LA police probe claim Polanski molested girl in ’75

LA police probe claim Polanski molested girl in ’75

LOS ANGELES

Los Angeles detectives said Tuesday they are investigating a woman’s claim that Oscar-winning director Roman Polanski molested her in 1975, when she was 10 years old. But the allegations are so old that criminal charges couldn’t be brought, even if proven.

Although the statute of limitations has long expired, law-enforcement officials may be able to use any evidence they collect to help prosecute other cases.

The 84-year-old director has been a fugitive since he fled to France in 1978 on the eve of sentencing in an unrelated case for sexually assaulting a then-13-year-old girl.

As Mueller closed in, pressure mounted on Flynn and family

WASHINGTON

In the days before he pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI, and as he braced for the public revelation that he’d morphed from government target to government cooperator, Michael Flynn was reveling in the pleasures of a new grandchild, swapping cheerful observations about babies with a longtime friend and fellow grandfather.

At the same time, President Donald Trump’s former national-security adviser also was lamenting the emotional toll of the criminal investigation he was facing, another friend recalls.

Flynn made clear “he was tired of the constant barrage of either people trying to contact him and his family or the press and the coverage they were getting. He was ready for that to be over,” said Thomas A. Heaney Jr., a retired Army colonel who has known Flynn since childhood and spoke to him two days before the guilty plea last month.

Trump signs $700 billion military budget into law

WASHINGTON

President Donald Trump has signed into law a sweeping defense policy bill that authorizes a $700 billion budget for the military. The bill includes additional spending on missile defense programs to respond to the growing nuclear weapons threat from North Korea. But there’s a catch. The $700 billion budget won’t become reality until lawmakers agree – and they haven’t yet – to roll back a 2011 law that set strict limits on federal spending, including by the Defense Department.

US budget deficit totals $138.5 billion in November

WASHINGTON

The federal government collected a record amount of tax income for the month of November and also had a record level of spending for the month, producing a budget deficit of $138.5 billion, up slightly from a year ago. The Treasury Department says the November deficit was 1.4 percent higher than a year ago.

Staff/wire reports

Selected local stocks

STOCK, DIVIDENDCLOSECHANGE

Alcoa Inc., .1242.390.15

Aqua America, .71 37.36-0.77

Avalon Holdings,2.14-0.01

Chemical Bank, .2754.570.12Community Health Sys.4.36 0.005

Cortland Bancorp, .2820.00-0.25

Farmers Nat., .1614.900.15

First Energy, 1.44 32.69-0.45

Fifth/Third, .5230.470.17

FirstMerit Corp.,--

First Niles Financial, .1211.000.00

FNB Corp., .4813.970.06

General Motors, 1.5241.53-0.14

General Electric, .9217.920.27

Huntington Bank, .28 14.810.19

iHeartMedia Inc.,0.62-0.12

JP Morgan Chase, 1.92106.881.24

Key Corp, .3420.000.27

LaFarge, .34--

Macy’s, 1.51 25.70-0.19

Parker Hannifin, 2.52 191.88-0.06

PNC, 2.20145.842.52

Simon Prop. Grp., 6.60166.354.40

Stoneridge 24.022.68

United Comm. Fin., .12 9.48-0.01

Selected prices from Tuesday’s 4 p.m. close.