Articles written by Hannah Schoenbaum


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  • Judge strikes down Biden administration program shielding immigrant spouses from deportation

    HANNAH SCHOENBAUM|Nov 8, 2024

    A federal judge on Thursday struck down a Biden administration policy that aimed to ease a path to citizenship for some undocumented immigrants who are married to U.S. citizens. The program, lauded as one of the biggest presidential actions to help immigrant families in years, allowed undocumented spouses and stepchildren of U.S. citizens to apply for a green card without first having to leave the country. The temporary relief from deportation brought a brief sense of security to some 500,000 immigrants estimated to benefit from the program...

  • How Waffle House helps Southerners - and FEMA - judge a storm's severity

    HANNAH SCHOENBAUM|Oct 9, 2024

    Golden hashbrowns, gravy-smothered biscuits and crispy waffles with a hearty helping of maple syrup are among the classic Southern comfort foods. But when hurricanes tear through Southeastern towns, the hot meals and bold yellow signs of the local Waffle House provide another kind of comfort. If a Waffle House stays open in town, even in a limited capacity, neighbors are reassured that the coming storm is unlikely to cause devastation. A closed location of the dependable diner chain has come to indicate impending disaster. The metric is known...

  • Congo court sentences 3 Americans and 34 others to death on coup charges

    JEAN-YVES KAMALE and HANNAH SCHOENBAUM|Sep 13, 2024

    KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — A military court in Congo handed down death sentences Friday to 37 people, including three Americans, after convicting them on charges of participating in a coup attempt. The defendants, most of them Congolese but also including a Briton, Belgian and Canadian, have five days to appeal the verdict on charges that included attempted coup, terrorism and criminal association. Fourteen people were acquitted in the trial, which opened in June. The court in the capital, Kinshasa, convicted the 37 defendants and imposed "the h...

  • Utah mother and children's book author Kouri Richins to stand trial in husband's death, judge rules

    HANNAH SCHOENBAUM|Aug 28, 2024

    PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — A Utah mother of three who published a children's book about grief after her husband's death and was later accused of fatally poisoning him will stand trial, a judge ruled Tuesday. Utah state Judge Richard Mrazik ruled on the second day of Kouri Richins' preliminary hearing that prosecutors had presented enough evidence against her to proceed with a jury trial. She faces a slew of felony charges for allegedly killing her husband with a lethal dose of fentanyl in March 2022 at their home in a small mountain town near P...

  • YouTube mom Ruby Franke apologizes at sentencing in child abuse case

    HANNAH SCHOENBAUM|Feb 21, 2024

    SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Ruby Franke, a Utah mother of six who gave parenting advice to millions via a once-popular a YouTube channel, shared a tearful apology to her children for physically and emotionally abusing them before a judge delivered a sentence that could put her in prison for years, if not decades. Franke also claimed that she had been "manipulated" by her fellow YouTuber and business partner. Franke told the judge that she would not argue for a shorter sentence before she stood to thank local police officers, doctors and social w...

  • Graduate student charged with murder in killing of University of North Carolina faculty member

    HANNAH SCHOENBAUM and GARY D. ROBERTSON|Aug 30, 2023

    CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) — Police charged a University of North Carolina graduate student Tuesday with first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of a faculty member that caused a campus lockdown amid a search for the gunman. Tailei Qi, 34, is due in court later Tuesday for an initial hearing in the Monday killing of Zijie Yan inside a science building on the Chapel Hill campus. In addition to the murder count, he is charged with having a gun on educational property. Yan is listed on the school's website as an associate professor in the D...

  • States that protect transgender health care now try to absorb demand

    JEFF McMILLAN and HANNAH SCHOENBAUM|Aug 16, 2023

    States that declared themselves refuges for transgender people have essentially issued an invitation: Get your gender-affirming health care here without fearing prosecution at home. Now that bans on such care for minors are taking effect around the country — Texas could be next, depending on the outcome of a court hearing this week — patients and their families are testing clinics' capacity. Already-long waiting lists are growing, yet there are only so many providers of gender-affirming care and only so many patients they can see in a day. For...

  • 3 US Marines died of carbon monoxide poisoning in a car. Vehicle experts explain how that can happen

    HANNAH SCHOENBAUM|Aug 2, 2023

    RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The seemingly accidental deaths of three U.S. Marines who suffered carbon monoxide poisoning in a parked car at a North Carolina gas station have raised questions about how the situation could have occurred outdoors. Deputies from the Pender County Sheriff's Office had found the men unresponsive in a privately owned Lexus sedan in the coastal community of Hampstead. Autopsies performed last week by the North Carolina medical examiner's office determined that all three died of carbon monoxide poisoning. Sgt. Chester Ward fro...

  • Fort Bragg becomes Fort Liberty in Army's most prominent move to erase Confederate names from bases

    HANNAH SCHOENBAUM|Jun 2, 2023

    FORT LIBERTY, N.C. (AP) — Fort Bragg shed its Confederate namesake Friday to become Fort Liberty in a ceremony some veterans said was a small but important step in making the U.S. Army more welcoming to current and prospective Black service members. The change was the most prominent in a broad Department of Defense initiative, motivated by the 2020 George Floyd protests, to rename military installations that had been named after confederate soldiers. The Black Lives Matter demonstrations that erupted nationwide after Floyd's killing by a w...

  • North Carolina power cut by shooting could come back earlier

    HANNAH SCHOENBAUM|Dec 7, 2022

    RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Duke Energy said it expects to restore power ahead of schedule to thousands of homes in a central North Carolina county that have been without electricity for several days after an attack on the electric grid. Duke Energy spokesman Jeff Brooks said the company expects to have power back Wednesday just before midnight in Moore County. The company had previously estimated it would be restored Thursday morning. About 35,000 Duke energy customers were still without power Tuesday, down from more than 45,000 at the height of the...

  • North Carolina blackouts caused by shootings could last days

    HANNAH SCHOENBAUM|Dec 4, 2022

    CARTHAGE, N.C. (AP) — Tens of thousands of people braced Monday for days without electricity in a North Carolina county where authorities say two power substations were shot up by one or more people with apparent criminal intent. Across Moore County, many businesses and restaurants displayed "Closed" signs in windows and had empty parking lots at a time of year when they are normally full of tourists and holiday shoppers. Others handed out free food or coffee, or were able to open by conducting transactions in cash. The county, located about 6...

  • Police: Teen kills 5 in Raleigh neighborhood, along trail

    GARY D. ROBERTSON and HANNAH SCHOENBAUM|Oct 14, 2022

    RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A 15-year-old boy killed five people and injured two more in a shooting rampage in Raleigh, police said, horrifying a community that is now mourning victims whose lives were cut short as they were going about their daily routines. Raleigh Police Chief Estella Patterson said the teen was captured hours after the the victims were gunned down Thursday evening. He was hospitalized and in critical condition following his arrest, but authorities have not said how he was injured. Patterson said Friday that police haven't determine...