AP News in Brief at 6:04 p.m. EDT
Synagogue rampage suspect indicted on 2nd day of funerals
PITTSBURGH (AP) - The suspect in the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre was indicted by a federal grand jury Wednesday, and members of a grief-stricken Jewish community endured another round of funerals for victims of the worst anti-Semitic attack in American history.
Robert Bowers, a 46-year-old truck driver who authorities say raged against Jews as he gunned down 11 and wounded six, was charged in a 44-count indictment with murder, hate crimes and other offenses that could bring the death penalty. The indictment, which was expected, was announced on the second day of a weeklong series of funerals for congregants who perished in the mass shooting at Tree of Life synagogue.
"Today begins the process of seeking justice for the victims of these hateful acts, and healing for the victims' families, the Jewish community, and our city," U.S. Attorney Scott Brady said in a statement. "Our office will spare no resource, and will work with professionalism, integrity and diligence, in a way that honors the memories of the victims."
One after another, services were held for three more victims of the rampage: Joyce Fienberg, 75; Melvin Wax, who was in his late 80s, and Irving Younger, 69.
"It can't be fixed," Robert Libman said at his sister's funeral, clutching his chest as he described the pain of losing her. "My sister is dead. My sister was murdered. There was no one I know like her. Pure goodness. ... She was the most tolerant and gentle person that I've ever known."
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Trump: Number of troops sent to border could reach 15,000
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the number of military troops deployed to the U.S.-Mexican border could go as high as 15,000 as he draws a hard line on immigration in the lead-up to the midterm elections.
With his eyes squarely on next Tuesday's contests, Trump has rushed a series of immigration declarations, promises and actions as he tries to mobilize supporters to retain Republican control of Congress. His own Republican campaign in 2016 concentrated on border fears, and that's his focus in the final week of the midterm fight.
"As far as the caravan is concerned, our military is out," Trump said Wednesday. "We have about 5,800. We'll go up to anywhere between 10,000 and 15,000 military personnel on top of Border Patrol, ICE and everybody else at the border."
Trump rejected the idea he was "fearmongering" or using the issue for political purposes, but his escalating rhetoric in the waning days of the campaign season call into question the denial. Trump has railed against illegal immigration, including several caravans of migrants from Central America slowly moving toward the U.S. border. The caravan is still nearly 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) from the border.
He's also promised to end so-called catch-and-release policies by erecting tent cities to hold those crossing illegally. And this week he is asserting he could act by executive order to unilaterally end birthright citizenship for the children of non-U.S. citizens.
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Under Trump, federal death penalty cases are ticking up
NEW YORK (AP) - Before a suspect was even publicly named, President Donald Trump declared that whoever gunned down 11 people in a Pittsburgh synagogue should "suffer the ultimate price" and that the death penalty should be brought back "into vogue."
Trump has largely gotten his wish, at least on the federal level, with death penalty cases ticking back up under his Justice Department after a near-moratorium on such prosecutions in President Barack Obama's last term, when he directed a broad review of capital punishment and issues surrounding lethal injection.
Trump's attorney general, Jeff Sessions, has so far approved at least a dozen death penalty prosecutions over the past two years, according to court filings tracked by the Federal Death Penalty Resource Counsel, with cases ranging from the high profile to the relatively obscure.
They include the man charged with using a rented truck to fatally mow down eight people on a New York City bike path a year ago; three men charged in a fatal armored truck robbery in New Orleans; a gang suspect in Detroit charged with "murder in aid of racketeering"; and a man charged with fatally shooting a tribal police officer in New Mexico on the nation's largest American Indian reservation.
The tally could grow higher over the next two months as federal prosecutors await Sessions' decision in several other cases, including against the alleged synagogue shooter, Robert Bowers, who faces federal hate crime charges and 11 counts of murder.
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Rare drop in NRA election spending as gun-limit groups rise
WASHINGTON (AP) - The National Rifle Association - long seen as a kingmaker in Republican politics - is taking a lower profile in this year's high-stakes midterm campaign, a sign of the shifting dynamics of the gun debate as the GOP fights to maintain its grip on Congress.
The NRA has put $11 million into midterm races this year - less than half what it spent four years ago in a campaign that gave Republicans full control of Congress. This year's totals are also far below the $54 million the group spent in 2016 on both the presidential and congressional races.
The shift comes as spending to support tougher gun control measures has surged. Everytown for Gun Safety, a group founded by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, pledged $30 million for this year's election, and has continued to put new money into competitive races in the final days. A political action committee formed by Gabby Giffords, the former congresswoman wounded in a shooting, is spending nearly $5 million.
It's the first time under current campaign finance laws that the NRA might be outspent by gun control groups, though the organization often ramps up spending late in the campaign. That money won't show up in federal financial reports until after Election Day.
It all underscore a changing political landscape on guns after a series of election year mass shootings, including the February massacre at a Parkland, Florida, high school that left 17 people dead, and Saturday's deadly attack at a Pittsburgh synagogue.
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Trump, Democrats kick off final midterm campaign blitz
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump launched an eight-state campaign blitz on Wednesday, seeking to shore up Senate Republicans and GOP gubernatorial candidates against an onslaught of Democratic surrogates, including entertainment icon Oprah Winfrey.
Trump will crisscross the nation, landing him in Senate battlefields such as Indiana, Missouri and Florida along with nail-biter contests for governor in Georgia and Ohio.
Winfrey, who offered crucial support to President Barack Obama during his 2008 rise, will campaign Thursday for Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, who is attempting to become the nation's first black female governor.
Obama plans to campaign Friday for Abrams in Atlanta and in Miami to boost Florida Sen. Bill Nelson and Tallahassee mayor Andrew Gillum, who is running for governor. On Sunday, the former president will be in Gary, Indiana, for Sen. Joe Donnelly, who is among the most endangered Senate Democrats, and in his hometown of Chicago for J.B. Pritzker, who is the favorite in Illinois' race for governor.
Democrats are defending several Senate incumbents in Republican-leaning states in their quest to narrow the GOP's 51-49 majority. The terrain is more favorable in the House, where Democrats need a net pickup of 23 seats to recapture the majority, and in several states with vulnerable Republican governors.
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Suspect in grocery store shooting indicted on murder charges
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - The man accused in the shooting deaths of two grocery store patrons in Kentucky has been indicted on two counts of murder.
Prosecutors say Gregory Bush was indicted Wednesday by a Jefferson County grand jury in the shootings a week ago at a Kroger store in suburban Louisville. Bush also was indicted on one count of criminal attempted murder and two counts of first-degree wanton endangerment.
Bush's case will proceed to Jefferson County Circuit Court in Louisville.
Bush was seen on surveillance video trying to enter a historically black church minutes before the shootings at the grocery store. He was not able to enter the church, police said.
A federal prosecutor has said federal investigators are examining if there were any violations of federal law, including potential civil rights violations such as hate crimes. Bush is white and the two victims were black.
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Official: Mafia hit man suspected in Whitey Bulger's slaying
BOSTON (AP) - A Mafia hit man who is said to hate "rats" is under suspicion in the slaying of former Boston crime boss and longtime FBI informant James "Whitey" Bulger, who was found dead hours after he was transferred to a West Virginia prison, an ex-investigator briefed on the case said Wednesday.
The former official said that Fotios "Freddy" Geas and at least one other inmate are believed to have been involved in Bulger's killing. The longtime investigator was not authorized to discuss the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Authorities have not disclosed the cause of death.
Among the many unanswered questions after Bulger was found dead on Tuesday: Why was he moved to the prison? And why was a frail 89-year-old like Bulger - a known "snitch" - placed in the general population instead of more protective housing?
Geas, 51, and his brother were sentenced to life in prison in 2011 for their roles in several violent crimes, including the 2003 killing of Adolfo "Big Al" Bruno, a Genovese crime family boss who was gunned down in a Springfield, Massachusetts, parking lot.
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Radical plans, risks in foreign policy of Brazil's Bolsonaro
SAO PAULO (AP) - Brazil's President-elect Jair Bolsonaro has often expressed admiration for Donald Trump and appears poised to follow the U.S. president in a radical overhaul of his nation's foreign policy - a move that experts warn could ultimately isolate and hurt Brazil.
Bolsonaro, who takes office Jan. 1, has promised to pull Latin America's largest nation out of the Paris climate accord, join the handful of countries that have moved their embassies in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and take a hard line against President Nicolas Maduro in neighboring Venezuela.
The former army captain, who gained notoriety as a congressman for violence-laden language and offensive comments, has also frequently bashed China, Brazil's largest foreign investor.
The broad brushes of his plans have diplomats, political analysts and former government officials warning that such moves could isolate the regional powerhouse instead of opening new markets, which Bolsonaro has said he wants to do by enacting widespread privatization of state industries.
"If Bolsonaro does what he says, Brazil will quickly become a pariah in the global community," said Rubens Ricupero, a former finance and environment minister. "Brazil has 50,000 problems to solve. He wants to give us problems we don't have in exchange for nothing."
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Supply shortages plague Canada's new cannabis marketplace
TORONTO (AP) - The name of the store is High North, but it might as well be named High and Dry because for all but about four hours of the first two weeks since marijuana was legalized in Canada, there was no pot to sell.
Trevor Tobin, one of the owners of the Labrador City shop in Newfoundland and Labrador, said they went 10 straight days without supply.
"The producers keep saying there will be some bumps in the road, but right now it's not a bump in the road. It's a big pothole," he said.
His mother, Brenda Tobin, is a part-owner and said that after she tells customers there's nothing to buy, "a lot of them are saying, 'Oh, well. I guess it's back to the black market.'"
Legalization arrived Oct. 17, and Canada became the world's largest national marketplace for so-called recreational marijuana. But for now, it's a superlative in name only.
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More deaths seen for less invasive cervical cancer surgery
New evidence about a cancer operation in women finds a higher death rate for the less invasive version, challenging standard practice and the "less is more" approach to treating cervical cancer.
The unexpected findings are prompting changes at some hospitals that perform radical hysterectomies for early-stage disease.
The more rigorous of the two studies was conducted at more than 30 sites in a dozen countries. It found women who had the less invasive surgery were four times more likely to see their cancer return compared to women who had traditional surgery. Death from cervical cancer occurred in 14 of 319 patients who had minimally invasive surgery and 2 of 312 patients who had open surgery.
Results were published online Wednesday by the New England Journal of Medicine.
Radical hysterectomy is standard treatment for women with early-stage cervical cancer. Rates are declining because of widespread screening. The number of operations has fallen, too, to several thousand a year in the United States. Some women with early-stage cervical cancer are choosing fertility-sparing techniques, treatments not included in the new research.