Historic flooding is hitting communities along the Arkansas River despite little rain in the region, thanks to downpours in areas farther north and efforts by officials to control the powerful surge of water. Intense rain in Kansas and northeast Oklahoma strained aging dams and levees, and a reservoir in Oklahoma that drains a massive watershed hit record water levels. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers opened a large dam to control the river flow, which put Fort Smith — the second-largest city in Arkansas — in the path of record-breaking flooding expected to last all week. Among the drenched: Rick and Cindy Gering, whose Fort Smith home flooded as the river swelled its banks over the weekend. The river also overtopped two levees southeast of the city on Tuesday. Rick Gering said the house survived flooding in 2015, but that he and his wife got nervous Saturday after the National …

Lawyer Michael Avenatti pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to charges that he extorted Nike Inc, just hours after entering a not guilty plea to defrauding porn star Stormy Daniels, the client who propelled him to fame as an outspoken adversary of U.S. President Donald Trump. “I am now facing the fight of my life against the ultimate Goliath, the Trump administration,” Avenatti, 48, told reporters after leaving the courthouse, reiterating previous assertions that he is being targeted for political reasons. “I am confident that when a jury of my peers passes judgment on my conduct, justice will be done and I will be fully exonerated.” Dawn Dearden, a spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Richard Berman’s office, which is prosecuting the cases, declined to comment. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Avenatti entered his pleas to extortion, communication with intent to extort and two counts of …

Facebook has dropped 51 accounts, 36 pages, and seven groups after the cybersecurity firm FireEye revealed they were fake accounts originating in Iran. Three Instagram accounts were also deactivated. The FireEye report Tuesday says the phony accounts pretended they came from the United States and impersonated legitimate Middle Eastern news sources to push a pro-Iranian agenda. Posts written in both English and Arabic included discussions about American and British politics, Islam, Arab minorities, and the influence of Saudi Arabia. The posts represented both conservative and liberal points of view. One post said the best way to honor the memory of slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was for the U.S. to stop sending aid to the Saudi coalition fighting Iranian-backed rebels in Yemen. The fake posters even succeeded in getting letters to the editors published in a number of U.S. newspapers, includingThe Los Angeles Times and The New York Daily News. The author …

Student journalists from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School were honored by the Pulitzer Prize Board for their work memorializing 17 classmates and coaches killed in a shooting last year in Parkland, Florida. Eight students and the faculty adviser of The Eagle Eye newspaper traveled to New York for the honorary luncheon. Former member of the Eagle Eye staff, Nikhita Nookala, told VOA on Tuesday that it was “an amazing feeling” to have the newspaper recognized “by one of the biggest authorities in journalism as a valid contribution to the coverage of an event that affected us all so much.” Nookala, who graduated from the high school last year, said, “I think the only thing that’s disappointing is that a lot of our staff that worked on the issues in question are no longer at the school to see it because of university!” Sarah Lerner, an English and journalism teacher who …

A swarm of tornadoes so tightly packed that one may have crossed the path carved by another tore across Indiana and Ohio overnight, smashing homes, blowing out windows and ending the school year early for some students because of damage to buildings. One person was killed and at least 130 were injured. The storms were among 55 twisters that forecasters said may have touched down Monday across eight states stretching eastward from Idaho and Colorado. The past couple of weeks have seen unusually high tornado activity in the U.S., with no immediate end to the pattern in sight. The winds peeled away roofs — leaving homes looking like giant dollhouses — knocked houses off their foundations, toppled trees, brought down power lines and churned up so much debris that it was visible on radar. Highway crews had to use snowplows to clear an Ohio interstate. Some of the heaviest damage …

A civil lawsuit brought by the state of Oklahoma against drugmaker Johnson & Johnson went to trial Tuesday over the company’s alleged role in the U.S. opioid epidemic.  The first-of-its-kind trial, which holds opioid manufacturers responsible for the drug crisis gripping the country, could have a large impact on other states seeking similar compensation. In opening statements, Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter called the prescription opioid epidemic the “worst man-made public health crisis in the history of our state and country.” Hunter further characterized Johnson & Johnson as being motivated by greed and having been engaged in “a cynical, deceitful multimillion-dollar brainwashing campaign.” Drugmakers named in the lawsuit denied claims made by the state, which is located in the U.S. Great Plains. Two of those companies settled with the state before the trial began. In an opening statement, Larry Ottaway, a Johnson & Johnson defense lawyer, told the court that …

The next U.S. presidential election is not until November 2020, but Republican President Donald Trump and the leading Democrat trying to oust him, former Vice President Joe Biden, are launching rhetorical slingshots at each other with gusto. Trump, in Japan for a four-day state visit, played golf with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, watched a sumo wrestling match and met Emperor Naruhito, but his mind strayed little from his re-election effort in throwing jabs at Biden, leading in U.S. political surveys over two dozen other Democratic presidential contenders. For decades, U.S. presidents have generally refrained from political attacks on their opponents back home while they were overseas on diplomatic missions, and in turn, their political foes have not attacked them while they were on foreign soil. But from Tokyo, Trump assailed “Sleepy Joe Biden” for his role as a senator in the 1994 passage of legislation that stiffened penalties for …

The founder of the Smithsonian Institution’s newest museum, which focuses on African-American history, has been selected to lead the institution’s entire system of museums and parks. Tuesday, the Smithsonian Board of Regents appointed Lonnie Bunch as its 14th secretary, becoming the museum’s first African-American leader in its 173-year history. The 66-year-old Bunch will guide the world’s largest museum, education and research complex, overseeing a $1.5 billion annual budget that helps fund 19 museums, nine research centers and the National Zoo. Board of Regents chairman David Rubenstein said Bunch’s experience at three museums, reputation and fundraising skills separated him from other candidates. The appointment comes less than three years after the opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC). As its first director, Bunch oversaw an 11 year effort to collect more than 40,000 items before the museum opened on the National Mall in 2016.  The museum …

The Supreme Court is upholding an Indiana law that requires abortion providers to dispose of aborted fetuses in the same way as human remains. But the justices are staying out of the debate over a broader, blocked provision that would prevent a woman in Indiana from having an abortion based on gender, race or disability. The court split 7-2 in allowing Indiana to enforce the fetal remains measure that had been blocked by a federal appeals court. The justices said in an unsigned opinion that the case does not involve limits on abortion rights. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor dissented. Ginsburg said in a short opinion that she believes that the issue does implicate a woman’s right to an abortion “without undue interference from the state.” The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago had blocked both provisions of a law signed by Vice President Mike Pence …

Eritrea is being removed from the United States government’s list of countries deemed not to be cooperating fully with U.S. counterterror efforts.   The reclusive East African nation is no longer listed on the announcement that will be published in the Federal Register on Wednesday.   Still listed on the U.S. announcement are Iran, North Korea, Syria and Venezuela.   Eritrea is one of the world’s most closed-off nations but last year it agreed to a remarkable restoration of ties with neighboring Ethiopia, two decades after a bloody border war.   The diplomatic breakthrough contributed to the United Nations Security Council lifting sanctions on Eritrea late last year.   A U.S. congressional delegation earlier this year visited Eritrea for the first time in 14 years.   …

The Pulitzer Prize Board is set to honor journalists from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School for their work memorializing 17 classmates and coaches killed in a shooting last year. According to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, eight students and the faculty adviser of The Eagle Eye newspaper traveled to New York for the honorary luncheon. The Eagle Eye staff submitted their package of obituaries to the public service category of the annual Pulitzer Prize awards that recognize exceptional work by U.S. newspapers, magazines and news sites. The student newspaper did not win, but during the April announcement of the awards, Pulitzer Prize Administrator Dana Canedy spoke of her “sincere admiration” for their entry and said they “give us all hope for the future of journalism.” “The Eagle Eye’s submission stated that the student reporters and editors had to ‘put aside our grief and recognize our roles as both survivors, journalists and …

Enhanced military cooperation between the United States and Japan amid a rising China was emphasized as President Donald Trump concluded a four-day state visit in the island nation.  Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, on Tuesday morning, hosted Trump on the deck of the JS Kaga, one of Japan’s helicopter carriers that will soon be converted to carry a short takeoff/vertical landing variant of the American-made F-35 supersonic stealth jet fighter.  The two leaders did not mention China by name in their remarks, but their concern about Beijing’s assertive stance militarily in the Pacific was obvious.  Abe spoke of an “increasingly severe security environment in the region.” Trump said Japan’s purchase of an 105 additional F-35 Lightning II jets (each with a price tag of around $100 million) “will help our nations defend against a range of complex threats in the region and far beyond.”  Later, addressing hundreds of sailors on the …

Major League baseball star Bill Buckner, whose excellence as a batter and in the field will forever be overshadowed by one of the game’s most infamous errors, has died. Buckner was 69 and had been suffering from a form of dementia. Buckner joined the major leagues with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1969. In his 22 year-long playing career, Buckner won a National League batting title, was named to the 1981 All-Star team, and racked up 2,715 hits playing for the Dodgers, Cubs, Red Sox, Angels, and Royals. But it was one play in one game for which Buckner will always be remembered. It was Game 6 of the 1986 World Series between Buckner’s Boston Red Sox and the New York Mets. With the score tied in extra innings, the Mets’ Mookie Wilson hit a weak ground ball to first base that went straight through Buckner’s legs, allowing the winning …

The National Weather Service is warning that the severe weather that has ravaged several states in the central U.S. since last week is not done. NWS officials say unsettled conditions will bring heavy rains, severe thunderstorms and flooding from the Texas Panhandle to west-central Kansas. The threat will also stretch into Nebraska, Iowa, northern Illinois and central Indiana. Over the holiday weekend, a deadly tornado ripped through El Reno, Oklahoma, killing two people. Twisters were also reported in New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas and Texas. Since last week, severe weather has killed people in several states, including Missouri and Iowa. A 4-year-old boy was killed in Indiana. As the stormy weather plagued the central U.S., several cities in the South have seen record-shattering high temperatures. Over the weekend, Augusta, Georgia, tied a 141-year-old record high, as the temperature soared to 98 degrees Fahrenheit. Savannah, Georgia, tied the record for the earliest …

Kasey Turcol has just 75 minutes to explain to her high school students the importance of D-Day — and if this wasn’t the 75th anniversary of the turning point in World War II, she wouldn’t devote that much time to it. D-Day is not part of the required curriculum in North Carolina — or in many other states. Turcol reminds her students at Crossroads FLEX High School in Cary that D-Day was an Allied victory that saved Europe from Nazi tyranny and that the young men who fought and died were barely older than they are. She sprinkles her lesson with details about the number of men, ships and planes involved in the landing at Normandy while adding a few lesser-known facts about a Spanish spy and a deadly military practice conducted six months earlier in England. Losing resonance In the U.S. and other countries affected by the events on June 6, 1944, historians and …

Real estate mogul Franklin Haney contributed $1 million to President Donald Trump’s inaugural committee and all he’s got to show for the money is the glare of a federal investigation. The contribution from Haney, a prolific political donor, came as he was seeking regulatory approval and financial support from the government for his long-shot bid to acquire the mothballed Bellefonte Nuclear Power Plant in northeastern Alabama. More than two years later, he still hasn’t closed the deal. His tale is a familiar one in Washington, where lobbyists and wealthy donors use their checkbooks to try to sway politicians. It’s a world Haney is accustomed to operating in and one that Trump came into office pledging to upend. Yet Trump has left in place many of the familiar ways to wield influence. Haney’s hefty donation to Trump’s inaugural committee is being scrutinized by federal prosecutors in New York who are investigating …