Tennessee man admits hate crime in attack on Muslim girls
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A Tennessee man who harassed two teenage Muslim girls and then swung a knife and attacked their father has pleaded guilty to a federal hate crime. Christopher Beckham, 35, of Nashville, appeared in court last week to enter the plea, the Justice Department said Monday in a...
U.S. home construction falls a surprising 9.5% in April
WASHINGTON — U.S. home construction fell a surprisingly sharp 9.5% in April and economists attributed that partially builders who delayed projects because of a surge in lumber prices and supply constraints. The April decline left construction at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.57 million units, the Commerce Department said...
Val Demings plans to challenge Marco Rubio in Fla. Senate race
WASHINGTON — Rep. Val Demings is planning to challenge Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, giving Democrats a boost in a competitive 2022 race that could decide control of the Senate, according to two people with knowledge of the plans. The move ends mounting speculation over the congresswoman’s political future. She had...
GOP Leader McCarthy opposes Jan. 6 commission ahead of vote
WASHINGTON — House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy said Tuesday that he won’t support a proposal to form an independent, bipartisan commission to study the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, almost certainly eroding GOP support ahead of a vote and positioning his party as opposed to investigations of...
Arrest warrant issued for man in Confederate monument theft
SELMA, Ala. — Police in Alabama have issued an arrest warrant for a man in connection with the bizarre theft of a Confederate monument that was taken from an Alabama cemetery and found in Louisiana. Selma police charged Jason Warnick with theft in connection with the mysterious disappearance of the...
More than 50 migrants reported drowned off Tunisia; 33 saved
TUNIS, Tunisia — Tunisian authorities say more than 50 migrants have drowned off the coast of the North African country, while 33 others were rescued by workers from an oil platform. Defense Ministry spokesman Mohamed Zekri said Tuesday that a boat carrying the migrants sank Monday off Sfax, on Tunisia’s...
Biden moving to improve legal services for poor, minorities
DETROIT — President Joe Biden plans to take executive action Tuesday to ensure minorities, low-income Americans and others have better access to quality legal representation after services dwindled during the Trump administration. Biden will sign a memorandum directing the Department of Justice to restore key functions of the shuttered Access...
Palestinians go on strike as Israel-Hamas fighting rages
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Palestinians across Israel and the occupied territories went on strike in a rare collective protest Tuesday as Israeli missiles toppled a building in Gaza and militants in the Hamas-ruled territory fired dozens of rockets that killed two people. The demonstrations and ongoing violence came as...
Blinken brings Biden’s anti-Trump climate policy to Iceland
REYKJAVIK, Iceland — On a trip overshadowed by the crisis in the Middle East, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday touted the Biden administration’s abrupt shift in its predecessor’s climate policies as he visited Iceland for talks with senior officials from the world’s Arctic nations. In Reykjavik for...
Spain, Morocco square off after 6,000 migrants arrive by sea
MADRID — Spain deployed its military to the Moroccan border Tuesday after thousands of Moroccans took advantage of their government’s relaxed border controls to swim or paddle in inflatable boats onto European soil. Live footage on Spain’s public broadcaster TVE showed dramatic scenes of soldiers carrying children in their arms...
12 vie for 5 open seats on Pittsburgh Public Schools board
Five out of nine seats on the Pittsburgh Public Schools board are up for grabs this election, and a dozen candidates are competing for them. Tuesday’s primary comes as the district continues grappling with the challenges of the covid-19 pandemic, strives to improve equity among students and confronts daunting budgetary...
House consumed by tension over Capitol riot as vote on investigation nears
WASHINGTON — Amid increasing tension between Republicans and Democrats in Congress over the January insurrection, the House is expected to vote this week on whether to establish a commission to investigate what led to the violence and whether to pay nearly $2 billion for police back pay and the security...
Biden expresses ‘support’ for cease-fire in Netanyahu callVideo
President Joe Biden expressed support for a cease-fire between Israel and Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers in a call to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, the eighth day of air strikes and rocket barrages that have killed at least 200 people, most of them Palestinians in Gaza. Biden stopped...
Spotted lanternfly eggs are now hatching across much of Pennsylvania
Homeowners across a large swath of Pennsylvania are reporting sightings of spotted lanternflies hatching from egg masses. “Egg-hatching season is here, and that has some people on edge,” said Emelie Swackhamer, a horticulture educator with Penn State Extension. She added that the pest now has been reported in 34 Pennsylvania...
Sens. Manchin, Murkowski unite in call to rewrite Voting Rights Act
WASHINGTON — Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska are urging congressional leaders to embark on a broad rewrite of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, a bipartisan move that underscores the difficulties Democrats face in getting their own sweeping voting bill through...
Inspector who failed to catch Interstate 40 bridge crack fired
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — An inspector who failed to discover a crack in the Interstate 40 bridge linking Arkansas and Tennessee that prompted the span’s closure has been fired, Arkansas transportation officials said Monday. Arkansas Department of Transportation Director Lorie Tudor said the inspector was fired after drone video showed...
Former Rep. Lou Barletta changes the calculus on Pa. GOP gubernatorial primaryVideo
Former congressman Lou Barletta, the failed 2018 U.S. Senate candidate and frequent Donald Trump surrogate at campaign events last year, changed the calculus for Pennsylvania’s 2022 GOP gubernatorial primary with his official campaign announcement Monday. Barletta, 65, a four-term congressmen who sprang to national prominence 15 years ago as the...
Gov. Wolf should apologize for implying cops are ‘racist murderers,’ head of Pa. state troopers association says
Pennsylvania State Troopers Association President David Kennedy is demanding that Gov. Tom Wolf apologize for promoting what Kennedy insisted is “a false narrative that police are racist murderers.” What Kennedy targeted in a statement released Monday were Wolf’s comments in a letter sent to state employees Friday regarding the declaration...
Pennsylvania’s largest teachers union in favor of in-person return
HARRISBURG — The president of Pennsylvania’s largest teachers union expressed support Monday for in-person instruction in the fall, calling it a “top priority” now that many teachers have been vaccinated and older children have become eligible for the covid-19 shot. “As more students are vaccinated over the summer, we believe...
Giuliani lawyers: Feds treat him like drug boss or terrorist
NEW YORK — Attorneys for Rudolph Giuliani say a covert warrant prosecutors obtained for his Apple iCloud account in November 2019 and a raid last month by agents who seized his electronic devices show they are treating him more like a drug kingpin or terrorist rather than a personal lawyer...
Supreme Court abortion case: Here’s what it all means
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court agreed on Monday to decide a major abortion case that could dramatically alter decades of rulings on abortion rights and eventually lead to dramatic restrictions on abortion access. It’s been nearly 50 years since the court announced in its landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision...
Judge rules trial for former Minnesota police officer who shot and killed Daunte Wright can proceed
A Minnesota judge ruled Monday that a trial for Kimberly Potter, the former police officer who shot and killed Daunte Wright during a traffic stop in April, can proceed. Hennepin County Judge Regina Chu said Monday there was probable cause for Potter’s second-degree manslaughter charge to continue and set a...
Confused about CDC’s guidance about masks? Here’s what you need to know
The government’s new guidance on masks for vaccinated people has left some Americans confused and sent businesses and states scrambling to adjust their rules. Target and CVS on Monday became the latest retailers to say vaccinated shoppers and workers don’t have to wear masks in stores. New York said it...
Rep. Matt Gaetz associate Joel Greenberg pleads guilty to sex trafficking chargesVideo
ORLANDO, Fla. — A Florida politician who emerged as a central figure in the Justice Department’s sex trafficking investigation into Rep. Matt Gaetz pleaded guilty Monday to six federal charges and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors as part of a plea deal. Joel Greenberg, a longtime associate of Gaetz, appeared...
Dozens more men sue Ohio State over doc’s sexual misconduct
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Dozens more men are suing Ohio State over the university’s failure to stop sexual abuse and misconduct decades ago by team doctor Richard Strauss. They echo claims filed previously by over 400 men, many of whom allege they were groped during required medical exams or while seeking...
