News

Toys for Tots applications available

Each year the ASSIST Agency aims to help those in need provide gifts at Christmas time. Under the direction of the United States Marines Corps, the Toys for Tots program collects gifts to ensure children have something under their tree on Christmas morning.

Applications are now being accepted to help families that may otherwise be unable to provide gifts for their children.

CORRECTION

In Tuesday’s election recap story, it was erroneously reported that Jim Donelon secured the Commissioner of Agriculture seat in the Oct. 12 election. Donelon was actually reelected to serve as the state’s Commissioner of Insurance.

Frustration, pride in Canada after a year of legal pot

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — The weed is expensive, the selection is limited, the black market persists, and licensed stores are scarce.

It’s one year into Canada’s experiment in legal marijuana, and hundreds of legal pot shops have opened. While many residents remain proud of Canada for bucking prohibition, a lot still buy cannabis on the sly, because taxes and other issues mean highquality bud can cost nearly twice what it did before legalization.

STATE BRIEFS

Coast Guard, Mexican Navy search for plane, Missouri pilot

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A U.S. Coast Guard plane and a Mexican Navy vessel are searching the Gulf of Mexico for a small plane which flew hundreds of miles (kilometers) beyond its destination in Louisiana.

Hurricane Center: Tropical storm likely along Gulf Coast

MIAMI (AP) — A disturbance in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico is likely to become a tropical storm that will hit the northern U.S. Gulf Coast with wind and rain, forecasters said Thursday.

Moving off the eastern coast of Mexico, the low pressure system was likely to develop into a tropical or subtropical system before Friday, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Forecasters issued a tropical storm warning for southeastern Louisiana and the northern Gulf Coast from the Alabama-Mississippi line to the Big Bend area of Florida.

Officials: Immigrant kills himself in ICE jail in Louisiana

HOUSTON (AP) — A Cuban man who legally sought asylum died by apparent suicide while being detained at an immigration jail in Louisiana, authorities said Wednesday.

Roylan Hernandez Diaz, 43, was found unresponsive Tuesday afternoon inside his cell at the Richwood Correctional Center, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which said he had appeared to strangle himself.

Jury seated in opioids case, but settlement talks go on

CLEVELAND (AP) — A jury was seated Thursday for the first federal trial on the opioid crisis, but the push to settle the case before opening arguments next week continued, with company officials expected to gather for further talks.

U.S District Judge Dan Polster had ordered executives for the companies that are defendants to appear in Cleveland on Friday for continued negotiations, a person with knowledge of the negotiations told The Associated Press. The person was not authorized to disclose information about ongoing negotiations and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

‘See you at the polls’: Trump and Pelosi have it out

WASHINGTON (AP) — He said she’s a “third-grade” politician. She said he’s having a meltdown.

And with that President Donald Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi chalked up the latest explosive meeting that ended abruptly with a walkout at the White House.

Detectives across US grill serial killer, close cold cases

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Keep him talking, don’t interrupt him and, no matter what, don’t ask why he killed his victims.

Those were the instructions Texas Ranger James Holland gave to the dozens of homicide detectives around the country when they got their moment with Samuel Little, hoping to solve decades-old cold cases and bring back answers to desperate families from the man the FBI identified this month as the most prolific serial killer in U.S. history.

Pence: Turkey agrees to cease-fire in Syria

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Vice President Mike Pence announced Thursday that Turkey has agreed to a cease-fire to allow the Kurdish forces it was battling to safely withdraw from an area in northern Syria.