Walmart mandates masks for all workers in some areas
NEW YORK — Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer and private employer, is reversing its mask policy and will require all its workers — including vaccinated ones — in areas with high infection rates to wear masks. The Bentonville, Ark.-based company says it is also encouraging customers to wear masks in...
Injuries, building damage as severe weather brings tornadoes to suburban PhillyVideo
BENSALEM — Several people were injured Thursday when a building at a Bensalem auto dealership collapsed under severe weather, authorities said. The National Weather Service confirmed two tornadoes touched down in Bucks County, sending trees falling and debris flying. The thunderous downpour flooded streets and roadways. The Courier Times of...
Health officials to release new covid-19 data
NEW YORK — U.S. health officials are expected to release new data about the spread of covid-19 on Friday that led to their decision to recommend that vaccinated people wear masks in some situations, a reversal of previous guidance. The report, to be released by the Centers for Disease Control...
West Virginia to study need for 3rd covid vaccine dose
CHARLESTON — West Virginia will begin offering some fully vaccinated people free tests to measure antibody levels against the coronavirus, a move to study whether some elderly and immunocompromised individuals should receive a third booster shot. State officials said they are following the lead of Israel, which announced Thursday that...
Disney World to require all guests to wear masks indoors starting Friday
If you’re going to Disney World, you will have to mask up. Starting Friday, Disney guests will have to wear masks while indoors and on resort transportation, regardless of vaccination status. Face coverings are optional when outside, and visitors younger than 2 will not be required to wear a mask....
Thousands of Pa. households still waiting for rental relief as eviction ban nears its end
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 — Almost every day for the past month, as the end of a federal freeze on evictions edges closer, Brian...
CDC mask guidance met with hostility by leading Republicans
SALT LAKE CITY — One of the Republican Party’s most prominent rising stars is mocking new government recommendations calling for more widespread use of masks to blunt a coronavirus surge. “Did you not get the CDC’s memo?” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis joked Wednesday before an almost entirely unmasked audience of...
Pa. health officials: Nearly all covid hospitalizations, deaths among unvaccinated
Nearly all of the covid-related hospitalizations and deaths in Pennsylvania are among the unvaccinated, state health officials said Thursday. Of those hospitalized across the state, 97% are unvaccinated, said Acting Secretary of Health Alison Beam. Of deaths happening now, she said, 99% are of unvaccinated people. “At this stage, these...
Study: Global warming will kill 83 million people in next 80 years
A population equivalent to that of Germany — 83 million people — could be killed by 2100 because of rising temperatures caused by greenhouse-gas emissions, according to a new study that might influence how markets price carbon pollution. The research from Columbia University’s Earth Institute introduces a new metric to...
Conservatives want to boot Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger from House GOPVideo
WASHINGTON — Conservative lawmakers made a push Thursday to boot Republican Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger out of the House GOP because the two defied party leaders and joined the chamber’s special committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack by supporters of then-President Donald Trump. The effort by the...
Congress passes bill to fund Capitol security, Afghan visas
WASHINGTON — Congress overwhelmingly passed emergency legislation Thursday that would bolster security at the Capitol, repay outstanding debts from the violent Jan. 6 insurrection and increase the number of visas for allies who worked alongside Americans in the Afghanistan war. The $2.1 billion bill now goes to President Joe Biden...
Biden urging state, local governments to offer the unvaccinated $100Video
WASHINGTON — The nation’s millions of federal workers will be required to verify they’ve been vaccinated against the coronavirus or else face mandatory masking, weekly testing, distancing and other new rules, the Biden administration announced Thursday. The newly strict guidelines are aimed at boosting sluggish vaccination rates among the huge...
Woman convicted of swapping pebbles for gems in London heist
A woman who secretly swapped seven pebbles for $5.7 million worth of diamonds has been sent to prison for her role in the audacious heist at a luxury jewelry store in London’s tony Mayfair district. Lulu Lakatos, 60, was sentenced Wednesday to 5 1/2 years in prison after a jury...
Ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick charged with sexually assaulting teen
BOSTON — Former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who was defrocked after a Vatican investigation confirmed he had sexually molested adults as well as children, has been charged with sexually assaulting a teenage boy during a wedding reception in Massachusetts in 1974, court records show. McCarrick is the first cardinal in the...
Police seek clues after woman and dog killed in Atlanta park
ATLANTA — Investigators sought video from homes and businesses near a popular Atlanta park as divers searched a pond in their quest to solve the stabbing death of a parkgoer who was walking her dog. Katherine Janness, 40, was found dead in Piedmont Park around 1 a.m. Wednesday. Police say...
Transportation panel to issue plan on Pa. gas tax elimination
HARRISBURG — A transportation funding commission set up by Gov. Tom Wolf to find ways to end Pennsylvania’s reliance on its gas tax will issue a $15.6 billion package of recommendations, which lean heavily on shifting to a vehicle-miles-traveled fee that numerous states are exploring. The Transportation Revenue Options Commission...
Once fading, mask sales starting to rebound
NEW YORK — Masks, which had started to disappear from store shelves, may be front and center again. A spot check of businesses and other data sources are showing that mask sales have been rising in recent weeks as Americans worry about the surging cases of the delta variant of...
AstraZeneca to seek U.S. approval of covid vaccine later this year
LONDON — AstraZeneca said Thursday that it intends to seek U.S. approval for its covid-19 vaccine later this year, further delaying the application even as the company announced it had already delivered more than 1 billion doses to other countries. The Anglo-Swedish drugmaker said the application has been delayed because...
Biden to allow eviction moratorium to expire Saturday
BOSTON — The Biden administration will allow a nationwide ban on evictions to expire Saturday, arguing that its hands are tied after the Supreme Court ruled it could only be extended until the end of the month. In a statement Thursday, the White House said President Joe Biden would have...
Spanish ex-king’s former lover accuses him of harassment
MADRID — The former lover of Spain’s King Emeritus Juan Carlos has filed a lawsuit with a British court accusing him of spying on her, the latest twist in a financial scandal plaguing the ex-monarch. The London-based High Court said Wednesday that Corinna Larsen, a Danish-German businesswoman long linked to...
Cargo ship ordered to leave U.S. waters after insects found
Federal agents near New Orleans ordered a cargo ship to leave the U.S. after an inspection found wood infested with a type of Asian beetle that has been destroying trees in the U.S. for about 25 years. They discovered the beetle in wood onboard the Pan Jasmine on July 17,...
U.S. economy accelerated at a solid 6.5% rate last quarter
WASHINGTON — Fueled by vaccinations and government aid, the U.S. economy grew at a solid 6.5% annual rate last quarter in another sign that the nation has achieved a sustained recovery from the pandemic recession. Thursday’s report from the Commerce Department estimated that the nation’s gross domestic product — its...
Alaska quake produces prolonged shaking, small tsunami
PERRYVILLE, Alaska — A powerful earthquake which struck just off Alaska’s southern coast caused prolonged shaking and prompted tsunami warnings that sent people scrambling for shelters. Residents reported only minor damage, but officials said that could change after sunrise and people get a better look. The National Tsunami Warning Center...
FDA allows automatic ‘generic’ swap for brand-name insulin
U.S. regulators took action Wednesday that will make it easier to get a cheaper, near-copy of a brand-name insulin at the drugstore. Doctors now have to specifically prescribe what’s called a biosimilar or OK substituting it for a more expensive brand-name insulin. Wednesday’s move by the Food and Drug Administration...
DOJ won’t defend Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks in lawsuit over Capitol violenceVideo
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The U.S. Department of Justice won’t help defend Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama against a civil lawsuit that claims he helped to incite the Jan. 6 violence at the Capitol. In a court filing Tuesday, the Justice Department urged a judge to deny Brooks’ request for immunity...
