Washington | featured news

RED BANK, N.J. — A restaurant owned by musician and New Jersey native Jon Bon Jovi is providing free meals to local government workers and their families during the federal government shutdown.
JBJ Soul Kitchen in Red Bank announced on Facebook it will provide the free meals to furloughed workers Monday between 12 p.m. and 2 p.m.
The meals are a result of a partnership between Gov. Phil Murphy’s organization the Phil and Tammy Murphy Family Foundation.

CINCINNATI — Now a half ton of fun, the Cincinnati Zoo’s famed prematurely born hippo will soon turn 2 years old.
The zoo says a variety of activities will celebrate Fiona’s latest milestone. The hippo was born Jan. 24, 2017, at a dangerously low 29 pounds (13 kilograms). Round-the-clock critical care and outside help including from the Smithsonian National Zoo and the Cincinnati Children’s hospital enabled Fiona to not only survive, but to thrive as a social media sensation . The zoo last month reported she had reached 1,000 pounds (454 kilograms).

NEW YORK — John Travolta’s John Gotti biopic “Gotti” has topped the 39th annual Razzie Awards with a co-leading six nominations, while President Donald Trump also earned a nod for worst actor.
In nominations announced Monday, “Gotti,” the Will Ferrell comedy “Holmes & Watson,” conservative provocateur Dinesh D’Souza’s “Death of a Nation” and the R-rated puppet comedy “Happytime Murders” all earned six nominations.

PRISTINA, Kosovo — Kosovo’s president on Monday said he would respond positively if summoned by a European Union-funded court investigating crimes against ethnic Serbs during and after the 1998-99 independence war with Serbia.
At a news conference, Hashim Thaci said that “if there is any invitation at any moment I will respond with full transparency,” and urged others to do the same.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. — A 12-year-old girl has died after a snow fort collapsed while she was playing outside a church in suburban Chicago.
Arlington Heights police are calling the death a “tragic accident.”
Police say the girl, Esther Jung, was playing with a 9-year-old girl in the snow outside Rothem Church on Sunday. Their families began looking for the girls about an hour after they went outside to play.
They found the girls under the snow. The younger girl survived.

ATLANTA — A commemorative service for Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. that was nearly imperiled by the federal government shutdown was held Monday morning in Atlanta at a church called King’s “spiritual home.”
King’s daughter, Rev. Bernice King, said in her remarks that the annual service at Ebenezer Baptist Church came during a moment of crisis in America, while condemning gridlock and partisanship in Washington that led to the shutdown.