National News

Las Vegas, NV  (AP)  The newly crowned Miss Universe from the Philippines is apologizing on behalf of the Miss Universe organization for the mistake that led a contestant from Colombia to first believe that she had won the crown. Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach told reporters after the Miss Universe pageant that she had conflicting emotions when…

ZURICH (AP) - FIFA's ethics committee has banned Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini for eight years years from all soccer-related activities. Platini's bid to succeed Blatter as FIFA president in a Feb. 26 election is now likely ended. Ethics judges ruled that Blatter broke FIFA Code of Ethics rules on conflicts of interest, breach of…

BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts' highest court will hear a challenge to the state's criminal harassment law from a man convicted of sending profanity-laced letters to a local elected official. Harvey Bigelow, of Rehoboth, was convicted of writing letters to Selectman Michael Costello and his wife in 2011. The letter writer called Costello a "scumbag," ''loser"…

HONOLULU (AP) — President Barack Obama has vetoed two bills that would have blocked steps that his administration is taking to address climate change. One bill would have nullified carbon pollution standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency. The second bill would have voided a set of national standards designed to reduce the amount of…

WASHINGTON (AP) -Bernie Sanders campaign manager says DNC is "actively attempting to undermine" campaign. A summary of computer logs show that four aides to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign accessed proprietary voter data compiled by the campaign of rival Hillary Clinton. And the records also show that the aides conducted 25 separate searches of…