EU: AstraZeneca to supply 9 million more vaccine dosesVideo
BERLIN — Pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has agreed to supply 9 million additional doses of its coronavirus vaccine to the European Union during the first quarter, the bloc’s executive arm said Sunday. The new target of 40 million doses by the end of March is still only half what the British-Swedish...
‘We traffic in lies’: House Republican Kinzinger launches campaign to ‘take back our party’Video
WASHINGTON — As the Republican Party wrestles with its identity in the wake of former President Trump, an Illinois Republican is out to prove there is a GOP voter base that wants to give up the division and conspiracy theories that he says have come to define the party. “The...
Philadelphia deputy health commissioner resigns after Philly Fighting Covid controversy
PHILADELPHIA — Philadelphia Deputy Health Commissioner Caroline Johnson has resigned after records obtained by The Inquirer show she gave an advantage in a city bidding process to Andrei Doroshin, Philly Fighting Covid’s young CEO who until this week the city entrusted to run its largest vaccination site. Johnson sent a...
3 found dead after house fire in Oil City
OIL CITY — A house fire in northwestern Pennsylvania claimed the lives of three people over the weekend, authorities said. The Oil City fire department was called to the home shortly before 1 a.m. Saturday. Chief Mark Hicks told the Oil City Derrick that arriving crews found a “well seated...
Young men accuse Lincoln Project co-founder of harassment
WASHINGTON — The influential anti-Donald Trump group Lincoln Project is denouncing one of its co-founders after multiple reports that over several years he sexually harassed young men looking to break into politics. The Lincoln Project in a statement on Sunday called co-founder John Weaver, 61, “a predator, a liar, and...
How wildfires became ripe areas for right-wing conspiracy theories
LOS ANGELES — When Lilli Heart fled California’s deadliest wildfire in 2018, she was stuck in traffic for two hours outside the town of Paradise with her two cats in a car that was running low on gas. As the septuagenarian sat behind the wheel on Neal Road — waiting...
Russia arrests nearly 5,000 at wide protests backing NavalnyVideo
MOSCOW — Chanting slogans against President Vladimir Putin, tens of thousands took to the streets Sunday across Russia to demand the release of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, keeping up nationwide protests that have rattled the Kremlin. Nearly 5,000 people were detained by police, according to a monitoring group, and...
GOP lawmakers seek tougher voting rules after record turnout
AUSTIN, Texas — Republican lawmakers in statehouses across the country are moving swiftly to attack some of the voting methods that fueled the highest turnout for a presidential election in 50 years. Although most legislative sessions are just getting underway, the Brennan Center for Justice, a public policy institute, has...
Pa. could become national outlier in how it elects appellate judges, worrying some experts
This article is part of a yearlong reporting project focused on redistricting and gerrymandering in Pennsylvania. It’s made possible by the support of Spotlight PA members including the Tribune-Review/TribLIVE, and Votebeat, a project focused on election integrity and voting access. HARRISBURG — A proposal moving through the GOP-led Pennsylvania legislature...
Report: Alaska AG quit after reports of sexual misconduct
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Alaska’s then-attorney general resigned while the Anchorage Daily News and the ProPublica investigative journalism organization were preparing an article about allegations of sexual misconduct with a 17-year-old girl three decades ago. The Daily News and the ProPublica Local Reporting Network reported Saturday that the resignation of Ed...
Thousands flee Hong Kong for UK, fearing China crackdown
LONDON — Cindy had a comfortable lifestyle in Hong Kong: she owned several properties with her husband, they had a good business going. But last year she made up her mind to leave it all behind and move her family to Britain, and not even a global pandemic was going...
Trump parts with impeachment lawyers a week before trial
WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump has parted ways with his lead impeachment lawyers just over a week before his Senate trial is set to begin, two people familiar with the situation said Saturday. Butch Bowers and Deborah Barbier, both South Carolina lawyers, are no longer with Trump’s defense team....
Uproar: Alabama governor to lease prisons, despite criticism
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said she plans to sign agreements Monday for two privately built prisons, despite lawmakers’ complaints about the pricetag and lack of public transparency and warnings from advocacy groups that such prisons won’t address chronic violence and severe staffing woes. Ivey spokeswoman Gina Maiola...
Kentucky AG urges dismissal of impeachment petition
FRANKFORT, Ky. — Kentucky’s attorney general is urging state lawmakers to dismiss an impeachment petition against him, fighting back against allegations by three grand jurors from the Breonna Taylor death investigation who joined in seeking his ouster from office. The petition, signed by a handful of Kentuckians, alleges Attorney General...
Biden, Democrats hit gas on push for $15 minimum wage
WASHINGTON — The Democratic push to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour has emerged as an early flashpoint in the fight for a $1.9 trillion covid-19 relief package, testing President Joe Biden’s ability to bridge Washington’s partisan divides as he pursues his first major legislative victory. Biden...
CDC to require face masks on airlines, public transportation to curb covid-19 spread
ATLANTA — Travelers on airplanes and public transportation like buses and subways will be required to wear face masks starting next week to curb the spread of covid-19. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a mask-wearing rule late Friday that builds on an order announced Jan. 21...
Pennsylvania reports 5,100 more coronavirus cases, 140 deaths
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story contained incorrect information about the Federal Pharmacy Partnership. Pennsylvania on Saturday reported 5,191 new coronavirus cases, as hospitalizations and case counts continue to trend downward in the Keystone State. The new data bring the total cases to 839,239. That’s a jump of...
Hundreds of Pa. senior-living facilities haven’t received vaccine as widened eligibility, low supply slow rollout
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 — After a sluggish start, the vast majority of nursing homes in Pennsylvania have hosted at least one covid-19 vaccine...
Merriam-Webster adds more than 520 new words to dictionary, including ‘COVID-19,’ ‘second gentleman’ and ‘sapiosexual’
Merriam-Webster, the United States’ leading language provider announced it was adding over 520 new words and definitions to the publisher’s website. These new words include “covid-19,” “second gentleman,” “long-hauler,” “flex,” “ASMR” and “sapiosexual.” Before the pandemic, “long-hauler” was defined as a person or vehicle that travels long distances, but it...
Warden out after new allegations at embattled federal jail in New York
NEW YORK — The warden brought in to clean up the federal jail where Jeffrey Epstein killed himself has abruptly stepped down after a yearlong tenure marred by the rampant spread of the coronavirus, inmates’ complaints about squalid conditions, a smuggled gun and an inmate’s death. Marti Licon-Vitale, 54, quit...
Pistol-packing congresswoman Boebert mocks former Parkland student as not ‘tough’
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, the Colorado Republican who is so pro-gun she carries a Glock handgun everywhere and owns a firearms-themed restaurant, mocked gun control activist David Hogg on Twitter. In a Thursday evening post, Boebert responded with disdain to a tweet from Hogg, who survived...
Blame game begins over Pennsylvania’s slow vaccine rollout
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Republicans are faulting the administration of Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf for Pennsylvania’s slow covid-19 vaccine rollout even as Wolf himself says insufficient supply is the real culprit, setting up a fresh political fight over who’s to blame for the frustrations of eligible residents trying to get inoculated....
Biden warns of growing cost of delay on $1.9T econ aid plan
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden warned Friday of a steep and growing “cost of inaction” on his $1.9 trillion covid relief plan as the White House searched for “creative” ways to win public support for a package that is getting a cold shoulder from Senate Republicans. In the age of...
Workers escaped deadly leak by going through nitrogen fog
GAINESVILLE, Ga. — Workers at a northeast Georgia poultry plant said they escaped through a fog of vaporizing liquid nitrogen that killed six of their coworkers, as an investigation continued Friday into the cause of the leak at Foundation Food Group. The Hall County Sheriff’s Office identified the victims on...
Philadelphia’s problematic vaccine rollout raises larger questions
PHILADELPHIA — When Philadelphia began getting its first batches of covid-19 vaccines, it looked to partner with someone who could get a mass vaccination site up and running quickly. City Hall officials might have looked across the skyline to the world-renowned health providers at the University of Pennsylvania, Temple University...
