Associated Press stories, Page 1495

HARRISBURG — An apparent loophole in Pennsylvania’s mask mandate for schools is making it easier for some students to go to class without having to cover their faces, even as state education regulators sought to make an example of one openly defiant school board. The state health secretary’s order requiring...

Olympic gold medalist Gable Steveson has achieved his childhood dream of signing with World Wrestling Entertainment — with a twist. The WWE announced Thursday that it has signed Steveson to a deal that will allow him to join the WWE roster and return to the University of Minnesota to defend...

HARRISBURG — Republicans in Pennsylvania’s state Senate held their first hearing Thursday in what they call a “forensic investigation” into last year’s presidential election, an underwhelming affair that Democrats nevertheless say is an extension of a national campaign to attack voting rights following former President Donald Trump’s loss. Republicans maintain...

CALLAHAN, Fla. — A Florida man won $1 million in a lottery game the same day he and his wife opened an auto repair shop. Brian Woodle, 46, bought the $5 Gold Rush Supreme scratch-off ticket from a Circle K in Callahan. “I love working on vehicles and it has...

NEW YORK — Besides packages, UPS is promising to deliver something else fast: job offers. The package delivery company said Thursday that it plans to hire more than 100,000 people for the busy holiday shipping season, many of whom will get job offers within 30 minutes of applying. UPS needs...

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Fifty years after the revolt at the Attica Correctional Facility, unanswered questions still bother those touched by what remains the nation’s deadliest prison uprising. What unknown details are buried inside hundreds of pages of records that remain sealed? And will New York state ever apologize for the...

Stocks were slightlyi higher Thursday morning on Wall Street, as the market continues to wobble between gains and losses in this holiday-shortened week. The S&P 500 index rose 0.2% as of 10 a.m. Eastern. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2% and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.3%. The S&P 500...

NEW YORK — Two decades after its destruction in the Sept. 11 attacks, the work to rebuild the World Trade Center complex remains incomplete. Two planned skyscrapers, a performing arts center and a church are still unfinished at the site, which plays host Saturday to the annual ceremony honoring nearly...

Twenty Democratic attorneys general have voiced their support for a lawsuit challenging South Carolina’s new abortion law, arguing that the restrictive measure could harm their states by taxing resources if women cross borders to seek care. “The effects of the law are not confined to limits on particular procedures in...

Can kids get “long covid” after coronavirus infections? Yes, but studies indicate they’re less likely than adults to be affected by symptoms that persist, recur or begin a month or more after infection. Estimates vary on how often the symptoms known as long covid-19 occur in kids. A recently published...

WASHINGTON — The White House will withdraw the nomination of a gun-control advocate to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives after David Chipman ran into bipartisan opposition in the Senate, a person familiar with the decision said Thursday. Chipman is a former federal agent and adviser at...

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Thursday is toughening covid-19 vaccine requirements for federal workers and contractors, according to a person familiar with the plans, as he aims to boost vaccinations and curb the surging delta variant that is killing thousands each week and jeopardizing the nation’s economic recovery. Just...

Ford will cease production in India for vehicles sold there by next year after logging accumulated operating losses of more than $2 billion over the past 10 years. The restructuring means job losses of about 4,000, the company said in a filing Thursday with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Demand...

Work crews searching for a time capsule they believed was buried inside the pedestal under a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee that had towered over Richmond, Virginia, hit a snag Thursday. Crews were having difficulty finding the capsule’s precise location. Then late Thursday morning, a crane they were...

MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar announced Thursday that she has been treated for breast cancer and the treatment “went well.” Klobuchar, 61, tweeted that the cancer was found in February during a routine mammogram, and eventually she had a lumpectomy to remove the cancer. She said she completed radiation...

SEOUL, South Korea — Military search dogs and goose-stepping trainers. Health workers wearing gas masks and red hazmat suits. And a slimmed down, beaming Kim Jong Un in a cream-colored business suit. The parade marking North Korea’s celebration of its 73rd anniversary was a marked departure from past militaristic displays,...

PARIS — France will offer free birth control to all women up to age 25 starting next year, the health minister announced Thursday. The measure will also include free medical visits about contraception, and will start Jan. 1, Health Minister Olivier Veran announced on France-2 television. All contraceptive methods were...

Korey Rowe served tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and returned to the U.S. in 2004 traumatized and disillusioned. His experiences overseas and nagging questions about Sept. 11, 2001 convinced him America’s leaders were lying about what happened that day and the wars that followed. The result was “Loose Change,” a...