Wolf wants lawmakers to extend opioid emergency declaration
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf is asking state lawmakers to return to Harrisburg within a month to extend a statewide disaster emergency intended to help stem the commonwealth’s opioid addiction crisis. In a letter to the General Assembly, Wolf said he plans an Aug. 5 renewal of the disaster...
Mask guidance divides parents heading into new school year
HARTFORD, Conn. — With U.S. health officials recommending that children mask up in school this fall, parents and policy makers across the nation have been plunged anew into a debate over whether face coverings should be optional or a mandate. The delta variant of the coronavirus now threatens to upend...
U.S. memorials to victims of covid pandemic taking shape
CHILLICOTHE, Ohio — Ohio has planted a memorial grove of native trees to remember people who died of covid-19, and governors and state lawmakers nationwide are considering their own ways to mark the toll of the virus. Temporary memorials have sprung up across the U.S. — 250,000 white flags at...
U.K. prime minister’s wife says she’s pregnant again
LONDON — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s wife, Carrie, said Saturday that she is expecting the couple’s second child. Carrie Johnson announced her pregnancy in a post on Instagram in which she also revealed that she suffered a miscarriage earlier this year. “At the beginning of the year, I had...
Turkey evacuates panicked tourists by boat from wildfires
ISTANBUL — Panicked tourists in Turkey hurried to the seashore to wait for rescue boats Saturday after being told to evacuate some hotels in the Aegean resort of Bodrum due to the dangers posed by nearby wildfires, Turkish media reported. Coast guard units were leading the operation and authorities asked...
Bacon may disappear in California as pig rules take effect
DES MOINES, Iowa — Thanks to a reworked menu and long hours, Jeannie Kim managed to keep her San Francisco restaurant alive during the coronavirus pandemic. That makes it all the more frustrating that she fears her breakfast-focused diner could be ruined within months by new rules that could make...
Ammunition shelves bare as U.S. gun sales continue to soar
SEATTLE — The covid-19 pandemic, coupled with record sales of firearms, has fueled a shortage of ammunition in the United States that’s impacting law enforcement agencies, people seeking personal protection, recreational shooters and hunters — and could deny new gun owners the practice they need to handle their weapons safely....
Hong Kong police arrest man for booing national anthem
TAIPEI, Taiwan — Hong Kong police have arrested a man accused of booing the Chinese national anthem while watching an Olympic event at a mall. The 40-year-old man was allegedly waving colonial-era Hong Kong flags and booing, while urging others to join him in insulting the national anthem, according to...
Police: Baltimore woman kept bodies of niece, nephew in trunk for months
BALTIMORE — A routine traffic stop in Essex this week led to the discovery of the decomposing bodies of two young children in the trunk of a car—one reportedly decomposing inside a suitcase for more than a year, according to documents charging the children’s aunt in connection with their deaths....
2 Green Line trains in Boston crash, injuring more than 20
BOSTON — A train on the Green Line in Boston crashed into another train from behind on Friday, injuring more than 20 people, authorities said. The Boston Fire Department said in a tweet 23 people were taken to hospitals with injuries, none of which were life threatening. The cause of...
Evictions looming, Biden fails to get Congress to extend ban
WASHINGTON — A nationwide eviction moratorium is set to expire Saturday after President Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress worked furiously but ultimately failed to align on a long-shot strategy to prevent millions of Americans from being forced from their homes during a covid-19 surge. More than 3.6 million Americans...
$1 trillion infrastructure plan clears another Senate hurdle
WASHINGTON — The Senate further advanced a roughly $1 trillion infrastructure plan Friday with a bipartisan group of senators helping it clear one more hurdle and bracing to see if support can hold during the next few days of debate and efforts to amend it. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer,...
Oklahoma GOP criticized for anti-Semitic Facebook post
OKLAHOMA CITY — The Oklahoma Republican Party faced fierce criticism on Friday for a Facebook post likening covid-19 vaccine mandates to the persecution of Jewish people in Nazi Germany. The post on the party’s official Facebook page urged people to call the lieutenant governor and ask him to call a...
Louisville woman wins $1M vaccine lottery prize in Kentucky
FRANKFORT, Ky. — A Louisville woman has won the $1 million prize in Kentucky’s first ‘Shot at a Million Vaccine’ incentive drawing, Gov. Andy Beshear announced Friday. “I have never experienced anything like this. It’s shocking because you don’t really think you’re going to win,” said the winner, Ginger Schultz....
Justice Dept. says IRS must give Trump tax returns to Congress
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department, in a reversal, says the Treasury Department must provide the House Ways and Means Committee former President Donald Trump’s tax returns, apparently ending a long legal showdown over the records. In a memo dated Friday, Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel said the committee chairman “has...
St. Louis County reaches settlement in 1996 murder case
ST. LOUIS — A man who was released from prison last year after the Missouri Supreme Court vacated his life sentence for murder has reached a $6.6. million settlement with St. Louis County. St. Louis County officials began the process of issuing the money on Friday to Lawrence Callanan, The...
Russia blames space station lab incident on software failure
A Russian space official on Friday blamed a software problem on a newly docked science lab for briefly knocking the International Space Station out of position. The space station lost control of its orientation for 47 minutes on Thursday, when Russia’s Nauka science lab accidentally fired its thrusters a few...
Coffee prices on the rise
Coffee lovers may have to dig deeper into their pockets as the cost of coffee beans has shot up due largely to a July 20 frost in Brazil that has destroyed crops. Andrew Oakes, owner of Fresh Roasted Coffee in Sunbury, said the price of green, unroasted beans has risen...
Explainer: Will Pa. evictions spike despite rental help?
HARRISBURG — A federal freeze on most evictions enacted last year is scheduled to expire Saturday, after President Joe Biden’s administration extended the original date by a month. The moratorium, put in place by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in September, was the only tool keeping millions...
Trump urged Justice officials to declare election ‘corrupt’
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump urged senior Justice Department officials to declare the 2020 election results “corrupt” in a December phone call, according to handwritten notes from one of the participants in the conversation. The notes of the Dec. 27 call, released Friday by the House Oversight Committee, underscore the...
CDC team: ‘War has changed’ as delta variant dangers emerge
New evidence showing the delta variant is as contagious as chickenpox and may be more dangerous than other versions has prompted U.S. health officials to consider changing advice on how the nation fights the coronavirus, internal documents show. Recommending masks for everyone and requiring vaccines for doctors and other health...
Expanded child tax credit providing boost to families on the edge of poverty
For single mother Tara Tomlinson, the expanded child tax credit that arrived in her bank account earlier this month provided a lifeline that arrived not a moment too soon. Emerging from a pandemic-induced crush on finances and other resources, Tomlinson said things were tightening at an alarming rate. “I was...
‘Welcome home’: Evacuation flight brings 200 Afghans to U.S.
WASHINGTON — The first flight evacuating Afghans who worked alongside Americans in Afghanistan brought more than 200 people, scores of them children and babies in arms, to new lives in the United States on Friday, and President Joe Biden said he was proud to welcome them home. The launch of...
States race to use covid-19 vaccines before they expire
Hundreds of thousands of covid-19 vaccine doses have been saved from the trash after U.S. regulators extended their expiration date for a second time, part of a nationwide effort to salvage expiring shots to battle the nation’s summer surge in infections. The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday sent a...
Pa. prisons release dashboard tracking race, populations
PHILADELPHIA — A new dashboard of real-time data on Pennsylvania’s prison and parole populations shows the state has made strides to reduce racial inequity, but Black and Latino residents are still greatly overrepresented in prisons and on parole. The dashboard — built by the group Recidiviz, a tech nonprofit that...
