West Virginia transgender athlete law challenged in court
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A federal lawsuit was filed Wednesday challenging West Virginia’s new ban on transgender athletes from competing in female sports in middle and high schools and colleges. The American Civil Liberties Union and its West Virginia chapter filed the lawsuit on behalf of an 11-year-old transgender girl who...
Officials: 70% of Pa. adults have received at least 1 dose of covid vaccine
The next phase of the pandemic — one with no restrictions save for masks — could be the last phase if people continue to get vaccinated throughout the summer, officials said Wednesday. “Now with the impending lifting of mitigation orders — except the masking order — we are entering a...
Investigation finds no intentional act to derail Pa. sex-abuse vote
HARRISBURG — An internal investigation into an apparent bureaucratic blunder by Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration that scuttled a statewide voter referendum sought by victims of childhood sexual abuse found no evidence of a deliberate attempt to derail it. The Office of Inspector General’s report, released Wednesday, said agents interviewed 22...
Michigan man exonerated of murder after 32 years in prison
DETROIT — A man was exonerated Wednesday after 32 years in prison when authorities agreed that he was wrongly convicted of a fatal stabbing in suburban Detroit based on faulty evidence, including a bite mark on the victim. For years, Gilbert Poole Jr. had challenged his first-degree murder conviction with...
Biden asks U.S. intelligence officials to investigate covid-19 origin
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Wednesday asked U.S. intelligence officials to “redouble” their efforts to investigate the origins of the covid-19 pandemic, including the unlikely possibility that the origins of the virus trace to a Chinese lab. After months of minimizing the possibility as a fringe theory, the Biden...
Judge upholds jail sentence for Penn State ex-president Graham Spanier
HARRISBURG — The former Penn State president who was forced out as the school’s top administrator when Jerry Sandusky was arrested a decade ago will soon have to report to jail after a judge on Wednesday upheld a sentence issued four years ago. The judge ordered Graham Spanier to begin...
8 dead in shooting at rail yard serving Silicon ValleyVideo
SAN JOSE, Calif. — An employee opened fire Wednesday at a California rail yard serving Silicon Valley, killing eight people before ending his own life, authorities said. The shooting took place around 6:30 a.m. in two buildings that are part of a light rail facility for the Valley Transportation Authority,...
Change may allow scientists to grow human embryos longer
LONDON — New guidelines released Wednesday remove a decades-old barrier to stem cell research, recommending that researchers be allowed to grow human embryos longer under limited conditions. The “14-day rule,” an international ethical standard that limits laboratory studies of human embryos, has been in place for decades and has been...
Pope kisses Auschwitz survivor’s tattoo
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis has kissed the tattoo of an Auschwitz survivor during a general audience on Wednesday. Lidia Maksymowicz, a Polish citizen who was deported to Auschwitz from her native Belarus by the age of 3, showed the pope the number tattooed on her arm by the Nazis,...
Wisconsin Republicans to hold hearing on UW abortion ban
MADISON, Wis. — All University of Wisconsin System and UW health workers would be banned from performing abortions or training others to perform abortions under a Republican bill up for a public hearing Wednesday in a state legislative committee. The bill’s chief sponsor. Sen. Andre Jacque, said the measure is...
Taliban warns departing U.S. against new bases in region
ISLAMABAD — The Taliban on Wednesday warned the departing U.S. military against setting up bases in the region, and Pakistan vowed no American bases will be allowed on its territory. Pakistan also said drone strikes from Pakistani territory were also a non-starter. The statements come amid speculation the United States,...
Former Sen. John Warner dies at 94, married Elizabeth Taylor
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Former Sen. John W. Warner of Virginia, a centrist Republican who served as Navy secretary and one of the Senate’s most influential military experts, has died at 94, his longtime chief of staff said Wednesday. Warner died Tuesday of heart failure at home in Alexandria, Virginia, with...
Earth’s shadow creeps across moon ahead of super blood moon
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Earth’s shadow crept across the moon on Wednesday night as people in New Zealand and around the world waited for a cosmic event known as a super blood moon. As the eclipse deepened, it appeared as though half the moon had vanished. The other half looked...
Rallies, moments of silence honor George Floyd a year later
MINNEAPOLIS — A family-friendly street festival, musical performances and moments of silence were held Tuesday to honor George Floyd and mark the year since he died at the hands of Minneapolis police, a death captured on wrenching bystander video that galvanized the racial justice movement and continues to bring calls...
Wisconsin priest who ignored covid limits is asked to resign
LA CROSSE, Wis. — A priest in Wisconsin who has been ignoring covid-19 gathering restrictions at his masses and criticized Democrats for their stance on the virus vaccines says the leader of the Diocese of La Crosse has asked him to resign. The Rev. James Altman announced the request from...
Manhattan DA convenes grand jury to weigh criminal charges against Trump, report says
NEW YORK — New York prosecutors have convened a special grand jury to consider evidence in a criminal investigation into former President Donald Trump’s business dealings, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on Tuesday. The development signals that the Manhattan district attorney’s office was moving toward...
Pennsylvania firm drops out of Arizona GOP’s 2020 election recount
PHOENIX — A subcontractor working on a Republican-led audit of the 2020 election results in Arizona’s largest county has dropped out of the project. Wake Technology Solutions Inc. was leading the hand-recount part of the audit but decided not to renew its contract, audit officials said Tuesday. The recount is...
White House adviser: ‘Get to bottom’ of coronavirus origins
WASHINGTON — White House coronavirus adviser Andy Slavitt says “we need to get to the bottom” of the origins of the pandemic pathogen and the World Health Organization and China need to do more to provide definitive answers for the global community. The precise origin of the virus remains undetermined...
4 found dead at central Ohio home after shooting, police say
WEST JEFFERSON, Ohio — The bodies of three men and a woman were found after a shooting at a home on a dead-end street in central Ohio, police said. Officers responded to the scene around 5:30 p.m. Monday after a passerby called 911, police said. One man was found Monday...
Lawyer: U.S. got ex-Ukranian officials’ data in Giuliani probe
NEW YORK — U.S. prosecutors in 2019 sought the electronic messages of two ex-Ukrainian government officials and a Ukrainian businessman as part of their probe of Rudy Giuliani’s dealings in that country, a lawyer accidentally revealed in a court filing Tuesday. The filing said federal prosecutors in New York had...
Bills to restrict abortion, expand gun rights start in Pennsylvania House
HARRISBURG — Republicans who control Pennsylvania’s Legislature began Tuesday to advance hot-button bills to restrict abortion rights and expand gun rights, although the bills faced opposition by Democratic lawmakers and certain veto by Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf. Since he took office in 2015, Wolf has battled the Legislature’s Republican majorities...
Sheriff: Suspicious package at Sen. Rand Paul’s home is non-toxicVideo
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A suspicious package sent to the Kentucky home of Republican U.S. Sen. Rand Paul appears to contain a non-toxic substance, the local sheriff’s office said. Paul, a libertarian-leaning former presidential candidate, tweeted Monday that he takes any such “threats immensely seriously” and said he has been “targeted...
Hezbollah leader: Breach of Jerusalem means regional war
BEIRUT — The leader of Lebanon’s militant group Hezbollah said Tuesday any violations of Jerusalem and the sites holy to Muslims and Christians would lead to a regional war. Speaking for the first time since the cease-fire ending the 11-day war between Hamas and Israel, Hassan Nasrallah said Gaza’s militant...
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp: Public agencies can’t require covid-19 vaccine proof
ATLANTA — Gov. Brian Kemp says public agencies in Georgia can’t require people to prove they have been vaccinated against covid-19, a step his administration says ultimately means no agency can require anyone to receive the vaccination. The Republican governor issued an executive order Tuesday banning vaccine passports and saying...
GOP leaders condemn Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene over Holocaust commentsVideo
WASHINGTON — Republican leaders forcefully condemned GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on Tuesday, calling her comments comparing covid-19 safety measures like mask-wearing to the treatment of Jews in Nazi Germany “appalling.” “Marjorie is wrong, and her intentional decision to compare the horrors of the Holocaust with wearing masks is appalling,”...
