District of Columbia
Pompeo will travel to Ukraine next week
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will visit Ukraine next week, making his first trip to the country at the heart of President Trump’s impeachment.
As Trump’s Senate trial on impeachment charges continues, the State Department said Friday that Pompeo would travel to Kiev as part of a five-nation tour of Europe and Central Asia.
Pompeo will also visit Britain, as it finalizes its divorce from the European Union, along with Belarus, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
Pennsylvania
Social worker charged with human trafficking
MEDIA — A former child services caseworker has been charged with human trafficking, accused of recruiting a mother who was her client into prostitution in exchange for a favorable custody recommendation, authorities said.
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Candace Talley, 27, of Winslow, New Jersey, was working for the Division of Children and Youth Services in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, when she coerced the mother, whose children were in foster care and whose case Talley was managing, into working as a prostitute, the Delaware County District Attorney’s office announced Thursday.
Kansas
Snowplow kills two walking on highway
A snowplow struck and killed two pedestrians in Kansas before sunrise Friday after a winter storm coated parts of the Midwest with snow.
The collision involving a Riley County plow truck happened shortly after 5 a.m., after the National Weather Service issued winter weather advisories across parts of Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Iowa, Indiana, Wisconsin and a large swath of Missouri.
The Kansas Highway Patrol said Stephen Toler, 22, and Jayden Rosa, 20, both of Manhattan, were walking in a lane of U.S. 24 when they were hit by the snowplow north of Kansas State University and near Tuttle Creek State Park.
Trooper Ben Gardner said the driver, Lawrence Gassmann, 65, of Manhattan tried to avoid hitting the victims. He said Gassmann was not plowing or salting at the time and that he was driving with the plow’s blade raised.
North Carolina
‘World’s worst cat’ is up for adoption
BAKERSVILLE — The “world’s worst cat” is available for adoption — just ask the Mitchell County Animal Rescue organization in North Carolina.
The shelter is waiving adoption fees in the hope that someone will take the cat named Perdita off their hands.
The group says on its Facebook page, “We thought she was sick. Turns out she’s just a jerk.”
A tongue-in-cheek profile of the foul-tempered feline says her dislikes include “dogs, children, the Dixie Chicks, Disney movies, Christmas and last but NOT least … HUGS.” It says she likes lurking, pretending to be sick and “staring into your soul until you feel as if you may never be cheerful again.”
Wire reports
