Explainer: Is it time to get a covid-19 booster? Which one?
Millions more Americans just became eligible for covid-19 boosters, but figuring out who’s eligible and when can be confusing. And adding to the challenge is that this time around, people can choose a different brand of vaccine for that extra dose. A number of factors, including the vaccine you started...
Pfizer says covid-19 vaccine more than 90% effective in kids
Kid-size doses of Pfizer’s covid-19 vaccine appear safe and nearly 91% effective at preventing symptomatic infections in 5- to 11-year-olds, according to study details released Friday as the U.S. considers opening vaccinations to that age group. The shots could begin in early November — with the first children in line...
Sheriff says family on California hike died of extreme heat
SACRAMENTO — A Northern California family found dead on a hiking trail near the Merced River died after they overheated and ran out of drinking water on a sunny August afternoon when temperatures reached 109 degrees in the steep mountain terrain, authorities said Thursday. The deaths of Jonathan Gerrish, his...
Police: 4 killed in Washington state shooting
TACOMA, Wash. — Four people were killed in a shooting on Thursday afternoon in Tacoma, police said. The Tacoma Police Department said on Twitter at about 5:30 p.m. that two females and one male had died at the scene and that a male was taken to a hospital with life-threatening...
Sheriff: Alec Baldwin fired prop gun on movie set, killing woman
SANTA FE, N.M. — Actor Alec Baldwin fired a prop gun on the set of a Western and killed the cinematographer, officials said. The director of the movie was wounded, and authorities are investigating what happened. Halyna Hutchins, cinematographer on “Rust,” and director Joel Souza were shot Thursday in the...
Wright Brothers, wrong design: Ohio mangles license plate
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio’s debut of its new license plate failed to take off — because a banner depicted on the plate was attached to the wrong end of the Wright Brothers’ historic first plane, the Wright Flyer. The new license plate illustrates rays of sunlight beaming into the sky,...
Salmonella outbreak tied to onions sickens more than 650
NEW YORK — A salmonella outbreak tied to onions has sickened more than 650 people in 37 states, U.S. health officials said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said at least 129 people have been hospitalized. No one has died. Nearly all of the illnesses were reported in August...
FBI: Remains found in Florida park ID’d as Brian Laundrie
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The FBI on Thursday identified human remains found in a Florida nature preserve as those of Brian Laundrie, a person of interest in the death of girlfriend Gabby Petito while the couple was on a cross-country road trip. The remains, a backpack and notebook believed to...
It is ‘simply not true’ that witnesses took cellphone videos of train rape instead of calling police, district attorney says
PHILADELPHIA — The Delaware County district attorney on Thursday said it was “simply not true” that SEPTA passengers last week took cellphone videos of a man raping a woman on the train instead of deciding to intervene or call police. Jack Stollsteimer, the county’s top prosecutor, said that although one...
Covid-19 vaccine: CDC panel backs expanded booster rollout
WASHINGTON — Millions more Americans are closer to getting a covid-19 booster as influential government advisers on Thursday endorsed extra doses of all three of the nation’s vaccines — and opened the possibility of choosing a different company’s brand for that next shot. Certain people who received Pfizer vaccinations months...
House votes to hold Trump ally Steve Bannon in contemptVideo
WASHINGTON — The House voted Thursday to hold Steve Bannon, a longtime ally and aide to former President Donald Trump, in contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena from the committee investigating the violent Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection. In a rare show of bipartisanship on the House floor, the committee’s...
Judge won’t bar public from Ghislaine Maxwell jury selection
NEW YORK — A judge on Thursday rejected British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell’s bid to block the public and news media from jury selection in her New York City trial on charges she recruited teenage girls for financier Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse. U.S. District Judge Alison J. Nathan said the...
Why no tusks? Poaching tips scales of elephant evolution
WASHINGTON — A hefty set of tusks is usually an advantage for elephants, allowing them to dig for water, strip bark for food and joust with other elephants. But during episodes of intense ivory poaching, those big incisors become a liability. Now researchers have pinpointed how years of civil war...
Endangered orangutan in New Orleans expecting twinsVideo
NEW ORLEANS — A critically endangered Sumatran orangutan in New Orleans is pregnant with twins, the zoo in New Orleans announced Thursday. “We are very excited about this pregnancy,” Bob MacLean, senior veterinarian at the Audubon Zoo, said in a news release. “Twinning is extremely rare in orangutans — there...
Haiti gang leader threatens to kill kidnapped missionaries
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The leader of the 400 Mawozo gang that police say is holding 17 members of a kidnapped missionary group is seen in a video released Thursday saying he will kill them if he doesn’t get what he’s demanding. The video posted on social media shows Wilson Joseph...
U.S. blocks tomato imports from Mexican farm over labor abuses
WASHINGTON — The U.S. ordered a halt Thursday to imports of tomatoes from a Mexican farming company and its subsidiaries for what officials said was abusive treatment of workers that amounts to forced labor. Customs and Border Protection issued an order to detain shipments from Agropecuarios Tom, based in the...
California proposes new oil drilling ban near neighborhoods
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California’s oil and gas regulator on Thursday proposed that the state ban new oil drilling within 3,200 feet of schools, homes and hospitals to protect public health in what would be the nation’s largest buffer zone between oil wells and communities. It’s the latest effort by Democratic...
Fla. Gov. DeSantis to convene legislature to fight vaccine mandates
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday said he will call state lawmakers back to work early to pass legislation to combat coronavirus vaccine mandates enacted by businesses. The Republican governor didn’t specify a starting date for the special session of the GOP-controlled statehouse in November. “At the...
Expert panel takes up complicated covid booster questions
WASHINGTON — Influential government advisers are deciding Thursday how best to expand the nation’s covid-19 booster campaign, including whether and when it’s OK to “mix and match” brands for the extra dose. The advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are slated to discuss who should get extra...
John Fetterman has raised $9.3M this year in Senate bid, dwarfing Democratic and GOP rivals
John Fetterman’s campaign war chest is dwarfing the coffers of his opponents early in the race for U.S. Senate. Fetterman, Pennsylvania’s Democratic lieutenant governor and former Braddock mayor, has outraised and outspent every other candidate in the crowded field vying to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, records show. From...
U.S. unemployment claims fall to new pandemic low of 290,000
WASHINGTON — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell last week to a new low point since the pandemic erupted, evidence that layoffs are declining as companies hold onto workers. Unemployment claims dropped 6,000 to 290,000 last week, the third straight drop, the Labor Department said Thursday. That’s...
Big changes in White House ideas to pay for $2 trillion plan
SCRANTON — In an abrupt change, the White House is floating new plans to pay for parts of President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion social services and climate change package, shelving a proposed big increase in corporate tax rates though also adding a new billionaires’ tax on the investment gains of...
Rare coin made in Colonial New England could fetch $300,000
An extraordinarily rare coin with a face value of just pennies when it was minted in mid-17th century New England could sell for the equivalent of about $300,000 when it’s put up for auction in London next month. The silver one shilling coin made in Boston in 1652 — considered...
Report: Trump golf club under new criminal probe over taxes
NEW YORK — Donald Trump’s company is under criminal investigation by a district attorney in a New York City suburb into whether it misled officials to cut taxes for a golf course there, according to The New York Times. The district attorney’s office subpoenaed records from both the Trump National...
Charges unlikely for riders who saw Philadelphia train rape
PHILADELPHIA — Prosecutors pursuing the case against a man accused of raping a woman on a commuter train last week don’t anticipate charging fellow passengers for not intervening, a spokesperson for the suburban Philadelphia district attorney said. “It’s still an open investigation, but there is no expectation at this time...
