News category, Page 1249
Curfew-busting New Year party-goers attack French police
PARIS — Ravers at an underground, curfew-busting New Year’s Eve party that drew at least 2,500 people in western France attacked the police sent to shut them down, torching one police vehicle and injuring officers with volleys of bottles and stones, officials said Friday. Ravers aboard hundreds of vehicles started...
U.S. hits 20 million mark in coronavirus cases
BALTIMORE — The number of confirmed U.S. coronavirus cases has surpassed 20 million, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. That’s nearly twice as many as the No. 2 country, India, and nearly one-quarter of the more than 83 million cases globally. The U.S. continued to surpass other countries in...
Mexico City ban on single-use plastics takes effect
MEXICO CITY — A broad ban on single-use containers, forks, straws and other ubiquitous items takes effect in Mexico’s capital, one of the world’s largest cities, after more than a year of preparation. On Friday, Mexico City’s environmental secretary said via Twitter that “from today on Mexico City without single-use...
Delay sought in ex-officers’ trial over George Floyd’s death
MINNEAPOLIS — Prosecutors in the case against the four Minneapolis officers charged in the death of George Floyd requested that the trial be delayed by three months. The Star Tribune reports prosecutors cited the covid-19 pandemic and the amount of time needed before enough people are vaccinated and health risks...
Understanding how Georgia’s Senate runoff elections affect Congress
ATLANTA — The consequences of Georgia’s twin Senate runoffs are well known: They’ll determine which party controls the Senate in the new Congress. Right? Long term, yes, that’s the case. But the circumstances of Georgia’s seats make the near term a bit messy. One of two Georgia races is a...
Federal buildings vandalized in Philadelphia, 6 arrested, devices found
PHILADELPHIA — Six people were arrested after a group vandalized several federal buildings in Philadelphia’s Center City on New Year’s Eve, police said. Officers spotted about 50 people, all dressed in black, at about 8:30 p.m. Thursday at the historic U.S. Customs House, where windows were smashed, police said. Three...
Iran general warns U.S.: Military ready to respond to pressure
TEHRAN, Iran — The top commander of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said Friday that his country was fully prepared to respond to any U.S. military pressure as tensions between Tehran and Washington remain high in the waning days of President Donald Trump’s administration. Gen. Hossein Salami spoke at a ceremony...
Reports: 8 dead in New Year’s Eve carbon monoxide poisoning in Bosnia
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina — Several people have been found dead in a cottage in southwestern Bosnia, police said Friday. Local media reported that eight young people died from carbon monoxide poisoning during a New Year’s Eve celebration. Local police spokeswoman Martina Medic told The Associated Press that police responded to a...
Study: U.S. covid patients face more mental health issues; Excela Health bracing for uptickVideo
Researchers at the University of Oxford published a study reporting the first large-scale evidence that covid-19 survivors are at increased risk of anxiety or depression. The study looked at electronic health records for 69 million U.S. residents, including more than 62,000 covid-19 cases. In the three months following a positive...
Drivers not using E-ZPass will absorb a 51% PA Turnpike rate hike in 2021
Pennsylvania Turnpike toll increases announced last year will take effect just after midnight Sunday, Jan. 3, and if you’re not using the state’s E-ZPass program, the hike will be a steep one. Over the summer, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission approved a 6% hike for all E-ZPass rates systemwide, along with...
What turns 100 in 2021? Here are a few century-old items
Everything gets older. It’s just a fact of life. And this year — that would be 2021 — there are a few things that are turning 100. And we’re kind of blown away by how old they are. For instance: Cheez-It On March 31, 1921, the Dayton, Ohio-based...
U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, other Pa. House Republicans pledge to oppose Electoral College tally
In what is almost certain to be another doomed effort to disenfranchise the votes of millions of Pennsylvania residents, U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly is taking his unending challenge of the results of the presidential election to the halls of Congress. The Butler Republican, whose 16th Congressional District includes Erie, said...
Last of singing McGuire Sisters dies in Vegas; Phyllis, 89
LAS VEGAS — Phyllis McGuire, the last surviving member of the three singing McGuire Sisters who topped the charts with several hits in the 1950s, has died. She was 89. The lead singer and younger sister of Dorothy and Christine McGuire died on Tuesday in Las Vegas, the Palm Eastern...
Records show Casey Anthony is starting investigation firm
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — State records show that Casey Anthony has filed documents to start a private investigation firm in South Florida. Anthony, who was acquitted of killing her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee, nine years ago, filed the paperwork with the Florida Division of Corporations in mid-December. The limited liability...
Sen. David Perdue quarantines for coronavirus exposure ahead of Georgia runoff
ATLANTA — Republican Sen. David Perdue was forced into quarantine Thursday in the home stretch of Georgia’s high-stakes Senate runoffs, disclosing just five days before the election that he had been exposed to a campaign worker infected with the coronavirus. Perdue’s campaign did not say how long he plans to...
Wisconsin hospital worker arrested for spoiled coronavirus vaccine dosesVideo
MADISON, Wis. — Authorities arrested a suburban Milwaukee pharmacist Thursday suspected of deliberately ruining hundreds of doses of coronavirus vaccine by removing them from refrigeration for two nights. The arrest marks another setback in what has been a slower, messier start to vaccinate Americans than public health officials had expected....
West Virginia health clinic mistakenly injects dozens with antibody treatment instead of coronavirus vaccineVideo
The West Virginia National Guard claims it mistakenly injected 42 people with Regeneron Antibody instead of a Moderna coronavirus vaccine. The National Guard admitted the mistake on Wednesday when the antibody treatment was administered at a clinic hosted by the Boone County Health Department staff. Guard officials said medical experts...
Dick Thornburgh, ex-Pa. governor and U.S. attorney general, diesVideo
Dick Thornburgh, who as Pennsylvania governor won plaudits for his cool handling of the 1979 Three Mile Island crisis and as U.S. attorney general restored credibility to a Justice Department hurt by the Iran-Contra scandal, has died. He was 88. Thornburgh died Thursday morning at a retirement community facility outside...
No charges for Maryland police in death of ‘boogaloo’ movement martyr
COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Maryland prosecutors have ruled out criminal charges against any police officers in the shooting death of a man whose family says he was sleeping in his bed next to his girlfriend when police opened fire, an attorney for the family said Thursday. Howard County State’s Attorney...
For pregnant and nursing women, risks of covid-19 probably outweigh risk of vaccine, experts say
Although there’s very little data on how pregnant and nursing mothers will respond to a covid-19 vaccine, professional organizations and individual doctors say the benefits are very likely to outweigh the risks. Pregnant women appear to have the same chance of catching covid-19 as everyone else. But they might fare...
Gettysburg elementary teacher accused of child sexual abuse
GETTYSBURG — A second-grade public school teacher in Gettysburg has been charged with sexually abusing a child, and the state police are asking for tips if anyone believes there may be other victims. Vincent Paul Marfia, 40, a resident of Littlestown, was arraigned Thursday on charges that include involuntary deviate...
Race to vaccinate millions in U.S. off to slow, messy start
Terry Beth Hadler was so eager to get a lifesaving covid-19 vaccination that the 69-year-old piano teacher stood in line overnight in a parking lot with hundreds of other senior citizens. She wouldn’t do it again. Hadler said that she waited 14 hours and that a brawl nearly erupted before...
Pennsylvania records 640,000 covid-19 cases, nearly 16,000 deaths in 2020
The Pennsylvania Department of Health on Thursday reported 8,992 additional coronavirus cases and 306 deaths attributed to the coronavirus, closing the year with 640,325 cases and 15,978 deaths since the pandemic began here in March. December recorded the highest number of cases for the year: 278,861. November had 153,437 recorded...
Butter sculpture contest, ag tours among new virtual features of 2021 PA Farm ShowVideo
The state Department of Agriculture has a suggestion for using butter left over from holiday baking. Keystone State residents 5 or older are invited to enter “Butter Up!” — a new contest that is part of this year’s virtual Pennsylvania Farm Show, set for Jan. 9-16. Because of pandemic-related restrictions,...
Covid-19 dominates annual list of banished words, terms
SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. — Even as vaccines are being rolled out to battle coronavirus, wordsmiths at Lake Superior State University in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula say they want to kick any trace of it from the English language. “Covid-19” and “social distancing” are thrown in with “we’re all in this...
