TRUMP CALLS LEAKERS ‘COWARDS’ AFTER AIDE’S REMARK
» President Donald WASHINGTON Trump called West Wing leakers “traitors and cowards” on Monday as a dustup over a White House aide’s crass remark about Arizona Sen. John McCain extended into a fifth day.
In a Monday afternoon tweet, Trump said the “leaks coming out of the White House are a massive over exaggeration put out by the Fake News Media in order to make us look as bad as possible.”
He added of the leakers: “We will find out who they are!”
During a closed-door meeting last week, Trump communications aide Kelly Sadler dismissed McCain’s opposition to the president’s CIA nominee by saying of the Arizona Republican: “He’s dying anyway.” The 81-year-old McCain was diagnosed in July with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer.
Sex-related charge dropped against Missouri governor.
» Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens declared victory Monday as prosecutors abruptly dropped a felony invasion-of-privacy charge alleging he had taken a revealing photo of a woman with whom he has acknowledged having an affair.
The St. Louis circuit attorney’s office said it hopes still to pursue the case, either through a special prosecutor or an appointed assistant. But Greitens’ attorneys said the case was crumbling under a lack of evidence and doubted any charge would ever be refiled.
The first-term Republican governor still faces plenty of other problems. The Legislature is to convene Friday in a monthlong special session to consider whether to impeach Greitens in an attempt to remove him from office. And Greitens still faces a second felony charge for allegedly disclosing a donor list from a St. Louis-based veterans’ charity he founded for use in his political campaign.
Congo approves use of experimental Ebola vaccine, WHO says.
KINSHASA, CONGO
» Congo has agreed to allow the World Health Organization to use an experimental Ebola vaccine to combat an outbreak announced last week, the WHO directorgeneral said Monday.
The aim is for health officials to start using the vaccine, once it’s shipped, by the end of the week, or next week if there are difficulties, said WHO DirectorGeneral Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The outbreak was announced last week in Bikoro, in Congo’s northwest. Health officials traveled there after Congo’s Equateur provincial health ministry on May 3 alerted them to 17 deaths from a hemorrhagic fever.
Nanny who killed 2 kids gets life in prison without parole.
» A nanny who was NEW YORK convicted of brutally murdering two small children in her care while their parents were out was sentenced on Monday to life in prison without parole during a dramatic courtroom encounter.
Yoselyn Ortega wept as she spoke briefly — a rare show of emotion in a lengthy trial at which she was convicted of the gruesome October 2012 stabbing deaths of 6-year-old Lucia Krim, known as Lulu, and 2-year-old Leo Krim.
“I’m very sorry for everything that happened, but I hope that no one goes through what I have gone through,” said the 55-yearold Ortega. “Although many people wish me all the worst, my life is in the hands of God.”
The children’s parents, speaking to the judge before sentencing, demanded the maximum sentence.
Hawaii volcano eruption costs tourism industry millions.
People nixing PAHOA, HAWAII vacations to Hawaii’s Big island has cost the tourism industry millions of dollars as the top attraction, Kilauea volcano, keeps spewing lava.
Cancellations from May through July have hit at least $5 million, said Ross Birch, executive director of the island’s tourism board. — Denver Post wire services