WH still defends Porter from abuse claims — When Jennifer Willoughby and Colbie Holderness stepped forward to tell the story of how they were physically, verbally and emotionally abused by their ex-husband, who had since become a top White House aide, President Donald Trump had nothing but good things to say about the man they had accused of domestic violence. Rob Porter “did a great job while he was at the White House. And we hope he has a wonderful career,” Trump said Friday, adding that the aide had vehemently maintained his innocence. The president followed that up Saturday with a tweet that “lives are being shattered and destroyed by a mere allegation.” Porter’s resignation was announced Wednesday, just hours after a photograph was published of Holderness with a black eye, allegedly inflicted by Porter. Trump’s staff secretary called the allegations from his former spouses “outrageous” and “simply false.” Trump’s chief of staff, John Kelly, had defended Porter on Tuesday as “a man of true integrity and honor” and “a friend, confidante and trusted professional.” By some accounts, White House counsel Don McGahn had been apprised of some accusations about Porter at least four times, including as early as January 2017

Amtrak will pay no matter who’s at fault in crash — Federal investigators are still looking at how CSX railway crews routed an Amtrak train into a parked freight train in Cayce, South Carolina, last weekend. But even if CSX should bear sole responsibility for the accident, Amtrak will likely end up paying crash victims’ legal claims with public money. Amtrak pays for accidents it didn’t cause because of secretive agreements negotiated between the passenger rail company, which receives more than $1 billion annually in federal subsidies, and the private railroads, which own 97 percent of the tracks on which Amtrak travels. Both Amtrak and freight railroads that own the tracks fight to keep those contracts secret in legal proceedings. But whatever the precise legal language, plaintiffs’ lawyers and former Amtrak officials say Amtrak generally bears the full cost of damages to its trains, passengers, employees and other crash victims — even in instances where crashes occurred as the result of a freight rail company’s negligence or misconduct. Railroad industry advocates say that freight railways have ample incentive to keep their tracks safe for their employees, customers and investors. But the Surface Transportation Board and even some federal courts have long concluded that allowing railroads to escape liability for gross negligence is bad public policy. “The freight railroads don’t have an iron in the fire when it comes to making the safety improvements necessary to protect members of the public,” said Bob Pottroff, a Manhattan, Kansas, rail injury attorney who has sued CSX on behalf of an injured passenger from the Cayce crash. “They’re not paying the damages.”

3 dead in helicopter crash at Grand Canyon — Authorities say a tour helicopter has crashed in the Grand Canyon, killing three people. Hualapai Nation Police Chief Francis Bradley said six passengers and a pilot were on board the Papillion helicopter when it crashed around 5:20 p.m. The other four were injured, and were still being treated at the scene. An after-hours phone call to aerial tour company Papillion was not immediately returned Saturday. The company’s website says it flies roughly 600,000 passengers a year on Grand Canyon and other tours. Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Allen Kenitzer said the Eurocopter EC130 crashed in unknown circumstances and sustained heavy damage. Federal authorities will investigate.

Police: 2 officers killed responding to 911 — Two Ohio police officers responding to a 911 hang-up call were fatally shot on Saturday after entering a townhome in a Columbus suburb and a suspect whom police were once warned “carries a gun all the time” was taken into custody, authorities said. Westerville Police Chief Joe Morbitzer said officer Eric Joering, 39, died at the scene and his colleague, Anthony Morelli, 54, died at a local hospital. Morbitzer said the officers were responding to a “potential domestic situation.” A neighbor who heard the gunfire said it happened at a home where the occupants were “always arguing and fighting.” “The officers gave their lives in defense of others,” Morbitzer said during a news conference, struggling to keep his emotions in check. He called them “true American heroes.” Police did not identify the suspect at a news conference, but confirmed late Saturday that he was 30-year-old Quentin Lamar Smith. They released incident reports showing police had been to his home or had dealings with him several times since 2017, some for alleged domestic violence involving a woman identified in the reports as his wife, Candace Smith.

Border collie Fame(US) wins agility contest — When your name is famous, you’ve got to live up to it. Like a black-and-white blur, a border collie named Fame(US) — pronounced like “famous” — streaked to a win in the Westminster Kennel Club dog show’s agility championship Saturday night, finishing with a leap into handler Jessica Ajoux’s arms. “It’s difficult to top her athletic ability,” even now that she’s 71⁄2, says Ajoux, a professional agility trainer from Sparta, New Jersey. “I’m privileged to have her as a teacher, really.” Not far behind, a Chihuahua-terrier called Jefe was the top mixed-breed agility dog at the nation’s most prominent dog show. Jefe was part of a litter of starving puppies rescued under a house where they had been for over 4 weeks, handler Liza Buckner said. She says now, he can deal with pretty much anything thrown his way. “He’s just a cool little dog,” said Buckner, of Sebastopol, California.