IF iDir.com

Powerful thunderstorms across the Central U.S. and gusty storms in the Northeast have caused at least 327 reports of severe weather in the last 24 hours. The wind reports have been quite notable in the central U.S. A 90 mph gust was reported in Scott County, Iowa, an 80 mph gust was reported at the Moline Quad Cities airport in Illinois, an 85 mph wind gust has been reported in Cleveland County, Oklahoma, which is part of the greater Oklahoma City metro area, and there have been numerous reports of 70 to 80 mph winds in the city of Norman, Oklahoma, just south of Oklahoma City. There have been at least three reported tornadoes -- one in Minnesota, one in Maine, and one in Texas.

Sun, 12 Jul 2020 07:55:18 -0400

Richard Midkiff spent 23 years behind bars. A dispute over his decades-old plea deal could send him back for 15 more.

Sun, 12 Jul 2020 07:04:00 -0400

Pope Francis said on Sunday that he is “deeply pained” over the decision by Turkey to change the status of Hagia Sophia — which was originally built in Istanbul as a Christian cathedral — from a museum to a mosque. In a very brief, improvised remark, Francis, speaking from his studio window overlooking St. Peter’s Square, noted that the Catholic Church marked Sunday as International Day of the Sea. “And the sea brings me a little far away with my thought: to Istanbul,” the pontiff said.

Sun, 12 Jul 2020 07:03:17 -0400

A long-term rise in political polarization is heading full steam into the 2020 election, with conservatism among Republicans accelerating to its highest level in ABC News/Washington Post polls back 22 years and liberalism among Democrats near its record, set last year. Given vast partisan and ideological differences in public attitudes on politics and policy – from social justice issues to responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond – the results indicate the shrinking space for a political middle ground. On average in 2001 and 2002, 50% of Republicans called themselves conservatives.

Sun, 12 Jul 2020 07:00:00 -0400

A Pennsylvania man has been charged with the kidnapping of an Amish teenager who has been missing since last month and has yet to be found. East Lampeter Township Police in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, charged 34-year-old Justo Smoker on Friday with felony kidnapping and misdemeanor false imprisonment while investigators are still actively searching for the whereabouts of 18-year-old Linda Stoltzfoos whom they believe was harmed following her abduction after she was reported missing on June 21. “Smoker became a person of interest in the kidnapping after police received information about a red/orange vehicle seen in the Gap area on the afternoon of the abduction,” said the East Lampeter Township Police Department in a press release.

Sun, 12 Jul 2020 06:37:53 -0400