Ethics official warns against confirmations before reviews are complete and other top stories.

• Ethics official warns against confirmations before reviews are complete

  

  A top ethics official has warned that plans to confirm Donald Trump’s top Cabinet choices before background examinations are complete are unprecedented and have overwhelmed government investigators responsible for the reviews. The concerns prompted Democrats on Saturday to call for delaying the confirmation process, but Republicans signaled they are unlikely to budge on the eve of a slew of hearings in the Senate. The Trump administration-in-waiting faces its first big test in coming days, with..

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• SeaWorld San Diego ending killer whale show

  

  SAN DIEGO (AP) — SeaWorld San Diego is ending its long-running killer whale show after years of outcry and falling attendance prompted it to renounce theatrical orca displays.The show that featured killer whales cavorting with trainers and leaping high out of the Shamu Stadium pool will have its final performances on Sunday.This summer, the park will unveil a new attraction in the revamped pool. Orca Encounter is being billed as an educational experience that will show how killer whales eat, ..

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• Snow pounds parts of East Coast, causing hundreds of crashes

  

  Snow and sleet pounded a large swath of the East Coast on Saturday, coating roads with ice and causing hundreds of crashes. Thousands of people lost power, and forecasters warned of blizzard-like conditions from Virginia to parts of the Northeast.Police investigated several fatal crashes as potentially storm-related, but some of the South's biggest cities — including Atlanta and Charlotte, N.C. — appeared to avoid the worst of the storm. Authorities praised residents for learning the lessons o..

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• Inside President Barack Obama & Michelle Obama's Star-Studded Farewell Party

  

  AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall A slew of stars flocked to the White House Friday night to honor President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama at their farewell party.Attendees included George Clooney and Amal Clooney, Tom Hanksand Rita Wilson, Bradley Cooper, Steven Spielberg, Olivia Wilde and Jason Sudeikis, Chrissy Teigen and John Legend, Robert De Niro, George Lucas, Jerry Seinfeld, Al Sharpton, Solange, Kelly Rowland and her husband Tim Witherspoon, rapper Wale, La La Anthony, SNL a..

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• Obama and Trump cap tempestuous transition

  

  Washington (AFP) - After vowing a smooth transition, President Barack Obama and Donald Trump are presiding over one of the most tumultuous transfers of power in US history.Assassinations notwithstanding, American presidential transitions have generally been peaceful affairs. But that doesn't mean they have been smooth.Andrew Johnson was effectively barred from attending Ulysses Grant's swearing in. Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt did not speak to each other on inauguration day.Bill Clinton..

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• Kushner, considering White House role, eyes business exit

  

  NEW YORK — Jared Kushner, President-elect Donald Trump’s son-in-law and one of his closest advisers, is taking steps to distance himself from his sprawling New York real estate business in what is the clearest sign yet he is planning to take a position in the new administration.Kushner, who is married to Trump’s daughter Ivanka, must clear a series of hurdles before he takes any post in Washington. He will need to argue that a federal anti-nepotism law that bar officials from appointing relat..

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• Charles Manson reportedly moved from hospital back to prison

  

  The notorious murderer Charles Manson was back in prison Saturday after a brief stint in the hospial, the Los Angeles Times reported. SECURITY GUARD'S HOME SEARCHED IN HUNT FOR MISSING MICHIGAN WOMAN Manson, now a grizzled, shuffling 82-year-old, had an undisclosed but serious illness, according to news reports that correction officials would not confirm, citing privacy laws. He was too weak for surgery, TMZ reported Thursday. A corrections official told the Times on Friday that Manson returned..

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• Fort Lauderdale shooting victims had minds on family vacations

  

  Four of the helpless victims gunned down by a madman inside a Florida airport were headed to joyous family getaways that will now give way to family funerals. Relatives and friends of those killed offered memories of the victims and details about the ...

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• Martin Luther King Day with Trump

  

  CreditIllustration by Tom Bachtell On April 8, 1968, Representative John Conyers, from Detroit, marched through downtown Memphis with Coretta Scott King, Ralph Abernathy, Harry Belafonte, and thousands of people who had come to that city from across the country. Four days earlier, Martin Luther King, Jr., had been shot and killed there, on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel, and a fugue of disbelief and despair hovered over the crowd as it continued down the road that King had travelled. Th..

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