Author: rpnadmin

WAIALUA, Hawaii — The reddish-brown mud that smothered Bok Kongphan’s Hawaii farm has hardened in the tropical sun. Irrigation tubes lie in a tangle where his lemongrass, cucumber and okra once flourished. His niece, Jeni Balanay, lost her crops too – a mustardy green called choy sum, bitter melon, tomato. The leaves of her recently planted banana, coconut and mango have gone yellow, the trees unlikely to survive. Across Oahu’s North Shore, an area famed for its big-wave surfing, the small farms that help supply the island’s food are struggling after back-to-back storms in March brought the state’s worst flooding…

NEW YORK — Moments after his daughter Olivia was born, Marlon White felt his wife’s hand slacken as she fainted. The baby, born at 29 weeks weighing about 2 pounds, wasn’t making a sound as she was rushed to the neonatal intensive care unit. Terrified, he waited in the hall while the doctors stabilized his newborn and wife. The next day, White, a welder, was back at work. Two days later, his wife, Farra Lanzer-White, was also back on the job, setting up a work station at the Denver hospital. For two months, first at one hospital then another, she…

NEW CASTLE, Del. | A neat stack of 79-cent bananas and rows of colorful fruit flanked the bilingual alternative pop band Luna Luna as they performed for a small audience at a Latino grocery store in northern Delaware. The show was part of the monthly Mercadito sessions put on by the Fiesta Fresh Market, a family-owned store in the Philadelphia metro-area city of New Castle, far away from the massive music industry hubs typically associated with artistic opportunity and exposure. But the excitement of new music, paired with the colorful, unassuming stage, has rapidly engaged an international following for the…

NEW YORK — A New York judge declared a mistrial Friday in Harvey Weinstein’s rape case from the #MeToo-era that has gone to trial three times so far after a jury was unable to come to a unanimous decision. The trial centered on whether Weinstein raped Jessica Mann, a hairstylist and actor, in 2013 during a relationship between the then-married Weinstein and the decades-younger Mann. Weinstein’s lawyers argued that the encounter was consensual, while Mann described a hotel-room encounter when he forced himself upon her. The current jury heard nearly three weeks of testimony, including from Mann. Weinstein decided not…

NEW YORK — North America’s largest commuter rail system was shut down Saturday after unionized workers in the New York City area went on strike. The Long Island Rail Road that serves the city’s eastern suburbs ceased operations early Saturday morning after five unions representing about half its workforce walked off the job. The two sides have been negotiating for months on a new contract, and President Donald Trump’s administration had even interceded to try and broker a deal. But the unions were legally allowed to strike starting at 12:01 a.m. Saturday. Kevin Sexton of the National Vice President of…

Wyoming wildlife managers plan to reduce how many wolves can be hunted by 50% following a canine distemper outbreak that has cut the state’s wolf numbers to the lowest level in two decades. A 22-wolf cap is the fewest number of wolves available to licensed Wyoming hunters since the state began allowing wolf hunting after Endangered Species Act protections were lifted in 2012. The limit also marks a significant decrease from last fall’s wolf hunting season. “As far as the overall mortality limit, it’s exactly half,” Wyoming Game and Fish Department wolf biologist Ken Mills told WyoFile. Last year, hunters…

Starbucks said Friday it’s laying off 300 corporate employees and closing some U.S. offices as part of its ongoing turnaround. No coffeehouse employees are affected, the company said. The cuts will impact employees in support functions like marketing, human resources and supply chain management. No international employees are affected for now, but Starbucks said it is also reviewing its corporate structure outside the U.S. Starbucks said it’s also closing underused offices in Atlanta, Dallas, Chicago and other cities. The Seattle-based company recently announced that it’s opening a corporate office in Nashville, Tennessee, that will employ up to 2,000 people within…

An American Airlines regional flight made an emergency landing at Kansas City International Airport on Friday after smoke was detected in the cabin. Flight 5318, flying under American Airlines regional brand American Eagle and operated by the carrier’s subsidiary PSA Airlines, originally departed from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and was two miles from landing in Kansas City, Missouri, when the smoke was noticed, according to CNN. The CRJ-900 jet then made an emergency landing, with other planes circling the airport to let Flight 5318 land, according to CNN. No injuries were reported. Four crew members and 76 passengers were…

Georgia Republicans head to the polls on Tuesday to pick a candidate to challenge Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff in November, but they aren’t getting direction from President Trump on who to choose. The Georgia Senate race is the GOP’s only real shot at taking out a Democratic incumbent this cycle, although the party is targeting a few states where Democratic senators are retiring. The protracted Republican primary, which is likely to extend to a June runoff, has allowed Mr. Ossoff to build a massive campaign war chest and begin reintroducing himself to voters without a direct opponent attacking his every…

MORRILL, Maine — A 27-year-old firefighter killed in a huge fire and explosion at a lumber mill in Maine’s midcoast region was honored Saturday, a day after the incident that injured at least 11 others. A memorial of flowers dedicated to Andrew Cross sat outside of the Morrill Volunteer Fire Department as a procession of dozens of firetrucks, police cars and other vehicles escorted his remains to a funeral home. Dozens of first responders and other community members gathered in Morrill to salute and pay their respects. The procession routed through the small town of fewer than 1,000 people on…