U.S. pressing ahead on security after Benghazi

Syria escalation

May 21, 2013 4:00 am

Smoke and fire rise after explosives were dropped by a Syrian government warplane Monday in Yabroud near Damascus, Syria. Also Monday, Hezbollah was pulled more deeply into Syria’s civil war as 28 guerrillas from the Lebanese Shiite militant....MORE

Senate confirms federal judge for Oregon

May 21, 2013 4:00 am

WASHINGTON — The Senate confirmed Multnomah County Circuit Judge Michael J. McShane to a seat on the Eugene bench of the U. S. District Court of Oregon on Monday. McShane, 52, becomes the first openly gay federal judge in Oregon history. He....MORE

Editor's choice

White House had IRS notice earlier

May 21, 2013 4:00 am

WASHINGTON — The White House offered a new account Monday of how and when it learned that the Internal Revenue Service had improperly targeted conservative groups, saying that some senior officials were informed of the findings but that....MORE

Twister tracked path of 1999 tornado

May 21, 2013 4:00 am

NEW YORK — Monday’s powerful tornado in suburban Oklahoma City loosely followed the path of a killer twister that slammed the region in May 1999. The National Weather Service estimated that the storm that struck Moore, Okla., on Monday....MORE

Oklahoma tornado

Mile-wide tornado kills at least 91 'Hearts are broken'

• Death toll is mounting, and two elementary schools are crushed • Photos from the devastation • Deadliest tornadoes since 1900 • In the path of a 1999 twister, A5

May 21, 2013 4:00 am

MOORE, Okla. — A giant tornado, a mile or more wide, killed at least 91 people, 20 of them children, as it tore across parts of Oklahoma City and its suburbs Monday afternoon, flattening homes, flinging cars through the air and crushing at....MORE

Iraq killings raise fears of sectarian conflict

May 21, 2013 4:00 am

BAGHDAD — A wave of car bombings and shootings hit cities in Iraq late Sunday and Monday, killing at least 76 people and wounding more than 250, medical and security officials said. Some news agency reports put the overall toll even higher, at ....MORE

Google server breach yielded sensitive data

May 21, 2013 4:00 am

WASHINGTON — Chinese hackers who breached Google’s servers several years ago gained access to a sensitive database with years’ worth of information about U. S. surveillance targets, according to current and former government....MORE

World Briefing

May 21, 2013 4:00 am

Myanmar leader’s visit — President Barack Obama on Monday told Myanmar’s president during a long-awaited White House meeting that he appreciates the Asian leader’s efforts to lead the country on its sometimes difficult path....MORE

Consumers may offset budget cuts

May 21, 2013 4:00 am

Consumers will help keep economic growth on track this year, as new projections of their spending indicate it will offset the hit to the recovery from the federal government’s automatic budget cuts, a panel of economists said Monday. The....MORE

Deal emerging in solar dispute

May 21, 2013 4:00 am

The Obama administration and the European Union have each decided to negotiate settlements with China in the world’s largest anti-dumping and anti-subsidy trade cases involving China’s roughly $30 billion a year in solar panel shipments....MORE

Apple’s tax tactics cost U.S. $44B, report says

May 21, 2013 4:00 am

WASHINGTON — Apple Inc. has used an elaborate web of offshore subsidiaries to avoid paying at least $44 billion in U. S. taxes in the past four years, a Senate investigation has found. Many of the tactics, such as cost-sharing arrangements, are....MORE

Severe weather causes damage in Plains

May 20, 2013 4:00 am

The storm rumbled through the Plains and upper Midwest, spawning tornadoes that damaged homes and buildings near Oklahoma City and put the Tulsa area on high-alert. A 79-year-old man was found dead at a mobile home park that was severely damaged by....MORE

Nation & World Briefs

May 20, 2013 4:00 am

— From wire reportsPakistan election — Pakistan held a repeat election Sunday in an upscale area of the southern city of Karachi that was plagued with allegations of vote-rigging, despite the shooting death of a senior member of former....MORE

Today

May 20, 2013 4:00 am

It's Monday, May 20, the 140th day of 2013. There are 225 days left in the year. HistoryHighlight: In 1927, Charles Lindbergh took off from Roosevelt Field in Long Island, N. Y., aboard the Spirit of St. Louis on his historic solo flight to France. In....MORE

Rare old torpedo found by unusual divers

May 20, 2013 4:00 am

SAN DIEGO — In the ocean off Coronado, a Navy team has discovered a relic worthy of display in a military museum: a torpedo of the kind deployed in the late 19th century, considered a technological marvel in its day. But don’t look for....MORE

Obama Controversies

Aide rejects allegations

May 20, 2013 4:00 am

A senior adviser to President Barack Obama mounted a combative defense of the administration Sunday, saying that the controversies enveloping the White House were the result of Republican lawmakers trying to “drag Washington into a swamp of....MORE

Editor's choice

Records offer rare glimpse of leak probe

May 20, 2013 4:00 am

WASHINGTON— When the Justice Department began investigating possible leaks of classified information about North Korea in 2009, investigators did more than obtain telephone records of a working journalist suspected of receiving the secret....MORE

A large aquifer on its last legs

May 20, 2013 4:00 am

HASKELL COUNTY, Kan. — Forty-nine years ago, Ashley Yost’s grandfather sank a well deep into a half-mile square of rich Kansas farmland. He struck an artery of water so prodigious that he could pump 1,600 gallons to the surface every....MORE

Plank by plank, infamous cabin gets a new home

May 19, 2013 4:00 am

EDISTO ISLAND, S. C. — The floors creaked. The walls swayed in a strong breeze. Rot and termites had destroyed parts of the rickety structure built before the Civil War. But when curators from the Smithsonian's new African-American history....MORE

In Obama’s style, seeing a paradox

May 19, 2013 4:00 am

President Barack Obama’s professed ignorance of the targeting of conservatives by one government agency and his support of tracking journalists’ sources by another highlight one of the great paradoxes of his presidency: Sometimes he....MORE

Impasse in Salem

Sticking point: PERS

May 19, 2013 4:00 am

SALEM — The political talking points coming from both sides of the aisle ring familiar: Both parties want to see a more robust education budget and each blames the other for the inability to strike a grand bargain. On Friday, Oregon Democratic....MORE

Today

May 19, 2013 4:00 am

It's Sunday, May 19, the 139th day of 2013. There are 226 days left in the year. HistoryHighlight: In 1943, in his second wartime address to the U. S. Congress, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill pledged his country's full support in the fight....MORE

In perspective

What are the odds? For Powerball, abysmal

May 19, 2013 4:00 am

With the majority of possible combinations of Powerball numbers in play, someone is almost sure to win the game's highest jackpot, a windfall of hundreds of millions of dollars — and that's after taxes. The problem, of course, is those same....MORE

Nation & World Briefs

May 19, 2013 4:00 am

Train accident — The commuter train derailment and collision that left dozens injured in Connecticut was not the result of foul play, officials said Saturday, but a fractured section of rail is being studied to determine if it is connected to....MORE

News Q&A

May 19, 2013 4:00 am

Q: There have been numerous reports about shortages of various types of ammunition. Is it possible this shortage is related to the billions of rounds of ammo purchased by the Department of Homeland Security?A: Several members of Congress, including....MORE

Washington Week

May 19, 2013 4:00 am

WASHINGTON — The Senate unanimously confirmed Ernest Moniz as the next Secretary of Energy on Thursday. President Barack Obama nominated Moniz, a professor of physics and engineering systems at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to....MORE

Yesterday

State cracks down on gambling, liquor in 1913

May 19, 2013 4:00 am

Compiled by Don Hoiness from archived copies of The Bulletin at the Des Chutes Historical Museum.100 YEARS AGOFor the week endingMay 18, 1913Metolius case is discussedIn discussing Governor West’s action in closing Metolius’ one saloon,....MORE

Farman discovered hole in ozone layer

May 19, 2013 4:00 am

Joseph Farman, a British researcher whose single-minded and at times officially derided study of atmospheric changes in the Antarctic established the existence of a hole in the ozone layer over the South Pole approximately the size of the United....MORE

Today's read: Interviewing the tax agents

At Cincinnati IRS office, confusion amid a growing caseload

May 19, 2013 4:00 am

In summer 2010, the dozen or so accountants and tax agents of Group 7822 of the Internal Revenue Service office in Cincinnati got a directive from their manager. A growing number of organizations identifying themselves as part of the “tea....MORE

In focus: Art theft

Growth industry: chasing purloined Picassos at the FBI

May 19, 2013 4:00 am

WASHINGTON — Stored inside a laptop at FBI headquarters are photos of thousands of paintings, sculptures and artifacts, works by Vincent Van Gogh and Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso and Paul Cezanne — international treasures worth millions....MORE

Health

Is migrating to America bad for you?

May 19, 2013 4:00 am

A growing body of mortality research on immigrants has shown that the longer they live in this country, the worse their rates of heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes. And while their American-born children may have more money, they tend to ....MORE

Assad won’t budge

May 19, 2013 4:00 am

BEIRUT — Syrian President Bashar Assad, in a rare interview with a foreign newspaper, appeared to dismiss the possibility of serious progress arising from peace talks planned for next month, and to back away from earlier statements by Syrian....MORE

In focus: Benefits backlog

Vietnam veterans’ new battle: getting disability compensation

May 18, 2013 4:00 am

LOS ANGELES — Vietnam veteran John Otte did his best to forget the war. He got married, raised two sons and made a career working at credit unions. But as Otte neared retirement, memories of combat flooded back. Starting in 2005, he filed a....MORE

Syrian group claims role in newspaper hacking

May 18, 2013 4:00 am

The website and several Twitter accounts belonging to The Financial Times were hacked Friday by the Syrian Electronic Army in an ongoing campaign that has targeted an array of media outlets ranging from The Associated Press to the parody site The....MORE

Need to know

Rising seas a new reality for many

May 18, 2013 4:00 am

PHILADELPHIA — The night Meghan Wren got stranded by floodwaters and had to sleep in her car, she knew it was time for a reckoning. She had been driving to her waterfront home along the Delaware Bay in South Jersey. As she crossed the wide....MORE

Today's read: Back from the brink

Once thought extinct, big trout is recovering

May 18, 2013 4:00 am

PYRAMID LAKE, Nev. — Hour after hour, Brian Dunn lofted his fly line into the turquoise-blue water of this shimmering desert lake north of Reno. Finally, just after lunch, his line straightened and a smile spread on his face. Before long, a 6-....MORE

Israeli Settlement protests

May 18, 2013 4:00 am

A Palestinian hurls stones Friday at Israeli forces, not pictured, as tear gas fumes swirl in the background, during a protest against the expansion of the nearby Jewish settlement of Ofra outside the village of Deir Jarir near Ramallah, West Bank.....MORE

Commuter train crash injures at least 60

May 18, 2013 4:00 am

Two Metro-North Railroad trains collided after a derailment near Fairfield, Conn., at the height of the evening rush Friday, injuring 60 people, five of them critically, and snarling transit corridors in the Northeast, authorities said. An eastbound....MORE

Editor's choice

Treasury knew about IRS probe during 2012

May 18, 2013 4:00 am

WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department’s inspector general told senior Treasury officials in June 2012 he was investigating allegations that the Internal Revenue Service had targeted conservative groups, disclosing for the first time on....MORE

New guide for diagnosing mental illness is fraught

May 18, 2013 4:00 am

For ADHD, the definition is being broadened, meaning the disorder could be diagnosed in more children. In the case of autism, the opposite is true. The new criteria are among the changes that will be released with the publication this weekend of the....MORE