Iran nuclear talks resume in Vienna amid new complications
BERLIN — World powers resumed high-level talks in Vienna on Tuesday focused on bringing the United States back into the nuclear deal with Iran, in their first session since comments surfaced from the Iranian foreign minister alleging that Russia once tried to scupper the pact. The Russian Foreign Ministry has...
3D printing’s new challenge: Solving the U.S. housing shortageVideo
A new generation of startups wants to disrupt the way houses are built by automating production with industrial 3D printers. 3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, uses machines to deposit thin layers of plastic, metal, concrete and other materials atop one another, eventually producing three-dimensional objects from the bottom...
No big backlash for states passing anti-transgender laws
Five states have passed laws or implemented executive orders this year limiting the ability of transgender youths to play sports or receive certain medical treatment. There’s been a vehement outcry from supporters of transgender rights — but little in the way of tangible repercussions for those states. It’s a striking...
Greece coast guard divers seize cocaine from cargo ship
ATHENS, Greece — Greek authorities say coast guard divers have seized more than 103 pounds of cocaine found hidden behind a water intake grate in the hull of a cargo ship that arrived in Greece from Brazil. The coast guard said Tuesday it had seized the drugs the previous day...
In fight against covid, Biden looks for path back to normal
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden spent his first 100 days in office encouraging Americans to mask up and stay home to slow the spread of the coronavirus. His task for the next 100 days will be to lay out the path back to normal. When he entered office, Biden moved...
What’s behind the growth slump? Takeaways from census data
The first batch of once-every-decade data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows a United States that is growing less quickly but still seeing its population shift to the South and the West. The data released Monday was relatively basic — containing national and state-level population figures and details of how...
German police say grenade-shaped item in forest was sex toy
BERLIN — A German police bomb squad called to investigate a suspected hand grenade in a Bavarian forest determined that the object actually was a rubber sex toy, authorities said Tuesday. A jogger reported finding a bag containing the device Monday in a forest outside the city of Passau, near...
Biden signs $15 minimum wage for federal contract workers
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden signed an executive order Tuesday to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour for federal contractors, providing a pay bump to hundreds of thousands of workers. Biden administration officials said that the higher wages would lead to greater worker productivity, offsetting any additional costs...
Firm recounting Arizona ballots wants methods kept secret
PHOENIX — A contractor hired by Arizona’s state Senate to oversee the recount of 2.1 million ballots in the county that includes the metro Phoenix area wants a judge to keep secret its methods for ensuring ballot privacy. The request came in advance of a hearing Tuesday where a judge...
Vaccinated Americans may get clearance to skip the masks outdoorsVideo
WASHINGTON — A growing call for health officials to relax rules about outdoor mask wearing could soon lead to one of the most significant changes in virus guidelines since the U.S. first told Americans to don face coverings to curb the spread of covid-19. Outdoor mask wearing has been the...
SOS messages, panic as coronavirus breaks India’s health systemVideo
NEW DELHI — Dr. Gautam Singh dreads the daily advent of the ventilator beeps, signaling that oxygen levels are critically low, and hearing his desperately ill patients start gasping for air in the New Delhi emergency ward where he works. Like other doctors across India, which on Monday set another...
U.S. marks slowest population growth since the DepressionVideo
WASHINGTON — U.S. population growth has slowed to the lowest rate since the Great Depression, the Census Bureau said Monday, as Americans continued their march to the South and West and one-time engines of growth, New York and California, lost political influence. Altogether, the U.S. population rose to 331,449,281 last...
Homeland Security launches review of extremism within agency
WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security on Monday announced an internal review to assess the threat of violent extremism from within the agency, part of a broader administration focus on domestic threats following the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Senior DHS officials will immediately begin the review,...
West Virginia to give $100 savings bond for young vaccinatedVideo
CHARLESTON — West Virginia aims to entice residents aged 16 to 35 to get a coronavirus shot with the promise of a $100 savings bond. Republican Gov. Jim Justice said Monday the move was to “jump-start” immunizing the demographic that officials say are most likely to be currently spreading the...
Colorado cop accused of hurting woman’s arm: ‘Ready for the pop?’Video
DENVER — A Colorado police officer accused of dislocating the shoulder of a 73-year-old woman with dementia while arresting her apparently knew he had injured her. He told fellow officers “ready for the pop?” as he showed them his body camera footage, according to police station surveillance video with enhanced...
Rick Santorum slammed for dismissing Native American culture: ‘There was nothing here’ when colonists arrivedVideo
Rick Santorum’s recent bit of revisionist history was not received well on the internet. Santorum, a former Penn Hills resident who represented Pennsylvania in the U.S. Senate for 12 years, told a student conference on Friday that “there was nothing here” when European colonizers “birthed a nation from nothing” upon...
Ex-cop who killed Tamir Rice appeals to Ohio Supreme Court
CLEVELAND — The white Cleveland police officer who fatally shot Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old Black child playing with a pellet gun outside a recreation center in November 2014, has filed an appeal with the Ohio Supreme Court to get his job back. Attorneys for Timothy Loehmann filed the appeal last...
Pennsylvania will lose a U.S. House seat after redistricting
Spotlight PA is an independent, non-partisan 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 — Pennsylvania will lose one of its seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, the Census Bureau has confirmed, setting...
Pathologist: Black man killed by North Carolina deputies was shot 5 timesVideo
ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. — Andrew Brown Jr., a Black man killed by deputies in North Carolina, was shot five times, including in the back of the head, according to an independent autopsy released Tuesday, hours before the FBI announced a federal civil rights investigation into last week’s shooting. The developments...
Census: Texas gains Congress seats; Calif. loses for 1st timeVideo
WASHINGTON — The nation’s political center of gravity shifted further to the Republican-led South and West on Monday, with Texas, Florida and other Sun Belt states gaining congressional seats while chillier climes like New York and Ohio lost them. Altogether, the U.S. population rose to 331,449,281, the Census Bureau said,...
Family of Black man shot by deputy in Virginia seeks release of audio
SPOTSYLVANIA COURTHOUSE, Va. — The family of a Black man shot by a Virginia sheriff’s deputy last week demanded the release of additional audio recordings related to the incident Monday and said Isaiah Brown remained in “very critical” condition. Speaking at a news conference outside the Spotsylvania County courthouse, an...
Justice Department to investigate Louisville policing practices after Breonna Taylor death
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is launching a broad inquiry of the police department in Louisville, Kentucky, the second such investigation into a local law enforcement agency in the last week. U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the probe, saying it will examine whether the Louisville police force engages “in...
Pennsylvania officials set sights on vaccinating homebound residents
As the pace of covid-19 vaccinations continues to accelerate in Pennsylvania, state officials have turned their attention to people who are unable to leave their homes. “Now we’re at the point where supply is coming close to demand,” Gov. Tom Wolf said Monday during a news conference in Reading. “We...
Biden’s first address to Congress is invite-only
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s first address to Congress is an invite-only affair, no guests allowed. The restrictions for Wednesday’s event are due to covid-19 safety protocols, but will have the added security benefit of a limited number of people inside the Capitol for the president’s first major indoor event...
U.S. will share AstraZeneca vaccines with world
WASHINGTON — The U.S. will begin sharing its entire pipeline of vaccines from AstraZeneca once the covid-19 vaccine clear federal safety reviews, the White House told the Associated Press on Monday, with as many as 60 million doses expected to be available for export in the coming months. The move...
