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Investigators examining last month's fatal crash of an Amtrak train in Philadelphia now believe they know whether the engineer was using his phone when the derailment happened, a source with knowledge of the probe said Wednesday. The source didn't reveal the National Transportation Safety Board investigators' conclusions. But the NTSB is expected to make an announcement about the crash at 9 a.m. ET Wednesday.

Rioting has been reported at a concert at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford. According to multiple reports, the Hot 97 Summer Jam concert grew rowdy Sunday night, prompting State Police to use tear gas outside the gates, the Asbury Park Press reported. A state police armored vehicle tear gassed the crowd because concert goers, angry the gates were closed, threw bottles, the Asbury Park Press said. State Police officers were wearing riot gear and had their batons out, according to NBC New York. NBC New York reported tasers may have been used.

Washington D.C. police issued an arrest warrant late Wednesday for a suspect in the murder of a corporate executive, his wife, their 10-year-old son, and a family housekeeper in their home last week. The suspect is named as 34-year-old Daron Dylan Wint. He is charged with first-degree murder while armed. Police told the Washington Post that Wint is a native of Maryland, and they did not know his whereabouts.

The highest court in Italy on Friday has overturned the murder convictions of Amanda Knox and her ex-boyfriend in the sensational 2007 stabbing death of her British roommate. The ruling was the latest turn in an odyssey of international justice for Knox, who spent four years in an Italian jail after the killing. She has returned to the United States and vowed not to return to Italy. She and the ex-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were convicted in 2009, then acquitted and freed in 2011. An appeals court overturned the acquittals and ordered a new trial, and they were convicted again last...

MEXICO CITY — Suspects in the disappearance of 43 college students have described a macabre and complicated mass murder and incineration of the victims carried out over an entire day and ending with their ashen remains being dumped into a river, Mexican authorities said Friday. In a somber, lengthy explanation of the investigation, Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam played video showing hundreds of charred fragments of bone and teeth fished from the river and its banks. He said it will be very difficult to extract DNA to confirm that they are the students missing since Sept. 26 after an attack...

From an ongoing press conference. The official poll will be released in an hour New Marquette University Law School Poll shows Gvr. Scott Walker, among likely voters, out of the 4.1 range of error Poll done from Sept 25-28 801 registered voters Sept 25-28 585 likely voters Among LIKELY voters Walker 50% Burke 45% Among registered voters Scott is 1% ahead

NASCAR star Tony Stewart hit and killed another driver who was walking on the track in a sprint car race on Saturday night. The other driver, Kevin Ward Jr., had collided with Stewart on the previous lap, leaving Ward’s car with a flat tire and pushed into the wall. As officials threw a caution, Ward left his car and began walking down the track — gesturing angrily toward Stewart — before being clipped and dragged 50 feet by Stewart’s car. Several spectators told Bob Pockrass of The Sporting News that Stewart appeared to throttle his car before colliding with Ward.

The Supreme Court on Monday mostly validated the Environmental Protection Agency’s plans to regulate power plant and factory emissions of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, while imposing some limits on the agency’s reach. The justices said the EPA could not rewrite specific standards written into the law, but they still handed the Obama administration and environmentalists a big victory by agreeing there was another way for the EPA to carry out its program.

The Internal Revenue Service, already facing accusations that its workers improperly snooped through tax files, has hired a former police officer convicted just a few years ago of illegally accessing FBI records and providing information to a subject of a counterterrorism investigation involving an infamous al Qaeda figure. Mohammad Weiss Rasool, or Weiss Russell as he is known at the IRS, was sentenced to two years of probation in 2008 after pleading guilty in federal court to illegally accessing the FBI's National Crime Information Center database to run license tag numbers for a friend he thought was being followed. That...

NEW YORK (AP) -- A day after receiving a stinging rebuke from a powerful Albany lawmaker who threatened to block his prekindergarten tax hike plan, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio angrily demanded a vote while coordinating a show of force to defend his signature proposal that now appears to be in substantial jeopardy. De Blasio rallied with dozens of influential African-American clergy leaders, including the Rev. Al Sharpton, in Brooklyn, while his close ally Melissa Mark-Viverito, the city council speaker, did the same with local elected officials and parents at City Hall, all urging lawmakers 150 miles to...

Just in; Caleb Jacoby has been found. Safe and well more to follow as details become available.

After a gay server at a New Jersey restaurant said a customer denied her a tip and wrote her a hateful note on the receipt, a local family contacted NBC 4 New York and said their receipt shows they paid a tip and didn't write any such note. Dayna Morales, a former Marine and a server at Gallop Asian Bistro in Bridgewater, posted a photo on Facebook earlier this month, showing the bill with a line through the space for a tip. The photo of the receipt showed someone had written, "I'm sorry but I cannot tip because I do...

U.S. officials have given the thumbs-up to four Chinese poultry plants, paving the way for the country to send processed chicken to American markets, according to audit reports obtained by POLITICO. The audit reports expected to be made public Friday show that the Chinese processing plants passed U.S. Department of Agriculture inspections performed in March and the positive results make it likely the foreign producers soon will become eligible to export to the U.S According to the audit, at first, China will only be able to process chicken that has been slaughtered in the U.S. or other certified countries.

“Sopranos” star James Gandolfini, who struggled with booze addiction in his final weeks, scarfed down a decadent final meal that included at least eight alcoholic drinks, The Post has learned. Gandolfini guzzled four shots of rum, two pina coladas, and two beers at dinner with his son — while he chowed down on two orders of fried king prawns and a “large portion” of foie gras, a hotel source in Rome said. The Emmy Award winner had attended several Alcoholics Anonymous meetings on Perry Street in the West Village, but people who saw him there “didn’t think that he was...

MY MOTHER fought cancer for almost a decade and died at 56. She held out long enough to meet the first of her grandchildren and to hold them in her arms. But my other children will never have the chance to know her and experience how loving and gracious she was. We often speak of “Mommy’s mommy,” and I find myself trying to explain the illness that took her away from us. They have asked if the same could happen to me. I have always told them not to worry, but the truth is I carry a “faulty” gene, BRCA1,...

The final Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll of Election 2012 shows Mitt Romney attracting support from 49% of voters nationwide, while President Obama earns the vote from 48%. Two percent (2%) prefer some other candidate. See daily tracking history. Rasmussen Reports will continue tracking the president’s job approval rating and other topics, and new results will be updated daily at 9:30 a.m. Eastern (sign up for free daily e-mail update). Both candidates are viewed favorably by 50% of voters nationwide. When it comes to the economy, 50% trust Romney more, while 47% have more confidence in the president.

Despite a dip in support, Barack Obama retains a narrow 46-43 percent edge over Republican challenger Mitt Romney in the Buckeye state. Obama topped Romney by seven percentage points in Ohio a month ago (49-42 percent). The president has lost ground among independents (down 10 points from September), women (down eight points) and voters under age 35 (down six points).

On the eve of their second debate, President Obama and challenger Mitt Romney remain locked in a virtual dead heat nationally, with Republicans showing increased enthusiasm for their nominee after his big win in the first debate, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. Likely voters in the new poll split 49 percent for Obama to 46 percent for Romney, basically unmoved from the poll two weeks ago, just before the two candidates met in Denver for their first debate. On topic after topic, the survey portrays an electorate that remains deeply divided along partisan lines and locked in...

Mitt Romney now holds a narrow advantage over Barack Obama in the race for the White House -- 46 percent to 45 percent, if the election were held today, according to a Fox News national poll of likely voters released Wednesday. That’s a six-point turnaround and a three-point “debate bounce” for Romney. Before the first presidential debate in Denver last Wednesday, Romney had 43 percent to Obama’s 48 percent (September 24-26, 2012). Romney’s edge comes mainly from independents, white voters and men. Just over half of men (51 percent) back Romney now, the highest level of support he’s received among...

The Gallup poll indicates that Obama held a 50%-45% advantage over Romney from September 30-October 2, the three days leading up to last Wednesday's presidential debate in Denver, Colorado. According to the survey, Romney and Obama were deadlocked at 47% each in the three days after the debate, from October 4-6.