Study suggests past covid infection may not fend off omicron
South African scientists are warning that reinfections among people who’ve already battled covid-19 appear to be more likely with the new omicron variant than with earlier coronavirus mutants. A research group has been tracking reinfections in South Africa and reported a jump with the arrival of omicron that they hadn’t...
Parents of Michigan boy charged in Oxford school shooting
PONTIAC, Mich. — A prosecutor filed involuntary manslaughter charges Friday against the parents of a teen accused of killing four students at a Michigan high school, saying they failed to intervene on the day of the tragedy despite being confronted with a drawing and chilling message — “blood everywhere” —...
Columbia University grad student fatally stabbed, 2nd man wounded in NYC
NEW YORK — A Columbia University graduate student was fatally stabbed and another man was wounded in separate attacks near the university’s upper Manhattan campus, authorities said Friday. The stabbing suspect was arrested in Central Park while menacing a man with a knife, police said in a news release. The...
Pakistan police: Mob kills Sri Lankan over alleged blasphemy
LAHORE, Pakistan — A Muslim mob descended on a sports equipment factory in Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province on Friday, killing a Sri Lankan man and burning his body publicly over allegations of blasphemy, police said. Armagan Gondal, a police chief in the district of Sialkot, where the killing occurred, said...
Biden says he caught a cold from young grandson
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden has at least one thing in common with thousands of parents and grandparents this winter: He’s picked up a cold from his young grandson. The president has had an unusually low, scratchy voice and an occasional cough all week, prompting questions from the press about...
DNA inside conch shell leads to suspect in 2001 homicide
NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — DNA recovered from the interior of a conch shell thought to have been used as a weapon in the 2001 killing of a Massachusetts woman has led to the indictment on a murder charge of the victim’s half-brother, prosecutors said. David Reed, 53, formerly of Acushnet...
Omicron may be driving South Africa’s surge; wary world watches
JOHANNESBURG — Dr. Sikhulile Moyo was analyzing covid-19 samples in his lab in Botswana last week when he noticed they looked startlingly different from others. Within days, the world was ablaze with the news that the coronavirus had a new variant of concern, which appears to be driving a dramatic...
Honda recalls SUVs and pickups because hoods can fly open
DETROIT — Honda is recalling nearly 725,000 SUVs and pickup trucks because the hoods can open while the vehicles are moving. The recall covers certain 2019 Passports, 2016 through 2019 Pilots and 2017 through 2020 Ridgeline pickups. Honda says in documents posted Friday by U.S. safety regulators that the hood...
Harrisburg must pay disability benefits to cop who suffered ‘psychological injury’ when colleagues yelled at her: Pa. court
A former Harrisburg police officer is entitled to workers compensation disability benefits because she suffered a “psychological injury” when colleagues berated her for not firing her Taser at a suspect, a Commonwealth Court panel ruled Friday. The decision, outlined in an opinion by Judge Michael J. Wojcik, sinks an attempt...
Billions of pounds of excess food bound for landfills would be rescued under U.S. Senate bill
Americans each year trash about 108 billion pounds of food. That represents about 40 percent of the food supply in this country, the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates. A major source of that waste is generated by restaurants, retailers and wholesalers, all of whom face challenges and restrictions in moving...
Fuel in tap water alarms Pearl Harbor military families
HONOLULU — Cheri Burness’ dog was the first to signal something was wrong with their tap water. He stopped drinking it two weeks ago. Then Burness started feeling stomach cramps. Her 12-year-old daughter was nauseous. “It was just getting worse every day,” said Burness, whose husband is in the Navy....
Unvaccinated Nevada state workers to pay insurance surcharge
CARSON CITY, Nev. — Nevada will be the first state to charge state workers enrolled in public employee health insurance plans a surcharge if they aren’t vaccinated. The state Public Employees’ Benefit Program Board voted on Thursday to charge unvaccinated workers up to $55 per month to offset the costs...
Rich? Want to be a U.S. senator? Welcome to Pennsylvania!
Rich, Republican and want to be a U.S. senator? Pennsylvania might as well hang a welcome sign. The presidential battleground state’s high-stakes race for an open Senate seat is seeing candidates with big bank accounts and big-time connections exchanging their blue-state mansions for decidedly purple Pennsylvania, and pursuing an opportunity...
Sheriff: Georgia teen killed as brother sells homemade gun
ATLANTA — A 14-year-old Georgia girl was killed when her younger brother was trying to sell a homemade gun, and he fired a shot at people who took the weapon without paying, a sheriff said. The shot struck Kyra Scott, and she died as her mother was trying to take...
Lawyers allied with Trump ordered to pay $175K in sanctions
LANSING, Mich. — Nine lawyers allied with former President Donald Trump were ordered Thursday to pay Detroit and Michigan a total of $175,000 in sanctions for abusing the court system with a sham lawsuit challenging the 2020 election results. The money, which must be paid within 30 days, will cover...
Senate passes stopgap funding bill, avoiding shutdown
WASHINGTON — The Senate passed a stopgap spending bill Thursday that avoids a short-term shutdown and funds the federal government through Feb. 18 after leaders defused a partisan standoff over federal vaccine mandates. The measure now goes to President Joe Biden to be signed into law. Earlier in the day,...
Feds: Former Penn State track coach tricked women into sending him nude photos
BOSTON — A former college track and field coach accused of setting up sham social media and email accounts in an attempt to trick women into sending him nude or semi-nude photos of themselves has been indicted on 15 counts, federal prosecutors said Thursday. Steve Waithe, 28, of Chicago, was...
Murder charge for Ohio deputy in Casey Goodson Jr. shootingVideo
COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio sheriff’s deputy who fatally shot Casey Goodson Jr. in the back five times was charged Thursday with murder in an encounter that led to protests and about which many questions remain, in part because it was not recorded on body or dash camera footage. An...
Confusion breaks out as GOP lawmakers defy New Jersey coronavirus mandate
TRENTON — Disorder and confusion erupted outside the New Jersey Assembly as several Republican lawmakers defied a new requirement to show proof of covid-19 vaccination or a negative test and were blocked — albeit briefly — by state troopers from entering the ornate chamber Thursday. Ahead of an expected voting...
The Pennsylvania Wilds is known for quiet, but some worry fighter jet training will disturb that
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media. Sign up for our free newsletters. HARRISBURG — A proposal that would allow military planes to fly training missions less than a quarter-mile above a section of...
New data suggests 1 in 44 U.S. children affected by autism
New autism numbers released Thursday suggest more U.S. children are being diagnosed with the developmental condition and at younger ages. In an analysis of 2018 data from nearly a dozen states, researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that among 8-year-olds, 1 in 44 had been diagnosed...
Gov. Tom Wolf adds to mounting veto tally, kills permitless-gun bill
Gov. Tom Wolf followed through on his veto threat Thursday, rejecting Republican-penned legislation to allow people to carry a firearm openly or concealed, without a permit, adding to his total for Pennsylvania’s chief executive with the most vetoes in more than four decades. Wolf, a Democrat, called the bill “dangerous.”...
With Roe in question, justices dig into private debate
WASHINGTON — Historic Supreme Court arguments over abortion behind them, the justices soon will begin the work of crafting a decision that could dramatically limit abortion rights in the United States. They will meet in private before the week ends and take an initial vote on whether to uphold Mississippi’s...
Omicron coronavirus variant found in multiple states
NEW YORK — The omicron variant of covid-19, which had been undetected in the United States before the middle of this week, had been discovered in at least five states by the end of Thursday, showing yet again how mutations of the virus can circumnavigate the globe with speed and...
Omicron and delta spell return of unpopular restrictions
PARIS — Greeks who are over age 60 and refuse coronavirus vaccinations could be hit with monthly fines of more than one-quarter of their pensions — a get-tough policy that the country’s politicians say will cost votes but save lives. In Israel, potential carriers of the new omicron variant could...
