Inmate who sued for gender surgery seeks $2.8M in legal fees
BOISE, Idaho — A former Idaho inmate who became the first person to receive court-ordered gender confirmation surgery after suing the state Department of Correction is asking a judge to order the state to pay more than $2.8 million in attorney fees and other costs associated with the case. The...
Pennsylvania court throws out state’s school mask mandate
Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court ruled Wednesday that the state’s acting health secretary did not have authority to issue a mandatory school mask mandate at the beginning of this academic year. In a 31-page opinion, the court found that because there was no emergency declaration in place governing covid-19 in Pennsylvania at...
Pandemic adds stress to already strained rural fire departments
Over the past 30 years, fire departments in both urban and rural areas have struggled to recruit new firefighters into a profession that’s more than half volunteers. In rural America, the pandemic has brought the crisis to a new apex. Rural firefighters have been on the front lines of the...
U.S. presses Russia over troop buildup along Ukraine border
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is stepping up pressure on Russia over a buildup of troops along its frontier with Ukraine. As Secretary of State Antony Blinken prepared to meet his Ukrainian counterpart in Washington on Wednesday, the top U.S. diplomat for Europe said the administration is watching the border...
White House: About 900,000 kids got covid shots in 1st week
WASHINGTON — About 900,000 kids ages 5 to 11 will have received their first dose of the covid-19 vaccine in their first week of eligibility, the White House said Wednesday, providing the first glimpse at the pace of the school-aged vaccination campaign. Final clearance for the shots was granted by...
Taliban urge ex-Afghan military pilots to stay, serve nation
ISLAMABAD — A top Taliban official on Wednesday urged former Afghan military pilots to remain in the country, saying they were protected by a national amnesty and would not face arrest. Government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid’s assurances came after dozens of U.S.-trained Afghan pilots left Tajikistan in a U.S.-brokered evacuation Tuesday,...
Alabama boy named world’s most premature infant to survive
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — An Alabama boy who weighed less than a pound at birth after his mother went into labor at only 21 weeks and one day of gestation has been certified as the world’s most premature baby to survive. Guinness World Records and UAB Hospital announced Wednesday that Curtis...
GOP state Sen. Jake Corman to run for governor
HARRISBURG — Jake Corman, the ranking Republican in Pennsylvania’s state Senate, will run for governor in next year’s election, a political adviser said Wednesday, entering a huge and wide-open GOP field of candidates that is unlike anything party officials have seen in at least decades. For weeks, Corman has been...
Father gets 28 years for leaving girl to die in burning car
SPARTANBURG, S.C. — A South Carolina man who left his 19-month-old daughter to die in a burning car during a police chase was given 28 years in prison after pleading guilty. Imhotep O. Norman of Spartanburg was sentenced Tuesday, according to the office of 7th Circuit Solicitor Barry Barnette. News...
Prince Harry says he warned Twitter CEO of U.S. Capitol riot
LONDON — Britain’s Prince Harry has sharply attacked the failure of social media companies to challenge hate online, revealing that he warned the chief executive of Twitter ahead of the Jan. 6 Capitol riots that the site was being used to stage political unrest. Harry made the comments Tuesday in...
Pennsylvania Senate backs bill to allow guns to be carried without permit
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s state Senate on Tuesday approved two veto-bound firearms bills, including one to allow people to carry a loaded gun openly or concealed, without a permit, and another to punish municipalities that impose firearms ordinances that are stricter than state law. Despite a certain veto from Gov. Tom...
Judge refuses Trump request to block Jan. 6 records
WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Tuesday rejected former President Donald Trump’s request to block the release of documents to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan declined to issue a preliminary injunction sought by Trump’s lawyers. Chutkan said President Joe Biden was...
Wind storm: Thousands without power in Washington stateVideo
SEATTLE — More than 64,000 customers were without power Tuesday morning in Washington state as strong winds and rain blew through the Northwest. The Seattle Times reports the number of customers without power throughout Washington fluctuated Tuesday afternoon because of multiple large outages. As of 5:15 p.m., 12,024 outages were...
Montana soldier is 1st female Army sniper course graduate
FORT HARRISON, Mont. — A Montana soldier is the first woman to graduate from the U.S. Army’s sniper course, the Montana National Guard announced. “We are extremely proud of this soldier’s achievement and recognize that this is a milestone for not only Montana, but the entire National Guard and Army,”...
Oklahoma court overturns $465M opioid ruling against J&J
OKLAHOMA CITY — The Oklahoma Supreme Court on Tuesday overturned a $465 million opioid ruling against drugmaker Johnson & Johnson, finding that a lower court wrongly interpreted the state’s public nuisance law in the first case of its kind in the United States to go to trial. The ruling was...
White House rushes with infrastructure fixes for economy
BALTIMORE — The Biden administration is relying on infrastructure dollars to help fix the clogged ports and blanket the nation with internet access — but a series of initiatives rolled out on Tuesday show that the urgent pace might not be fast enough to address the immediate needs of an...
GOP Rep. Fred Upton receives death threats after backing public works billVideo
WASHINGTON — Republican U.S. Rep. Fred Upton said he has received well over 1,000 calls including multiple “nasty” death threats since the Michigan congressman voted for a bipartisan infrastructure bill that he helped write with GOP and Democratic colleagues earlier this year. More than 90% of the calls are coming...
Top Pa. House Republican wants to greatly expand lawmakers’ power over governor, executive branch
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 — The top Republican in the state House wants to give the legislature the ability to block regulations or administrative...
GOP Rep. Paul Gosar under fire for anime attacking Alexandria Ocasio-CortezVideo
PHOENIX — Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar was facing criticism after he tweeted a video that included altered animation showing him striking Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez with a sword. In a tweet Monday night, Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., referred to Gosar as “a creepy member I work with” and said he “shared a fantasy...
House Jan. 6 panel subpoenas 10 former White House aides
WASHINGTON — House investigators have issued subpoenas to 10 more former officials who worked for Donald Trump at the end of his presidency, an effort to find out more about what the president was doing and saying as his supporters violently stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 in a...
Pfizer asks FDA to OK covid-19 booster shots for all adults
Pfizer asked U.S. regulators Tuesday to allow boosters of its covid-19 vaccine for anyone 18 or older, a step that comes amid concern about increased spread of the coronavirus with holiday travel and gatherings. Older Americans and other groups particularly vulnerable to the virus have had access to a third...
5 things to know about potential expansion of booster shots
Pfizer on Tuesday asked the Food and Drug Administration to give the go-ahead on covid-19 booster shots for anyone 18 or older. According to the Associated Press, the company is submitting early results of a 10,000-person booster study to back up its request. The study suggested a booster shot could...
Police: Defendant changed story on why he suspected Arbery
BRUNSWICK, Ga. — The man who initiated the chase that ended in Ahmaud Arbery’s death quickly changed his story about why he suspected the 25-year-old Black man running in his neighborhood was a criminal, two police officers testified Tuesday. Glynn County police Officer Jeff Brandeberry told a jury that Greg...
Week in pictures: Nov. 1-7, 2021
A selection of the best photos from Tribune-Review photographers from around the region the week of Nov. 1-7. Previous weeks Week in pictures: Oct. 25-31, 2021 Week in pictures: Oct. 18-24, 2021 Week in pictures: Oct. 11-17, 2021 Week in pictures: Oct. 4-Oct. 10, 2021 Week in pictures: Sept. 28-Oct....
Rittenhouse trial highlights rise of livestreamed video
When Andrew Mercado found himself in the middle of a protest following George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis last year, he was just figuring out how to livestream on Facebook. A few months later, though, thousands watched as he streamed footage from the Wisconsin streets where Kyle Rittenhouse shot three people....
