New Mexico State Police say officer shot, killed on highway
DEMING, N.M. — A New Mexico State Police officer was fatally shot on a highway Thursday and authorities chased the attacker, killing him in a shootout, officials said. State Police said one of its officers was shot in Luna County between Las Cruces and Deming in a confrontation along Interstate...
Sex worker tells GQ he and politician Andrew Gillum did drugs in a Miami Beach hotel
MIAMI — A feature-length story for a coming “Modern Lovers” issue of GQ magazine features a new revelation about the night that former gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum was found inebriated in a Miami Beach hotel room with two other men and three bags of suspected crystal meth on the bed...
Dem-led House, drawing a line, kicks Greene off committees
WASHINGTON — A fiercely divided House tossed Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene off both her committees Thursday, an unprecedented punishment that Democrats said she’d earned by spreading hateful and violent conspiracy theories. Underscoring the political vise her inflammatory commentary has clamped her party into, nearly all Republicans voted against the Democratic...
Johnson & Johnson asks U.S. regulators to OK its one-shot covid-19 vaccine
Johnson & Johnson asked U.S. regulators Thursday to clear the world’s first single-dose covid-19 vaccine, an easier-to-use option that could boost scarce supplies. J&J’s vaccine was safe and offered strong protection against moderate to severe covid-19, according to preliminary results from a massive international study. It didn’t appear quite as...
Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez seek climate emergency declaration from Biden
WASHINGTON — With Democrats in charge of Congress and the White House, progressive lawmakers including Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are pushing the Biden administration to act ever more aggressively on climate change. A week after President Joe Biden signed executive orders intended to combat the worst effects...
Lawmakers consider fast-track plan for abuse lawsuit window
HARRISBURG — A bid to amend the Pennsylvania Constitution to give victims of child sexual abuse a new legal window to sue over otherwise time-barred allegations got new life Thursday, days after the disclosure of a paperwork error threw it into disarray. Rep. Mark Rozzi, D-Berks, told colleagues during a...
Pa. lawmakers’ spending jumps, reserves grow during pandemic as deficit ballooned
HARRISBURG — The Pennsylvania Legislature’s spending grew by more than 8% last year, adding some $28 million to its own reserves as the state’s deficit ballooned and many residents struggled to pay bills during the pandemic. The Legislative Audit Advisory Commission on Thursday voted without debate to approve the legislative...
Facing expulsion, Trump resigns from Screen Actors Guild
NEW YORK — Donald Trump has resigned from the Screen Actors Guild after the union threatened to expel him for his role in the Capitol riot in January. In a letter dated Thursday and addressed to SAG-AFTRA president Gabrielle Carteris, Trump said he was resigning from the union that he...
Anti-vaccine rabbi dismissed by Jewish organization
BOSTON — A prominent Jewish organization is cutting ties with a longtime Massachusetts rabbi for his anti-vaccine views and strident opposition to public health efforts to rein in the coronavirus pandemic. Central Massachusetts Chabad said Thursday it dismissed Rabbi Michoel Green as a representative of the organization, which oversees Jewish...
Wisconsin GOP repeals governor’s statewide mask mandate
MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin’s Republican-controlled Legislature on Thursday repealed Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ mask mandate, brushing aside warnings from health experts against making Wisconsin one of only 10 states without a statewide order. The Assembly vote came a week after the Senate voted to kill the mandate. Republicans, who control...
Biden delays Trump rule that weakened wild bird protections
BILLINGS, Mont. — The Biden administration said Thursday it was delaying a rule finalized in former President Donald Trump’s last days in office that would have drastically weakened the government’s power to enforce a century-old law protecting most wild birds. U.S. wildlife officials have said the rule could mean more...
Adviser: Trump won’t testify in Senate impeachment trial
WASHINGTON — House Democrats on Thursday asked Donald Trump to testify under oath for his Senate impeachment trial, challenging the former president to respond to their charge that he incited a violent mob to storm the Capitol. In a response, a Trump adviser said Trump won’t testify. The request in...
Georgia town plans new election amid inquiry into 2019 vote
ARLINGTON, Ga. — A southwest Georgia town plans a new election after questions were raised about the city clerk’s actions in a 2019 vote. Arlington Mayor Raymond Williams tells WALB-TV that Superior Court Judge Joe Bishop last week set a new election date of March 16 for three city council...
Virus expert says she’s exploring bid for U.S. Senate in Ohio
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Dr. Amy Acton, the former state health director who became the face of Ohio’s early pandemic response, has stepped down from her nonprofit position to “carefully explore” running as a Democrat for the U.S. Senate, she said Thursday. Acton would be vying for a coveted open seat...
U.S. rushes to catch up in the race to detect mutant viruses
Despite its world-class medical system and its vaunted Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. fell behind in the race to detect dangerous coronavirus mutations. And it’s only now beginning to catch up. The problem has not been a shortage of technology or expertise. Rather, scientists say, it’s an...
Voting company launches $2.7B lawsuit against Fox, Giuliani, others over election fraud claims
MIAMI — A voting technology company is suing Fox News, three of its hosts and two former lawyers for former President Donald Trump — Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell — for $2.7 billion, charging that the defendants conspired to spread false claims that the company helped “steal” the U.S. presidential...
Covid hospitalizations in Pa. continue to fall
The number of people in Pennsylvania hospitalized because of the coronavirus continues to fall. The state Department of Health on Thursday reported 3,138 people were being treated for covid-19 in hospitals, 86 fewer than the day before. It marked the 14th day out of the past 15 that the number...
Biden to end U.S. support for Saudi-led offensive in Yemen
President Joe Biden will announce an end Thursday to U.S. support for a grinding five-year Saudi-led military offensive in Yemen that has deepened humanitarian suffering in the Arabian peninsula’s poorest country, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said. The move would fulfill a campaign pledge by Biden, whose administration plans to...
Biden to freeze withdrawal of U.S. troops from Germany
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden will freeze Donald Trump’s planned withdrawal of some U.S. troops stationed in Germany, the White House said Thursday. The announcement, from White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, came ahead of Biden’s visit to the State Department. The White House also said the U.S. would...
Media grapples with how to cover Trump after White House
NEW YORK — Two weeks into Donald Trump’s post-presidency, it feels like he hasn’t really gone away. He’s stayed in the news, defying the tradition of former presidents abruptly falling off the radar upon their successor’s inauguration and despite the shutdown of his favored means of communication on Twitter. That...
Defend or rebuke? House GOP faces difficult vote over Rep. Marjorie Taylor GreeneVideo
WASHINGTON — House Republicans will be forced to go on the record, defending or rebuking Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has drawn bipartisan condemnation over her embrace of far-right conspiracy theories, racist comments, as well as her past endorsement of violence against Democrats. Democrats are expected to move forward Thursday...
Kremlin: Thousands of arrests at Russian protests necessary response
MOSCOW — The Kremlin strongly rebuffed Western criticism Thursday and described the thousands of arrests at protests against the jailing of opposition leader Alexei Navalny as a necessary response to the unsanctioned rallies. Many of the people arrested spent long hours on police buses and were held in overcrowded jail...
Biden, at prayer breakfast, calls out ‘political extremism’
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Thursday called for a confrontation of the “political extremism” that inspired the U.S. Capitol riot and appealed for collective strength during such turbulent times in remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast, a Washington tradition that asks political combatants to set aside their differences for...
Not child’s play: Chucky doll featured in errant Amber Alert
SAN ANTONIO — Rest assured, “Chucky” is not on the loose. The Texas Department of Public Safety has apologized after mistakenly issuing an Amber Alert that said the killer doll featured in the 1988 horror film “Child’s Play” was a suspect in the kidnapping of his 5-year-old son, Glen Ray,...
Sitting over $10 billion, Roman Catholic dioceses amassed taxpayer aid during pandemic
When the coronavirus forced churches to close their doors and give up Sunday collections, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte turned to the federal government’s signature small business relief program for more than $8 million. The diocese’s headquarters, churches and schools landed the help even though they had roughly $100...
