| Bin Laden bent on spectacular US attack until the end: files Posted: 20 May 2015 09:35 AM PDT  Hunkered down in his Pakistani compound, Osama bin Laden pleaded with his followers to stay focused on attacking the United States instead of being dragged into Muslim infighting. Documents that were declassified on Wednesday shed new light on the mindset of Al-Qaeda's founder, his debates over tactics, his anxiety over Western spying and his fixation with the group's media image. "The focus should be on killing and fighting the American people and their representatives," the late Al-Qaeda figurehead wrote.
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| Nebraska lawmakers vote to abolish death penalty Posted: 20 May 2015 10:58 AM PDT  LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska lawmakers gave final approval on Wednesday to a bill abolishing the death penalty that would make it the first conservative state to do so since 1973 if the measure becomes law.
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| Waitresses chronicle Texas biker bloodshed, uncertain futures Posted:  Some ran, others cowered in a walk-in freezer to escape the deadly biker brawl.
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| Banks fined $2.5 billion, to plead guilty to market rigging Posted: 20 May 2015 07:21 AM PDT  Four big banks will pay $2.5 billion in fines and plead guilty to criminally manipulating global currency market going back to 2007. JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Barclays and The Royal Bank of Scotland conspired ...
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| Bin Laden fixated on attacking U.S. interests: documents Posted: 20 May 2015 11:05 AM PDT  By Mark Hosenball WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Osama bin Laden was fixated on attacking U.S. targets and pressured al Qaeda groups to heal local rivalries and focus on that cause, according to documents the United States says were seized in bin Laden's hideout in Pakistan and released on Wednesday. A July 2010 letter, which was among the materials released by U.S. intelligence, showed that bin Laden pressed al Qaeda in Yemen, one of the group's more active affiliates, to make peace with the government and focus on America.
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| New video surfaces showing Freddie Gray arrest in Baltimore Posted: 20 May 2015 09:35 AM PDT  A new video has surfaced revealing a key part of the arrest of Freddie Gray, the Baltimore black man whose death from injuries he sustained while in police custody led to days of protests and a federal investigation. The video, shot by a bystander and posted on The Baltimore Sun's website on Wednesday, shows officers putting Gray in leg shackles and handcuffs before placing him back in a police van head first and on his stomach. Gray died on April 19 from spinal injuries suffered during his arrest a week earlier on April 12.
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| Los Angeles gives preliminary approval to $15 minimum wage Posted: 19 May 2015 03:41 PM PDT  By Alex Dobuzinskis LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The Los Angeles City Council voted on Tuesday to increase the minimum wage in the nation's second-largest city to $15 an hour by 2020 from the current $9, in a victory for labor and community groups that have pushed for similar pay hikes in several U.S. municipalities. The council's 14-1 vote on the measure, which must come back before the panel for final approval, would require businesses with more than 25 employees to meet the $15 pay level by 2020, while smaller businesses would have an extra year to comply. Officials said the plan, which comes on the heels of similar minimum wage hikes in other major cities including Seattle and San Francisco, would increase pay of an estimated 800,000 workers in the city.
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| Los Angeles becomes latest US city to favor $15 minimum wage Posted: 19 May 2015 05:59 PM PDT  The move is closely watched as Americans' wages have stagnated.
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| Pinterest removes (then reactivates) #GunFAIL boards Posted: 19 May 2015 02:55 PM PDT  David Waldman uses his #GunFAIL boards to keep track of all the children who are accidentally shot and killed in the United States.
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| Takata air bag recall becomes biggest ever in US Posted: 19 May 2015 11:31 AM PDT  Air bag maker Takata Corp. has agreed to declare 33.8 million of its inflator mechanisms defective, effectively doubling the number of cars and trucks that have been recalled in the U.S. so far. The announcement ...
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| Top Democrat sounds 'alarm bells' over Obama rhetoric on Islamic State Posted: 19 May 2015 12:02 PM PDT  A senior House of Representatives Democrat said Tuesday that the White House's description of supposed progress in the war against the Islamic State should ring "alarm bells," and called the fall of the city of Ramadi to the extremists "a very serious and significant setback."
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