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...
Ransomware hits hundreds of U.S. companies, security firm says
WASHINGTON — A ransomware attack paralyzed the networks of at least 200 U.S. companies on Friday, according to a cybersecurity researcher whose company was responding to the incident. The REvil gang, a major Russian-speaking ransomware syndicate, appears to be behind the attack, said John Hammond of the security firm Huntress...
Police groups sue over changes to Minnesota deadly force law
ST. PAUL, Minn. — A coalition of Minnesota’s largest law enforcement groups sued the state Friday seeking to overturn a state law that changed the standard for justified use of deadly force by police. The lawsuit claims the law, which took effect in March, violates officers’ rights to self-defense and...
Proposal would ban mink farming to stem coronavirus mutation
COLUMBIA, S.C. — A bipartisan proposal in the U.S. House would ban the farming of mink fur in the United States in an effort to stem possible mutations of the coronavirus, something researchers have said can be accelerated when the virus spreads among animals. The bill introduced this week is...
Biden backs changes in military sexual assault prosecution
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Friday put his stamp of approval on a long-debated change to the military justice system that would remove decisions on prosecuting sexual assault cases from military commanders. Biden, however, stopped short of backing a congressional effort to strip commanders of oversight of all major...
U.S. Supreme Court backs Minnesota Amish in septic tank fight
MINNEAPOLIS — The U.S. Supreme Court sided Friday with members of an Amish group in Minnesota who are fighting efforts by authorities to compel them to install septic systems, sending their appeal back to a state court for reconsideration in light of the high court’s recent ruling in a religious...
U.S. vacates key Afghan base; pullout target now ‘late August’
WASHINGTON — Nearly 20 years after invading Afghanistan to oust the Taliban and hunt down al-Qaida, the U.S. military has vacated its biggest airfield in the country, advancing a final withdrawal that the Pentagon on Friday said will be completed by the end of August. President Joe Biden had instructed...
Tax law experts see ‘strong’ case against Trump Organization, CFO
NEW YORK — Companies give perks to their employees all the time. Many top executives at Fortune 500 companies have access to a corporate jet for personal use, a company apartment, or an expense account for fancy meals. Even lower-level employees regularly get access to perks like tuition reimbursement or...
It’s now Hurricane Elsa: South Florida is in forecast track with possible landfall early next week
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Elsa became the season’s first hurricane Friday morning and South Florida along with most of the rest of the state remains in the forecast path for a possible landfall early next week, according to the National Hurricane Center. Elsa is located 20 miles west-southwest of Barbados,...
What will happen to the collapsed Surfside condo if Hurricane Elsa affects Florida?
SURFSIDE, Fla. — Authorities managing the search under the rubble of the partially collapsed building in Surfside are worried that Hurricane Elsa could bring down the portion of Champlain Towers South Condo that remains standing. Ray Jadallah, assistant Miami-Dade fire chief, said at a private briefing Friday morning that while...
Michigan boy dies 3 days after getting Pfizer covid-19 vaccine; CDC is investigating
DETROIT — The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating the case of a 13-year-old Saginaw County, Mich., boy who died in his sleep three days after getting his second dose of a covid-19 vaccine in mid-June. The county health department confirmed the investigation, telling the Free Press...
