2nd Army nominee withdraws
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration’s second Army secretary nominee withdrew from consideration Friday, amid mounting opposition to past comments he made about Islam, evolution and gender issues.
Mark Green, a firebrand Republican state senator in Tennessee and veteran of the Iraq War, said there can be no distractions in overseeing the military, and blamed “false and misleading attacks against him” in a statement provided to media. The Pentagon and the White House had no immediate reaction to his announcement, but it came hours after a Defense Department spokesman declined during a meeting with journalists to say whether Defense Secretary Jim Mattis still supported him for the job.
Expanding Pell Grants
WASHINGTON — Black colleges and universities won a major expansion of the Pell Grants used by thousands of their students.
The additional money, included in the law that keeps the federal government running through Sept. 30, expands Pell Grants for low-income college students by providing financial help for three semesters per calendar year instead of just two.
Baby powder verdict
ST. LOUIS — A St. Louis Circuit Court jury has returned a $110.5 million verdict for a Virginia woman in a lawsuit claiming Johnson & Johnson’s products caused her ovarian cancer.
Lois Slemp, 62, of Wise, Va., claimed her use of the company’s Shower to Shower and baby powder products over four decades as well as asbestos particles found inside her caused her cancer.
Ms. Slemp, a mother of two grown sons, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2012. The cancer has since spread to her liver.
The verdict, returned Thursday, included $5.4 million in actual damages, and $105 million in punitive damages, said Jim Onder, attorney for the plaintiff.
Texas officer charged
DALLAS — A white Texas police officer has been charged with murder in the shooting of a black teenager for which the officer was fired, according to an arrest warrant issued Friday.
The warrant for Roy Oliver, a former officer in the Dallas suburb of Balch Springs, was issued by the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office for the April 29 shooting death of 15-year-old Jordan Edwards. In a statement it released announcing the warrant, the sheriff’s office cited evidence that suggested Mr. Oliver “intended to cause serious bodily injury and commit an act clearly dangerous to human life that caused the death.”
W.Va. cargo plane crash
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A cargo plane contracted by UPS went off the runway and over a steep, wooded hillside Friday at a West Virginia airport, killing the pilot and co-pilot, an airport official said.
Yeager airport spokesman Mike Plante said officials have no idea why the plane, which made regular runs to the airport, crashed. The weather in Charleston was sunny and clear.
Also in the nation ...
Last month, 19 percent of Americans age 65 and over were still working, according to government data released Friday. That’s the highest rate since 1962, and it caps a long trend going higher since the figure bottomed out at 10 percent in 1985.