How 9/11 changed air travel: more security, less privacyVideo
DALLAS — Ask anyone old enough to remember travel before Sept. 11, 2001, and you’re likely to get a gauzy recollection of what flying was like. There was security screening, but it wasn’t anywhere near as intrusive. There were no long checkpoint lines. Passengers and their families could walk right...
Overwhelmed morgues belie U.S. illusion of a defanged pandemicVideo
The fast-spreading delta variant has flooded hospitals across the South. It’s killed more people in Florida and Louisiana than the darkest days of the pandemic winter, and left so many covid-19 patients gasping for breath that some places face shortages of medical oxygen. This harsh reality, likely fueled by a...
The coming crisis in dementia care and why Pa. is woefully unprepared
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. Pat Loughney was sleep-deprived and panicked as he dug a partially eaten bar of medicated soap from his wife’s mouth in...
First responders nationwide resist covid vaccine mandates
March 11, 2021. It was supposed to be a turning point in the coronavirus pandemic for Erin Tokley, a longtime Philadelphia police officer, Baptist minister and 47-year-old father of three. It was supposed to be the day of his vaccine appointment. Instead it was the date of his funeral. Tokley...
Ex-Marine held without bond in shooting of Florida family
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A former Marine sharpshooter who told authorities he was high on methamphetamines when he invaded a home in Florida and fatally shot a mother, her 3-month-old baby and two others was ordered held without bond during his first court appearance on Monday. Bryan Riley, 33, also...
After unrelenting summer, Biden looks to get agenda on track
WASHINGTON — The collapse of the Afghan government, a surge of covid-19 cases caused by the delta variant, devastating weather events, a disappointing jobs report. What next? After a torrent of crises, President Joe Biden is hoping to turn the page on an unrelenting summer and refocus his presidency this...
Taliban say they took Panjshir, last holdout Afghan province
KABUL, Afghanistan — The Taliban said on Monday they have taken control of Panjshir province north of Kabul, the last holdout of anti-Taliban forces in the country and the only province the Taliban had not seized during their blitz across Afghanistan last month. Thousands of Taliban fighters overran eight districts...
Belarus court gives opposition activists lengthy sentences
KYIV, Ukraine — A court in Belarus on Monday sentenced two leading opposition activists to lengthy prison terms, the latest move in the relentless crackdown that Belarusian authorities have unleashed on dissent in the wake of last year’s anti-government protests. Maria Kolesnikova, a top member of the opposition Coordination Council,...
How 9/11 changed air travel: more security, less privacy
DALLAS — Ask anyone old enough to remember travel before Sept. 11, 2001, and you’re likely to get a gauzy recollection of what flying was like. There was security screening, but it wasn’t anywhere near as intrusive. There were no long checkpoint lines. Passengers and their families could walk right...
Minnesota State Patrol destroyed texts, emails after riot response
Minnesota State Patrol officers conducted a mass purge of emails and text messages immediately after their response to riots last summer, leaving holes in the paper trail as the courts and other investigators attempt to reconstruct whether law enforcement used improper force in the chaos following George Floyd’s murder. In...
Hurricane Ida shows need for big infrastructure spending, White House adviser says
The devastation caused by Hurricane Ida shows the need for President Joe Biden’s sweeping infrastructure plans, a top White House aide said on Sunday. The sweeping $3.5 trillion infrastructure package being finalized by Democratic lawmakers will make critical investments in building resilience, shoring up the nation’s power grid and battling...
Divers identify broken pipeline as source of Gulf oil spill in wake of Ida
WASHINGTON — Divers at the site of an ongoing oil spill that appeared in the Gulf of Mexico after Hurricane Ida have identified the apparent source as 1-foot diameter pipeline displaced from a trench on the ocean floor and broken open. Talos Energy, the Houston-based company currently paying for the...
South Lake Tahoe residents can return as fire threat eases
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. — Tens of thousands of people forced to flee South Lake Tahoe could begin returning to their homes after evacuation orders were downgraded to warnings Sunday afternoon as crews made progress against a massive wildfire. The orders that sent 22,000 people in and around the resort...
Hurricane Larry’s top winds reach 125 mph
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Hurricane Larry is expected to approach Bermuda at major hurricane strength, bringing the threat of winds, rain and coastal flooding to the island, as well as “dangerous and life-threatening” rip currents and swells to the U.S. East Coast, according to the National Hurricane Center. Larry’s top...
Search resumes for 2 missing after car swept away in storm
PASSAIC, N.J. — As residents and businesses across New Jersey spent the holiday weekend trying to clean up damage from last week’s storm, rescue workers resumed the search for two friends whose car was caught up in the floodwaters. Nidhi Rana, 18, and Ayush Rana, 21, were last seen Wednesday...
48 people shot over 37 hours in Chicago
CHICAGO — At least 10 children and teenagers were among the 48 shot in Chicago over the weekend through Sunday morning, according to information provided by police. The youngest child shot was a 4-year-old boy who was in critical condition after gunfire from outside went through the window of his...
A hurricane-hardened city coping ‘the New Orleans way’
NEW ORLEANS — Shrimp and grits served for breakfast on the sidewalk at El Pavo Real. “Super Secret” seasoned pork and braised greens handed out at the door of the Live Oak Café. Spicy jambalaya dished out under a canopy erected on the empty sun-scorched streetcar tracks by a couple...
Fauci says covid-19 boosters likely to start with Pfizer shot only
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser said U.S. booster shots against covid-19 are likely to start only with the vaccine by Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE, while the Moderna Inc. shot may be delayed. “The bottom line is very likely at least part of the plan will be...
Hospitals in crisis in least vaccinated state: Mississippi
JACKSON, Miss. — As patients stream into Mississippi hospitals one after another, doctors and nurses have become all too accustomed to the rampant denial and misinformation about covid-19 in the nation’s least vaccinated state. People in denial about the severity of their own illness or the virus itself, with visitors...
7 people hurt when gunman opens fire in near University of Georgia
ATHENS, Ga. — Seven people were injured in Georgia when a man with a gun opened fired into a crowd of people, police said. The shooting happened in downtown Athens at around 2 a.m. Sunday after a large fight broke out, Athens-Clarke County police said. “Seven individuals were injured as...
Florida gunman kills 4, including mom still holding baby
A man wearing full body armor fatally shot four people, including a mother and the 3-month-old baby she was cradling, and engaged in a massive gunfight with police and deputies before he was wounded and surrendered in Lakeland, Florida, a sheriff said Sunday. An 11-year-old girl who was shot seven...
2 anchors of covid safety net ending, affecting millions
WASHINGTON — Mary Taboniar went 15 months without a paycheck, thanks to the covid pandemic. A housekeeper at the Hilton Hawaiian Village resort in Honolulu, the single mother of two saw her income completely vanish as the virus devastated the hospitality industry. For more than a year, Taboniar depended entirely...
Taliban resume some flights, press assault on final holdout
KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers resumed some domestic passenger flights to and from Kabul on Sunday, as the religious militia’s fighters stepped up an assault on the last remaining pocket of resistance being led by fighters opposed to their rule. The anti-Taliban fighters in Panjshir province, north of the...
Army colonel on Guinean TV says government dissolved, borders shut
CONAKRY, Guinea — A Guinean army colonel seized control of state television Sunday and declared that President Alpha Conde’s government had been dissolved in the West African nation, an announcement that came after hours of heavy gunfire near the presidential palace. The dramatic developments Sunday bore all the hallmarks of...
Origin story of the Texas law that could upend Roe v. Wade
The road to a Texas law that bans most abortions in the state, sidestepping for now the Supreme Court’s landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, began in a town called Waskom, population 1,600. The Supreme Court’s decision this past week not to interfere with the state’s strict abortion law, provoked...
