Price subject of probe, report says
WASHINGTON — The nonprofit journalism outlet ProPublica said Friday that former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara was investigating the stock trades of Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price when the White House fired him last week.
ProPublica said: “The investigation of Price’s trades by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, which hasn’t been previously disclosed, was underway at the time of Bharara’s dismissal. …”
Mr. Bharara was one of 46 U.S. attorneys asked to resign after President Donald Trump took office. That is standard practice for new presidents, but Mr. Bharara’s firing was a surprise because Mr. Bharara said Mr. Trump had asked if he was prepared to remain in his post.
U.S.: Mosque wasn’t hit
WASHINGTON — The U.S. military killed dozens of al-Qaida militants in an airstrike in Syria, the Pentagon said Friday, but it denied reports that a mosque had been hit, killing dozens of civilians.
The Britain-based monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported the strike had hit a mosque, killing at least 42 people.
The Pentagon released a photo Friday of the site in Jinah after the Thursday strike that shows a mosque seemingly undamaged and the targeted building in rubble. The military said it targeted the place where al-Qaida senior leaders were meeting and “deliberately did not target the mosque” across the street.
Social worker resigns
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A social worker accused of coaching congregants and their children on what to say in a 2015 child abuse probe of her secretive religious sect has resigned, a child welfare agency attorney said Friday.
Lori Cornelius left her post at Cleveland County Department of Social Services, Andrea Leslie-Fite said. The Associated Press recently published a report that quoted former members of the Word of Faith Fellowship sect saying that Ms. Cornelius and two assistant district attorneys, also church members, had helped undermine the investigation.
Prosecutor takes stance
ORLANDO, Fla. — Florida prosecutor Aramis Ayala, a Democrat and former public defender and assistant state attorney, surprised many of her supporters when she announced this week that her office would no longer seek capital punishment in a state with one of the largest death rows.
In response, the state’s Republican governor transferred a potential death penalty case — the killing of a police officer and a pregnant woman this year — to another Florida prosecutor.
Ms. Ayala, the first black state attorney elected in Florida, said no evidence shows the death penalty improves safety for citizens or law enforcement, it’s costly and it drags on for years for the victims’ families.
Chief: Building met code
RALEIGH, N.C. — An apartment building under construction in Raleigh had been inspected 50 times, most recently Monday, and had met all code requirements before it went up in flames Thursday, Fire Chief John McGrath said Friday.
A firefighter suffered minor injuries. Five people were treated for smoke inhalation. The cause is being investigated.