Police kill boy who had BB gun

Columbus police Chief Kim Jacobs holds up a photo Thursday showing the type of BB gun that police say a 13-year-old boy pulled from his waistband just before he was shot and killed by police investigating an armed robbery report. Police say the boy, Tyre King, died at a hospital after the Wednesday night shooting.

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — A Wyoming man who shot three people at the senior citizen apartment complex where he lived, killing an employee before he killed himself, wrote a letter before the shooting expressing concern about poker games being held in the complex, police said Thursday.

Cheyenne Police Department spokesman Dan Long called it a “letter of discontent” but did not disclose further details about what Larry Rosenberg wrote before he opened fire and said detectives have not yet made conclusions about Rosenberg’s motive.

A tropical storm again

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Julia re-strengthened into a tropical storm Thursday after earlier weakening to a tropical depression, but forecasters said it would gradually lose steam again while meandering off the coast of the Carolinas.

The storm is expected to drift off the coast for the next few days.

Tax loophole tightens

The Treasury Department sought Thursday to limit the benefits that U.S. companies can claim when they pay taxes overseas, an effort to cushion the blow from Europe’s demand that Apple pony up $14.5 billion in unpaid taxes.

In new guidance, the department tightened regulations requiring American businesses to bring foreign profits back home if they want to get credit for taxes paid in that country.

Refugee surge

WASHINGTON — U.S. Border Patrol agents will apprehend more family members entering the United States along the Southwest border this fiscal year than they did in 2014, when a massive surge of Central Americans found the Obama administration detaining thousands of mothers and their children.

Newly released U.S. Customs and Border Protection statistics show that while overall apprehension numbers are down from two years ago, the number of family members being apprehended will almost certainly surpass the total of two years ago.

‘Safe space’ to use heroin

SEATTLE — The task force formed to help fight a heroin epidemic in King County, Wash., has recommended the opening of public, supervised sites where addicts can use heroin. The sites would be the first of their kind in the country.

The task force Thursday called for a pilot program to establish two socalled “community health-engagement locations” where users can inject heroin under medical supervision.

Drug use skyrockets

Early this year, a railroad worker who had just been briefed on his duties for the day was discovered in a restroom, dead from an overdose of illegal prescription drugs.

Testing in 2016 has shown that nearly 8 percent of workers involved in rail accidents were positive for drug use, according to internal federal documents obtained by The Washington Post.

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Cigarette maker Reynolds American says former House Speaker John Boehner is joining its board of directors.