAN MERCHANT, Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — Seven immigration agents filed into a 7-Eleven store before dawn Wednesday, waited for people to go through the checkout line and told arriving customers and a driver delivering beer to wait outside. A federal inspection was underway, they said. Within 20 minutes, they verified…