Nation & World Glance
Utah police say body of slain college student recovered
SALT LAKE CITY — The body of a slain college student has been recovered in a Utah canyon about 85 miles away from a backyard in Salt Lake City where other remains were found last week, police said Friday.
The disclosure came in the case involving 23-yearold Mackenzie Lueck.
Authorities previously said some of her charred remains and personal belongings were found in a suspect’s backyard in Salt Lake City. The body was discovered Wednesday in Logan Canyon, north of the city.
“I spoke with Mackenzie’s family this morning. Another devastating call,” Salt Lake City police Chief Mike Brown said. “Despite their grief, we hope this will help them find some closure and justice for Mackenzie.”
The canyon is near Utah State University, where 31-year-old suspect Ayoola A. Ajayi sporadically attended classes for several years without earning a degree.
Police: Security officer’s gunshot warning caused stampede
CHICAGO — A stampede at a Fourth of July fireworks display that injured more than a dozen people at Chicago’s Navy Pier started when a private security officer shouted for bystanders to take cover, police said Friday.
Chicago police spokeswoman Kellie Bartoli said “approximately 13” people who fell or were trampled during the ruckus were hospitalized with minor injuries. The rush of people occurred shortly after a brawl that resulted in at least two stabbings.
The incidents happened just after 10 p.m. as thousands crowded Navy Pier on Lake Michigan’s shoreline. Police said they were searching Friday for two male suspects in the stabbings.
Authorities speculate that shortly after the stabbings, someone exploded a firecracker near a group of people, prompting shouts of “gun” or “shots fired.” Chief of Patrol Fred Waller told a news conference Friday that the ensuring panic was fueled by warnings to bystanders to take cover shouted by a member of a private security firm employed by Navy Pier.
Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said that despite the fracas, the officer’s warning was appropriate.
Former Guard commander says Iran should seize a UK tanker
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran should consider seizing a British oil tanker in response to authorities detaining an Iranian oil tanker off the coast of Gibraltar, a former leader of the Islamic Republic’s powerful Revolutionary Guard said Friday.
The striking comment by Mohsen Rezaei came amid heightened tensions over Iran’s unraveling 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, an accord that the U.S. withdrew from last year.
In recent days, Iran has broken through the limit the nuclear deal imposed on its stockpile of lowenriched uranium and plans on Sunday to boost its enrichment. In the past months, the U.S. has rushed thousands of additional troops, an aircraft carrier, B-52 bombers and advanced fighter jets to the region.
Authorities in Gibraltar intercepted the supertanker Grace 1 on Thursday, saying they believed it to be violating European Union sanctions by carrying a shipment of Iranian crude oil to Syria. Spanish authorities said the seizure came at the request of the U.S.
A spokesman for the government of Gibraltar, who wasn’t authorized to be identified in media reports, said all 28 crew members remain on the vessel while being interviewed as witnesses. The crew is comprised of mainly Indian, Pakistani and Ukrainian nationals, he said.
W.Va. coal billionaire Cline killed in helicopter crash
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Coal tycoon Chris Cline, who worked his way out of West Virginia’s underground mines to amass a fortune and become a major Republican donor, has died in a helicopter crash outside a string of islands he owned in the Bahamas.
Cline and his 22-year-old daughter Kameron were on board the aircraft with five others when it went down Thursday, a spokesman for his attorney Brian Glasser said Friday.
The death of the 60-yearold magnate led to eulogies from industry leaders, government officials and academics, who described Cline as a visionary who was generous with his $1.8 billion fortune.
“He was a very farsighted entrepreneur,” said Bill Raney, president of the West Virginia Coal Association. “Chris was just one of those folks who had the Midas touch.”
Raney said Cline began toiling in the mines of southern West Virginia at a young age, rising through the ranks of his father’s company quickly with a reserved demeanor and savvy business moves.
US adds solid 224,000 jobs, making Federal Reserve rate cut less certain
WASHINGTON — U.S. employers sharply stepped up their hiring in June, adding a robust 224,000 jobs, an indication of the economy’s durability after more than a decade of expansion.
The strength of the jobs report the government issued Friday could complicate a decision for the Federal Reserve late this month on whether to cut interest rates to help support the economy. Most investors have anticipated a rate cut in July and perhaps one or two additional Fed cuts later in the year. That scenario may be less likely now.
Stocks sold off early Friday before paring their losses later. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down a modest 43 points. But the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note climbed to 2.04% from just under 2% before the jobs report was released, reflecting a view that the Fed might now be less inclined to cut rates multiple times.
June’s solid job growth followed a tepid gain of 72,000 jobs in May, a result that had fueled concerns about the economy’s health. But with June’s pace of hiring, employers have now added, on average, a solid 171,000 jobs for the past three months. Last month’s burst of hiring suggests that many employers have shrugged off concerns about weaker growth, President Donald Trump’s trade wars and the waning benefits from U.S. tax cuts.
“Although there are drags on the economy in 2019, the expansion should continue through this year,” said Gus Faucher, chief economist at PNC Financial Services. “The doom and gloom was overblown.”
The unemployment rate ticked up to 3.7% in June from 3.6% for the previous two months, reflecting an influx of people seeking jobs who were initially counted as unemployed. Average hourly wages rose 3.1% from a year ago.
Trump responded to Friday’s jobs report by tweeting, “JOBS, JOBS, JOBS!” But the strong hiring gains have lessened the case, at least for now, for the Fed to slash rates as Trump has repeatedly and aggressively pressed the central bank to do.
“If we had a Fed that would lower interest rates, we’d be like a rocket ship,” the president asserted to reporters in an appearance Friday. “But we’re paying a lot of interest, and it’s unnecessary. But we don’t have a Fed that knows what they’re doing.”
Mexican man who was living illegally in US arrested in Maine
AUBURN, Maine — The U.S. Border Patrol says a Mexican man who’s been in the United States illegally for more than two decades was in possession of drugs when he was detained in Maine.
Border Patrol agents working at a transportation hub on Tuesday in Auburn, Maine, discovered that the man had illegally entered the United States in Douglas, Arizona, in 1997.
They said he lacked proper documents to be in the United States and was in possession methamphetamine, marijuana and drug paraphernalia. Officials say the man was transferred to the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement for removal proceedings.
Jason Owens, chief of the Border Patrol in Maine, said that without the routine bus operation “an admitted criminal alien and his dangerous drugs would have gone undetected.”