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L.A. skyscraper plunge investigated as suicide
LOS ANGELES — Authorities are investigating whether an electrician intentionally leaped to his death from the 53rd floor of Los Angeles’ tallest skyscraper onto an intersection humming with a normal weekday’s bustle, the coroner said Friday.
Joseph Sabbatino, 36, of Palmdale plunged some 800 feet from the unfinished Wilshire Grand Center on Thursday. It was his second day on the job.

ATLANTA — Atlanta’s airport — the world’s busiest — and Los Angeles officials want to force Uber drivers to get fingerprint-based background checks to pick up passengers, but the ride-hailing service is balking.

MILWAUKEE — This month has brought a new challenge for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign: Black voters in Rust Belt states aren’t as solidly behind her as they’ve been in the South.

Obama’s choice of Garland complicates presidential campaign
WASHINGTON — In choosing a centrist judge with Republican appeal, President Barack Obama hoped to corner GOP opponents who pledge to block his Supreme Court pick. He also boxed in the Democrats vying to succeed him.

WASHINGTON — The security ring protecting Donald Trump includes Secret Service agents, his own private bodyguards, local police, sometimes even the Transportation Security Administration. But even that show of force has not halted disturbing episodes of violence.

Officer gave differing accounts of shooting
CHICAGO — A Chicago police officer who fatally shot a bat-wielding college student and the student’s neighbor gave two versions of what happened — first telling detectives that the student held the baseball bat over his head then telling them two days later that the young man swung the bat at him.

Ex-sen. runs for old seat while on probation
COLUMBIA, S.C. — A former South Carolina senator who resigned amid an ethics investigation, pleaded guilty to misconduct in office and now faces a probation violation charge is seeking his old Senate seat.
Robert Ford of Charleston filed this week to run for the Senate seat he held for 20 years before resigning in 2013 midway into Senate Ethics hearings on charges he used donations for personal expenses and then tried to cover it up.

Police fatally shoot 2 robbery suspects
HOUSTON — A tactical team had been tracking a group of five robbery suspects in the hours before their last stop, a Houston furniture store where officers opened fire and killed two of the suspects and injured two others, authorities said Friday.

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea ignored U.N. resolutions by firing a medium-range ballistic missile into the sea on Friday, Seoul and Washington officials said, days after its leader Kim Jong Un ordered weapons tests linked to its pursuit of a long-range nuclear missile capable of reaching the U.S. mainland.

Read the obituaries. Marcile Boyd, Metter, GAMrs. Tonya Leigh Cowart, Ellabell, GAMr. Lonnie Crawford, Savannah, GAMr. Derrell Durrence, Glennville, GAFaye Simmons Eckhart, Glennville, GAMr. Rick Fleming, Savannah, GAMr. John Dell Garrett, Savannah, GAMaster Payden George, Savannah, GA