Q-and-A: Researching financial institutions and advisers By: Jonathan D. Pond | Source: AARP.org Q: One of our local banks is getting some bad press, and I have a savings account with them. How do you know if a bank is still in good standing? -Jean, Washington A: Bank failure is a rarity, even during these […]

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) – Three companies have agreed to pay $3.65 million in penalties for a pair of ammonia pipeline spills that killed fish in Kansas and Nebraska. The U.S. Justice Department and the Environmental Protection Agency filed the consent decree Friday in Kansas City, Kan. They allege that the pipelines’ owner, Magellan Ammonia […]

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) – Twitter’s been having a rough couple of weeks. A researcher looking into the attacks that knocked Twitter offline last week discovered another, unrelated security problem. At least one criminal was using a Twitter account to control a network of a couple hundred infected personal computers, mostly in Brazil. Networks of […]

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) – A Texas man convicted of instigating fights among developmentally disabled residents at a state-run center has been sentenced to three years in prison. A Nueces County jury on Friday spared Jesse Salazar the maximum punishment for his role in what police called a “fight club” at the Corpus Christi State […]

MIAMI (AP) – Hurricane Guillermo has strengthened into a Category 2 storm far out in the Pacific. The National Hurricane Center says Guillermo’s maximum sustained winds are near 100 mph. Winds are expected to stay about the same for the next 12 hours, but the hurricane is expected to weaken Saturday as it moves over […]

BRISTOL, R.I. (AP) – A Rhode Island lobsterman who hauled up a 12½-pound crustacean says he’s having trouble finding a home for the creature. Bob Morris of Bristol says it would be a shame if the female lobster he estimates is about 60 years old ends up on the dinner table. He says he’d rather […]

Like a complete unknown. That’s how rock legend Bob Dylan was treated by police in one New Jersey shore community last month when a resident called to report someone wandering around the neighborhood. Dylan was in Long Branch, N.J., on July 23 as part of a tour with Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp that was […]

KENAI, Alaska (AP) – Salmon aren’t alone in being snagged during this busy summer fishing season in Alaska. Anglers get the hook, too. Monica Musgrove, a nurse at Central Peninsula Hospital in Soldotna, said emergency room staff have removed 62 hooks from patients since May – including a few through the eyelids and one from […]

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – A federal judge has thrown out a former Tennessee student’s free-speech lawsuit against a school dress code that banned Confederate flag clothing. Nearly a year after a jury failed to reach a verdict in Tommy Defoe’s case, U.S. District Judge Tom Varlan has ruled against a retrial. The judge said there […]

STROUDSBURG, Pa. (AP) – A northeastern Pennsylvania man who has acknowledged killing a man with a meat cleaver in 2004 has been ordered to stand trial on criminal homicide and other charges. Robert Giardini told police a stranger showed up at his Pocono Township, Monroe County, home and asked to use the phone. He said […]