AP News in Brief at 6:04 p.m. EST

Judge: Florida election problems make it a ‘laughingstock’

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A federal judge slammed Florida on Thursday for repeatedly failing to anticipate election problems and said the state law on recounts appears to violate the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that decided the presidency in 2000.

U.S. District Judge Mark Walker also rejected a request to extend the deadline later in the day for all of the state’s counties to submit the results of a machine recount.

“We have been the laughingstock of the world, election after election, and we chose not to fix this,” Walker said in court.

Walker vented his anger at state lawmakers and Palm Beach County officials, saying they should have made sure they had enough equipment in place to handle this kind of a recount. But he said he could not extend the recount deadline because he did not know when Palm Beach County would finish its work.

“This court must be able to craft a remedy with knowledge that it will not prove futile,” Walker wrote in his ruling turning down the request from Democrats. “It cannot do so on this record. This court does not and will not fashion a remedy in the dark.”

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Staggered evacuation plan questioned in fire’s aftermath

MAGALIA, Calif. (AP) — Ten years ago, as two wildfires advanced on Paradise, residents jumped into their vehicles to flee and got stuck in gridlock. That led authorities to devise a staggered evacuation plan — one that they used when fire came again last week.

But this time, Paradise’s carefully laid plans quickly devolved into a panicked exodus. Some survivors said that by the time they got warnings, the flames were already extremely close, and they barely escaped with their lives. Others said they received no warnings at all.

Now, with at least 56 people dead and perhaps 300 unaccounted for in the nation’s deadliest wildfire in a century, authorities are facing questions of whether they took the right approach.

It’s also a lesson for other communities across the West that could be threatened as climate change contributes to longer, more destructive fire seasons.

Reeny Victoria Breevaart, who lives in Magalia, a forested community of 11,000 people north of the devastated town of Paradise that was also ravaged in the Nov. 8 inferno, said she couldn’t receive warnings because cellphones weren’t working. She also lost electrical power.

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AP source: Whitaker told Graham that Mueller probe to go on

WASHINGTON (AP) — Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker told Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham in a meeting on Thursday that special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation will proceed, according to a person familiar with the meeting.

The meeting with Graham and Whitaker comes as a bipartisan group of senators is pushing legislation to protect Mueller’s job. The senators are concerned about Whitaker’s past criticism of the Mueller probe, which is looking at Russian interference in the 2016 election and ties to President Donald Trump’s campaign. Those concerns were only amplified after Trump appointed Whitaker as acting attorney general last week.

Whitaker told Graham the investigation would be allowed to proceed, the person said. The person wasn’t authorized to speak publicly about the meeting and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and other Democrats have called for Whitaker to recuse himself from overseeing the Mueller investigation.

A Justice Department spokeswoman said earlier this week that Whitaker will follow Justice Department protocols and consult with senior ethics officials “on his oversight responsibilities and matters that may warrant recusal.”

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Storm drops snow, freezing rain across eastern half of US

NEW YORK (AP) — One of the first big storms of the season moved across the eastern half of the country Thursday, contributing to at least seven traffic deaths and closing schools as it dropped snow as far south as central Alabama.

From St. Louis to the South and into the Northeast, snow, freezing rain, and in some parts, sleet, made driving tricky and caused crashes. Snow fell in New York City during the afternoon.

As much as 8 inches (20 centimetres) of snow blanketed the St. Louis area, and forecasters predicted up to 6 inches (15 centimetres) in parts of southern New England as the storm made its way east. They also predicted northern New Jersey could see 4 to 8 inches of snow before the system exits the region early Friday, while parts of suburban Philadelphia had 5 inches (12 centimetres ) of snow by Thursday afternoon.

Weather officials said the overnight trace in Alabama missed setting a record for earliest snow by about two weeks.

In neighbouring Mississippi, a tour bus bound for a casino overturned, killing two people and injuring 44 others Wednesday afternoon. Witnesses said the driver lost control after crossing an icy overpass and the bus rolled over on its driver’s side, coming to rest in an interstate median, Mississippi Highway Patrol spokesman Capt. Johnny Poulos said. The crash happened about 35 miles (55 kilometres) southeast of downtown Memphis, Tennessee.

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Hate-crime indictments returned in Kentucky grocery killings

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Federal prosecutors have charged a white man with federal hate crimes in the killings of two African-Americans at a grocery store last month in Kentucky.

A federal grand jury in Louisville returned three hate crime charges against 51-year-old Gregory Bush on Thursday afternoon.

U.S. Attorney Russell Coleman said Bush is charged with killing two people based on their race and attempting to kill a third person based on his race. Bush also was indicted on three firearms charges.

Police said Bush walked into a Kroger grocery store with a .40-calibre handgun on Oct. 24 and shot one person, and then killed another in the parking lot before exchanging fire with an armed man before fleeing.

Coleman said there has been a “spectre that reared its head and laid across this community” since the Oct. 24 shootings.

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Homeless Samaritan tale raised $400K. Police say it’s a lie

MOUNT HOLLY, N.J. (AP) — A feel-good tale of a homeless man using his last $20 to help a stranded New Jersey woman buy gas was actually a complete lie, manufactured to get strangers to donate more than $400,000 to help the down-and-out good Samaritan, a prosecutor said Thursday.

Burlington County prosecutor Scott Coffina announced criminal charges against the couple who told the story to newspapers and television stations along with the homeless man who conspired with them to tell the story.

Coffina said the money, donated to homeless Marine veteran Johnny Bobbitt, will be refunded to people who saw the story and contributed to him through a GoFundMe page set up by the couple, Mark D’Amico and Katelyn McClure.

“The entire campaign was predicated on a lie,” Coffina said. “It was fictitious and illegal and there are consequences.”

Coffina said almost no part of the tale was true. McClure didn’t run out of gas. Bobbitt didn’t spot her in trouble and give her money.

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More caravan migrants arrive in Tijuana, brace for long stay

TIJUANA, Mexico (AP) — More buses of exhausted people in a caravan of Central American asylum seekers reached the U.S. border Thursday as the city of Tijuana converted a municipal gymnasium into a temporary shelter and the migrants came to grips with the reality that they will be on the Mexican side of the frontier for an extended stay.

With U.S. border inspectors at the main crossing into San Diego processing only about 100 asylum claims a day, it could take weeks if not months to process the thousands in the caravan that departed from San Pedro Sula, Honduras, more than a month ago.

Tijuana’s robust network of shelters was already stretched to the limit, having squeezed in double their capacity or more as families slept on the floor on mats, forcing the city to open the gymnasium for up to 360 people on Wednesday. A gated outdoor courtyard can accommodate hundreds more.

The city’s thriving factories are always looking for workers, and several thousand Haitian migrants who were turned away at the U.S. border have found jobs and settled here in the last two years, but the prospect of thousands more destitute Central Americans has posed new challenges.

Delia Avila, director of Tijuana’s family services department, who is helping spearhead the city’s response, said migrants who can arrange legal status in Mexico are welcome to stay.

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UK’s defiant May tells critics it’s her Brexit deal or chaos

LONDON (AP) — Prime Minister Theresa May defied mounting calls to quit or change course Thursday over Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union, warning that abandoning her Brexit plan would plunge the country into “deep and grave uncertainty.”

Britain’s long-simmering divisions over its future in the EU erupted into turmoil just a day after the government agreed to a divorce deal with the bloc. Two Cabinet ministers resigned and some lawmakers from May’s own party called for her to be replaced. The crisis threatened to destroy the Brexit agreement, unseat the prime minister and send the U.K. hurtling toward the EU exit without a plan.

In an evening news conference aimed at regaining some control, May said she believed “with every fiber of my being that the course I have set out is the right one for our country and all our people.”

“Am I going to see this through? Yes,” she said.

The hard-won agreement with the EU has infuriated pro-Brexit members of May’s divided Conservative Party. They say the agreement, which calls for close trade ties between the U.K. and the bloc, would leave Britain a vassal state, bound to EU rules it has no say in making.

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Saudi Arabia to seek death penalty in Khashoggi killing

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia will seek the death penalty against five men suspected of killing journalist Jamal Khashoggi, its top prosecutor said Thursday, while the U.S. slapped sanctions on 17 Saudi officials in the toughest action it has taken against the kingdom since the slaying.

The Saudi moves failed to appease Turkey, which has put increasing pressure on its regional rival since Khashoggi was killed in Istanbul last month, but they could be enough for some of Saudi Arabia’s Western allies to move on and press for key demands, such as an end to the war in Yemen.

The prosecutor’s announcement sought to quiet the global outcry over Khashoggi’s death and distance the killers and their operation from the kingdom’s leadership, primarily Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Officials and analysts say an operation of this kind could not have happened without the prince’s knowledge.

Pressed by Western journalists in Riyadh on Thursday, Saudi Arabia’s top diplomat said the crown prince had “absolutely” nothing to do with the slaying of The Washington Post columnist, who was sharply critical of the heir to the throne.

The Saudi investigation pointed the finger at some members of the crown prince’s inner circle but stopped short of accusing them of ordering the writer’s death. Those closest to the prince are instead accused of ordering Khashoggi’s forced return in an operation at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul that the Saudis allege went awry.

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Roy Clark, country guitar virtuoso, ‘Hee Haw’ star, has died

Country star Roy Clark, the guitar virtuoso and singer who headlined the cornpone TV show “Hee Haw” for nearly a quarter century and was known for such hits as “Yesterday When I was Young” and “Honeymoon Feeling,” has died. He was 85.

Publicist Jeremy Westby said Clark died Thursday due to complications from pneumonia at home in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Clark was “Hee Haw” host or co-host for its entire 24-year run, with Buck Owens his best known co-host. Started in 1969, the show featured the top stars in country music, including Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette, Charley Pride, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Dolly Parton, as well as other musical greats including Ray Charles, Chet Atkins and Boots Randolph. The country music and comedy show’s last episode aired in 1993, though reruns continued for a few years thereafter.

“‘Hee Haw’ won’t go away. It brings a smile to too many faces,” he said in 2004, when the show was distributed on VHS and DVD for the first time.

“I’ve known him for 60 years and he was a fine musician and entertainer,” Charlie Daniels tweeted on Thursday. “Rest In peace Buddy, you will be remembered.”

The Associated Press