Cheryl K. Chumley

‘EGO Act’ targets lawmakers who spend big bucks on taxpayer-funded portraits

Portraits of congressional members cost $40,000 a pop and a Republican lawmaker from Louisiana is wondering: Why should taxpayers be paying for this?

April 18, 2013

Rep. Michele Bachmann’s ex-staffer to testify: Campaign broke funding rules

The former chief of staff for Rep. MIchele Bachmann is set to testify that her presidential campaign paid a Kansas politico to work her, in violation of campaign ethics.

April 18, 2013

Chicago sinkhole swallows three cars, injures man

A sinkhole on the southeast side of Chicago swallowed up three vehicles Thursday morning, injuring one person who had to be pulled from the hole.

April 18, 2013

Syria’s Bashar Assad says U.S. will rue backing of al Qaeda rebels

The United States is making a monumental mistake in supporting Syrian rebel forces because they're aligned with al Qaeda and they sooner or later will strike at Europe and at America's heartland, Syrian President Bashar Assad said.

April 18, 2013

Move afoot at Yale to give personhood protection to apes, elephants

Yale University is hosting a conference to debate the merits of granting personhood to animals, with input from one featured speaker who doesn't even consider human babies worthy of protection until they're a month old: ethicist Peter Singer.

April 18, 2013

Iran triples installation of uranium enrichment centrifuges

Iranian technicians have tripled the number of uranium enrichment centrifuges they have installed over the past three months to 600, diplomats warned Wednesday.

April 18, 2013

Westboro Baptist Church’s Facebook page hit by Anonymous hackers

Hackers from the group Anonymous have claimed responsibility for an attack on Westboro Baptist Church's Facebook page as retribution for the group's call to picket and protest funerals for the Boston bombing victims.

April 18, 2013

Italy seizes 22 tons of cannabis on ship off coast of Sicily

Italian coastal authorities seized on Thursday more than 22 tons of cannabis off a ship that was sailing near Sicily in what's been called the most significant drug bust in the region in a decade.

April 18, 2013

Saudi Arabia deports too sexy men to save women from temptation

Saudi Arabia's religious police have sent back home several United Arab Emirates men because they're too handsome and their good looks might tempt women.

April 18, 2013

U.S. drone strikes kill 5 suspected al Qaeda members in Yemen

At least five suspected members of al Qaeda were killed in two separate U.S. drone strikes in a mountainous region of Yemen, just south of Sanaa, a security spokesman said.

April 18, 2013

One Fund Boston: 9/11 fund manager heads up new charity for marathon victims

The same person who managed the fund for victims of the Sept. 11, 2011, terror attacks will design and head up a new charity for Boston Marathon bombing survivors and families.

April 18, 2013

Syrian rebels capture military base in strategic Homs location

A civil rights watchdog said Thursday that Syrian rebel fighters have captured the majority of a strategically located military base from President Bashar Assad's forces.

April 18, 2013

France gay marriage tensions ratchet, as 4 arrested for attacks

French authorities have detained four who are suspected of targeting and attacking gays at a bar, at a time when tensions are high and nationals split over a bill to legalize same-sex marriage.

April 18, 2013

72 lawmakers to ABC, NBC, CBS: Explain failure to cover abortionist Kermit Gosnell

Seventy-two members of Congress on Wednesday sent letters to executives at three major networks — ABC, CBS, NBC — expressing outrage at their blatant avoidance of Kermit Gosnell's grisly abortion trial.

April 18, 2013

Pakistan’s former leader Pervez Musharraf flees court in dramatic run from arrest

Pakistan's former leader Pervez Musharraf and members of his security force made a speedy retreat from court Thursday, pushing past police and rushing to his car, after a judge revoked his bail and issued a call for his arrest.

April 18, 2013

North Korea: Sanctions must end for talks to continue

North Korea on Thursday dug in its heels and demanded the end of U.N. sanctions as a condition for talks to continue with world leaders who have been trying to calm war-like rhetoric.

April 18, 2013

UAE thwarts al Qaeda terror plan and arrests suspects

Authorities with the United Arab Emirates arrested seven suspected members of an al Qaeda cell believed to have been plotting attacks at various UAE sites.

April 18, 2013

Texas fertilizer plant blast ‘like a war zone’; more than 160 hurt, some fatally

Police on Thursday were still searching for survivors of a devastating Waco, Texas, fertilizer plant explosion that killed up to 15 and injured at least 160.

April 18, 2013

Dead baby found in dirty hospital sheets at Minnesota laundry

Police are investigating how the body of a dead baby that tumbled out of a pile of dirty Minnesota hospital laundry ever wound up in the sheets in the first place.

April 17, 2013

McDonald’s settles chicken suit with Muslims for $700K

A judge approved a $700,000 settlement between McDonald's and members of the Michigan Muslim community who claimed that a Detroit-area restaurant served food falsely advertised as compliant with Shariah law.

April 17, 2013