DEPUTIES SHOT-CALIFORNIA

2 LA County deputies apparently ambushed in patrol vehicle

COMPTON, Calif. (AP) — The Los Angeles County sheriff says two deputies were shot in their patrol car at a Metro rail station in what appeared to be an ambush. Sheriff Alex Villanueva says a 31-year-old female deputy and a 24-year-old male deputy were shot Saturday evening while parked outside a transit station in Compton. Both were shot multiple times and underwent surgery. Video shared by the sheriff’s department showed a suspect walk up to the vehicle and fire a pistol into a window. The incident happened around 7 p.m. a short distance from the Compton sheriff’s station. Deputies were searching for a suspect.

TROPICAL WEATHER-FLORIDA

New Orleans under hurricane watch from Tropical Storm Sally

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Newly formed Tropical Storm Sally has become better organized and is forecast to reach hurricane strength before it strikes the U.S. Gulf Coast early in the week. Meteorologists say the earliest 18th-named storm on record in an Atlantic tropical season formed Saturday off south Florida. They say it could become a hurricane by Monday. Metropolitan New Orleans and a stretch of Gulf Coast from Grand Isle, Louisiana, to the Alabama-Florida line are under a hurricane watch. Late Saturday, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency ahead of the storm, and some mandatory evacuation orders were being announced for south Louisiana areas outside levee protection.

AP-TROPICAL WEATHER

Paulette strengthens to a hurricane on approach to Bermuda

MIAMI (AP) — A strengthening Paulette has become a hurricane as it bears down on Bermuda, threatening to bring dangerous storm surge, coastal flooding and high winds to the territory in coming days. Paulette had maximum sustained winds of 75 mph as of 11 p.m. Saturday and was about 385 miles southeast of Bermuda. The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami warned Paulette was expected to become a dangerous hurricane when it nears Bermuda. Forecasters say storm surge, coastal flooding and heavy rainfall totals are likely. The hurricane is expected to cross near or over Bermuda on Monday.

WESTERN WILDFIRES

Smoke chokes West Coast as wildfire deaths keep climbing

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Wildfire smoke that poses a health hazard to millions is choking the West Coast as firefighters battle deadly blazes. The flames have obliterated some towns and displaced tens of thousands of people in California and Oregon. Many people who still have homes are not safe in them. A half-million Oregonians are under evacuation warnings or orders to leave. With air contamination levels at historic highs, people are stuffing towels against door jambs to keep smoke out. Some even wear N95 masks in their own homes. The death toll stands at 31 in the region and is expected to rise.

ELECTION 2020-TRUMP

Trump pushes into Nevada, questions integrity of election

MINDEN, Nev. (AP) — President Donald Trump barreled into Nevada as part of a Western campaign swing, looking to expand his paths to victory while unleashing a torrent of unsubstantiated claims that Democrats are trying to steal the election. Trump defied local authorities by holding a rally Saturday night in tiny Minden, Nevada, after his initial plan to hold one in Reno was stopped out of concern it would have violated coronavirus health guidelines. Unleashing more than an hour of grievances and attacks, Trump claimed the state’s Democratic governor tried to block him and repeated his false claim that mail-in ballots will taint the election result.

WILDFIRES-THE LATEST

Latest: Three more found dead in Northern California blaze

Search and rescue workers found three more bodies in the rubble of a Northern California wildfire, raising the death toll in that fire to 12 and total deaths ín the state’s recent blazes to 22. Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea announced the additional deaths Saturday but did not provide any details. He said 13 people remain unaccounted for. The fire, which roared into Berry Creek and Feather Falls in the Sierra Nevada foothills northeast of San Francisco on Tuesday night, destroyed the small town of Berry Creek and other mountain communities in the shadow of a 2018 wildfire that killed 85 people. 

INDIANA-MALL SHOOTING

Authorities: 1 dead in shooting at Indiana shopping mall

MISHAWAKA, Ind. (AP) — Authorities say one person is dead after a shooting at a northern Indiana mall sent shoppers running for safety. St. Joseph County Coroner Michael McGann said Wednesday evening that one person died in the 3 p.m. shooting at University Park Mall in Mishawaka. He did not elaborate. Police also did not release information on a possible suspect in the shooting, which led to the evacuation of the mall in the city just east of South Bend. Renee Dominik tells the South Bend Tribune that after she, her husband and two children heard gunfire they joined others in hiding in a mall shoe store.

AP-TEN-US-OPEN

Naomi Osaka comes back, beats Azarenka for 2nd US Open title

NEW YORK (AP) — Naomi Osaka has won her second U.S. Open championship and third Grand Slam title overall by coming back to beat Victoria Azarenka in three sets in the final at Flushing Meadows. Osaka’s 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory on Saturday in New York adds to her trophies from the 2018 U.S. Open and 2019 Australian Open. The 22-year-old was born in Japan and now is based in the United States. The final was played at a nearly empty and mostly silent Arthur Ashe Stadium, a facility with more than 23,000 seats. Fans were banned from the U.S. Open this year because of the coronavirus pandemic, although some tournament workers did dot the stands Saturday.

AP-BKN-RACIAL-INJUSTICE-NBA

Protesters block buses outside NBA campus, asking for help

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — A small number of protesters carrying signs and shouting into megaphones blocked at least two buses chartered by the NBA from briefly from entering the Walt Disney World campus on Saturday night, with the group saying it wanted LeBron James, Russell Westbrook and other top players to take notice. The group blocked charter buses carrying members of the news media and some NBA staff, but no players or team personnel. Among their chants: “Black Lives Matter” and “LeBron can you help us?” Some also carried signs with messages such as “Russell Stand With Us.”

PHILIPPINES-US MARINE KILLING

Philippines deports US Marine in transgender killing

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A U.S. Marine convicted of killing a Filipino transgender woman has been deported after a presidential pardon cut short his detention in a case that renewed outrage over a pact governing American military presence in the Philippines. Lance Cpl. Joseph Scott Pemberton said in a farewell message that he was extremely grateful to President Rodrigo Duterte for pardoning him and expressed his most sincere sympathy to the family of Jennifer Laude, who he was convicted of killing in 2014 after finding out that she was a transgender in a motel northwest of Manila. Duterte’s pardon was condemned by LGBTQ groups while the case has rekindled perceptions that American military personnel who run afoul of Philippine laws can get special treatment under a defense pact.