White House officials, lawmakers to tour border facility
WASHINGTON — A delegation of White House officials and members of Congress was traveling to the southern border on Wednesday to tour a facility being used to house migrant children as increasing numbers of unaccompanied young people cross into the United States. The visit to a facility in Carrizo Springs,...
U.S. outlook improving as covid vaccinations rise, deaths fall
More than three months into the U.S. vaccination drive, many of the numbers paint an increasingly encouraging picture, with 70% of Americans 65 and older receiving at least one dose of the vaccine and covid-19 deaths dipping below 1,000 a day on average for the first time since November. Also,...
Faculty union blasts leader of Pa. state universities: ‘His job was to improve the system, not tear it down’
Instructors and coaches are blasting the leader of the state-owned universities for saying that the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education should be reorganized or dissolved. At a Senate budget hearing last week, Chancellor Dan Greenstein warned that if a proposal to consolidate some universities doesn’t happen, he will come...
Homeschooling doubled from pandemic’s start to last fall
ORLANDO, Fla. — The rate of households homeschooling their children doubled from the start of the pandemic last spring to the start of the new school year last September, according to a new U.S. Census Bureau report released this week. Last spring, about 5.4% of all U.S. households with school-aged...
Pa. museums, historical sites to reopen April 30
Twenty-three Pennsylvania-run museums and historical sites, including the State Museum of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg, Landis Valley Village in Lancaster and the Ephrata Cloister, will all reopen on April 30, albeit with reduced hours and at a limited capacity. According to a press release from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission,...
New doubts over Southern Baptists’ limits on women’s rolesVideo
Emily Snook is the daughter of a Southern Baptist pastor. She met her husband, also a pastor, while they attended a Southern Baptist university Yet the 39-year-old Oklahoma woman now finds herself wondering if it’s time to leave the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, in part because of practices and attitudes...
Former FIFA President Sepp Blatter receives new ban from FIFA
GENEVA — Sepp Blatter was banned for a second time by FIFA on Wednesday for financial wrongdoing, seven months before the 85-year-old former president’s first ban expires. Blatter has recently been in poor health and was put in an induced coma for one week after undergoing heart surgery in December,...
Atlanta spa killings prompt new proposals from Georgia Democrats
ATLANTA — Georgia Democrats have introduced a slate of legislation in response to the massage business shootings that killed eight people, including six women of Asian descent — though it’s unlikely the bills will see movement in the Republican-controlled legislature. The proposals would require a five-day waiting period for gun...
Lost and found: $1M lottery ticket recovered in parking lot
SPARTA, Tenn. — A Tennessee man was able to turn his luck around after finding his missing $1 million winning lottery ticket in a parking lot — remaining where he dropped it even on a blustery afternoon. Sparta resident Nick Slatten learned on March 11 that he won a drawing...
Official: Colorado supermarket shooting suspect prone to rage, delusions
BOULDER, Colo. — Law enforcement officials and former associates of a 21-year-old accused of killing 10 people at a Colorado supermarket described the suspect as someone prone to sudden rage who was suspended from high school for a sudden attack on a classmate that left the student bloodied. Ahmad Al...
Biden readies for 1st news conference, White House tradition
WASHINGTON — He’d led allied armies in the defeat of Nazi Germany only to find himself, a decade later, a tad intimidated before the cameras in an echoey room of the Old Executive Office Building, ready to make history again. “Well, I see we’re trying a new experiment this morning,”...
Brazil posts record single-day toll of 3,251 coronavirus deathsVideo
RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil reported more than 3,000 covid-19 deaths in a single day for the first time Tuesday amid calls for the government and the new health minister to take action to stem the nation’s resurgence of coronavirus infections. In recent weeks, Latin America’s largest country has become...
Penn State recommends covid-19 testing students as cases continue to rise
As cases of covid-19 continue rising on Penn State’s campus, the university has again — “out of an abundance of caution” — recommended that all students in three more dorms get tested. Students living in Pollock’s Beaver Hall and the East’s Geary and Packer halls were urged Monday to either...
‘Virginia Woolf,’ ‘Goldbergs’ star George Segal dies at 87
LOS ANGELES — George Segal, the banjo player turned actor who was nominated for an Oscar for 1966’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?,” and starred in the ABC sitcom “The Goldbergs,” died Tuesday in Santa Rosa, Calif, his wife said. He was 87. “The family is devastated to announce that...
Judge in Capitol riot case blasts DOJ over ‘60 Minutes’ interviewVideo
WASHINGTON — A federal judge in charge of one of the highest-profile cases stemming from the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot rebuked the Justice Department for discussing its probe in public. “These defendants are entitled to a fair trial, not one that is conducted in the media,” U.S. District Judge...
Nurse, officer dead from inmate attack at Iowa prison
IOWA CITY — A nurse and a correctional officer at a prison housing some of Iowa’s most dangerous offenders died on Tuesday after an inmate carried out an attack on staff members and other inmates, state officials said. The attack happened at around 10:15 a.m. in the prison infirmary at...
White House: North Korea conducted short-range missile testVideo
WASHINGTON — North Korea fired short-range missiles this past weekend, just days after the sister of Kim Jong Un threatened the United States and South Korea for holding joint military exercises. The missile tests were confirmed by two senior Biden administration officials who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity. They...
Newly confirmed surgeon general to focus on covid, opioidsVideo
WASHINGTON — The Senate confirmed a soft-spoken physician as President Joe Biden’s surgeon general Tuesday. While Dr. Vivek Murthy says ending the coronavirus pandemic is his top priority, he’s also raised concerns over a relapsing opioid overdose crisis. The vote on Murthy was 57-43, giving him bipartisan support. Biden’s coronavirus...
FBI: Ex-NYPD spokesperson charged in Capitol insurrection
NEW YORK — The FBI arrested a former spokesperson for the New York City Police Department on Tuesday on charges she entered the U.S. Capitol — and shook a tambourine — during the Jan. 6 insurrection. Sara Carpenter, a retired police officer who lives in Queens, drove to Washington the...
Chicago sees ‘worrying’ uptick in covid-19 cases
CHICAGO — Chicago experienced a significant spike in covid-19 cases in the last week, triggering fresh concerns Tuesday from the city’s top health officials. The average number of confirmed daily cases in the nation’s third-largest city was 350 Tuesday, up 23% from 285 the week before, according to city data....
Explainer: How states are seeking to loosen controls on guns
Mass shootings in Georgia and Colorado that left at least 18 people dead since last week are reigniting calls from gun control advocates for tighter restrictions on buying firearms and ammunition. But with Democrats in control of the federal government, gun rights advocates have been persuading Republican-run state legislatures to...
Springtime storms cause damage in central Texas cityVideo
BERTRAM, Texas — Springtime storms caused significant damage to buildings in a central Texas city, and forecasters say more stormy weather is expected later in the week for parts of the southern United States. There were no immediate reports of injuries from Monday night’s storms in Bertram, about 45 miles...
Supreme Court leans toward tribal police in traffic stop and search
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court seemed likely Tuesday to allow tribal police officers to stop and search non-Indians on tribal lands over concerns that drunk drivers or even violent criminals might otherwise elude authorities. The justices heard arguments in the Justice Department’s appeal of a lower court ruling that threw...
Arizona man accused of ambushing National Guard members while transporting covid vaccine
LUBBOCK, Texas — An Arizona man is accused of forcing off the road a National Guard convoy that was transporting covid-19 vaccines in West Texas and then holding 11 guard members at gunpoint. Larry Harris, 66, of Wilcox, Ariz., told police that he stopped three vans because he believed people...
NCAA President Mark Emmert agrees to meet protesting players after March Madness
The National College Players Association said Tuesday that NCAA President Mark Emmert has informed a group of basketball players who started a social media campaign to protest inequities in college sports that he will meet with them after March Madness. NCPA executive director Ramogi Huma said in a statement he...
