CDC data indicate U.S. is on track for July 4 vaccination target
The United States is on track to reach a goal calling for 70% of adults to have received at least one dose of a covid-19 vaccine by July 4, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. New data released Saturday indicates that more that half of all adults...
Postal Service looks to raise first-class stamp to 58 cents
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Postal Service wants to raise rates on first-class stamps from 55 cents to 58 cents as part of a host of price hikes and service changes designed to reduce debt for the beleaguered agency. The request for the changes, which would take effect Aug. 29, was...
Black fear of Tulsa police lingers 100 years after massacre
TULSA, Okla. — There’s been undeniable progress in the relationship between the Tulsa police and the city’s Black community in the past 100 years. Then again, it’s hard to imagine it could have gotten worse. Complaints about police bias and a lack of enough minority officers remain. But the police...
Trump looms large in Pennsylvania’s GOP primaries in 2022
HARRISBURG — With Pennsylvania’s wide-open races for governor and U.S. Senate taking shape, Republican candidates with strong ties to Donald Trump are running and considered strong contenders for the party’s nominations — a powerful sign of the former president’s enduring popularity within the GOP. Within a few days of each...
More than 200 bodies found at Indigenous school in Canada
KAMLOOPS, British Colombia — The remains of 215 children, some as young as 3 years old, have been found buried on the site of what was once Canada’s largest Indigenous residential school — one of the institutions that held children taken from families across the nation. Chief Rosanne Casimir of...
DA won’t seek new death sentence against Scott Peterson
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A California district attorney said in a court filing Friday that she won’t seek a new death sentence against Scott Peterson, convicted in 2005 of murdering his pregnant wife. The Stanislaus County district attorney’s office said it would drop efforts to restore the penalty thrown out last...
NASA releases stunning new pic of Milky Way’s ‘downtown’
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA has released a stunning new picture of our galaxy’s violent, super-energized “downtown.” It’s a composite of 370 observations over the past two decades by the orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory, depicting billions of stars and countless black holes in the center, or heart, of the Milky...
3 officers plead not guilty in Black man’s restraint death
SEATTLE — Five weeks after ex-Minneapolis policeman Derek Chauvin was convicted of murdering George Floyd, three Washington state police officers pleaded not guilty Friday in the death of Manuel Ellis, another Black man who pleaded for breath under an officer’s knee. Tacoma police officers Christopher Burbank, Matthew Collins and Timothy...
Pressure for Senate rules change after GOP blocks Jan. 6 probe
WASHINGTON — As Republicans blocked a bill Friday to establish a commission to investigate the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, pressure mounted on Democrats to end the practice of requiring 60 votes to move legislation through the Senate if they have any hope of advancing their priorities and President Joe Biden’s...
After transition, Pa.’s unemployment system will be faster, easier to use, state officials say
Pennsylvania’s 40-year-old unemployment filing system will go offline next week and a new system that officials say will be faster and easier to use will take its place. The transition means the state will not take new applications for unemployment benefits from Monday to June 7, and people already receiving...
Pennsylvania using insecticide on invasive spotted lanternflies
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania has started spraying insecticide on spotted lanternflies, a new strategy that state officials are using in an attempt to slow the spread of the invasive pest. Crews using backpack sprayers and truck-mounted spray equipment are spraying the bugs along railways, interstates and other transportation rights-of-way, the state...
Sheriff: California rail yard shooter had gun, ammo stockpile at house
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Authorities say the gunman who killed nine co-workers at a California rail yard had 12 guns and 22,000 rounds of ammunition at his home that he set on fire. Officials said Friday that the shooter, Samuel James Cassidy, had coordinated a fire at his house to...
Bill Cosby refuses sex offender program, so parole is denied
PHILADELPHIA — Actor Bill Cosby won’t be paroled this year after refusing to participate in sex offender programs during his nearly three years in state prison in Pennsylvania. The 83-year-old Cosby has long said he would resist the treatment programs and refuse to acknowledge wrongdoing even if it means serving...
Biden’s $6T budget: Social spending, taxes on business
President Joe Biden on Friday unveiled a $6 trillion budget for next year that’s piled high with new safety net programs for the poor and middle class, but his generosity depends on taxing corporations and the wealthy to keep the nation’s spiking debt from spiraling totally out of control. Biden...
Microsoft: SolarWinds hackers target 150 organizations with phishing
The state-backed Russian cyber spies behind the SolarWinds hacking campaign launched a targeted spear-phishing assault on U.S. and foreign government agencies and think tanks this week using an email marketing account of the U.S. Agency for International Development, Microsoft says. The effort targeted about 3,000 email accounts at more than...
Plague of ravenous, destructive mice tormenting Australians
BOGAN GATE, Australia — At night, the floors of sheds vanish beneath carpets of scampering mice. Ceilings come alive with the sounds of scratching. One family blamed mice chewing electrical wires for their house burning down. Vast tracts of land in Australia’s New South Wales state are being threatened by...
European regulator recommends Pfizer vaccine for children 12-15
The European Medicines Agency on Friday recommended that the use of the coronavirus vaccine made by Pfizer and BioNTech be expanded to children ages 12 to 15, a decision that offers younger and less at-risk populations across the continent access to a covid-19 shot for the first time. The Pfizer-BioNTech...
Kamala Harris cites challenges of ‘fragile’ world in Navy speech
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Vice President Kamala Harris focused on the challenges of the pandemic, climate change and cybersecurity threats during her keynote speech to graduates at the U.S. Naval Academy on Friday, the first by a woman at the 175-year-old institution. Harris, the nation’s first female vice president and the...
Tanker’s impossible voyage signals new sanction evasion ploy
The Cyprus-flagged oil tanker Berlina was drifting near the Caribbean island of Dominica earlier this year when the safety signals it is required to transmit showed it stopping in its tracks and in two minutes turning around 180 degrees. It was an amazingly quick pivot since the 274-meter (nearly 900-foot)...
GOP blocks probe of deadly Jan. 6 riot at Capitol; Toomey misses vote
WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans on Friday blocked creation of a bipartisan panel to investigate the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, displaying continuing party loyalty to former President Donald Trump and firm determination to shift the political focus away from the violent insurrection by his GOP supporters. The Senate...
As vaccinations inch upward, Pennsylvania’s covid cases continue lower
Pennsylvania continues to see a steady drop in cases of covid-19, with resulting deaths and hospitalizations following that downward trend. As vaccinations continue, the coronavirus appears to be spreading at a slower rate even as more people gather in public without protective masks or social distancing. The state on Friday...
Florida boy, 14, held without bond in 13-year-old’s death
ST. JOHNS, Fla. — A judge on Friday ordered a 14-year-old Florida boy held without bond on a first-degree murder charge in the death of a 13-year-old classmate. Aiden Fucci will be tried in adult court and faces a possible life sentence in the stabbing death of Tristyn Bailey earlier...
Boat accident on Nigerian river kills 60, more feared dead
LAGOS, Nigeria — Nigerian authorities confirmed that at least 60 people have died in a boat accident on the Niger River and that 83 missing passengers are also feared dead. The boat with more than 160 passengers, including many children and women, sank after hitting an object and breaking up...
Ex-Speaker Ryan to GOP: Reject Trump, ‘2nd-rate imitations’
Emerging from two years of relative silence, former House Speaker Paul Ryan has joined the fight against Donald Trump, urging fellow conservatives to reject the former president’s divisive politics and those Republican leaders who emulate him. Ryan made his remarks during a Thursday evening address at the Ronald Reagan Presidential...
Russia: Ex-officers convicted of planting drugs on reporter
MOSCOW — Five former Russian police officers were convicted Friday on charges of fabricating evidence in the 2019 drug arrest of a prominent investigative journalist. Ivan Golunov of the independent Meduza online news outlet was arrested in Moscow on drug-dealing charges that he rejected as a sham. The journalist argued...
