IF iDir.com

Cruise ships have canceled stops on Hawaii's Big Island. Hotel rooms will sit vacant this summer despite price cuts. Tourism authorities say summer bookings for hotels on Hawaii's Big Island have fallen almost 50 percent since the volcano began spewing lava and toxic gases on May 3.

Mon, 21 May 2018 21:24:52 -0400

Environmental groups immediately assailed the proposal, saying bear-baiting and other hunting and trapping practices the measure would permit are inhumane and disruptive to the natural predator-prey dynamic in Alaska's preserves. The plan, pushed by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, would give state wildlife managers the discretion to decide what kinds of bear-hunting methods are permitted across 20 million acres (8.million hectares) of national preserve lands in Alaska.

Mon, 21 May 2018 19:05:42 -0400

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department on Monday agreed to expand its investigation into alleged Russia collusion in the 2016 election to include "any irregularities" involving FBI tactics on Trump's presidential campaign, a White House spokeswoman said.

Mon, 21 May 2018 17:08:00 -0400

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf's administration on Monday sued an array of financial, legal and other professional firms over their involvement in a 15-year-old incinerator upgrade project that nearly bankrupted the state capital, Harrisburg. The state sued RBC Capital Markets, Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC, Public Financial Management Inc (PFM) and others over the 2003 ill-fated trash-to-energy project, which saddled the city with more than $360 million of debt. In its time, Harrisburg's debt saga was the most dramatic episode in U.S. public finance, coming before both Detroit and Puerto Rico filed their respective bankruptcies.

Mon, 21 May 2018 17:04:08 -0400

A Kansas man who shot and killed an Indian software engineer and injured two others in February 2017 pleaded guilty on Monday in federal court to hate crime and firearm charges, the Justice Department said. The shooting drew international attention as part of a wave of attacks nationwide against ethnic and religious minority groups following the 2016 election of U.S. President Donald Trump, who has railed against illegal immigration. The shooter, Adam Purinton, approached two Indian men, Srinivas Kuchibhotla and Alok Madasani, at a bar, demanding to know where they were from, calling one a terrorist and shouting, "Get out of my country!" Two other patrons escorted him out of the bar.

Mon, 21 May 2018 16:00:40 -0400