A multitude of failures occurred in late September when a White House fence-jumper was able to make his way into what is supposed to be one of the most securely guarded buildings in the world, according to a new report.

A man was able to jump the fence and sprint into the White House with a pocketknife on Sept. 19, in part because a canine handler who could have stopped him sooner was on his cellphone taking a personal call without his radio earpiece in, according to a Homeland Security Department report obtained by the Los Angeles Times.

Because of that distraction, it took him 11 seconds to respond, which, according to the report, he did only after he saw another uniformed officer running toward the White House.

Among a flurry of chaotic radio traffic and an obscured view of the north grounds due to construction -- the area where the fence was jumped -- authorities were either unaware of the situation as it unfolded or lacked the specific information to immediately reach the intruder...

A federal judge ruled Thursday that the name of a Border Patrol agent who shot and killed a Mexican teenager through the border fence will be made public as part of a lawsuit by the boy’s mother.

The agent’s lawyers argued that his name be kept from the public to prevent harassment, but Judge Raner C. Collins in Tucson said that the agent’s privacy concerns are outweighed by the public’s interest in the case.

Collins' ruling ordered the court clerk to amend the case to identify the agent as Lonnie Swartz, though he said no other information about the man is to be disclosed. Previously the suit had listed the defendant as "Unknown Party." 

Collins also ordered sealed documents to be open to the public.

Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez, 16, was fatally shot in October of 2012 as he walked along a street parallel to the border fence in Nogales, Mexico. Swartz was on the Arizona side of the border when he fired.

The Border Patrol has said the agent had been hit by rocks when he responded to...

The former chief executive of coal giant Massey Energy Co. has been indicted on federal charges stemming from a 2010 coal mine explosion that killed 29 people.

Donald L. Blankenship was indicted Wednesday by a West Virginia grand jury and charged with four counts, including conspiracy, fraud and making false statements. He is the highest-ranking Massey Energy official to be indicted in the explosion to date.

The company had been cited for repeated mine safety violations in the years leading up to the April 5, 2010, explosion at its Upper Big Branch mine, the worst U.S. mining disaster since 1984. Massey Energy agreed to pay a $209-million settlement as a result.

In a 43-page indictment filed Thursday, federal prosecutors say Blankenship conspired to violate federal mine safety standards and to impede federal mine safety officials at the company’s Upper Big Branch mine in southern West Virginia. They also accuse him of making false statements to the U.S. Securities and Exchange...

Eric Frein, the Pennsylvania survivalist accused of killing one state trooper and shooting another, was charged Thursday with two terrorism counts after police said he told them he’d carried out the attack to “wake people up.”

After a seven-week manhunt, Frein, 31, was captured Oct. 30 and arraigned the next day on charges including murder and attempted murder. One of the new terrorism charges accuses him of trying to affect the conduct of a government. The other accuses him of trying to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion.

Officials have said Frein staged an ambush-style shooting outside a state police barracks in Blooming Grove, Pa., on Sept. 12. Cpl. Bryon Dickson, 38, was killed. Trooper Alex Douglass, 31, was critically wounded.

In an amended criminal complaint filed Thursday, police said that while being interviewed after his arrest, Frein said that “he wanted to make a change [in government] and that voting was insufficient to do so, because there...

The rupture of a pipe at a Colorado fracking site left one Halliburton employee dead and two seriously injured Thursday morning, law enforcement and company officials said.

Workers were trying to warm a frozen pipe at a site near Fort Lupton, Colo., about 30 miles north of Denver, when it burst around 9:30 a.m., Sgt. Sean Stanridge, public information officer for the Weld County Sheriff's Office, told the Los Angeles Times.

One person died at the scene and the injured were taken to area hospitals. One underwent surgery, and both are expected to survive, Stanridge said.

The industrial site is operated by Anadarko Petroleum Corp., and Halliburton employees are contracted to work on the grounds, Anadarko spokesman John Christiansen said.

"This is a very difficult time for all of us at Halliburton, and we are working with local authorities as they look into the details of this incident," the company said in a statement. "Our thoughts and prayers are with our employees’ loved ones."

A...

Delvin Barnes, who is accused of kidnapping 22-year-old Carlesha Freeland-Gaither in Philadelphia this month, was indicted Wednesday in the case.

The indictment by a federal grand jury says Barnes "knowingly, willfully and unlawfully seized, confined, kidnapped, abducted, carried away and held [her]  … for the purpose of gaining a personal benefit” and transported the victim across state lines, from Pennsylvania to Maryland.

If convicted, Barnes faces a maximum sentence of life in prison, according to the U.S. attorney's office.

Police have said that on Nov. 2, 37-year-old Barnes grabbed Freeland-Gaither, who struggled and kicked out a car window on a widely seen surveillance video.

Barnes was arrested Nov. 5 after police found him lying next to Freeland-Gaither in the backseat of his Ford Taurus in Jessup, Md.

Days earlier, authorities in Virginia had used DNA evidence to link Barnes to the brutal kidnapping and rape of a 16-year-old Richmond girl and issued a warrant on six felony...