Trump EPA overhaul of lead pipe regulations allows toxic plumbing to stay in the ground in Chicago, other cities
Chicago has more lead water pipes than any other American city, yet federal regulations unveiled this week by the Trump administration likely won’t require anything new to prevent homeowners and renters from ingesting the brain-damaging metal. Physicians and scientists say that unless water drawn from household faucets is properly filtered,...
Holland Tunnel toll booths no longer accept cash
Staring Wednesday, cash is gone forever as a method to pay the $16 toll at the Holland Tunnel. The tunnel between Jersey City and Lower Manhattan will be the first Port Authority Hudson River crossing to use cashless toll collection and joins the authorities’ Staten Island bridges, which already use...
Trump lashes out at S.D. senator: ‘He will be primaried in 2022’
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — President Donald Trump took to social media to lash out at South Dakota U.S. Sen. John Thune, saying his political career is over. The attack on Thune comes following remarks by the 59-year-old Republican about efforts by some GOP members in the U.S. House to reject...
Pfizer to supply U.S. with additional 100M doses of vaccine
WASHINGTON — Pfizer and BioNTech will supply the U.S. with an additional 100 million doses of the covid-19 vaccine under a new agreement. The drugmakers said Wednesday that they expect to deliver all the doses by July 31 in the nearly $2 billion deal. Pfizer already has a contract to...
Gunman kills 3 French police in domestic abuse standoff
PARIS — A gunman who had beaten and threatened his wife in southern France killed three policemen who came to the woman’s aid and then fled, prompting a wide manhunt, authorities said. The suspected assailant was later found dead. The unusual killing of three police officers on duty drew national...
Pennsylvania’s covid testing capacity ready for potential holiday influx, state officials say
In the nine months since testing for covid-19 became available, the number of tests performed in one day across Pennsylvania has increased exponentially, and the state’s testing director said Tuesday he hopes testing capacity will continue to improve and turnaround time will continue to decrease. In early March, when the...
Trump hands Hope Hicks, Richard Grenell prestigious government positions
Just a few days before Christmas, President Donald Trump is in a giving mood. On Tuesday, Trump announced that a slate of aides and loyalists would be assigned to federal advisory boards and commissions as he looks to reward his allies in the final stages of his presidency. The president...
Trump assails covid relief bill, suggests he may not signVideo
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is assailing the bipartisan $900 billion pandemic relief package that Congress just passed and is suggesting that he may not sign it. Trump complained in a video that he tweeted out Tuesday night that the bill delivered too much money to foreign countries, but not...
Video released in Columbus police shooting of Black man holding phone
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Body camera footage released Wednesday shows Andre Hill, a 47-year-old Black man, emerging from a garage and holding up a cellphone in his left hand seconds before he is fatally shot by a Columbus police officer. About six seconds pass between the time Hill is visible in...
Trump pardons 15, commutes 5 sentences, including GOP allies
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Tuesday pardoned 15 people, including Republican allies, a 2016 campaign official ensnared in the Russia probe and former government contractors convicted in a 2007 massacre in Baghdad. Trump also commuted the sentences of five others. While it is not unusual for presidents to grant...
Pandemic reaches Antarctica, last untouched continent
SANTIAGO, Chile — The pandemic has finally reached every continent on Earth. Chilean authorities announced that at least 58 people that were at two military bases in Antarctica or on a navy ship that went to the continent tested positive for the new coronavirus. So far no other country with...
Erie County officers: Man firing at 2nd man at gun range killed by 3rd man
ERIE — A man firing shots at a gun range in Erie County began firing at another man and was then shot to death by a third man, state police said. Troopers in Erie County were called shortly after 2 p.m. Tuesday to the State Gamelands gun range in Greene...
Texas AG Ken Paxton pushed to rescind Houston virus relief funding
AUSTIN — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton asked Trump administration officials to rescind federal virus relief funding that Houston used to expand people’s voting options, according to a document revealed Tuesday. In a May 21 letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Paxton accused officials in Harris County, which includes Houston,...
Cuomo signs voter registration, facial recognition bills for New York
ALBANY, N.Y. — New York is set to launch automatic voter registration and prohibit the use of facial recognition in schools under bills the governor signed Tuesday. Lawmakers who have largely met virtually this year passed those bills this summer. Several bills that lawmakers have passed are still in limbo...
U.S. hospitals facing worrisome shortage of nurses, doctors
SAN FRANCISCO — With so many states seeing a flood of coronavirus patients, U.S. hospitals are again worried about finding enough medical workers to meet demand just as infections from the holiday season threaten to add to the burden on American health care. California, which is enduring by far its...
City of Flint joins $641M deal to settle lawsuits over lead in water
FLINT, Mich. — The Flint City Council on Tuesday signed off on its portion of a $641 million settlement with residents of the poor, majority-Black city who were exposed to lead-tainted water. The city’s insurer would kick in $20 million as part of a sweeping deal to settle lawsuits against...
Writing off more of that ‘3-martini lunch’ is causing a stirVideo
WASHINGTON — Stuffed into the new emergency relief package is a morsel that President Donald Trump has long had on the buffet of his economic wish list: restoring full tax breaks for restaurant business meals. But experts say it’s scant immediate help for an industry reeling from the pandemic, while...
North Carolina boy dies from accidental BB gun shooting
STONY POINT, N.C. — Police in North Carolina say that an 8-year-old child has died after being struck in the chest by “a single shot from a BB or pellet gun.” The Hickory Daily Record reports that the incident occurred Sunday near a family’s home in Stony Point. The Alexander...
White House covid coordinator Deborah Birx says she will retire
WASHINGTON — Dr. Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House coronavirus response, said Tuesday she plans to retire, but is willing to first help President-elect Joe Biden’s team with its coronavirus response as needed. Birx, in an interview with the news site Newsy, did not give a specific timetable on...
Biden addresses covid bill, holiday pandemic precautionsVideo
WILMINGTON, Del. — President-elect Joe Biden on Tuesday expressed empathy with struggling families and applauded Congress for passing the coronavirus relief bill as the nation deals with a covid-19 surge that’s casting a shadow over the Christmas holiday. He called out to frontline workers, scientists, researchers, clinical trial participants and...
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster tests positive for the coronavirus
COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster has tested positive for the coronavirus and was slated to receive outpatient antibody treatment for “mild symptoms,” his office said Tuesday. McMaster, 73, learned he had tested positive late Monday following a test “due to coming into close contact with the covid-19...
Feds sue Walmart over role in opioid crisis
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is suing Walmart, alleging the company unlawfully dispensed controlled substances through its pharmacies, helping to fuel the opioid crisis in America. The civil complaint being filed Tuesday points to the role Walmart’s pharmacies may have played in the crisis by filling opioid prescriptions and by...
West Virginia’s 42 covid deaths is new single day record
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia reported a single-day record of 42 deaths linked to the coronavirus on Tuesday, with victims ranging in ages from 48 to 100. The state reported 787 confirmed coronavirus cases, down from a high of 1,257 last week. There are 22,864 active cases in the state....
One lucky NYC family gets to spend night at FAO Schwarz
NEW YORK — It’s like getting a peek at Santa’s workshop. A New York City family had a most unusual holiday experience — spending the night at the FAO Schwarz toy store in midtown Manhattan, overlooking the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. The special night came from a collaboration between the...
Pa. Supreme Court alters police rules for warrantless vehicle searches
HARRISBURG — Police must have probable cause as well as “exigent circumstances” in order to legally search a vehicle without a warrant, a divided Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled Tuesday. The 4-3 decision said the state constitution’s privacy protections are greater than the U.S. Constitution’s and that those protections extend to...
