With school opening almost here, Pa. scrambles to prepare for covid
The federal government dropped new face mask recommendations for students just as school districts’ plans for dealing with covid-19 came due in Pennsylvania. State Acting Secretary of Health Alison Beam described the timing as “challenging” during a discussion with the PennLive/The Patriot-News editorial board on Wednesday. The U.S. Centers for...
This year’s summer of climate extremes hits wealthier places
As the world staggers through another summer of extreme weather, experts are noticing something different: 2021′s onslaught is hitting harder and in places that have been spared global warming’s wrath in the past. Wealthy countries such as the United States, Canada, Germany and Belgium are joining poorer and more vulnerable...
Library book returned in Pennsylvania after 50 years with $20 bill
PLYMOUTH — A book checked out a half-century ago has been anonymously returned to a library in northeastern Pennsylvania, officials said. The Wilkes-Barre Citizens’ Voice reports that the 1967 copy of “Coins You Can Collect” by Burton Hobson arrived last month at the Plymouth Public Library in Luzerne County along...
Illinois officer dies trying to stop fleeing car on bridge
BROOKLYN, Ill. — An Illinois police officer died early Wednesday while trying to stop a car fleeing police into Missouri, authorities said. The officer from Brooklyn was struck around 3 a.m. on the McKinley Bridge, which connects the two states. He was setting up stop sticks, which flatten tires, when...
Police brass eyed in probe of Black man’s deadly arrest
MONROE, La. — Federal prosecutors are investigating whether Louisiana State Police brass obstructed justice to protect the troopers seen on long-withheld body camera video punching, dragging and stunning Black motorist Ronald Greene during his fatal 2019 arrest. It marks a significant expansion of the federal inquiry that began as a...
U.K. to roll out covid vaccines to 16- and 17-year-olds
LONDON — The U.K. is to offer coronavirus vaccines to 16 and 17-year-olds in the coming weeks after the independent body of scientists that makes recommendations over the rollout changed its advice. The four nations of the U.K. all accepted the change in advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination...
Airstrikes pummel Taliban positions in southern Afghanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan — U.S. and Afghan airstrikes hit Taliban targets overnight in southern Helmand province in an effort to dislodge the insurgents after they captured much of the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah, officials said Wednesday. The United Nations and Human Rights Watch asked both sides to take care to...
3 in fatal Michigan rock-throwing case get probation
FLINT, Mich. — Three young Michigan men who were teens when they were part of a rock-throwing incident that killed a motorist on Interstate 75 were put on probation after spending more than three years in custody while their case was stuck in court. The court hearing Tuesday ended a...
Pentagon IDs officer killed in violence outside building
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon police force on Wednesday identified the officer who was fatally stabbed at a transit center outside the Pentagon. The Pentagon Force Protection Agency said Officer George Gonzalez was a New York native and Army veteran who served in Iraq. He’d been on the police force for...
Japan to limit hospital care as covid cases hit new high
TOKYO — Japan’s government is introducing a contentious new policy in which coronavirus patients with moderate symptoms will isolate at home instead of in hospitals, as new cases surge in Tokyo to record levels during the Olympic Games. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s plan, which aims to save hospital beds almost...
Biden chides Republican governors who resist vaccine rules
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden called on resistant Republican governors to “get out of the way” of vaccine rules aimed at containing the more transmissible and dangerous covid-19 variant. He backed city and private mandates requiring people to be vaccinated to go about some daily activities. Speaking Tuesday from the...
Obama curtails 60th birthday bash after delta variant surge
WASHINGTON — The party for the nation’s 44th president will go on, but only for family and close friends. Former President Barack Obama has scaled back his 60th birthday bash set for this weekend due to the surge of infections blamed on the delta variant of the coronavirus, his office...
Trump-backed Mike Carey, centrist Shontel Brown win Ohio U.S. House races
COLUMBUS — Mike Carey, a coal lobbyist backed by former President Donald Trump, won a Republican primary Tuesday for an open U.S. House seat in central Ohio that tested Trump’s status as kingmaker. While centrist County Councilwoman Shontel Brown held off progressive Nina Turner in the race for the other...
Judge blocks Texas troopers from stopping migrant transports
AUSTIN — A federal judge Tuesday blocked Texas from allowing state troopers to stop vehicles carrying migrants on the grounds that they may spread covid-19 as worries and new cases are rising along the U.S.-Mexico border. The temporary order by U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone of El Paso is at...
Missouri governor pardons gun-waving St. Louis lawyer couple
JEFFERSON CITY — Missouri Gov. Mike Parson on Tuesday announced that he made good on his promise to pardon a couple who gained notoriety for pointing guns at social justice demonstrators as they marched past the couple’s home in a luxury St. Louis enclave last year. Parson, a Republican, on...
Arkansas governor pushes mask law change, despite resistance
LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson pressed forward Tuesday with efforts to allow schools to mandate face masks as the state’s coronavirus cases continued to spiral, but faced heavy opposition from fellow Republicans over the move. Hutchinson called the majority-GOP Legislature back into session to take up the change...
Powerball to increase drawings to 3 nights a week
Pennsylvania Lottery officials Tuesday announced that Powerball players will soon get the chance to play for a big jackpot one extra night a week. In addition to the drawings held on Wednesdays and Saturdays, the multi-state game will offer drawings on Mondays. This change to three drawings per week will...
CDC issues new eviction ban for most of U.S. through Oct. 3
WASHINGTON — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday issued a new moratorium on evictions that would last until October 3, as the Biden administration sought to quell intensifying criticism that it was allowing vulnerable renters to lose their homes during a pandemic. The new moratorium could help...
‘This attack happened’: Medals to honor Jan. 6 responders
WASHINGTON — The Senate has voted to award Medals of Honor to the Capitol Police and the Metropolitan Police Department for protecting Congress during the Jan. 6 insurrection, sending the legislation to President Joe Biden for his signature. Under the bill, which passed by voice vote with no objections, there...
Roadwork firm to pay $20M in workers’ retirement theft caseVideo
HARRISBURG — A major Pennsylvania heavy equipment contractor entered no contest pleas to four theft counts on Tuesday and agreed to pay restitution of more than $20 million over allegations it illegally diverted pension money and other benefits from its workers. Glenn O. Hawbaker Inc. has agreed to have a...
Gov. Ron DeSantis won’t move on masks as Florida covid wards swellVideo
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday downplayed a spike in covid-19 cases that’s shattered state hospitalization records and strongly reiterated his vow not to impose a mask mandate or any business restrictions. With the much more contagious delta variant now spreading exponentially, Florida hit 11,515 hospitalized...
Taliban take much of provincial capital in south Afghanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan — The Taliban pressed ahead with their advances in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, capturing nine out of 10 districts of the Helmand provincial capital, residents and officials said. Afghan government forces launched airstrikes, backed by the U.S., in a desperate effort to defend the city of Lashkar Gah....
Relatives of Dayton shooting victims sue gun magazine maker
COLUMBUS, Ohio — The high-capacity magazine used by the man who gunned down nine people in Dayton two years ago serves no purpose other than allowing for the killing of as many people as possible, family members of four victims alleged in a lawsuit against the magazine maker. The complaint...
Wall of ice collapses at Titanic Museum in Tennessee, 3 hurt
PIGEON FORGE, Tenn. — A wall of ice at the Titanic Museum Attraction in Tennessee collapsed and injured three guests, the museum’s owners said. Those harmed were taken to the hospital with unspecified injuries, Mary Kellogg Joslyn and John Joslyn wrote on the attraction’s Facebook page. “Needless to say, we...
Florida takes Ben & Jerry’s divestment step over Israel
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Florida has taken a step to halt investment of state resources in the parent company of Ben & Jerry’s over its decision to stop selling ice cream in contested parts of Israel. Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday that the State Board of Administration added London-based Unilever...
