Historic Coretta Scott home where she wed MLK now forgotten
MARION, Ala. — Bullet holes pock a rusted mailbox outside the vacant home where Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott were married in 1953. Part of the old wooden structure has collapsed, as have nearby utility buildings. Most anyplace connected to the best-known voice of the civil rights movement...
CDC proposes softer guidance on opioid prescriptions
NEW YORK — The nation’s top public health agency on Thursday proposed changing — and in some instances, softening — guidelines for U.S. doctors prescribing oxycodone and other opioid painkillers. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s previous guidance, issued six years ago, helped slow the kind of prescribing that...
Fatal fires in St. Louis, Baltimore expose vacant home risks
ST. LOUIS — Thick smoke billowed from the vacant, crumbling St. Louis house, but Benjamin Polson knew homeless people might be inside taking refuge from the January chill. So the 33-year-old firefighter went in. It cost him his life. Eleven days later, three Baltimore firefighters died when an abandoned row...
Prince Charles isolating after testing positive for covid
LONDON — Britain’s Prince Charles has tested positive for covid-19 and is self-isolating, his office said Thursday. A message on his official Twitter page said Charles tested positive on Thursday morning and was “deeply disappointed” not to be able to attend a scheduled visit in the city of Winchester in...
Congressional stock trading overhaul gains tractionVideo
WASHINGTON — Advocates for tightening the rules on stock trading among members of Congress gained steam Wednesday with the announcement of a fresh bipartisan Senate bill and Speaker Nancy Pelosi expressing an appetite for changes. But whether lawmakers will be prohibited from trading individual company stocks is still unclear. “I’m...
Report: Archives asks Justice Department to probe Trump record handling
WASHINGTON — The Washington Post reported Wednesday that the National Archives and Records Administration has asked the Justice Department to investigate whether former President Donald Trump violated federal law in the handling of documents. The Associated Press was unable to independently confirm the report. The referral followed several Post stories...
Report: Rudy Giuliani demanded Michigan prosecutor hand over voting machines
Rudy Giuliani reportedly called a Michigan prosecutor in the weeks after the 2020 presidential election to demand he seize voting machines from a county that became the unlikely focus of former President Donald Trump’s campaign to overturn his election loss. The presidential lawyer sought to get Antrim County Prosecuting Attorney...
Democratic, GOP bargainers reach budget deal, 4 months lateVideo
WASHINGTON — Democrats and Republicans finally agreed on a framework for overall defense and domestic spending for this year, top lawmakers said Wednesday, opening the door to work on bills detailing how the government will spend well above $1 trillion on everything from Army tanks to veterans hospitals. House and...
Colorado mom gets 16 years in prison for abusing daughter, 7, to death
DENVER — A Colorado mother who fatally abused her 7-year-old daughter and lied about her health to get handouts from charities worth at least $100,000 was sentenced Wednesday to 16 years in prison. Judge Patricia Herron issued the sentence after Kelly Turner pled guilty in an agreement with prosecutors last...
Pennsylvania Supreme Court puts hold on primary petition gathering
HARRISBURG — The period for candidates and their supporters to circulate petitions to qualify for Pennsylvania’s May 17 primary election was put on temporary hold Wednesday by the state Supreme Court. The justices issued an order that applies to all races — congressional and legislative contests, as well as U.S....
Jan. 6 committee subpoenas ex-Trump adviser Peter Navarro
WASHINGTON — The House committee investigating the U.S. Capitol insurrection subpoenaed former White House trade adviser Peter Navarro on Wednesday, seeking to question an ally of former President Donald Trump who promoted false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election. The committee is demanding information and testimony from Navarro,...
Jewish student reprimanded for revealing Nazi salute in Alabama schoolVideo
MOUNTAIN BROOK, Ala. — A Jewish high school student said he couldn’t believe what was going on when a history teacher in a wealthy Alabama school system had classmates stand and give a stiff-armed Nazi salute during a lesson on the way symbols change. Once he shared a video and...
Feds say no taxpayer money for safer drug-smoking pipes
WASHINGTON — Following outrage on the political right, the Biden administration said Wednesday that a grant program to help prevent additional harm to people who use illicit drugs will not pay for safer pipes to smoke crack or meth. “No federal funding will be used directly or through subsequent reimbursement...
Capitol rioter draped in Confederate flag pleads guilty
COLLEGE PARK, Md. — A Maryland man who was draped in a Confederate flag when he stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to joining the attack as a mob disrupted Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s election as president. Matthew Ryan Miller, 23, sprayed a...
E-scooter bill would clear way for more Pennsylvania cities to join Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh last year became the first city in Pennsylvania to legalize low-speed electric scooters and, as part of a two-year pilot, Spin e-scooters became available to rent for use on city streets. Now, a bill moving through the state Senate would allow select Pennsylvania cities, including Greensburg and New Kensington,...
Ukraine-Russia crisis: What to know about the fears of war
BRUSSELS — High-stakes diplomacy and military maneuvering continued Wednesday as Britain launched its own diplomatic effort to help avert a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine. No breakthrough in peace talks between Ukraine and Russia is in sight so far, and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s intentions remain as opaque as ever....
Canadian provinces lift covid restrictions, protests remain
TORONTO — A rapidly growing list of Canadian provinces moved to lift their covid-19 restrictions as protesters decrying virus precautions kept up the pressure with truck blockades Wednesday in the capital and at key U.S. border crossings, including the economically vital bridge to Detroit. Alberta, Saskatchewan, Quebec and Prince Edward...
As even Dem states ease, Biden begins rethinking covid rules
WASHINGTON — With even Democratic states moving to roll back mask mandates, the White House said Wednesday it is beginning to prepare for a less-restrictive phase of the national covid response amid growing impatience to ease up and turn toward post-pandemic normalcy. White House covid-19 coordinator Jeff Zients said officials...
Capitol Police denies baseless claim its officers spy on GOP
WASHINGTON — A year after the Jan. 6 insurrection, U.S. Capitol Police officers are facing increasingly heated and baseless allegations from House Republicans that the department’s officers are operating as politically driven spies. The rhetoric is complicating the force’s effort to win back public confidence. The latest tumult occurred Tuesday,...
Ex-candidate sentenced to year in prison for death threats
DOVER, Del. — A former Delaware political candidate who unsuccessfully sought the Republican nominations for governor and U.S. Senate has been sentenced to a year in prison after pleading guilty to federal charges of mailing threats to a lawyer who represented his wife in a divorce case. Michael Protack was...
Tens of thousands of bees stolen from grocery store’s central Pa. headquarters
The Giant Company has put out an alert to other beekeepers in the region after the recent theft of three beehives and their colonies from their corporate headquarters. The hives contained colonies of approximately 60,000 bees, and were taken from the company’s headquarters on the Harrisburg Pike in Carlisle some...
1 juror dismissed from federal trial in George Floyd killing
ST. PAUL, Minn. — The judge overseeing the federal trial of three former officers charged with violating George Floyd’s civil rights dismissed a juror Wednesday because his son is ill. U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson replaced the juror in the trial of J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao...
Christian revival at school prompts student walkout in W.Va.
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Between calculus and European history classes at a West Virginia public high school, 16-year-old Cameron Mays and his classmates were told by their teacher to go to an evangelical Christian revival assembly. When students arrived at the event in the school’s auditorium, they were instructed to close...
Sweden ends covid testing as pandemic restrictions lifted
STOCKHOLM — Sweden has halted wide-scale testing for covid-19 even among people showing symptoms of an infection, putting an end to the mobile city-square tent sites, drive-in swab centers and home-delivered tests that became ubiquitous during the pandemic and provided essential data for tracking its spread. The move puts the...
Denmark’s queen and Spain’s king test positive for coronavirus
COPENHAGEN, Denmark — The queen of Denmark and the king of Spain both tested positive for the coronavirus despite being vaccinated, their respective royal houses announced Wednesday. Denmark’s Queen Margrethe, 82, has mild covid-19 symptoms and has isolated herself in the Copenhagen palace where she lives, the palace said. Margrethe...
