Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar says she had breast cancer, doing well
MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar announced Thursday that she has been treated for breast cancer and the treatment “went well.” Klobuchar, 61, tweeted that the cancer was found in February during a routine mammogram, and eventually she had a lumpectomy to remove the cancer. She said she completed radiation...
N. Korea, slimmed down Kim Jong Un, enjoy toned-down parade
SEOUL, South Korea — Military search dogs and goose-stepping trainers. Health workers wearing gas masks and red hazmat suits. And a slimmed down, beaming Kim Jong Un in a cream-colored business suit. The parade marking North Korea’s celebration of its 73rd anniversary was a marked departure from past militaristic displays,...
France to offer free birth control to all women up to 25
PARIS — France will offer free birth control to all women up to age 25 starting next year, the health minister announced Thursday. The measure will also include free medical visits about contraception, and will start Jan. 1, Health Minister Olivier Veran announced on France-2 television. All contraceptive methods were...
From election to covid, 9/11 conspiracies cast a long shadow
Korey Rowe served tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and returned to the U.S. in 2004 traumatized and disillusioned. His experiences overseas and nagging questions about Sept. 11, 2001 convinced him America’s leaders were lying about what happened that day and the wars that followed. The result was “Loose Change,” a...
Gen. Lee statue taken down in former Confederate capitalVideo
RICHMOND, Va. — A statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee that towered over Richmond for generations was taken down, cut into pieces and hauled away Wednesday, as the former capital of the Confederacy erased the last of the Civil War figures that once defined its most prominent thoroughfare. Hundreds of...
‘Magical thinking’: Gov. Abbott says he will ‘eliminate all rapists,’ defends Texas abortion lawVideo
AUSTIN — Gov. Greg Abbott, responding to a question about how Texas’ new abortion law would impact victims of rape and incest, said the state would employ aggressive tactics to “eliminate all rapists from the streets of Texas.” The law, which took effect last week, bans most abortions after about...
Gov. Wolf, teachers say kids are cool with masks: ‘It feels like an adult problem’Video
PHILADELPHIA — Wearing masks all day isn’t a big deal for Brooke Vaught’s 375 students. They compliment each other on their cool choices — bright colors, Batman, funky designs — they put them on, and get down to the business of learning. “We haven’t had any issues,” said Vaught, principal...
Tropical Storm Mindy makes landfall on Florida PanhandleVideo
MIAMI — A swath of the Florida Panhandle was under a tropical storm warning after Tropical Storm Mindy made landfall Wednesday night. The storm touched down over St. Vincent Island, about 10 miles west southwest of Apalachicola, according to the National Hurricane Center. BREAKING: #Mindy has formed and tropical storm...
Biden moves to oust Trump military academy board appointees
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration moved Wednesday to oust 18 allies of Donald Trump who were named to U.S. military academy boards in the final months of the Republican president’s term in office. Cathy Russell, director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office, sent letters to 18 people named to...
Police planning to reinstall Capitol fence ahead of rallyVideo
WASHINGTON — Law enforcement concerned by the prospect for violence at a rally in the nation’s capital next week are planning to reinstall protective fencing that surrounded the U.S. Capitol for months after the Jan. 6 insurrection there, according to a person familiar with the discussions. Though no specific measures...
Vermont governor saddened by claim troopers made fake vaccine cardsVideo
MONTPELIER, Vt. — Vermont Gov. Phil Scott said Wednesday he was “incredibly disappointed” by the allegations that three Vermont State Police troopers who have since resigned were involved in a scheme to create fraudulent covid-19 vaccination cards. Scott said he didn’t think the resignations, which were announced late Tuesday, were...
Some rural hospitals in West Virginia hit bed capacity as covid surgesVideo
CHARLESTON — Some hospitals in rural parts of West Virginia have reached their critical bed capacities as coronavirus cases and deaths continue to surge statewide, health officials said Wednesday. Health officials are pleading with the public to avoid unnecessary emergency room visits to allow hospitals to focus their resources on...
Pennsylvania man who chartered buses to Jan. 6 rally pleads guilty in Capitol breach caseVideo
SCRANTON — Frank Scavo, the man who organized 200 local residents to journey to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, to take part in what they hoped would be a peaceful protest against the election certification in Congress, pleaded guilty Wednesday to one charge, a low level misdemeanor, that carried a...
Judge: Florida can’t enforce ban on school mask mandates
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A Florida judge ruled Wednesday that the state cannot enforce a ban on public schools mandating the use of masks to guard against the coronavirus, while an appeals court sorts out whether the ban is ultimately legal. Leon County Circuit Judge John C. Cooper lifted an...
Nature meets nostalgia: Treehouses return in style
Anthropologists believe our ancient human ancestors spent their time in trees, so it should be no surprise we love treehouses today. Treehouses of all kinds are experiencing a renaissance. When an acre-size slice of land in Gold Hill, Colo., came on the market earlier this year, local resident Jessica Brookhart,...
Harvest Moon falls in summer this year. Is that unusual?
Harvest Moon 2021 on Sept. 20 falls in summer, which might seem as out of place as pumpkin spice latte in 90-degree weather. But it’s not really that unusual. The Harvest Moon is the full moon closest to the autumn equinox, which is the first day of fall on Sept....
Publisher to reissue Pa. Sen. Doug Mastriano’s WWI book with corrections
HARRISBURG — The academic press that published a Pennsylvania state senator’s book about World War I hero Sgt. Alvin York has asked him to review a list of factual errors and sourcing issues in the book and the press’ director said Tuesday it plans to publish a corrected version early...
Explainer: What was, and is, al-Qaida?
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Born out of the 1980s war against the Soviet Union’s occupation of Afghanistan, the terror group al-Qaida under Osama bin Laden grew into a generational threat to America that culminated in its Sept. 11, 2001, attack that brought down the World Trade Center in New...
Republicans, elections experts say Wisconsin probe is flawed
MADISON, Wis. — Former Republican officeholders and elections experts said Wednesday that the GOP-ordered investigation into the 2020 presidential election in Wisconsin lacks credibility, transparency and raises security risks and legal concerns. Former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman and Kentucky’s former secretary of state, Trey Grayson, said the ongoing...
Ethel Kennedy: RFK assassin Sirhan Sirhan shouldn’t be freed
BOSTON — Ethel Kennedy, the wife of the late Robert F. Kennedy, says assassin Sirhan Sirhan should not be released from prison, further roiling a family divide over whether the man convicted of killing her husband in California in 1968 should be freed on parole. In a brief statement released...
Report: Solar could power 40% of U.S. electricity by 2035
WASHINGTON — Solar energy has the potential to supply up to 40% of the nation’s electricity within 15 years — a 10-fold increase over current solar output, but one that would require massive changes in U.S. policy and billions of dollars in federal investment to modernize the nation’s electric grid,...
Macy’s Thanksgiving parade returns to New York City streets
NEW YORK — The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade will return to New York City’s streets this year with covid-19 protocols including a vaccination requirement for parade volunteers, Macy’s and city officials announced Wednesday. The Nov. 25 parade will be broadcast on NBC and will feature the traditional giant balloons, celebrity...
Covid surge in the U.S.: Summer of hope ends in gloom
WASHINGTON — The summer that was supposed to mark America’s independence from covid-19 is instead drawing to a close with the U.S. more firmly under the tyranny of the virus, with deaths per day back up to where they were last March. The delta variant is filling hospitals, sickening alarming...
Fires flare in Israeli prisons amid manhunt for 6 escapees
TEL AVIV, Israel — Pressure built around Israel’s prison system Wednesday after fires broke out at several facilities and the government hunted for six Palestinian escapees who have been on the run since they tunneled out two days earlier. Fires were reported at several prisons amid efforts to try to...
Fire kills 41 inmates, 80 hurt at crowded Indonesian prison
JAKARTA, Indonesia — A massive fire raged through an overcrowded prison near Indonesia’s capital early Wednesday, killing at least 41 inmates, two of them foreigners serving drug sentences, and injuring 80 others. Firefighters battled through the early morning hours to extinguish the flames as black smoke billowed from the compound...
