AP News in Brief at 11:04 p.m. EST

Teen Gerard wins slopestyle snowboarding for USA’s 1st gold

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea (AP) — Red Gerard and his brothers built their own snowboarding features park in the backyard of their Colorado home as kids, one that provided them a gateway into a sport that is an equal mix of technical precision and daring creativity.

Halfway across the world from his makeshift beginnings, the teenager made the Olympic stage look like just another afternoon back in Silverthorne, Colorado.

The 17-year-old won gold in men’s slopestyle snowboarding on Sunday, drilling his final run to put up a score of 87.16, good enough to edge Canadians Max Parrot and Mark McMorris and give the United States its first gold medal at the Pyeongchang Games.

Gerard stumbled his way through his opening two runs at tricky, slick and sun-splashed Phoenix Snow Park. It hardly mattered. He found redemption his third time through the course, using some of the techniques he first learned in his backyard to navigate the series of rails at the top of the course before soaring through the moonscape at the bottom.

He exulted in the moment as he took a few minutes to chat with International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach while seeing if McMorris or Parrot could catch him.

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Israel strikes Syria, downs Iranian drone, as F-16 crashes

JERUSALEM (AP) — In its most serious engagement in neighbouring Syria since fighting there began in 2011, Israel shot down an infiltrating Iranian drone Saturday and struck Iranian targets deep in Syria before one of its own jets was downed.

The sudden escalation offers what could be a harbinger of what lies ahead as the Syrian fighting winds down and an emboldened Iran establishes a military presence that Israel vows it will never accept.

Israel has issued several stern warnings of late about the increased Iranian involvement along its border in Syria and Lebanon. The Israeli Cabinet just held a meeting near the Syrian border to highlight the new threats, which it attributes to Iran’s growing confidence given the success of the government of Bashar Assad in the Syrian civil war thanks to their support.

Israel called the drone infiltration a “severe and irregular violation of Israeli sovereignty” and warned that Iran would be held accountable for its meddling, raising the spectre of a larger confrontation in an area that has remained largely stable since a monthlong war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2006.

“This is a serious Iranian attack on Israeli territory. Iran is dragging the region into an adventure in which it doesn’t know how it will end,” Israel’s chief military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Ronen Manelis, said in a special statement. “Whoever is responsible for this incident is the one who will pay the price.”

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WH response to abuse claims shines light on victims’ fears

WASHINGTON (AP) — When Jennifer Willoughby and Colbie Holderness stepped forward to tell the story of how they were physically, verbally and emotionally abused by their ex-husband, who had since become a top White House aide, President Donald Trump had nothing but good things to say about the man they had accused of domestic violence.

Rob Porter “did a great job while he was at the White House. And we hope he has a wonderful career,” Trump said Friday, adding that the aide had vehemently maintained his innocence.

The president followed that up Saturday with a tweet that “lives are being shattered and destroyed by a mere allegation.”

Porter’s resignation was announced Wednesday, just hours after a photograph was published of Holderness with a black eye, allegedly inflicted by Porter. Trump’s staff secretary called the allegations from his former spouses “outrageous” and “simply false.”

Trump’s chief of staff, John Kelly, had defended Porter on Tuesday as “a man of true integrity and honour” and “a friend, confidante and trusted professional.” By some accounts, White House counsel Don McGahn had been apprised of some accusations about Porter at least four times, including as early as January 2017.

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Who’s at fault in Amtrak crash? Amtrak will pay regardless

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal investigators are still looking at how CSX railway crews routed an Amtrak train into a parked freight train in Cayce, South Carolina, last weekend. But even if CSX should bear sole responsibility for the accident, Amtrak will likely end up paying crash victims’ legal claims with public money.

Amtrak pays for accidents it didn’t cause because of secretive agreements negotiated between the passenger rail company, which receives more than $1 billion annually in federal subsidies, and the private railroads, which own 97 per cent of the tracks on which Amtrak travels.

Both Amtrak and freight railroads that own the tracks fight to keep those contracts secret in legal proceedings. But whatever the precise legal language, plaintiffs’ lawyers and former Amtrak officials say Amtrak generally bears the full cost of damages to its trains, passengers, employees and other crash victims — even in instances where crashes occurred as the result of a freight rail company’s negligence or misconduct.

Railroad industry advocates say that freight railways have ample incentive to keep their tracks safe for their employees, customers and investors. But the Surface Transportation Board and even some federal courts have long concluded that allowing railroads to escape liability for gross negligence is bad public policy.

“The freight railroads don’t have an iron in the fire when it comes to making the safety improvements necessary to protect members of the public,” said Bob Pottroff, a Manhattan, Kansas, rail injury attorney who has sued CSX on behalf of an injured passenger from the Cayce crash. “They’re not paying the damages.”

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Trump accuses Democrats of playing politics with memo

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Saturday accused the Democrats of playing politics with classified information, asserting that their memo countering GOP allegations about the conduct of the FBI’s Russia probe was a trap meant to “blame the White House for lack of transparency.”

Citing national security concerns, the White House notified the House Intelligence Committee on Friday that the president was “unable” to declassify the Democratic memo. White House counsel Don McGahn said in a letter to the committee that the memo contains “numerous properly classified and especially sensitive passages” and asked the committee to revise it with the help of the Justice Department.

He said Trump was still “inclined” to release the memo in the interest of transparency if revisions are made.

Trump weighed in with a tweet on Saturday.

“The Democrats sent a very political and long response memo which they knew, because of sources and methods (and more), would have to be heavily redacted, whereupon they would blame the White House for lack of transparency,” he tweeted. The meaning of the “(and more)” was not immediately clear.

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3 dead in helicopter crash at Grand Canyon

GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, Ariz. (AP) — Police say a helicopter has crashed at the Grand Canyon, killing three people.

Hualapai Nation Police Chief Francis Bradley confirmed the deaths to Phoenix TV station KPHO . Authorities say there were at least seven people on board, but it’s unclear how many injuries there are.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Allen Kenitzer said the Eurocopter EC130 crashed in unknown circumstances and sustained heavy damage.

Federal authorities will investigate.

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Police: 2 officers killed responding to 911; suspect held

WESTERVILLE, Ohio (AP) — Two Ohio police officers responding to a 911 hang-up call were fatally shot on Saturday after entering a townhome in a Columbus suburb and a suspect was taken into custody, authorities said.

Westerville Police Chief Joe Morbitzer said officer Eric Joering, 39, died at the scene and his colleague, Anthony Morelli, 54, died at a local hospital.

Morbitzer said the officers were responding to a “potential domestic situation.” A neighbour who heard the gunfire said it happened at a home where the occupants were “always arguing and fighting.”

“The officers gave their lives in defence of others,” Morbitzer said during a news conference, struggling to keep his emotions in check. He called them “true American heroes.”

Police provided no details about the suspect during a brief news conference. Authorities said the suspect was wounded and was treated at a hospital.

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On drug costs, modest steps follow Trump’s big promises

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump makes big promises to reduce prescription drug costs, but his administration is gravitating to relatively modest steps such as letting Medicare patients share in manufacturer rebates.

Those ideas would represent tangible change and they have a realistic chance of being enacted. But it’s not like calling for Medicare to negotiate drug prices.

Skeptics say the overall approach is underwhelming, and Trump risks being seen as an ally of the powerful pharmaceutical industry, not its disrupter.

The White House Council of Economic Advisers has released a 30-page strategy for reducing drug costs, and it calls current policies “neither wise nor just.” The plan, outlined before Trump releases his new budget proposal Monday, focuses mainly on Medicare and Medicaid changes, along with ideas for speeding drug approvals and fostering competition.

“Despite promises to drastically lower prices the mix of proposed changes does not appear likely to do so, even though there are some constructive proposals,” said John Rother, CEO of the National Coalition on Health Care, an advocacy group whose members include consumer organizations, medical societies, hospitals and insurers.

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AP FACT CHECK: Shutdown produces lots of overblown rhetoric

WASHINGTON (AP) — The weeklong drama over the hourslong government shutdown set loose overblown rhetoric from both parties while President Donald Trump wrestled inartfully with turmoil in the stock market, one of his favourite bragging points until it tanked.

On the sidelines of the budget battle, Trump pitched his campaign against the MS-13 gang. He seemed to overstate the reach of the violent organization in his determination to link immigrants with criminal behaviour and to justify money for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Meantime his EPA chief misrepresented the science on global warming, some of it coming from his own agency.

A review of some statements by Trump and other public figures during a week of turbulence on multiple fronts:

TRUMP: “We’re here to discuss the tremendous threat of MS-13, one of the most violent and vicious gangs anywhere in the world. We’ve really never seen anything quite like this.” — remarks Tuesday at a law enforcement meeting.

THE FACTS: The group is unquestionably violent but its overall numbers are somewhat limited. Federal prosecutors believe MS-13 now has thousands of members across the country, yet statistics show they account for less than 1 per cent of total U.S. gang membership.

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The Latest: Border collie wins Westminster agility contest

NEW YORK (AP) — The Latest on the agility championship at the Westminster Kennel Club dog show:

10:50 p.m.

A border collie named Fame(US) (FAYM’-uhs) has whirled to a win in the Westminster Kennel Club dog show’s agility championship.

Fame(US) took the title Saturday night, with handler Jessica Ajoux of Sparta, New Jersey.

And a dog called Jefe (HEHF’-ay) got a special award for top mixed-breed. Jefe is handled by Liza Buckner of Sebastopol, California.