Biden open to compromise on infrastructure, but not inaction
President Joe Biden drew a red line on his $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan Wednesday, saying he is open to compromise on how to pay for the package but inaction is unacceptable. The president turned fiery in an afternoon speech, saying that the United States is failing to build, invest and...
Tiger Woods was driving about 85 mph when he crashed SUV near LA
Tiger Woods was driving nearly 90 mph — twice the posted speed limit — on a downhill stretch of road when he lost control of an SUV outside Los Angeles and crashed in a wreck that left the golf superstar seriously injured, authorities said Wednesday. Sheriff Alex Villanueva blamed the...
CDC says British covid variant is now the most common strain in U.S.
WASHINGTON — A variant of the coronavirus first identified in Britain is now the most common strain circulating in the United States. The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, says the strain, formally known as B.1.1.7, is “now the most common lineage circulating in...
Covid testing blitz undermined screening, fight against STDs
WASHINGTON — After an unprecedented push to test and track covid-19, public health workers are grappling with a worrisome side effect: a collapse in screening for sexually transmitted diseases that have been on the rise for years. Testing for diseases like chlamydia and gonorrhea plummeted in many parts of the...
Snub in EU-Turkey meeting highlights gender equality issue
BRUSSELS — Gender equality issues took center stage Wednesday in Brussels a day after Ursula von der Leyen, one the EU’s most powerful executives, was treated like a second-rank official during a visit to Ankara. Von der Leyen — the European Commission president — and European Council chief Charles Michel...
U.S. military cites rising risk of Chinese move against Taiwan
WASHINGTON — The American military is warning that China is probably accelerating its timetable for capturing control of Taiwan, the island democracy that has been the chief source of tension between Washington and Beijing for decades and is widely seen as the most likely trigger for a potentially catastrophic U.S.-China...
Police official: Derek Chauvin trained to avoid neck pressureVideo
MINNEAPOLIS — Minneapolis police are taught to restrain combative suspects with a knee on their back or shoulders if necessary but are told to “stay away from the neck when possible,” a department use-of-force instructor testified Tuesday at former Officer Derek Chauvin’s murder trial. Lt. Johnny Mercil became the latest...
NRA executive Wayne LaPierre sheltered on borrowed yacht after mass shootings
DALLAS — After school shootings that left dozens dead in recent years, National Rifle Association leader Wayne LaPierre said the resulting outrage put him in such danger that he sought shelter aboard a borrowed 108-foot yacht. During a deposition, the head of the powerful gun-rights group’s acknowledged sailing in The...
Vote signals support for child sex abuse window in bill form
HARRISBURG — The state House of Representatives showed solid support Tuesday for enacting a two-year lawsuit window for child victims of sexual abuse as a regular bill, two weeks after the Legislature gave its first round of approval to a similar constitutional amendment. The 148 to 53 vote set the...
Nearly half of new U.S. virus infections are in just 5 statesVideo
Nearly half of new coronavirus infections nationwide are in just five states — a situation that is putting pressure on the federal government to consider changing how it distributes vaccines by sending more doses to hot spots. New York, Michigan, Florida, Pennsylvania and New Jersey together reported 44% of the...
Pennsylvania’s push for vaccine equity has been a challenge
Getting shots into the arms of the state’s most vulnerable elderly and minority residents remains a challenge, even as vaccine begins a steady flow into Pennsylvania, state officials said Tuesday. It took the combined efforts of three managed care giants tasked with reaching out to the marginalized and those most...
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis threatens CBS with ‘consequences’ over ‘pay-for-play’ vaccine story on ’60 Minutes’Video
ORLANDO, Fla. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis threatened CBS with unspecified “consequences” over Sunday’s “60 Minutes” story about coronavirus vaccine favoritism, saying he was “going to bite back and hold (CBS) accountable.” “What they’re saying is a total crock, that somehow only Publix was getting (the vaccine) is nonsense,” DeSantis...
Arkansas lawmakers enact transgender youth treatment ban
LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas lawmakers on Tuesday made the state the first to ban gender confirming treatments and surgery for transgender youth, enacting the prohibition over the governor’s objections. The Republican-controlled House and Senate voted to override GOP Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s veto of the measure, which prohibits doctors from providing...
Official: EU agency to confirm AstraZeneca blood clot linkVideo
ROME — A top official at the European Medicines Agency says there’s a causal link between AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine and rare blood clots, but that it’s unclear what the connection is and that the benefits of taking the shot still outweigh the risks of getting covid-19. Marco Cavaleri, head of...
McConnell: It’s ‘stupid’ for corporations to speak out on politicsVideo
WASHINGTON — Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday “it’s quite stupid” for corporations to speak out politically, intensifying his warnings for big business to stand down as Congress delves into voting rights, President Joe Biden’s infrastructure package and other defining issues. Speaking in Kentucky, the GOP leader said he...
‘Pennsylvanians owe a debt of gratitude’: Wolf salutes grocery employees as pandemic heroes
Gov. Tom Wolf on Tuesday recognized grocery store employees, hundreds of thousands of whom found themselves thrust to the front lines of the covid-19 pandemic, going to work in order to supply what the rest of the state needed to stay home. Such employees have had access to covid-19 vaccine...
California plans to lift most pandemic restrictions June 15
SAN FRANCISCO — California plans to lift most coronavirus restrictions on businesses and workplaces June 15, with officials saying enough people should be vaccinated by then to allow for life to almost get back to a pre-pandemic normal. The mask mandate in the nation’s most populated state will remain in...
3-year-old boy, 7 adults wounded in latest Chicago shootings
CHICAGO — A 3-year-old boy was shot in the head Tuesday morning while riding in a car on Chicago’s famed Lake Shore Drive just hours after seven people were shot and wounded in a fight a few miles away, in what is shaping up to be one of the most...
Lawmakers call YouTube Kids a ‘wasteland of vapid’ content
A House subcommittee is investigating YouTube Kids, saying the Google-owned video service feeds children inappropriate material in “a wasteland of vapid, consumerist content” so it can serve them ads. The inquiry comes despite Google agreeing to pay $170 million in 2019 to settle allegations that YouTube collected personal data on...
6 people dead in Texas murder-suicide plot
DALLAS — Authorities have identified six people found dead in a suburban Dallas home in what police said was an apparent murder-suicide plot. The Allen Police Department said investigators believe brothers Tanvir Towhid, 21, and Farhan Towhid, 19, made a pact to kill their parents, sister and grandmother before killing...
Viral thoughts: Why covid-19 conspiracy theories persist
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Daniel Roberts hadn’t had a vaccination since he was 6. No boosters, no tetanus shots. His parents taught him inoculations were dangerous, and when the coronavirus arrived, they called it a hoax. The vaccine, they said, was the real threat. So when the 29-year-old Tennessee man got...
Study: Moderna vaccine lasts at least 6 months
BOSTON — New research suggests the protection the Moderna vaccine gives against covid-19 lasts for at least six months. The report Tuesday in the New England Journal of Medicine echoes what Pfizer said last week about its vaccine, which works in a similar way. Both reports were based on follow-up...
Petty officer shoots 2 sailors; is stopped, killed on Maryland baseVideo
FREDERICK, Md. — A Navy medic shot and critically wounded two U.S. sailors at a military facility Tuesday, then fled to a nearby Army base where he was shot and killed, police and Navy officials said. Fantahun Girma Woldesenbet, a petty officer third class assigned to Fort Detrick, began shooting...
Those involved in naked photo shoot in Dubai to be deported
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Those involved in a naked photo shoot on a high-rise balcony in Dubai will be deported, authorities said Tuesday, after the footage went viral and prompted a crackdown in the Gulf Arab sheikhdom. Dubai authorities detained at least 11 Ukrainian women who posed naked in...
Pa. House passes bill seeking to keep state on daylight saving time
The Pennsylvania House of Representatives on Monday passed legislation urging Congress to do away with the semi-annual clock changing ritual and authorize states to make daylight saving time permanent. By a vote of 103-98, the House chose to join 15 other states that have passed legislation asking for this change...
