U.S. regulators lay out plan for over-the-counter hearing aids
Health regulators on Tuesday unveiled their proposal to allow Americans to buy hearing aids without a prescription, a long-awaited move intended to make the devices more accessible to millions of people with hearing problems. The Food and Drug Administration said the proposed rule would cut red tape that currently requires...
Manatee deaths rise in Florida as pollutants kill seagrass
Manatees have starved to death by the hundreds along Florida’s east coast because algae blooms and contaminants are killing the seagrass the beloved sea mammals eat, a wildlife official told a House committee Tuesday. Seagrass has been decimated in the 156-mile-long Indian River Lagoon and neighboring areas. The aquatic plant...
Haiti gang seeks $1M each for kidnapped U.S. missionaries
A gang that kidnapped 17 members of a U.S.-based missionary group is demanding $1 million ransom per person, although authorities are not clear whether that includes the five children being held, a top Haitian official told The Associated Press on Tuesday. The official, who wasn’t authorized to speak to the...
Health clubs want you back. Here’s what they’re offering
Health club chains are pedaling hard to woo pandemic-weary consumers back to the gym. But some of the largest companies are taking different paths as the industry waits to see whether covid-19 infection rates recede enough to make consumers feel safe to resume communal workouts. Discount chains YouFit and Planet...
Israeli scuba diver discovers ancient Crusader sword
JERUSALEM — An Israeli scuba diver has salvaged an ancient sword off the country’s Mediterranean coast that experts say dates back to the Crusades. Israel’s Antiquities Authority said Monday the man was on a weekend dive in northern Israel when he spotted a trove of ancient artifacts that included anchors,...
Rachel Levine becomes 1st openly transgender official to be named 4-star admiral
Dr. Rachel Levine is making more history. Levine, the former Pennsylvania health secretary, was ceremonially sworn in Tuesday as a four-star admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) Commissioned Corps. Levine becomes the nation’s first openly transgender four-star officer across any of the uniformed services of the United States....
Covid-19 and pregnancy: Women regret not getting the vaccine
PHENIX CITY, Ala. — Sometimes when she’s feeding her infant daughter, Amanda Harrison is overcome with emotion and has to wipe away tears of gratitude. She is lucky to be here, holding her baby. Harrison was 29 weeks pregnant and unvaccinated when she got sick with covid-19 in August. Her...
NASA turns technology back toward Earth to focus on climate change
LOS ANGELES — After decades of gazing into space, NASA is turning its technology back toward Earth to study the effects of drought, fire and climate change on the Blue Planet. At the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge last Thursday, scientists and state officials gathered to discuss how...
U.S. Homeland Security secretary tests positive for covid
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas tested positive Tuesday for covid-19 and is isolating at home, the agency said. The secretary has been fully vaccinated and is experiencing only “mild congestion,” DHS said in a statement. The agency said he will work from home under the protocols recommended by the U.S....
N. Korea confirms missile test designed for submarine launch
North Korea announced Wednesday that it had tested a newly developed missile designed to be launched from a submarine, the first such weapons test in two years and one it says will bolster its military’s underwater operational capability. The test Tuesday was the fifth missile launch since September and came...
Vaccine mix-and-match approach poised to get FDA clearance
WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration is poised to clear the use of a covid-19 booster from a different manufacturer than the one that supplied a patient’s original inoculation, according to people familiar with the matter. The FDA is still considering the scope of the measure, including whether to...
Trump files lawsuit to block release of Jan. 6 documentsVideo
WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump on Monday sought to block the release of documents related to the Jan. 6 insurrection to the congressional committee investigating the attack, challenging the decision of President Joe Biden. In a federal lawsuit, Trump said the committee request was “almost limitless in scope,” and...
Russia’s coronavirus infections over 8 million; daily deaths high
MOSCOW — Russia’s total number of coronavirus infections has topped 8 million, more than 5% of the population, and the daily infection toll hit a new record. The national coronavirus task force said Monday that 34,325 new infections over the past day raised the pandemic total to 8,027,012. It also...
Lewes beach renamed to honor former Black business owner
LEWES, Del. — An eastern Delaware town has voted to change the name of one of its Delaware Bay beaches in honor of a former Black business owner. The beach in Lewes, formerly named Beach 2, will now be called Johnnie Walker Beach after the African American business owner who...
More than 5 tons of cocaine seized from yacht in Atlantic Ocean
LISBON, Portugal — An international police operation has seized 5.73 tons of cocaine with a street value estimated at around $232 million on a yacht in the Atlantic Ocean, authorities said Monday. Portuguese police said the shipment was one of the largest hauls in Europe in recent years and the...
College towns plan to challenge results of 2020 census
Some college towns plan to challenge the results of the 2020 census, claiming they were shortchanged because the pandemic forced students to leave campuses and complaining that the undercount could cost them federal money and prestige. College communities such as State College, Pa.; Bloomington, Ind.; and Tuscaloosa, Ala., are exploring...
Week in pictures: Oct. 11-Oct. 17, 2021
Here’s a selection of images that caught our eye in the past week from Tribune-Review photographers. Previous weeks Week in pictures: Oct. 4-Oct. 10, 2021 Week in pictures: Sept. 28-Oct. 3, 2021...
Biden team asks Supreme Court to pause Texas abortion law
The Biden administration is asking the Supreme Court to block the Texas law banning most abortions, while the fight over the measure’s constitutionality plays out in the courts. The law has been in effect since September, aside from a district court-ordered pause that lasted just 48 hours, and bans abortions...
Removing the %&*@ from Maine’s vanity plates will take time
Removing the flipping obscenities from license plates on Maine’s roads and highways isn’t going to happen overnight, even though a law banning such profanities in a state where such regulation has been unusually lax goes into effect Monday. Currently, there are license plates with salty language including f-bombs, references to...
EPA unveils strategy to regulate toxic ‘forever chemicals’Video
The Biden administration is launching a broad strategy to regulate toxic industrial compounds associated with serious health conditions that are used in products ranging from cookware to carpets and firefighting foams. Michael Regan, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, said it is taking a series of actions to limit...
Why covid boosters weren’t tweaked to better match variants
More covid-19 booster shots may be on the way — but when it’s your turn, you’ll get an extra dose of the original vaccine, not one updated to better match the extra-contagious delta variant. And that has some experts wondering if the booster campaign is a bit of a missed...
Colin Powell dies, exemplary general stained by Iraq claims
WASHINGTON — Colin Powell, who served Democratic and Republican presidents in war and peace but whose sterling reputation was forever stained by his faulty claims to justify the U.S. war in Iraq, died Monday of covid-19 complications. He was 84. A veteran of the Vietnam War, Powell rose to the...
Jury selection to start in trial over Ahmaud Arbery’s death
BRUNSWICK, Ga. — As jury selection got slowly underway Monday in the trial of three white men charged with fatally shooting Ahmaud Arbery as he was running in their Georgia neighborhood, potential jurors said they came in with negative feelings about the case and worried about the personal consequences of...
Coast Guard: 1,200-foot ship dragged California oil pipeline
Investigators believe a 1,200-foot cargo ship dragging anchor in rough seas caught an underwater oil pipeline and pulled it across the seafloor, months before a leak from the line fouled the Southern California coastline with crude. A team of federal investigators trying to chase down the cause of the spill...
4 shot, 2 others injured during Lancaster mall shootingVideo
Six people were injured during the shooting and immediate aftermath at a Lancaster mall on Sunday afternoon, according to police. Lancaster city officers are still investigating the shooting that occurred at Park City Center mall around 2:30 p.m. According to an update on Sunday evening, the shooting stemmed from a...
