Crime leads voter concerns as New York City mayoral primary approaches
NEW YORK — Fear of crime is back as a political issue in New York City. For the first time in years it could be a prime factor in who voters pick as their next mayor. Early voting begins Saturday in the city’s party primaries. Ballots are being cast as...
Law enforcement struggles to recruit since killing of George Floyd
Law enforcement agencies across the country experienced a wave of retirements and departures and are struggling to recruit the next generation of police officers in the year since George Floyd was killed by a cop. And amid the national reckoning on policing, communities are questioning who should become a police...
G-7 nations gather to pledge 1B vaccine doses for world
CARBIS BAY, England — Leaders from the Group of Seven industrialized nations are set to commit at their summit to sharing at least 1 billion coronavirus shots with struggling countries around the world — half the doses coming from the U.S. and 100 million from the U.K. Vaccine sharing commitments...
Senators eye $579B in new infrastructure spending, $1T plan
WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of senators is eyeing an infrastructure deal with $579 billion in new spending as negotiators try to strike a nearly $1 trillion deal on President Joe Biden’s top priority, according to those briefed on the plan. The 10 senators have been huddling behind closed doors,...
Ex-police chief, 5 others charged in Capitol riot conspiracy
A former California police chief and five other men have been indicted on conspiracy charges in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to court documents made public Thursday. The men — four of whom prosecutors say identify as members of the Three Percenters antigovernment extremist movement —...
1 injured, 7 detained after shootout outside Georgia mall
MORROW, Ga. — A shouting match led to dozens of gunshots and one person wounded Thursday at a mall southeast of Atlanta, authorities said. Local news outlets report officers were called to Southlake Mall in Morrow just before 3 p.m. “We believe there may have been a verbal altercation inside...
6 of 15 trustees of embattled Pa. pension fund call for removal of its top command
SpotlightPA 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. Six trustees for Pennsylvania’s largest pension fund have called for the full 15-member board to vote Friday to fire the $64 billion chief executive and top investment officer,...
Sinkhole at Mexico farm swallows more land, traps 2 dogs
MEXICO CITY — A large sinkhole that appeared in late May at a farm in central Mexico has grown larger than a football field, begun swallowing a house and trapped two dogs in its depths. The government of the central state of Puebla responded Thursday to emotional requests from animal...
Pa. legislature ends coronavirus disaster declaration, keeps waivers
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 — The Pennsylvania legislature has voted to immediately end Gov. Tom Wolf’s coronavirus disaster declaration using a new power granted...
UN: Don’t forget to save species while fixing global warming
To save the planet, the world needs to tackle the crises of climate change and species loss together, taking measures that fix both and not just one, United Nations scientists said. A joint report Thursday by separate U.N. scientific bodies that look at climate change and biodiversity loss found there...
Rep. Omar says she wasn’t equating U.S., Israel and terrorists
WASHINGTON — Rep. Ilhan Omar tried edging away Thursday from a bitter fight with Jewish Democratic lawmakers who’d accused her of likening the U.S. and Israel to Hamas and Afghanistan’s Taliban, saying her remarks were “in no way equating terrorist organizations with democratic countries.” A three-paragraph statement by the Minnesota...
Pa. GOP proposes major election overhaul, including stricter voter ID and in-person early voting
This article is made possible through Votebeat, a nonpartisan reporting project covering local election integrity and voting access. This article is available for reprint under the terms of Votebeat’s republishing policy. Pennsylvania Republicans unveiled their first proposal for overhauling the state’s election system Thursday, with lawmakers in the state House...
U.S. officials extend expiration dates on J&J covid vaccine doses
Johnson & Johnson said Thursday that U.S. regulators extended the expiration date on millions of doses of its covid-19 vaccine by an extra six weeks. The company said a Food and Drug Administration review concluded the shots remain safe and effective up to 4 1/2 months. The announcement comes after...
House GOP unveils ambitious proposal to revamp Pa. election law
A Republican proposal to revamp Pennsylvania election law was unveiled Thursday, an ambitious 149-page bill that would change deadlines, early voting and mail-in ballot procedures and mandate IDs for all in-person voters. The measure sponsored by State Government Committee Chairman Seth Grove, R-York, is likely to encounter severe pushback from...
No audience, new venue, but Westminster dog show barks on
NEW YORK — There will be plenty of tradition, pup and circumstance at the Westminster Kennel Club dog show this weekend. But for the first time in its 145-year history, the storied canine competition is trading the buzz of the Big Apple for the airy grounds of a suburban riverfront...
Penn State ex-president reports to jail in Sandusky scandal
BELLEFONTE, Pa. — Former Penn State president Graham Spanier has reported to jail early to begin serving his sentence for child endangerment in a case stemming from the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse scandal. Spanier reported to Centre County Correctional Facility, several miles from the Penn State campus, on Monday...
Sunrise special: Solar eclipse thrills world’s northern tier
The top of the world got a sunrise special Thursday — a “ring of fire” solar eclipse. This so-called annular eclipse began at the Canadian province of Ontario, then swept across Greenland, the North Pole and finally Siberia, as the moon passed directly in front of the sun. An annular...
Wife of drug kingpin ‘El Chapo’ pleads guilty to U.S. charges
WASHINGTON — The wife of Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman pleaded guilty Thursday to charges in the U.S. and admitted that she helped her husband run his multibillion-dollar criminal empire. Emma Coronel Aispuro, wearing a green jail uniform, appeared in federal court in Washington and pleaded guilty to...
Meat company JBS confirms it paid $11M ransom in cyberattack
The world’s largest meat processing company says it paid the equivalent of $11 million to hackers who broke into its computer system late last month. Brazil-based JBS SA said on May 31 that it was the victim of a ransomware attack, but Wednesday was the first time the company’s U.S....
Man stuck for days inside giant fan at California vineyard
Authorities rescued a man who said he had been trapped for two days inside a large fan at a Northern California vineyard. The man was discovered Tuesday by a deputy responding to a call about a suspicious vehicle parked near the winery in Santa Rosa, the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office...
Mayor: Seattle 1st major city to fully vaccinate 70%
Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan said Wednesday that 70% of city residents ages 12 and up have been fully vaccinated, which she said makes Seattle the first major U.S. city to hit the covid-19 milestone. Durkan’s office also said 78% of the Seattle population 12 and older has started the vaccination...
Keystone XL pipeline nixed after Biden stands firm on permit
The sponsor of the Keystone XL crude oil pipeline pulled the plug on the contentious project Wednesday after Canadian officials failed to persuade President Joe Biden to reverse his cancellation of its permit on the day he took office. Calgary-based TC Energy said it would work with government agencies “to...
Pennsylvania pension system sued over access to documents amid probe
HARRISBURG — A Pennsylvania state senator is suing Pennsylvania’s largest public pension system amid a federal investigation into aspects of the agency’s undertakings, saying agency officials have refused to share documents with her, even though she is a board member. The effort by state Sen. Katie Muth, D-Montgomery, is being...
Closed cold case murder tied to ousted Tennessee governor
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — A former Tennessee governor’s administration helped fund a contract murder of a key federal witness decades ago while embroiled in the state’s largest political scandal, law enforcement officials announced Wednesday. The new details revealed for the first time Wednesday have elements that ring of a movie: a...
Federal probe: Protest not broken up due to Trump photo op
An internal government investigation has determined that the decision to forcibly clear racial justice protesters from an area in front of the White House last summer was not influenced by then-President Donald Trump’s plan to stage a Bible-toting photo opportunity at that spot. The report released Wednesday by the Interior...
