Why it’s dangerous that workers in Pa. prisons, covid-19 hot spots, aren’t getting vaccinated
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 — A delayed upgrade to the state Department of Corrections’ dashboard on covid-19 rates in prisons has revealed that only...
Death toll in fire at Iraqi covid-19 hospital surpasses 80
BAGHDAD — The death toll from a massive fire at a Baghdad hospital for coronavirus patients rose to at least 82 Sunday as anxious families searched for missing relatives and the government suspended key health officials for alleged negligence. The flames, described by one witness as “volcanoes of fire,” swept...
Young adults’ relocations are reshaping political geography
Garima Vyas always wanted to live in a big city. She thought about New York, long the destination for 20-something strivers, but was wary of the cost and complicated subway lines. So Vyas picked another metropolis that’s increasingly become young people’s next-best option — Houston. Now 34, Vyas, a tech...
More action, less talk, distinguish Biden’s 100-day sprint
WASHINGTON — The card tucked in President Joe Biden’s right jacket pocket must weigh a ton. You can see the weight of it on his face when he digs it out, squints and ever-so-slowly reads aloud the latest tally of covid-19 dead. Sometimes he’ll stumble on a digit — after...
Relief for child sex abuse survivors revived in Pa. Senate after Wolf administration error
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 — A key state Senate committee on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved legislation to temporarily allow survivors of decades-old child sexual abuse...
Democrat Troy Carter wins New Orleans-based House seat
BATON ROUGE, La. — Democrat Troy Carter won Saturday’s special election for Louisiana’s vacant U.S. House seat, defeating his state Senate colleague and ending an acrimonious, intraparty clash. Carter easily defeated Karen Carter Peterson in the race for Louisiana’s only Democrat-held seat in Congress, handing a victory to the more...
With OK from experts, some states resume use of J&J covid vaccine
NEW YORK — With a green light from federal health officials, many states resumed use of the one-shot Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine on Saturday. Among the venues where it was being deployed: the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Among the other states ordering or recommending a resumption, along with Indiana, were...
Your guide to Pa.’s 2021 primary ballot questions
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. All Pennsylvania voters — yes, that includes independents and minor-party members — will be asked to consider four ballot questions on...
1 verdict, then 6 police killings across America in 24 hours
Even as the Derek Chauvin case was fresh in memory — the reading of the verdict in a Minneapolis courtroom, the shackling of the former police officer, the jubilation at what many saw as justice in the death of George Floyd — even then, blood flowed on America’s streets. And...
Biden recognizes atrocities against Armenians as genocide
WILMINGTON, Del. — The United States is formally recognizing that the systematic killing and deportation of hundreds of thousands of Armenians by Ottoman Empire forces in the early 20th century was “genocide” as President Joe Biden used that precise word that the White House has avoided for decades for fear...
Mexican leader to talk with Kamala Harris on migration
MEXICO CITY — Mexico announced Saturday that President Andrés Manuel López Obrador will hold talks with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris on May 7 to discuss migration amid an increase in underage migrants at the U.S. southern border. Mo’s top diplomat said the video meeting will focus on Mexico’s questioned...
Local health systems look to CDC guidance on resuming J&J covid vaccinations
U.S. health advisers on Friday urged resuming covid-19 vaccinations with Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose shot, saying its benefits outweigh a rare risk of blood clots — in line with Europe’s rollout. Federal health officials uncovered 15 vaccine recipients who developed a highly unusual kind of blood clot, out of nearly...
Summit shows Biden’s big vision on fighting climate change
WASHINGTON — What did the world learn at Joe Biden’s global summit about his vision of the battle to save the world’s climate? For two days, Biden and his team of climate experts pressed his case that tackling global warming not only can avert an existential threat, but also benefit...
U.S. lifts pause, allowing J&J covid-19 vaccinations to resume
U.S. health officials lifted an 11-day pause on covid-19 vaccinations using Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose shot on Friday, after scientific advisers decided its benefits outweigh a rare risk of blood clot. The government uncovered 15 vaccine recipients who developed a highly unusual kind of blood clot, out of nearly 8...
Georgia AG quits chair of prosecutors’ group in Capitol riot fallout
ATLANTA — Georgia’s top prosecutor has resigned as chairman of the national Republican Attorneys General Association, saying he has had a “fundamental difference of opinion” with some of the other 24 members since the group encouraged the crowd that breached the Capitol on Jan. 6. Republican Chris Carr’s break with...
In court, Ghislaine Maxwell pleads not guilty to new charges
NEW YORK — Ghislaine Maxwell faced her trial judge in person for the first time Friday as lawyers squabbled over exactly when she should be tried on sex trafficking charges that allege that she procured teenage girls for Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse at his posh residences. Maxwell, a British...
Can Chauvin get his convictions tossed on appeal?
MINNEAPOLIS — The unique circumstances surrounding Derek Chauvin’s trial in George Floyd’s death could offer the former Minneapolis police officer some shot at winning a retrial on appeal, thought most legal experts agree it’s a long shot. Chauvin, who is white, kneeled on Floyd’s neck for nearly 9½ minutes last...
Texting option weighed for upcoming ‘988’ suicide hotline
Recognizing that many Americans rely on texting, U.S. regulators are weighing whether to require that phone companies allow people to text a suicide hotline. The Federal Communications Commission last summer voted to require a new “988” number for people to call to reach a suicide-prevention hotline. Phone companies have until...
Justice at last: Convictions of 39 U.K. postal workers quashed
LONDON — In a ruling that reversed one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in British legal history, 39 people who ran local post offices had their convictions for theft, fraud and false accounting overturned Friday because of what an appeals court said was clear evidence of “bugs, errors or...
Detectives: DNA solves 1985 slaying, rape of dementia victim
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A DNA test has led to the arrest of a suspect in the April 1985 slaying, rape and kidnapping of a 78-year-old woman who had dementia and had wandered away from her home. The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office announced Friday that it had arrested Richard...
Police: 1 dead, 4 wounded in downtown San Diego shooting
SAN DIEGO — A gunman in downtown San Diego shot and killed one person and then walked another block and opened fire again, wounding four people before police took him down with a Taser, police said Friday. A 32-year-old suspect was arrested after the Thursday night shooting and was taken...
Covid cases taper in Pa., but deaths, hospitalizations remain a concern
Pennsylvania continues to see the coronavirus claim lives and put people in the hospital at a rising rate, even as reported cases of covid-19 trend downward. Cases Pennsylvania on Friday reported 4,188 additional cases of covid-19, the fewest in four days. The seven-day average of cases dropped to 4,050, the...
FDA: N95 masks, now plentiful, should no longer be reused
The Biden administration has taken the first step toward ending an emergency exception that allowed hospitals to ration and reuse N95 medical masks, the first line of defense between frontline workers and the deadly coronavirus. Thousands of medical providers have died in the covid-19 pandemic, many exposed and infected while...
Caitlyn Jenner says she will run for governor of CaliforniaVideo
LOS ANGELES — Republican Caitlyn Jenner said Friday she will run for governor of California, injecting a jolt of celebrity into an emerging campaign that threatens to oust Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom from office. Jenner — an Olympic hero, reality TV personality and a transgender rights activist — said in...
Jill Biden to visit tribal school still teaching remotely
ST. MICHAELS, Ariz. — A small grade school on the outskirts of the Navajo Nation capital is ready for students to return. Staff at Hunters Point Boarding School in St. Michaels have repainted the building, upgraded the washer and dryer in the dorms, installed a security gate, placed plexiglass between...
