WHO team urges patience after 1st look for origin of virus
GENEVA — An international team that drew up a long-awaited study of the possible origins of covid-19 with Chinese colleagues on Tuesday called it a “first start,” appealing for patience and noting all hypotheses — including a possible laboratory leak — cannot be fully ruled out. Team leader Peter Ben...
Service honors Colorado police officer killed in mass shootingVideo
LAFAYETTE, Colo. — A slain Colorado police officer credited with preventing more deaths in a mass shooting at a supermarket was being honored at a memorial service before he is laid to rest Tuesday. More than 500 law enforcement vehicles took part in a procession that escorted the hearse carrying...
Court lets woman’s defamation suit vs. Trump proceed again
NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump could face questioning under oath about a former “Apprentice” contestant’s sexual assault allegations against him, following a ruling from New York’s highest court Tuesday. Evidence-gathering has been on hold in Summer Zervos’ defamation lawsuit since Trump asked the high court last year to...
SpaceX launches test rocket, breaks apart before landing
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — SpaceX chalked up another failed landing Tuesday for its futuristic, bullet-shaped Starship, as the prototype Mars rocket broke apart right before touchdown. A camera on the rocket froze not quite six minutes into the test flight, and dense fog in South Texas obscured views of the...
Virgin Galactic rolls out latest generation of spaceshipVideo
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Virgin Galactic rolled out its newest spaceship Tuesday as the company looks to resume test flights in the coming months at its headquarters in the New Mexico desert. Company officials said it will likely be summer before the ship — designed and manufactured in California — undergoes...
Biden announces diverse 1st slate of judicial nominees
President Joe Biden on Tuesday unveiled his first slate of judicial nominees, a racially diverse and mostly female field that is a sharp departure from the largely white and male picks during President Donald Trump’s administration. Biden’s list puts three Black women on federal courts of appeals, a pathway to...
‘That lady is drunk!’ Court weighs citizen tip validity
COLUMBUS, Ohio — The legal authority of a shouted tip to a state trooper about an impaired driver — “That lady is drunk!” — is before the Ohio Supreme Court in a question over constitutional protections from illegal search and seizure. At issue is the 2017 arrest of a woman...
Prosecutor: Woman in Slender Man stabbing still dangerous
WAUKESHA, Wis. — A judge should deny a request to be released by a Wisconsin woman convicted of stabbing a classmate to please the internet horror character Slender Man because she remains a danger to others, a prosecutor argued in response to the petition for conditional release. Earlier this month,...
German state suspends AstraZeneca vaccine use for under-60s
BERLIN — The German state of Berlin is again suspending the use of AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine for people under 60 because of reports of blood clots. Berlin’s top health official, Dilek Kalayci, said Tuesday that the decision was taken as a precaution ahead of a meeting of representatives from all...
With ship now freed, a probe into Suez Canal blockage begins
SUEZ, Egypt — Experts boarded the massive container ship Tuesday that had blocked Egypt’s vital Suez Canal and disrupted global trade for nearly a week, seeking answers to a single question that could have billions of dollars in legal repercussions: What went wrong? As convoys of ships again began traveling...
Video shows Asian American woman assaulted on NYC street
NEW YORK — An Asian American woman was attacked by a man who repeatedly kicked her in front of witnesses who seemingly stood by, according to surveillance footage released by the New York City Police Department. The 65-year-old woman was walking in midtown Manhattan on Monday afternoon when a man...
White House says private sector should lead on vaccine passportsVideo
White House officials said that the push for vaccine passports should come from the private sector and that the federal government won’t take the lead in creating a centralized document proving vaccination. The U.S. government “is not viewing its role as the place to create a passport, nor a place...
‘Her distinctive laugh still echoes,’ husband of central Pa. woman killed in ‘cowardly’ road rage shooting says
A Lancaster County mother of six who was killed in a “cowardly” road rage shooting in North Carolina last week was on her way to Hilton Head to celebrate her seventh wedding anniversary, her husband said Monday. “Her distinct laugh still echoes in the hearts of everyone she touched,” Ryan...
Arkansas Senate OKs ban on treatments for transgender youth
LITTLE ROCK — The Arkansas Senate on Monday approved banning gender confirming treatments for minors, sending the governor a restriction on transgender youth that has been criticized by medical and child welfare groups. The majority Republican Senate voted 28-7 in favor of the legislation. If the bill is enacted it...
More than a dozen states to open vaccines to all adultsVideo
More than a dozen states will open vaccine eligibility to all adults this week in a major expansion of covid-19 shots for tens of millions of Americans amid a worrisome increase in virus cases and concerns about balancing supply and demand for the vaccines. Meanwhile, the director of the Centers...
Pennsylvania schools to get $4.9B in federal pandemic aid
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania schools will get nearly $5 billion from the federal covid-19 aid package, the Wolf administration announced Monday. School districts must use at least 20% of the money to address learning loss from the pandemic as well as support the “social, emotional, and academic needs of underrepresented students,”...
Sex trafficking crimes brought against Epstein ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell
NEW YORK — Sex trafficking charges and another alleged victim were added to a superseding indictment returned Monday in the criminal case against financier Jeffrey Epstein’s ex-girlfriend as prosecutors alleged that a conspiracy to sexually abuse girls stretched over a decade. The charges contained in a rewritten indictment returned by...
Some West Virginia schools see spike in coronavirus outbreaks
CHARLESTON — Schools in West Virginia’s capital and surrounding Kanawha County reported the most coronavirus outbreaks since the start of the pandemic on Monday. A total of 41 students and three staff members have been affected by outbreaks across seven schools, according to the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department. And in northern...
Capitol riot suspect wore ‘I Was There’ shirt when arrested
Garret Miller didn’t speak to the law enforcement officers who arrested him on charges he stormed the U.S. Capitol in January, but the T-shirt he was wearing at his Dallas home that day sent a clear and possibly incriminating message. Miller’s shirt had a photograph of former President Donald Trump,...
AP sources: SolarWinds hack got emails of top DHS officials
Suspected Russian hackers gained access to email accounts belonging to the Trump administration’s head of the Department of Homeland Security and members of the department’s cybersecurity staff whose jobs included hunting threats from foreign countries, The Associated Press has learned. The intelligence value of the hacking of then-acting Secretary Chad...
Police: ‘No idea’ why Maryland man shot 5 people before killing selfVideo
Investigators have “no idea” why a Maryland man fatally shot his parents at their home and gunned down two other people at a convenience store before setting fire to his apartment and killing himself, a police official said Monday. A gun that Joshua Green, 27, used in Sunday’s deadly shooting...
New Mexico sues U.S. over proposed nuclear waste storage plans
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — New Mexico sued the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Monday over concerns that the federal agency hasn’t done enough to vet plans for a multibillion-dollar facility to store spent nuclear fuel in the state, arguing that the project would endanger residents, the environment and the economy. New...
Tolls going up on several spans connecting NJ, Pennsylvania
The bistate agency that operates river crossings connecting New Jersey and Pennsylvania announced Monday that it will raise tolls next month and again in 2024, the first such increases in 10 years. The Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission cited the decline in passenger car traffic and toll revenue caused...
Canadian panel recommends AstraZeneca pause for under 55
TORONTO — Canada’s National Advisory Committee on Immunization is recommending a pause on AstraZeneca covid-19 vaccinations for people under 55 for safety reasons, a person familiar with the matter told the Associated Press on Monday. The person confirmed the recommendation on condition on anonymity as they were not authorized to...
Ban on renter evictions during covid-19 pandemic is extended
The Biden administration is extending a federal moratorium on evictions of tenants who have fallen behind on rent during the coronavirus pandemic. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday moved to continue the pandemic-related protection, which had been scheduled to expire on Wednesday. The moratorium is now extended...
