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

APNewsBreak: Serial killer search led to wrong man in 2017

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Investigators hunting down the so-called Golden State Killer used information from genetic websites last year that led to the wrong man, court records obtained Friday by The Associated Press showed.

An Oregon police officer working at the request of California investigators persuaded a judge in March 2017 to order a 73-year-old man in a nursing home to provide a DNA sample. It’s not clear if officers collected the sample and ran further tests.

The Oregon City man is in declining health and was unable to answer questions Friday about the case.

His daughter said authorities never notified her before swabbing her father for DNA in his bed a rehabilitation centre, but once they told her afterward she understood and worked with them to eliminate people who conceivably could be the killer.

The case of mistaken identity was discovered as authorities hailed a novel use of DNA technology that led this week to the arrest of former police officer Joseph DeAngelo at his house outside Sacramento on murder charges. Critics of the investigative approach, however, warned it could jeopardize privacy rights.

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White House: Records dispute allegations against Jackson

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House said Friday that internal records raise doubt about some of the most serious allegations levelled against White House doctor Ronny Jackson in his failed bid to become the next secretary of Veterans Affairs.

Jackson withdrew his nomination Thursday after allegations by current and former colleagues raised questions about his prescribing practices and leadership ability, including accusations of drunkenness on the job. Democratic Sen. Jon Tester’s office collected the allegations, which included a claim that Jackson “got drunk and wrecked a government vehicle” at a Secret Service going-away party.

The records, including police reports, show Jackson was in three minor vehicle incidents in government vehicles during the last five years, but none involved the use of alcohol and he was not found to be at fault. In one case, a side-view mirror was clipped by a passing truck. In another incident an enraged driver in Montgomery County, Maryland, allegedly punched out Jackson’s window during a morning drive to Camp David.

The White House medical unit that Jackson ran successfully passed regular controlled substance audits, according to the records for the last three years. The reviews did recommend improvements to the medical unit’s handling of controlled substances, but did not find misconduct.

The Associated Press reviewed the documents Friday. They were the result of an internal White House review of allegations raised against Jackson during his brief confirmation process. The White House says the records, covering recent years, disprove the allegations.

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Korean summit provides unusual look at Kim Jong Un

GOYANG, South Korea (AP) — A day after the two Korean leaders met for a summit along their shared border, the emotional, memorable, even funny scenes from their time together are both a bitter reminder of the Koreas’ seven decades of division and an insight into the mysterious character of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Here are some of the scenes that South Koreans are talking about amid the afterglow of one of the most unusual moments in recent inter-Korean history:

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KIM CROSSING THE BORDER

Kim became the first North Korean leader to set foot onto South Korean land since the 1950-53 Korean War when he stepped into the southern side of the border village of Panmunjom to meet with South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Friday.

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GOP-led House panel clears Trump campaign in Russia probe

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican-led House intelligence committee on Friday released a lengthy report concluding it found no evidence that Donald Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia in the 2016 presidential campaign, drawing praise from the president and rebuttals from Democrats.

The report caps an investigation that began with the promise of bipartisanship but quickly transformed into an acrimonious battle between Democrats and Republicans over Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election and whether there were any connections with the Trump campaign.

Trump quickly claimed vindication Friday, calling the report “totally conclusive, strong, powerful, many things.”

“No collusion, which I knew anyway. No co-ordination, no nothing. It’s a witch hunt, that’s all it is,” he told reporters in the Oval Office.

But the committee’s Republicans didn’t let the Trump campaign completely off the hook. They specifically cited the Trump campaign for “poor judgment” in taking a June 2016 meeting in Trump Tower that was described in emails to Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., as part of a Russian government effort to aide his father’s presidential bid. The report also dubbed the campaign’s praise of WikiLeaks “objectionable.”

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NOT REAL NEWS: A look at what didn’t happen this week

A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue headlines of the week. None of these stories is legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked these out. Here are the real facts:

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NOT REAL: Trump Organization Wins Lucrative Contract To Rebuild Syrian Airport

THE FACTS: The U.S. struck one of Syria’s biggest air bases last year with a barrage of cruise missiles, but the company owned by President Donald Trump didn’t win a contract to repair the damage. That story was satire on the breakingburgh site. Trump Organization spokeswoman Amanda Miller wrote in an email to The Associated Press, “This is indeed false.” The story first emerged online after the U.S. struck the Shayrat base in April 2017 and recirculated on social media after another apparent use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government.

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Long wait for QB selection on 2nd night of draft

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Maybe NFL teams got exhausted from scrambling to pick quarterbacks in the first round of the draft.

It took until the 76th overall slot Friday night, 44 picks after the last one, that Oklahoma State’s Mason Rudolph was selected by Pittsburgh. The Steelers get a big, strong-armed, highly competitive QB — yep, sounds a lot like incumbent Ben Roethlisberger, who is 36 and closing in on the end of his championship career.

“It’s not Ben’s job to teach me anything. It’s my job to learn,” said Rudolph, who added he dreamed of becoming a Steeler.

Pittsburgh has had little success with backups for Big Ben, with another Oklahoma product, Landry Jones, never approaching the Roethlisberger level.

When Oklahoma State played at Heinz Field last year and won 59-21, Rudolph threw for five touchdowns in the first half.

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Tom Brokaw ‘hurt and unmoored’ by sex harassment allegations

NEW YORK (AP) — Tom Brokaw denied sexual misconduct charges and told friends in a late-night email that he felt “ambushed and then perp walked” in the media as an avatar of male misogyny and stripped of his honour and achievement.

The 78-year-old broadcast journalist penned an emotional response to accusations that he had made unwanted advances on a former colleague, writing that “it is 4:00 a.m. on the first day of my new life as an accused predator in the universe of American journalism.” The letter was first reported in the Hollywood Reporter and confirmed by The Associated Press.

Brokaw, meanwhile, withdrew on Friday as a commencement speaker at Connecticut’s Sacred Heart University next month, saying his appearance would be a distraction.

The Washington Post and Variety reported the charges by Linda Vester, a former NBC News and Fox News Channel correspondent. She said Brokaw went to her New York hotel room once in the mid-1990s, proposed an affair and tried to forcibly kiss her. She said he tried to kiss her one other time at her apartment in London and once grabbed her from behind and tickled her on her waist.

She told Variety that despite not being at fault, she “suffered years of humiliation and isolation” from the incidents.

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AP Explains: A look at DNA-sharing services and privacy

NEW YORK (AP) — The use of a genealogy website to track down a suspected California serial killer illustrates both the extraordinary power of DNA-sharing services and the broad privacy concerns that surround the fast-growing commercial market for genetic analysis.

TV commercials for companies such as 23andMe and Ancestry.com pitch their services as simple and fun ways of learning about family heritage and health. And while those companies on Friday sought to distance themselves from the free GEDmatch website used by police, the California case exposed broader questions about what happens after consumers mail their saliva away for DNA analysis and upload the results to the internet.

“For those of us who were skeptical about turning over our genetic information to corporations, this case proved all of those fears true,” said Daniel De Simone, a New Jersey researcher whose relatives have used DNA services.

The co-founder of GEDmatch said Friday that he is concerned about privacy after learning that law enforcement used the site and insists that his company does not “hand out data.”

“This was done without our knowledge, and it’s been overwhelming,” Curtis Rogers told The Associated Press.

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Detroit police seek to end citywide paintball battle

DETROIT (AP) — Stepped up police enforcement is planned this weekend in Detroit to quell a social media-publicized citywide paintball war that — so far — has resulted in six arrests and left an unmarked patrol car splattered.

Chief James Craig referred Friday to the running battle along city streets as “Paint Up, Guns Down,” and said organizers are pitching it as an alternative to gun and other violence.

“If you want to work with us and stop the violence, there are a number of things we can do together, but having paintball wars across the city is not the way to do it,” said Craig said during a news conference.

On Wednesday night, Davon Williams, 22, was arrested when nearly a dozen paintballs struck Capt. Darrell Patterson’s vehicle. The paintballs rained on the unmarked car after Patterson turned on its emergency lights when he saw about 50 people with paintball guns shooting at each other.

Williams was arraigned Friday on assault and propelling an object at a vehicle charges — both misdemeanours. He faces a May 10 pretrial hearing. Court records did not list an attorney Friday for Williams.

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Archaeologists find ancient mass child sacrifice in Peru

LIMA, Peru (AP) — Archaeologists in northern Peru say they have found evidence of what could be the world’s largest single case of child sacrifice.

The pre-Columbian burial site, known as Las Llamas, contains the skeletons of 140 children who were between the ages of five and 14 when they were ritually sacrificed during a ceremony about 550 years ago, experts who led the excavation told The Associated Press on Friday.

The site, located near the modern day city of Trujillo, also contained the remains of 200 young llamas apparently sacrificed on the same day.

The burial site was apparently built by the ancient Chimu empire. It is thought the children were sacrificed as floods caused by the El Nino weather pattern ravaged the Peruvian coastline.

“They were possibly offering the gods the most important thing they had as a society, and the most important thing is children because they represent the future,” said Gabriel Prieto, an archaeology professor at Peru’s National University of Trujillo, who has led the excavation, along with John Verano of Tulane University.