Demolition widens search at Florida condo site, but storms threaten
SURFSIDE, Fla. — Rescuers searched through fresh rubble Monday after the last of the collapsed Florida condo building was demolished, which allowed crews into previously inaccessible places, including bedrooms where people were believed to be sleeping at the time of the disaster, officials said. But they faced a new challenge...
Group described as white supremacists march in PhiladelphiaVideo
PHILADELPHIA — Police say scores of members of a group described by the Anti-Defamation League as white supremacist marched in Philadelphia over the weekend, clashing with pedestrians and setting off what were believed to be smoke bombs at one point. The group of Patriot Front members, estimated at 150 to...
Ex-West Virginia lawmaker in Capitol amid riot adds felony charge
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A former West Virginia lawmaker faces a new federal felony charge after he livestreamed himself rushing into the U.S. Capitol with a mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters on Jan. 6. A grand jury in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia handed down a...
Delta’s rapid spread clouds summer with fear of covid revival
The fast-spreading delta variant is clouding Americans’ hopes for a carefree summer — and casting a shadow of doubt over plans to get back to business as usual in the fall. The shift in sentiment marks a reversal from the spring, when it looked like the U.S. immunization campaign would...
Allen West will challenge Texas Gov. Abbott in GOP primary
AUSTIN, Texas — Republican Allen West, the former Florida congressman and firebrand who rode into office on the tea party wave a decade ago, said Sunday that he will run for governor of Texas in a bid to again seize on restless anger from the right. His odds are far...
Cuba evacuates 180,000 as Tropical Storm Elsa approachesVideo
HAVANA — Cuba evacuated 180,000 people amid fears Sunday that Tropical Storm Elsa could unleash heavy flooding after battering several Caribbean islands, killing at least three people. The Cuban government had opened shelters and moved to protect sugarcane and cocoa crops ahead of the storm. Most of those evacuated went...
Governor: Heat death toll at least 95 in Oregon aloneVideo
PORTLAND, Ore. — A Pacific Northwest heat wave has killed at least 95 people in Oregon alone, a number that state’s governor called “absolutely unacceptable.” “Following events like this we always do reviews and see what we can do better next time,” Democratic Gov. Kate Brown said Sunday on “Face...
Redistricting reform in Pa. is dead for now, advocates say. So what’s next?
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 — Redistricting reform supporters in Pennsylvania are having a moment of...
Biden: U.S. ‘coming back together,’ but covid not yet finished
WASHINGTON — Calling a vaccination “the most patriotic thing you can do,” President Joe Biden on Sunday mixed the nation’s birthday party with a celebration of freedom from the worst of the pandemic. He tempered the strides against covid-19 with a warning that the fight against the virus wasn’t over....
People along the U.S.-Canadian border await word of reopening
BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — In a normal, pre-covid-19 summer, scores of pleasure boats are anchored in Lake Champlain off the Burlington waterfront by July 4, with most of them from Canada. But the anchorage is nearly empty this year because of the ongoing border closure. People who rely on those...
Pope Francis hospitalized for planned intestinal surgery
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis went to a Rome hospital on Sunday for scheduled surgery on his large intestine, the Vatican said. The news came just three hours after Francis had cheerfully greeted the public in St. Peter’s Square and told them he will go to Hungary and Slovakia in...
Explosives set off to bring down rest of collapsed Florida condoVideo
SURFSIDE, Fla. — Demolition crews set off explosives late Sunday to bring down the damaged remaining portion of a collapsed South Florida condo building, a key step to resuming the search for victims as rescuers possibly gain access to new areas of the rubble. Crews were to begin clearing some...
Summer swelter trend: West gets hotter days, East hot nights
As outlandish as the killer heat wave that struck the Pacific Northwest was, it fits into a decades-long pattern of uneven summer warming across the United States. The West is getting roasted by hotter summer days while the East Coast is getting swamped by hotter and stickier summer nights, an...
Trump voices radio ad for Rep. Mo Brooks in US Senate race
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Former President Donald Trump is appearing in a radio ad for U.S. Rep Mo Brooks as he tries to sway the outcome of the state’s Senate race. Brooks’ campaign said the ad began airing Friday. “Hi Alabama, this is your favorite president, Donald Trump. Few Republicans have...
Supreme Court rules against inmate in death penalty case
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled against an Alabama inmate whose lawyers argued that his trial counsel should have done more to try to show he is intellectually disabled and therefore he should be spared a death sentence. In an unsigned 6-3 opinion, the conservative majority on...
Capitol, symbol of democracy, off-limits on Independence Day
WASHINGTON — As it has been for nearly 16 months, longer than any time in the nation’s history, the U.S. Capitol is closed to most public visitors. The one-two punch of the coronavirus pandemic that shuttered the Capitol’s doors in the spring of 2020 and the deadly insurrection by then-President...
Elsa falls back to tropical storm as it batters Haiti
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Hurricane Elsa fell back to tropical storm force as it brushed past Haiti and the Dominican Republic on Saturday and threatened to unleash flooding and landslides before taking aim at Cuba and Florida. The storm was centered about 255 miles east of Kingston, Jamaica, and was moving...
Syria government shelling kills 8, mostly children, in Idlib
BEIRUT — Artillery fire from government-controlled territory and airstrikes Saturday killed at least eight civilians in Syria’s last rebel enclave, most of them children, and destroyed a civil defense center and a water station, rescue workers and a war monitor said. The regional director of the United Nations children’s agency...
Train derails in Canada, spilling timber and tar sands
BLACKFALDS, Alberta — A train carrying tar sands and timber has derailed in the Canadian province of Alberta, spilling at least part of its load, officials said, though there were no reports of injuries. Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Blackfalds said crews were working Friday night to contain the spill,...
Man rescued after at least 3 days in abandoned Pennsylvania cistern
READING — A man was rescued after at least three days at the bottom of an abandoned stone cistern near the landmark pagoda overlooking the eastern Pennsylvania city of Reading, authorities said. The man was healthy enough to climb out on his own on a city fire department rope ladder...
With storm looming, demolition of collapsed condo to start
SURFSIDE, Fla. — Demolition workers will bring down the remainder of a partially collapsed condo building in South Florida ahead of an approaching storm that has heightened concerns that the structure could crumble dangerously on its own, officials said Saturday. With Tropical Storm Elsa looming in the Caribbean and forecast...
Failure by Pa. officials to clarify rules around medical marijuana, addiction treatment had serious consequences
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. BENSALEM — Tyler Cordeiro slept on a couch outside his mother’s Bucks County home, suffering from opioid withdrawal. His sister took a photo of his mother, Susan...
11 people in custody after hourslong armed standoff on I-95
WAKEFIELD, Mass. — An hourslong standoff with a group of heavily armed men that partially shut down Interstate 95 ended Saturday with 11 suspects in custody, Massachusetts state police said. Police initially reported nine suspects were taken into custody, but two more were taken into custody in their vehicle later...
Florida condo building deemed unsafe, evacuation ordered
NORTH MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — The city of North Miami Beach ordered the evacuation of a condominium building Friday after a review found unsafe conditions about 5 miles from the site of last week’s deadly collapse in South Florida. An audit prompted by the collapse of Champlain Towers South in...
Biden says teachers deserve ‘a raise, not just praise’
Speaking to the nation’s largest teachers union, President Joe Biden said Friday that the pandemic has given America’s parents the “ultimate education” on the challenges of the teaching profession. But even more, he said, the past year has proved that teachers across the U.S. deserve higher pay. “You deserve a...
