Democrats push to enshrine abortion rights in New Mexico
SANTA FE, N.M. — Democratic legislators are redoubling efforts to repeal New Mexico’s dormant, 50-year-old ban on most abortion procedures that could go into effect if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion ruling. A bill that would shore up abortion rights statewide was scheduled for...
House sending Trump impeachment to Senate, GOP opposes trial
WASHINGTON — As the House prepares to bring the impeachment charge against Donald Trump to the Senate for trial, a growing number of Republican senators say they are opposed to the proceeding, dimming the chances that former president will be convicted on the charge that he incited a siege of...
Police investigating death of 4 family members at Pa. home
EXTON — Police are investigating the deaths of four family members found in the basement of their southeastern Pennsylvania home. Police in Chester County responded to the West Whiteland Township home after an out-of-state relative called shortly after 12:30 p.m. Sunday to report being unable to contact the family. Detective...
Republican Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio won’t seek reelection
CINCINNATI — Republican U.S. Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio said Monday that he won’t seek reelection due in part to how it’s gotten “harder to break through the partisan gridlock and make progress,” and plans to end a career in federal government spanning more than three decades. Portman’s announcement comes...
Covid cases continue to drop in Pennsylvania, fewer deaths starting to follow
With new coronavirus cases on the decline in Pennsylvania, a report from the state Department of Health shows covid-related deaths are also beginning to slow slightly. Over the past two days, the state added 7,910 new cases of covid-19 — a 21% drop from the same two-day period last week,...
Ex-White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders launches Arkansas governor bid
Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who worked as former President Donald Trump’s press secretary, launched a bid Monday for governor of her home state of Arkansas, a job once held by her father, Mike Huckabee. Sanders announced her candidacy in the Republican primary with an online video heavy on shots of her...
California lifts virus stay-at-home orders, curfew statewide
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California lifted regional stay-at-home orders across the state Monday in response to improving coronavirus conditions, returning the state to a system of county-by-county restrictions, state health officials announced. The order had been in place in the San Francisco Bay Area, San Joaquin Valley and Southern California, covering...
Russian hack of U.S. agencies exposed supply chain weaknesses
The elite Russian hackers who gained access to computer systems of federal agencies last year didn’t need to painstakingly break one-by-one into the networks of each department in order to cause havoc. Instead, they got inside by sneaking malicious code into a software update pushed out to thousands of government...
Supreme Court ends Trump emoluments lawsuits
The Supreme Court on Monday brought an end to lawsuits over whether Donald Trump illegally profited off his presidency, saying the cases are moot now that Trump is no longer in office. The high court’s action was the first in an expected steady stream of orders and rulings on pending...
Dominion Voting Systems sues Giuliani for $1.3B over election claimsVideo
Dominion Voting Systems filed a defamation lawsuit Monday against Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, who led the former president’s efforts to question the results of the 2020 election, including in Pennsylvania. The lawsuit seeks more than $1.3 billion in damages for the voting machine company, a target for conservatives...
Biden plans to sign order for government to buy more U.S. goods
BALTIMORE — President Joe Biden plans to sign on Monday an executive order that aims to boost government purchases from U.S. manufacturers, according to administration officials. The United States has shed roughly 540,000 factory jobs since last February as the coronavirus pandemic hurled the world’s largest economy into recession. The...
Biden to drop Trump’s military transgender ban
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is set to issue an executive order to reverse a Pentagon policy that largely bars transgender individuals from joining the military, dumping a ban ordered by President Donald Trump in a tweet during his first year in office, a person briefed on the decision tells...
Biden to reinstate covid travel rules, add South Africa
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Monday will formally reinstate covid-19 travel restrictions on non-U.S. travelers from Brazil, Ireland, the United Kingdom and 26 other European countries that allow travel across open borders, according to two White House officials. The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss...
Ex-Trump spokeswoman Sarah Sanders running for Arkansas governor
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Sarah Sanders, Donald Trump’s former chief spokeswoman and one of his closest aides, announced Monday she’s running for Arkansas governor, vying for political office even as the former president’s legacy is clouded by an impeachment charge that he incited the deadly siege at the U.S. Capitol....
Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador says he’s tested positive for covid-19
MEXICO CITY — Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Sunday he has tested positive for covid-19 and that the symptoms are mild. Mexico’s president, who has been criticized for his handling of his country’s pandemic, said on his official Twitter account that he is under medical treatment. “I regret...
Couple finds body behind house under construction in Texas
KATY, Texas — A couple found a dead man while looking at a house under construction Saturday in a Houston suburb. The man’s body was discovered in a drainage ditch in the late afternoon behind the home in Katy, Harris County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Jason Brown told reporters. The body...
U.S. judge blocks release of Tennessee man in Capitol riot
NASHVILLE — A federal judge on Sunday blocked the release of a Tennessee man who authorities say carried flexible plastic handcuffs during the riot at the U.S. Capitol earlier this month. U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell for the District of Columbia set aside an order by a judge in...
5, including pregnant woman, fatally shot in IndianapolisVideo
INDIANAPOLIS — Five people, including a pregnant woman, were shot to death early Sunday inside an Indianapolis home in an apparent targeted attack, the city’s police chief said, decrying the “mass murder” killings as a “different kind of evil.” The fatal shootings were discovered by police who had been called...
Growing number of GOP senators oppose impeachment trialVideo
WASHINGTON — A growing number of Republican senators say they oppose holding an impeachment trial, a sign of the dimming chances that former President Donald Trump will be convicted on the charge that he incited a siege of the U.S. Capitol. House Democrats, who will walk the impeachment charge of...
Trump’s coronavirus adviser Dr. Deborah Birx says some saw pandemic as ‘hoax’Video
WASHINGTON — Dr. Deborah Birx says when she was coordinator of President Donald Trump’s coronavirus task force, she had to grapple with covid-19 deniers in the White House and that someone gave the president “parallel” streams of data that conflicted with hers. Defending her tenure, Birx told CBS’ “Face the...
2 injured after police car drives through crowd at race in Washington stateVideo
TACOMA, Wash. — At least two people were injured when a police officer responding to a report of a street race plowed his car through a crowd of pedestrians that had gathered around him and were pounding on the car’s windows Saturday night in downtown Tacoma, officials said. The incident...
Pa. Democrats call for Rep. Scott Perry to resign after reports he urged Trump to use a lawyer against Biden win
They couldn’t beat him at the polls in November, but leaders of Pennsylvania’s Democratic Party on Sunday called for Republican U.S. Rep. Scott Perry, an outspoken Donald Trump supporter who represents Harrisburg, Hershey and York, to resign following news reports he urged Trump to use a lawyer from Philadelphia to...
Thousands of drug, alcohol recovery homes in Pa. still operate without state oversight
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 — In December 2017, Gov. Tom Wolf signed legislation to increase oversight for drug and alcohol recovery houses — a...
Ex-CIA engineer tells judge he’s incarcerated like an animal
NEW YORK — A former CIA software engineer charged with leaking government secrets to WikiLeaks says it’s cruel and unusual punishment that he’s awaiting trial in solitary confinement, housed in a vermin-infested cell of a jail unit where inmates are treated like “caged animals.” Joshua Schulte, 32, has asked a...
‘The plane is in a nosedive,’ HHS secretary nominee Xavier Becerra says of covid outbreak
The covid-19 pandemic is out of control, President Biden’s nominee for secretary of Health and Human Services said Sunday, echoing the commander-in-chief’s recent prediction about the months ahead. “The plane is in a nosedive, and we’ve got to pull it up and you’re not going to do that overnight,” Xavier...
