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(Reuters) - An unidentified teenager shot himself to death at a Richmond, Indiana, middle school on Thursday but no students were injured, according to state police and local media.

Thu, 13 Dec 2018 10:34:21 -0500

A woman accused of acting as a Russian agent to infiltrate the powerful National Rifle Association lobby group and influence U.S. policy toward Moscow is expected to plead guilty in federal court on Thursday in a deal that could help prosecutors gain insight into Russian efforts to meddle in American politics. Maria Butina, a Russian former graduate student at American University in Washington who has publicly advocated for gun rights, is slated to change her plea from not guilty to guilty during a hearing before Judge Tanya Chutkan in U.S. District Court in Washington. Butina was charged in July with acting as an agent of Russia's government and conspiracy to take actions on behalf of Moscow.

Thu, 13 Dec 2018 09:43:34 -0500

The Washington-based Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) said it hopes members of Congress incorporate its proposal into a number of draft privacy bills they have begun to discuss in recent weeks. Many business groups, along with individual companies such as big CDT donors Alphabet Inc and Apple Inc, are pushing for a national privacy law before the California Consumer Privacy Act goes into effect Jan. 1, 2020. Businesses have raised concerns about their ability to comply with California's law, which enables fines of up to $7,500 for intentional failure to disclose data collection or selling others' data without permission.

Thu, 13 Dec 2018 09:24:23 -0500

"It doesn't matter what you're doing - get out there and vote!" said Cliff Farmer, whose 223-223 tie with incumbent City Council Member Becky Linebaugh will be decided by dice, cards or a coin toss at 11 a.m. local time at the Lawrence County Courthouse in Walnut Ridge. Farmer, 33, a manager at a lumber yard, faced a run-off on Dec. 4 after none of three alderman candidates in the Nov. 6 election got a majority of the vote in Hoxie, a town of about 2,700 people located 120 miles (193 km) northeast of Little Rock. The second time, he was returning from a Florida business trip on Dec. 4, the Arkansas runoff election day, and he planned to vote after his plane arrived in Memphis, Tennessee at 6:30 p.m. local time.

Thu, 13 Dec 2018 08:25:40 -0500

A growing percentage of Americans see climate change as an “imminent” threat driven mainly by human activity, and more than two-thirds want Washington to work with other nations to combat it, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Thursday. The public concern over global warming in the United States clashes with President Donald Trump’s policies aimed at maximizing fossil fuels production and dismantling climate protections he views as too onerous and costly for industry. Trump last year announced his intention to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement, an accord to curb global warming struck by nearly 200 nations in 2015 that he said would kill American jobs and have no tangible environmental benefit.

Thu, 13 Dec 2018 07:29:36 -0500