Judge denies Chicago workers’ bid to halt vaccine mandate
A federal judge on Friday denied a motion by 130 Chicago firefighters and other city employees to temporarily halt enforcement of the city’s requirement that all its workers report whether they’ve received the covid-19 vaccination or risk being put on no-pay status. During an hourlong hearing, U.S. District Judge John...
A full guide to Pa.’s Supreme Court election and other appellate judicial races
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. HARRISBURG — On Tuesday, voters statewide will have the opportunity to choose a new justice for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, as...
Lawyer: Prince Andrew never sexually assaulted American
NEW YORK — Lawyers for Prince Andrew asked a New York judge Friday to throw out a lawsuit accusing the prince of sexually abusing an American when she was 17, saying the prince “never sexually abused or assaulted” the plaintiff. In papers filed in Manhattan federal court, an attorney for...
Michigan governor vetoes stricter voter ID, election bills
LANSING, Mich. — As promised, Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Friday vetoed Republican-sponsored legislation that would toughen in-person voter identification rules and require people to include additional information such as their driver’s license number on absentee ballot applications. The governor said the bills would disproportionately hurt minority voters who are...
Supreme Court declines to block Maine vaccine mandate
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has rejected an emergency appeal from health care workers in Maine to block a vaccine mandate that went into effect Friday. Three conservative justices noted their dissents. The state is not offering a religious exemption to hospital and nursing home workers who risk losing their...
FDA paves way for Pfizer covid-19 vaccinations in young kids
WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration on Friday paved the way for children ages 5 to 11 to get Pfizer’s covid-19 vaccine. The FDA cleared kid-size doses — just one-third of the amount given to teens and adults — for emergency use, and up to 28 million more American...
Biden at Vatican to talk climate, poverty with Pope Francis
VATICAN CITY — Declaring it’s “good to be back,” President Joe Biden on Friday opened a five-day European trip at the Vatican, where he and Pope Francis — the world’s two most prominent Roman Catholics — planned to discuss the covid-19 pandemic, climate change and poverty. A dozen Swiss Guards...
New York City braces for fewer cops, more trash as vaccine deadline looms
NEW YORK — Mounting trash. Closed firehouses. Fewer police and ambulances on the street. That’s the possibility New York City is bracing for come Monday as a covid-19 vaccine mandate looms and thousands of municipal workers remain unwilling to get the shots. Police officers, firefighters, garbage collectors and most other...
Legal experts see strong self-defense claim for Kyle Rittenhouse in Kenosha shootings
When Kyle Rittenhouse goes on trial Monday for shooting three men during street protests in Wisconsin that followed the police shooting of Jacob Blake last summer, he’ll argue that he fired in self-defense. Legal experts say under Wisconsin law he has a strong case. What’s less clear is whether prosecutors...
Virginia Beach confronts inescapable costs of rising seas
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Voters in the sprawling coastal city of Virginia Beach will decide whether to approve one of the larger municipal bonds in the U.S. that would be used to protect against rising seas and intensifying hurricanes. If it passes Tuesday, the $568 million would fund anything from...
‘Everything is at stake’ as world gathers for climate talks
More than one world leader says humanity’s future, even survival, hangs in the balance when international officials meet in Scotland to try to accelerate efforts to curb climate change. Temperatures, tempers and hyperbole have all ratcheted up ahead of the United Nations summit. And the risk of failure looms large...
Despite transparency vows, much of Pa.’s redistricting still takes place behind closed doors
This article is part of a yearlong reporting project focused on redistricting and gerrymandering in Pennsylvania. It is made possible by the support of Spotlight PA members and Votebeat, a project focused on election integrity and voting access. HARRISBURG — This year’s monumental redrawing of Pennsylvania’s political maps was preceded...
North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr under investigation again for pandemic stock sales
WASHINGTON — North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr and his brother-in-law are being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission for potential insider trading, a case that stems from their abrupt sales of financial holdings during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, according to recent federal court filings. Burr, a...
U.S. cites ‘crisis’ as road deaths rise 18% in first-half 2021
DETROIT — The number of U.S. traffic deaths in the first six months of 2021 hit 20,160, the highest first-half total since 2006, the government reported Thursday, a sign of growing reckless driving during the coronavirus pandemic. The estimated number was 18.4% higher than the first half of last year,...
American Airlines plane diverted after passenger assaults flight attendantVideo
NEW YORK — An American Airlines flight from New York to California was diverted to Denver after a passenger assaulted a flight attendant, authorities said. Flight 976 was heading Wednesday from John F. Kennedy International Airport to John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana when it landed at Denver International Airport...
East Texas ex-nurse gets death penalty for killing patients
TYLER, Texas — A jury sentenced a former Texas nurse to death for killing four patients by injecting air into their arteries after heart surgery. The Smith County jury deliberated about two hours before condemning William George Davis to death. The 37-year-old Hallsville man’s sentence will be automatically appealed. The...
Andrew Cuomo accused of forcible touching in criminal complaint
ALBANY, N.Y. — A criminal complaint filed by a police investigator with a court in Albany has accused former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo of committing a misdemeanor sex crime, though there were reports Thursday that the document might have been submitted in error. The brief complaint, filed by an...
Wisconsin sheriff seeks investigation of nursing home voting
MADISON, Wis. — A Wisconsin sheriff who supports former President Donald Trump accused the bipartisan state Elections Commission of breaking the law during last year’s election, taking the unusual step Thursday of detailing the allegations publicly even though no charges have been filed. Racine County Sheriff Charles Schamling called on...
Boston doctor fined $6,000 for missing surgery for sleeping in car during lunch
BOSTON, Mass. — Massachusetts’ medical board has reprimanded and fined the head of spine surgery at Boston Medical Center after he left an operating room to eat lunch in his car and then fell asleep and missed an emergency surgery in 2016. According to a consent order released Monday by...
Kentucky high school event included lap dances, Hooters costumesVideo
HAZARD, Ky. — Disciplinary action has been taken at a high school in eastern Kentucky for homecoming activities that included male students giving lap dances to staff and girls dressing like Hooters waitresses. Hazard High School said in a Facebook post that a “Man Pageant” and “Costume Day” were held...
In the middle of a crisis, Facebook Inc. renames itself MetaVideo
OAKLAND, Calif. — Like many companies in trouble before it, Facebook is changing its name and logo. Facebook Inc. is now called Meta Platforms Inc., or Meta for short, to reflect what CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Thursday is its commitment to developing the new surround-yourself technology known as the “...
Biden announces ‘historic’ deal — but still must win votes
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden announced Thursday that he and Democrats in Congress have reached a “historic” framework for his sweeping domestic policy package. But he still needs to lock down votes from key colleagues for what’s now a dramatically scaled-back bill. Eager to have a deal in hand before...
‘No one knows what to expect’: Kenosha wary as Kyle Rittenhouse murder trial looms
KENOSHA, Wis. — If you want to know how this city feels about the impending Kyle Rittenhouse trial, a conversation with Scott and Dee Seip is a good place to start. One mile northwest of their house is the still-vacant commercial strip that burned during protests over the police shooting...
$88 million settlement reached with families of victims in Charleston church mass shootingVideo
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Families of nine victims killed in a racist attack at a Black South Carolina church have reached a settlement with the Justice Department over a faulty background check that allowed Dylann Roof to purchase the gun he used in the 2015 massacre. The Justice Department will pay...
German on trial for castrating men on his kitchen table
BERLIN — A German electrician went on trial Thursday accused of murder in the death of one man, and mutilating several others by performing illegal operations on their genitals. The 66-year-old told a regional court in Munich that he performed the procedures at the men’s request. The defendant, whose name...
