Fire guts historic church home to New York’s Liberty Bell
A historic church in lower Manhattan that houses New York’s Liberty Bell and whose congregation dates to the city’s earliest days was gutted by a massive fire early Saturday that sent flames shooting through the roof. The Middle Collegiate Church in the East Village burned before dawn after a fire...
Japan capsule carrying asteroid samples lands in Australia
Japan’s space agency said its helicopter search team has spotted a capsule, which is carrying asteroid samples that could explain the origin of life, that landed on a remote area in southern Australia as planned Sunday. Hayabusa2 had successfully released the small capsule on Saturday and sent it toward Earth...
GOP leaders ask Congress to reject Pa.’s electors for Joe Biden
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 — More than 60 Republicans, including the top...
Pandemic, partisan attacks exposed gaps in Pa.’s new mail-in voting law
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 — Before any threat of a deadly, fast-spreading...
Pennsylvania sets daily record of 12,884 new covid-19 cases, cruises past 400,000 total
Pennsylvania on Saturday reported 12,884 new coronavirus cases, hurdling the Keystone State’s total past 400,000 cases. The new data bring the total cases to 411,484; a nearly 60,000-case jump from this time last week (351,667). Officials said 31,219 of total cases are considered probable. Health officials define a probable case...
San Francisco Bay Area issues new stay-at-home order
SAN FRANCISCO — The health officers in six San Francisco Bay Area counties issued a new stay-at-home order Friday requiring some businesses to close and banning all gatherings, as the number of virus cases surge and hospitals fill. The changes take effect for most of the area at 10 p.m....
Police: Florida man who says he was crime victim chases, shoots man
MIAMI — A man who says he was the victim of a burglary attempt chased a man down a South Florida street and shot and wounded him with an assault-style rifle as he begged for his life, authorities said. Corthoris Jenkins, 28, was charged with attempted first-degree murder with a...
Judge: Trump administration must take new DACA applications
NEW YORK — The Trump administration must accept new applications for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that protects some young immigrants from deportation, a federal judge ruled Friday, in vacating a memo from the acting Homeland Security secretary that had suspended it. U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis said...
Criminal case dropped against Florida teen who fatally shot pal while ‘simulating’ rap video
MIAMI — Prosecutors have dropped the manslaughter case against an 18-year-old who accidentally shot and killed his friend in Hialeah while he was “simulating a rap video” for a Snapchat post. The state on Friday declined to file the charge against Jonathan Batista, who had been arrested for the Oct....
Families of 34 California boat fire victims grieve, advocate
LOS ANGELES — The snapshots tell the story of a big man with a big, beaming grin. The McIlvain family passes around the pictures, laughing over their son Charlie’s antics captured through the years: Charlie as a youngster camping with a backpack bigger than him, Charlie cheesing for the camera...
Scene from ‘Elf’ comes to life as Buddy meets dad in Boston
BOSTON — Just like a real-life movie, the story of Buddy the Elf meeting his biological father has come to life, just in time for the holidays. Doug Henning wore a costume like the one actor Will Ferrell’s character wore in “Elf” while meeting his father face to face for...
Surveillance tape breeds false fraud claims in Georgia
Surveillance footage of ballot processing on election night in Atlanta is fueling a false social media narrative of “suitcases filled with ballots” hidden under a cloth-covered table and tallied without supervision, even as top state officials confirm election workers followed standard procedure. The video showed regular ballot containers on wheels...
Colorado student, scientist named Time’s ‘Kid of the Year’
LONE TREE, Colo. — A 15-year-old Colorado high school student and young scientist who has used artificial intelligence and created apps to tackle contaminated drinking water, cyberbullying, opioid addiction and other social problems has been named Time Magazine’s first-ever “Kid of the Year.” Gitanjali Rao, a sophomore at STEM School...
Mexico City hospitals are filling up, but so are the streets
MEXICO CITY — Sometimes Latin American dance tunes on the radio — salsa, cumbia, ranchera — bring a little cheer into the emergency room of Mexico City’s Ajusco Medio hospital, which is operating well over normal capacity because of the coronavirus pandemic. Dr. Marta Patricia Mancilla, head of the emergency...
Pa. health officials bring quarantine guidance in line with shortened CDC timeframe
The Pennsylvania Department of Health on Friday updated guidance for residents who might have been exposed to covid-19, retooling the quarantine timeframe to fall in line with new measures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC earlier this week indicated that those potentially exposed to the virus...
Pennsylvania opens permit process for 2021 hemp season
Farmers who want to get an early start on plans to grow hemp in 2021 can submit their applications to the state by mail starting Saturday. Online applications for growers and processors will open in January. The state has made it easier for small farmers to get in on the...
Biden predicts ‘bleak future’ if Congress doesn’t act on covid aid
WILMINGTON, Del. — President-elect Joe Biden is predicting a “bleak future” if Congress doesn’t take speedy action on a coronavirus aid bill, amid a nationwide spike in the virus that’s hampering the nation’s recovery. Biden delivered remarks Friday afternoon reacting to November’s national jobs report, which showed a sharp decrease...
UK-EU trade talks ‘paused’ with deal still elusive
LONDON — A week of intense trade talks between Britain and the European Union ended in stalemate Friday, with attention turning to political leaders who will decide whether significant differences can be bridged. EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier said he and his British counterpart, David Frost, had agreed to “pause”...
U.S. imposes visas restrictions on more Chinese citizens
WASHINGTON — The State Department said Friday that the U.S. will impose visa restrictions on Chinese citizens engaged in overseas influence operations. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the restrictions would apply to Chinese Communist Party officials or anyone else taking part in propaganda or influence campaigns linked to the...
Pence comes to Georgia as calm before potential Trump storm
ATLANTA — Vice President Mike Pence is trying to help Republicans project a unified front in two high-stakes Senate runoffs as he campaigns in Georgia a day ahead of President Donald Trump’s potentially volatile visit to the state that will determine which party controls the Senate in January. The vice...
House votes to decriminalize marijuana at federal level
WASHINGTON — The Democratic-controlled House on Friday approved a bill to decriminalize and tax marijuana at the federal level, reversing what supporters called a failed policy of criminalization of pot use and taking steps to address racial disparities in enforcement of federal drug laws. Opponents, mostly Republicans, called the bill...
Police: Nearly 30 found in Texas human smuggling operation
HOUSTON — More than two dozen people who police in Texas believe were being held as a part of a possible human smuggling operation have been removed from a house in Houston. One of the men was seen Thursday running down a residential street in his underwear, yelling that he...
Pelosi optimistic, says momentum growing for covid-19 relief
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi gave an optimistic assessment of the prospects for a mid-sized COVID-19 relief bill and a separate $1.4 trillion governmentwide spending bill on Friday, teeing up expectations for a successful burst of legislative action to reverse months of frustration on pandemic relief. Pelosi told reporters...
Pa. posts new high for daily covid cases, nears 400K total cases
Pennsylvania reported the most new covid-19 cases in a single day Friday. The state’s 11,763 new cases eclipse Thursday’s 11,406 case count, which was the previous high. In the past two days, there have been 23,169 cases reported. From the start of the pandemic in March, it took the state...
West Virginia police arrest woman in crash that killed child
BRADSHAW, W.Va. — Police in West Virginia have arrested a woman in a hit-and-run crash that killed a 2-year-old boy. Angel Alberta Estep, 37, of War was charged Thursday with negligent homicide, crash involving death and other counts, McDowell County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy James Muncy told news outlets. The child...
