The Blue Ridge Times

An Islamic State operative suspected of involvement in the 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya, has been killed in a U.S. airstrike in Iraq, the Pentagon said Monday. Ali Awni al-Harzi “operated closely with multiple ISIL-associated extremists throughout North Africa and the Middle East,” Defence Department spokesman Col. Steve Warren said in a statement, using one acronym for the militant group. “His death degrades ISIL’s ability to integrate North African jihadists into the Syrian and Iraqi fight and removes a jihadist with long ties to international terrorism.” One American was killed in an attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Protesters also stormed the U.S. embassy in Cairo. AP   Warren said al-Harzi, a Tunisian national, was killed last week in Mosul, which fell to Islamic State forces a year ago. California Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said al-Harzi “was responsible for planning h...

A prison worker accused of helping two convicted killers break out of a maximum-security New York jail earlier this month smuggled them vital tools that were concealed inside frozen chunks of hamburger meat, according to a report published late Monday. Joyce Mitchell, 51, has been charged with felony promoting prison contraband and misdemeanor criminal facilitation in connection with the escape of Richard Matt and David Sweat from Clinton County Correctional Facility on the night of June 5-6. Court documents allege that Mitchell provided the men with hacksaw blades, chisels, a punch and a screwdriver bit in the weeks prior to the escape.   Law enforcement sources told the New York Post that Mitchell came up with the idea to sneak the tools into the jail masked by the frozen food. Meanwhile, authorities said they had recovered items from a remote cabin in northern New York state, near the Canadian border, that may be linked to Sweat and Matt. State Police Maj. Charles Gues...

The National Weather Service outside Chicago says it's sending two teams out Tuesday to assess damage from severe weather that hit northern Illinois late Monday. Initial damage surveys based on radar show at least seven possible tornado tracks south and west of Chicago. Storm reports indicate that Coal City, Mendota and Sublette received the most substantial damage. Other locations include Harmon, Ottawa, Morris and Braidwood to Momence. Meteorologist Jamie Enderlen says weather service teams will determine how many tornadoes touched down and their severity, including their path, length, width and wind speeds. ___ 5:15 a.m. CDT Police in a northern Illinois community that was hit by a tornado says officials are moving away from search and rescue operations to now assessing damage. Coal City Police Sgt. Thomas Logan tells the Chicago Tribune that officials moved to assessing damage as of 4:30 a.m. Tuesday. The community of about 5,000 people about 60 miles southwest o...

Almost precisely 150 years after the end of the nation’s devastating Civil War, the Confederate battle flag has once again become a bitterly-divisive symbol of the nation’s enduring struggle with the legacies of slavery and segregation. But the “stars and bars” also remains an emblem of deep-seated cultural pride that many Southerners say transcends the ugly histories of the past. For many in the state, the flag still represents “traditions that are noble,” said Gov. Nikki Haley Monday, noting that many South Carolinians “view the flag as a symbol of respect, integrity, and duty,” and “a way to honor ancestors who came to the service of their state during time of conflict.” “That is not hate, nor is it racism,” she said. Infographic Race equality in America: How far have we come?    But since many others in the state see the flag as “a deeply offensive symbol of a brutally oppressive past,” it is time “to look at this in a different way,” she said, saying that...

WASHINGTON —  Virgil Porterfield in southern Missouri minces no words when he says what it would mean for him and his wife if the US Supreme Court rules against the Obama administration in a case this month. “It would be the difference between having medical insurance and not,” says Mr. Porterfield, a former worker in the oil and gas industry who, at age 63, is not yet eligible for Medicare. At their age and in their rural part of Missouri, the “silver” level of health insurance under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) carries a hefty price tag of about $1,100 per month, he says. The King v. Burwell lawsuit, which the Supreme Court is expected to rule on by the end of June, could potentially void the subsidy tax credits that help Porterfield and several million other Americans afford to be insured. Politically, the case could be about the survival of President Obama’s signature domestic-policy achievement – the law that many Americans know as “Obamacare.” Legally, the court cas...

From Charleston, South Carolina, to the statehouse steps in Columbia, there is anger over the Confederate flag and all it represents. The mass shooting at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston has reignited the debate over whether officials should remove the Confederate flag from state property. Republican state Rep. Doug Brannon plans to introduce a bill to remove the flag, which he acknowledges will likely cost him re-election, reports CBS News' Adriana Diaz. "The switch that flipped was the death of my friend Sen. (Clementa) Pinckney... I've been in the House five years. I should have filed that bill five years ago. The time is now, I can't let my friend the senator's death go without fundamental change in South Carolina," Brannon said. Brannon said he plans to introduce his bill as early as he can, which won't be until December. Other politicians have said they will wait until after funerals can be held for the nine victims of last week's shoot...

TAOS, N.M. (AP) — Searchers have found the body of a former White House chef who had been missing for more than a week after going hiking in the New Mexico mountains, authorities said. The body of 61-year-old Walter Scheib was found Sunday night near a hiking trail in mountains in the Taos area, the New Mexico State Police said. "The body was discovered off the immediate trail," a State Patrol statement said. Authorities did not provide a cause of death or any other details about the discovery, saying rescuers were still gathering information and more details would be released later. Scheib was White House chef for 11 years under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush and recently moved from Florida to Taos. He reportedly went for a hike June 13 in the mountains near the Taos Ski Valley. His girlfriend reported him missing the next day. Taos police found his vehicle Tuesday parked at the Yerba Canyon trailhead. The 4-mile trail follows a canyon bottom before ...