Restaurants, gyms, casinos reopen as latest covid-19 restrictions expireVideo
Restaurants, bars, gyms and casinos reopened Monday morning at a still-limited capacity when Pennsylvania’s most recent set of covid-19 restrictions expired at 8 a.m. The restrictions, started Dec. 12, barred restaurants from allowing indoor dining and shut down gyms and casinos in the face of a post-Thanksgiving surge in virus...
Hundreds demonstrate over fatal Minneapolis police shooting
MINNEAPOLIS — Hundreds of protesters marched in Minneapolis to demand justice in the fatal police shooting of a 23-year-old man, the city’s first police-involved death since George Floyd died after being restrained by officers in May. As many as 1,000 demonstrators marched and chanted Sunday near the site where Dolal...
Iran starts 20% uranium enrichment, seizes tanker in Strait of HormuzVideo
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran began enriching uranium Monday to levels unseen since its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers and also seized a South Korean-flagged tanker near the crucial Strait of Hormuz, a double-barreled challenge to the West that further raised Mideast tensions. Both decisions appeared aimed at...
U.K. judge refuses extradition of WikiLeaks founder Assange
LONDON — A British judge on Monday rejected the United States’ request to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to face espionage charges, saying he was likely to kill himself if held under harsh U.S. prison conditions. District Judge Vanessa Baraitser rejected allegations that Assange is being prosecuted for political reasons...
Don’t draw military into U.S. election, ex-defense chiefs say
All 10 living former U.S. defense secretaries called for a peaceful transition of power this month and warned that any effort to involve the military in resolving election disputes “would take us into dangerous, unlawful and unconstitutional territory.” Three days before Congress meets to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, the...
Coronavirus outbreak at Kaiser San Jose hospital infects 43 people
Kaiser Permanente San Jose Medical Center is investigating an outbreak of the coronavirus in its emergency department that has infected at least 43 staff members. Hospital officials are investigating whether the outbreak was affected by a staff member appearing briefly in the emergency department on Christmas Day wearing an air-powered,...
AP Fact check: Trump’s made-up claims of fake Georgia votesVideo
ATLANTA — President Donald Trump put forth a dizzying array of fuzzy accounting and outright false claims in an extraordinary phone call to Georgia’s secretary of state seeking a reversal of his election defeat, fabricating a slew of votes that he said should’ve been counted in his favor. In the...
Sheriff: Pastor dead, 2 hurt in shooting at Texas churchVideo
WINONA, Texas — A pastor was killed and two other people were injured in a shooting at an East Texas church Sunday after the pastor confronted a man who had hidden from police in the church overnight, a local sheriff said. Authorities had been using dogs and drones to search...
Nancy Pelosi narrowly reelected speaker, faces difficult 2021Video
WASHINGTON — Nancy Pelosi was narrowly reelected Sunday as speaker, giving her the reins of Democrats’ slender House majority as President-elect Joe Biden sets a challenging course of producing legislation to tackle the pandemic, revive the economy and address other party priorities. The California Democrat, who has led her party...
Trump, on tape, presses Georgia official to ‘find’ Trump votesVideo
ATLANTA — President Donald Trump pressured Georgia’s Republican secretary of state to “find” enough votes to overturn Joe Biden’s win in the state’s presidential election, repeatedly citing disproven claims of fraud and raising the prospect of “criminal offense” if officials did not change the vote count, according to a recording...
Head-on crash kills 7 kids, 2 adults in central California
FRESNO, Calif. — Investigators are asking for the public’s help to determine what led up to a head-on crash that killed seven children and two adults in central California on New Year’s Day. The California Highway Patrol says everyone who reported Friday’s fiery crash on rural State Route 33 came...
Fauci: Vaccinations are ramping up in a ‘glimmer of hope’
The U.S. ramped up covid-19 vaccinations in the past few days after a slower-than-expected start, bringing to 4 million the number of Americans who have received shots, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday. The government’s top infectious-disease expert also said on ABC’s “This Week” that President-elect Joe Biden’s pledge to administer...
In their own words: Families talk about their endless search for Mexico’s missing
BAJA CALIFORNIA, Mexico — They are called los desaparecidos — the disappeared. The term gained popularity among extralegal military and police forces in Argentina in the mid-1970s, describing people taken by government-backed armed forces. They vanished without a trace into a world void of human and legal rights. Today there...
Biden’s strategy for a predecessor who won’t go away: Ignore him
WASHINGTON — Joe Biden faces historic challenges when he enters the White House on Jan. 20: a raging pandemic, persistently high unemployment, simmering tensions with China and Russia — and a predecessor who won’t go away. Aware of the chaos and distraction Donald Trump has proved he can muster, the...
U.S. coronavirus death toll hits 350,000; surge feared
BALTIMORE — The covid-19 death toll in the United States has surpassed 350,000 as experts anticipate another surge in coronavirus cases and deaths stemming from holiday gatherings over Christmas and New Year’s. Data compiled by Johns Hopkins University shows the U.S. passed the threshold early Sunday morning. More than 20...
Satellite offices gave Pa. voters more options to cast early ballots in person. Were they worth it?
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. This article is made possible through Votebeat, a nonpartisan reporting project covering local election integrity and voting access. HARRISBURG — A week before the Nov. 3 election,...
More GOP lawmakers enlist in Trump effort to undo Biden win
WASHINGTON — A growing number of Republican lawmakers are joining President Donald Trump’s extraordinary effort to overturn the election, pledging to reject the results when Congress meets next week to count the Electoral College votes and certify President-elect Joe Biden’s win. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas on Saturday announced a...
California funeral homes run out of space as covid-19 rages
LOS ANGELES — As communities across the country feel the pain of a surge in coronavirus cases, funeral homes in the hot spot of Southern California say they must turn away grieving families as they run out of space for the bodies piling up. The head of the state funeral...
A Florida-bound boat with 20 aboard went missing. The Coast Guard’s search has ended
MIAMI — The first sign something was wrong came Tuesday when Bahamian authorities reached out to the U.S. Coast Guard’s Southeast Division to alert them that 20 people aboard a blue and white 29-foot Mako Cuddy Cabin vessel had gone missing. The passengers were in the oft-cited Bermuda Triangle. The...
There’s good and bad news for immigrants waiting to take steps toward naturalization
MIAMI — More than a million immigrants in the United States who have applied for U.S. citizenship through naturalization, adjustment of status and other benefits have been waiting for their biometric services appointment at a local Application Support Center (ASC) to provide their fingerprints, photograph and/or signature. Due to the...
McConnell, Pelosi homes vandalized after $2,000 relief fails
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Vandals lashed out at the leaders of the U.S. House and Senate over the holiday weekend, blighting their homes with graffiti and in one case a pig’s head as Congress failed to approve an increase in the amount of money being sent to individuals to help cope...
Fast rollout of virus vaccine trials reveals tribal distrust
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — The news came during a hopeful time on the largest Native American reservation. Daily coronavirus cases were in the single digits, down from a springtime peak of 238 that made the Navajo Nation a U.S. hot spot. The tribe, wanting to ensure a covid-19 vaccine would be...
Massachusetts policeman pays for shoplifting suspects’ holiday dinner
SOMERSET, Mass. — A Massachusetts police officer declined to charge two women accused of trying to steal groceries for the children — and instead bought them Christmas dinner. Somerset Officer Matt Lima responded to a report of shoplifting Dec. 20 at Stop & Shop, where two women with two young...
Pennsylvania hits 650,000 coronavirus cases, adds 261 deaths
Pennsylvania on Saturday reported 16,967 new coronavirus cases over the past 48 hours, as the Keystone State hurtled over the 650,000-case mark. Officials said 7,714 additional cases were reported New Year’s Day, while 9,253 were reported Saturday. The new data bring the total cases to 657,292. That’s a jump of...
Judge tosses out Gohmert suit against Pence over electoral votes
A federal judge in Texas threw out a Hail Mary lawsuit filed against Vice President Mike Pence by a Republican congressman who argued the vice president has the authority to unilaterally reverse Donald Trump’s election loss during a joint session of Congress Wednesday. U.S. District Judge Jeremy Kernodle on Friday...
