COLU @ CONCEPTS

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Harry Dean Stanton, the shambling, craggy-face character actor with the deadpan voice who became a cult favorite through his memorable turns in “Paris, Texas,” ″Repo Man” and many other films and TV shows, died Friday at age 91. Stanton died of natural causes at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, his agent, John S. Kelly, told The Associated Press. Kelly gave no further details on the cause. Never mistaken for a leading man, Stanton was an unforgettable presence to moviegoers, fellow actors and directors, who recognized that his quirky characterizations could lift even the most ordinary script. Roger Ebert once observed that no movie with Stanton in a supporting role “can be altogether bad.” He was widely loved around Hollywood, a drinker and smoker and straight talker with a million stories who palled around with Jack Nicholson and Kris Kristofferson among others and was a hero to such younger stars and brothers-in-partying as Rob Lowe and Emil...

WASHINGTON (AP) — New guidance released Friday by the Pentagon makes it clear that any transgender troops currently in the military can re-enlist in the next several months, even as the department debates how broadly to enforce a ban on their service ordered by President Donald Trump. In a memo to top military leaders, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said a high-level panel will determine how to implement Trump’s ban on transgender individuals in the military. Trump directed the military to indefinitely extend the ban on transgender individuals enlisting in the service, but he left it up to Mattis to decide if those currently serving should be allowed to stay. Members of Congress have already sent a letter to Trump calling on him to reconsider the ban. Sen. John McCain, the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Friday he backed legislation that would bar the Trump administration from forcing transgender troops out of the armed forces. McCain of Arizona...

The federal government auctioned off disaster-response trailers at fire-sale prices just before Harvey devastated southeast Texas, reducing an already diminished supply of mobile homes ahead of what could become the nation’s largest-ever housing mission. More than 100 2017-model Federal Emergency Management Agency trailers were sold over the two days before the Category 4 hurricane landed in the Gulf Coast, an analysis of government data by The Associated Press found. Harvey was already projected to be a monster storm that would inflict unprecedented damage. The trailers were designated to be sold through Aug. 28, after floodwaters sent thousands of Texans onto rooftops and into shelters. About 79,000 homes in the areas affected by the hurricane were flooded with 18 inches or more of water, Michael Byrne, FEMA’s federal disaster recovery coordinator for Harvey, told AP. The auctions — about 300 since the beginning of the year — have left FEMA with a standing fleet of only 1,7...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Federal immigration agents were tracking a teenager who was facing deportation when he fatally shot a popular community volunteer during a robbery in San Francisco, authorities said Friday. The slaying occurred on Aug. 15, four days after sheriff’s investigators say 18-year-old Erick Garcia-Pineda stole the murder weapon from the personal car of a San Francisco police officer. Four days after the killing, Garcia-Pineda’s monitoring device was removed from his ankle, triggering an unsuccessful search for him. An immigration judge ordered him to wear the bracelet as a condition of his release from federal custody in April. The case has stirred memories of the 2015 killing of a young woman on a San Francisco pier by a Mexican national who had been deported five times. A gun stolen from a law enforcement officer was also used in that shooting. The shooting also ignited a national debate on sanctuary city policies that bar local police from cooperating with ...

CHICAGO (AP) — Attorney General Jeff Sessions can’t follow through — at least for now — with his threat to withhold public safety grant money to Chicago and other so-called sanctuary cities for refusing to impose new tough immigration policies, a judge ruled Friday in a legal defeat for the Trump administration. In what is at least a temporary victory for cities that have defied Sessions, U.S. District Judge Harry D. Leinenweber ruled that the Justice Department could not impose the requirements. He said the city had shown a “likelihood of success” in arguing that Sessions exceeded his authority with the new conditions. Among them are requirements that cities notify immigration agents when someone in the country illegally is about to be released from local jails and to allow agents access to the jails. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel called the ruling a victory for cities, counties and states nationwide and “a clear statement that the Trump administration is wrong.” “It means e...

WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s been a long eight months in the wilderness for Democrats, but if any two were going to find their way back to the action it was Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and his House counterpart, Nancy Pelosi. Or “Chuck and Nancy,” as President Donald Trump now calls them. After the Republican-led Congress’ failure to repeal President Barack Obama’s health care law, when Trump cracked the door of bipartisanship, the two Hill veterans barged through full-force. They were looking for ways to “build some trust and confidence” with Trump, Pelosi, D-Calif., said in an interview Friday. The willingness to engage with a president reviled by their party worried liberals like Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., who warned against “proceeding toward normalizing him.” But it surprised no one who’s watched Schumer and Pelosi’s combined 67 years of wheeling and dealing in Congress. “Let’s put it this way, it doesn’t matter,” Pelosi said about whether she likes Trump following ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s inaugural committee raised an unprecedented $107 million for a ceremony that officials promised would be “workmanlike,” and the committee pledged to give leftover funds to charity. Nearly eight months later, the group has helped pay for redecorating at the White House and the vice president’s residence in Washington. But nothing has yet gone to charity. What is left from the massive fundraising is a mystery, clouded by messy and, at times, budget-busting management of a private fund that requires little public disclosure. The Associated Press spoke with eight people — vendors, donors and Trump associates — involved in planning and political fundraising for the celebration, an event that provides an early look at the new president’s management style and priorities. The people described a chaotic process marked by last-minute decisions, staffing turnover and little financial oversight. Among the head-scratching line-items was the pre-...

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A white former police officer was acquitted Friday in the 2011 death of a black man who was fatally shot following a high-speed chase, and hundreds of demonstrators streamed into the streets of downtown St. Louis and later an upscale neighborhood to protest the verdict that had stirred fears of civil unrest for weeks. Ahead of the acquittal, activists had threatened civil disobedience if Jason Stockley were not convicted, including possible efforts to shut down highways. Barricades went up last month around police headquarters, the courthouse where the trial was held and other potential protest sites. Protesters were marching within hours of the decision. More than a dozen arrests were made, and several officers were hurt as the day went on. The case played out not far from the suburb of Ferguson, Missouri, which was the scene of the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, the unarmed black 18-year-old who was killed by a white police officer in 2014. That officer ...

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country is nearing its goal of “equilibrium” in military force with the United States, as the United Nations Security Council strongly condemned the North’s “highly provocative” ballistic missile launch over Japan on Friday. The North’s official Korean Central News Agency carried Kim’s comments on Saturday — a day after U.S. and South Korean militaries detected the missile launch from the North Korean capital of Pyongyang. It traveled 3,700 kilometers (2,300 miles) as it passed over the Japanese island of Hokkaido before landing in the northern Pacific Ocean. It was the country’s longest-ever test flight of a ballistic missile. The North has confirmed the missile as an intermediate range Hwasong-12, the same model launched over Japan on Aug. 29. Under Kim’s watch, North Korea has maintained a torrid pace in weapons tests, including its most powerful nuclear test to date on Sept. 3 and two July flight tests ...

LONDON (AP) — A homemade bomb planted in a rush-hour subway car exploded in London on Friday, injuring 29 people and prompting authorities to raise Britain’s terrorism threat level to “critical,” meaning another attack may be imminent. The early morning blast sparked a huge manhunt for the perpetrators of what police said was the fourth terrorist attack in the British capital this year. Prime Minister Theresa May, acting on the recommendation of the Joint Terrorism Analysis Center, raised the country’s threat level from “severe” to “critical” — its highest possible level. May said military troops would augment the police presence in a “proportionate and sensible step.” Earlier, May said the device had been “intended to cause significant harm.” Still, to the relief of authorities and Londoners, experts said the bomb — hidden in a plastic bucket inside a supermarket freezer bag — only partially exploded, sparing the city much worse carnage. “I would say this was a failed h...

LONDON (AP) — The Latest on an incident at a subway station in London (all times local): 10 p.m. The president of Amtrak’s police labor committee says the attack in London highlights the need to make sure that officers in the United States responsible for protecting rail systems are prepared to help prevent such incidents. David Pearlson said that this summer “Amtrak Police officers assigned to New York’s Penn Station received long overdue upgrades in equipment and staffing, but we want to make sure those improvements continue in the long term.” A homemade bomb planted in a rush-hour subway car injured 29 people in London on Friday. It has sparked a huge manhunt for the perpetrators of what police said was the fourth terrorist attack in the British capital this year. ___ 9:10 p.m. London police say they are making “good progress” in the investigation into the subway bombing. Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley said Friday night that the public should be reassured an...