South Carolina county GOP leader who railed against mask requirements dies from covid-19
GREENVILLE, S.C. — A tea party Republican who recently helped turn over the party leadership in South Carolina’s largest county has died from complications of covid-19. Pressley Stutts died Thursday, according to party leaders and his family. The U.S. Navy veteran was 64. Over the summer, Stutts led a group...
Texas Supreme Court declines to hold up mask mandate ban
The Texas Supreme Court declined Thursday to block restraining orders against Gov. Greg Abbott’s mask mandate ban. The justices remanded Attorney General Ken Paxton’s appeal to the 3rd Texas Court of Appeal in Austin for a hearing. The court did not issue an opinion for its decision. The move came...
Judge won’t dismiss suit on Florida school mask mandate ban
FORT LAUDERDALE — A Florida judge on Thursday refused to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the order by Gov. Ron DeSantis that parents should decide whether their children wear masks at school to combat the coronavirus. The order by Leon County Circuit Judge John C. Cooper clears the way for a...
3 U.S. senators test positive for covid in breakthrough cases
WASHINGTON — Three senators said Thursday they have tested positive for covid-19 despite being vaccinated, a high-profile collection of breakthrough cases that comes as the highly infectious delta variant spreads rapidly across the United States. Sens. Angus King, I-Maine, Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., said they have tested...
ICU beds full at most metropolitan Tennessee hospitals
NASHVILLE — Tennessee hospitals warned Thursday that the intensive care units are full in nearly every hospital in the state’s major metropolitan areas, pleading with Tennesseans to get vaccinated and wear masks while not going so far as to criticize Gov. Bill Lee’s executive order allowing parents to opt their...
Casey calls for calm in the wake of the withdrawal from Afghanistan
Calling the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan a painful spectacle, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Scranton, is calling on Americans to turn down the blame game and concentrate on assisting those trying to escape the Taliban. Casey said his office alone logged 280 calls about the collapse of Afghanistan as of Wednesday...
Afghanistan war unpopular amid chaotic pullout: AP-NORC poll
WASHINGTON — A significant majority of Americans doubt that the war in Afghanistan was worthwhile, even as the United States is more divided over President Joe Biden’s handling of foreign policy and national security, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Roughly two-thirds said...
U.S. Sen. Bob Casey pitches infrastructure, services for the elderly and children
The bipartisan infrastructure bill pending in the U.S. House likely will become law by mid-October, predicts U.S. Sen. Bob Casey. The Scranton Democrat, on the road in Pennsylvania during the August congressional break, on Thursday told Tribune-Review editors and reporters the bipartisan $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that already passed the...
Man accused of shooting Yardley police chief facing several chargesVideo
YARDLEY — A man accused of shooting a suburban Philadelphia borough police chief during a confrontation at a condominium complex has been charged with attempted murder. Colin Petroziello, 24, also faces aggravated assault and related charges stemming from Wednesday’s incident at the Yardley Commons complex. He was arraigned Wednesday night...
Record delta wave hits kids, raises fear as nation’s schools open
The day before he was supposed to start fourth grade, Francisco Rosales was admitted to a Dallas hospital with covid-19, struggling to breathe, with dangerously low oxygen levels and an uncertain outcome. It wasn’t supposed to be like this, thought his frightened mother, Yessica Gonzalez. Francisco was normally healthy and...
Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert discloses husband’s work for energy firm
DENVER — Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert’s husband made $478,000 last year working as a consultant for an energy firm, information that was not disclosed during Boebert’s congressional campaign and only reported in her financial disclosure forms filed this week. In paperwork filed with the House of Representatives on Tuesday, the...
Kind acts accentuated slain Chicago officer’s brief careerVideo
CHICAGO — A Chicago police officer who was fatally shot during a routine traffic stop was remembered Thursday for a brief career marked by compassion; for her fellow officers, a one-year-old gunshot victim she sped to a hospital, and the stray dogs she ferried to an animal shelter in her...
2 dead, 20 missing in North Carolina county flooded by Fred
RALEIGH, N.C. — Authorities combing areas of North Carolina flooded by the remnants of Tropical Storm Fred said Thursday that two people have been found dead and about 20 were unaccounted for. Meanwhile, Fred — now a post-tropical cyclone — was pushing through New York and New England with drenching...
GOP senator’s plan to issue Pennsylvania election subpoenas ‘stopped’
HARRISBURG — A backer of former President Donald Trump’s effort to carry out an Arizona-style “forensic investigation” of Pennsylvania’s 2020 presidential election suggested Thursday that fellow Republicans in the state Senate are blocking his efforts. In a video posted Thursday on Facebook, state Sen. Doug Mastriano did not name names,...
Franklin Regional prepares to open doors to new primary, intermediate elementary schoolsVideo
Teacher, administrator and staff comments about Franklin Regional’s new elementary campus largely center around a similar theme: possibilities. From new large-group instruction areas to creative media centers to little “pocket” areas where small groups can meet, collaborate or receive additional learning support, new educational opportunities are scattered throughout both the...
U.S. to erase student debt for those with severe disabilities
The Biden administration announced Thursday it will automatically erase student loan debt for more than 300,000 Americans with severe disabilities that leave them unable to earn significant incomes. The move will wipe out more than $5.8 billion in debt, according to the Education Department, and it marks the start of...
Man surrenders after claiming to have bomb near CapitolVideo
WASHINGTON — A man who claimed to have a bomb in a pickup truck near the Capitol surrendered to law enforcement after an hourslong standoff Thursday that prompted a massive police response and the evacuations of government buildings and businesses in the area. Police did not immediately know whether there...
Biden was not handcuffed by Trump’s Taliban deal
WASHINGTON — As President Donald Trump’s administration signed a peace deal with the Taliban in February 2020, he optimistically proclaimed that “we think we’ll be successful in the end.” His secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, asserted that the administration was “seizing the best opportunity for peace in a generation.” Eighteen...
Appeals court upholds Texas law to ban abortion procedure
NEW ORLEANS — A Texas law outlawing an abortion method commonly used to end second-trimester pregnancies was upheld Wednesday by a federal appeals court in New Orleans. The 2017 law in question has never been enforced. It seeks to prohibit the use of forceps to remove a fetus from the...
German on trial for killing 5, injuring 18 in car rampage
BERLIN — A 51-year-old man has gone on trial in Germany for a vehicle rampage that killed five people in the western city of Trier last year. The defendant, a local resident identified only as Bernd W. due to German privacy laws, was indicted on five counts of murder and...
How AI-powered tech landed man in jail with scant evidence
CHICAGO — Michael Williams’ wife pleaded with him to remember their fishing trips with the grandchildren, how he used to braid her hair, anything to jar him back to his world outside the concrete walls of Cook County Jail. His three daily calls to her had become a lifeline, but...
Gulf Coast’s beloved ‘Redneck Riviera’ now a virus hotspot
GULF SHORES, Ala. — Tourists and servers alike dance atop tables and in the aisles at one restaurant on the “Redneck Riviera,” a beloved stretch of towns along the northern Gulf Coast where beaches, bars and stores are packed. Yet just a few miles away, a hospital is running out...
Afghans protest Taliban in emerging challenge to their rule
KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghan protesters defied the Taliban for a second day Thursday, waving their national flag in scattered demonstrations that were met with renewed violence by the militants who are facing growing challenges to their rule. A U.N. official warned of dire food shortages in this nation of 38...
Oregon hospitals near breaking point as covid-19 surges
PORTLAND, Ore. — Just 41 intensive care unit beds were available in Oregon on Wednesday as covid-19 cases continue to climb and hospitals near capacity in a state that was once viewed as a pandemic success story. Oregon, which earlier had among the lowest cases per capita, is now shattering...
Authorities: Woman, granddaughter dead in shooting at Indiana automotive plant
FRANKFORT, Ind. — A woman and her granddaughter were fatally shot Wednesday when a gunman opened fire outside a central Indiana automotive plant where the women worked, the Clinton County Sheriff’s Office said. The shooting happened around 4:15 p.m. during a shift change in the parking lot of the NHK...
