Authorities Investigate 6 Church Fires In 5 States

By HALELUYA HADERO, Associated Press Amazon has launched a low-cost online storefront featuring electronics, apparel and other products priced at under $20, an effort to compete with discount retailers that have increasingly encroached on the e-commerce giant’s turf. In a blog post on Wednesday, the company said the new Amazon Haul storefront will mostly feature products that cost less than $10 and offer free delivery on orders over $25.

Broward County commissioners bid farewell to Commissioner Tim Ryan on Tuesday, his last formal meeting before retirement.  In deference they also named the day “Tim Ryan Appreciation Day.” Ryan called it “the luck of the Irish I was successful in politics.” His political career began early when he was president of the Student Council in eighth grade. And when he was a child his father took him to Tallahassee to work as a page, where he fetched cigars for the senators. Ryan was first elected to District 7, in November 2012, and leaving because of term limits.

Eight men accused of committing eight murders as part of a Broward gang were officially charged in court Wednesday, capping a 10-month investigation that officials say began with a fingerprint. Terrance Farrington Jr. was killed outside a Best Buy in Plantation last Jan. 20, and investigators said they found a fingerprint left behind by Sigmund Brown, 27, a Hollywood man with a history of arrests for drugs, burglaries and domestic violence. Brown is a suspected leader of the Dania Hot Boyz, also known as the Grand Mafia, which led law enforcement officials to question whether there was a connection between Farrington’s murder and other open cases. The Broward Sheriff’s Office Gang Investigations Task Force met with prosecutors from the Broward State Attorney’s Office and began comparing notes, eventually connecting seven other homicides and seven other suspects.

By MIKE STOBBE, Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — The decline in U. S. drug overdose deaths appears to have continued this year, giving experts hope the nation is seeing sustained improvement in the persistent epidemic. There were about 97,000 overdose deaths in the 12-month period that ended June 30, according to provisional Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data released Wednesday.

A Margate man accused of drafting a “hit list” that included the name of South Florida Congressman Jared Moskowitz was also eyeing multiple local Jewish targets, prosecutors say. John Kevin Lapinski Jr., 41, appeared in federal court in Fort Lauderdale for the first time Wednesday. He stood handcuffed before Magistrate Judge Patrick Hunt and heard the charges he faces: possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, violating a domestic violence injunction by possessing a firearm and unlawfully possessing a firearm that is not registered with the federal government. Lapinski appeared calm, sitting with his fingers crossed in front of him.

Nationally ranked Chaminade-Madonna and St. Thomas Aquinas begin their quests to repeat as state champions as the Florida High School Athletic FHSAA state football playoffs kick off this week. St. Thomas Aquinas (ranked No. 33 in the nation by MaxPreps) is looking to build on its current state-record five consecutive titles, and (No.