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...
John Fetterman talks marijuana, voters, style in CBS interviewVideo
In a national interview that aired Sunday morning, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman spoke about his push to legalize marijuana, getting working-class people back to the Democratic Party, his political past and future, and being named a style god. Fetterman spoke to Mark Whitaker for “CBS Sunday Morning” from his Braddock...
Police departments weigh officer discipline after rally, Capitol riot
For two Virginia police officers who posed for a photo during the deadly U.S. Capitol insurrection, the reckoning has been swift and public: They were identified, charged with crimes and arrested. But for five Seattle officers the outcome is less clear. Their identities still secret, two are on leave and...
At 78 and the oldest president, Biden sees a world changed
WASHINGTON — When Joe Biden took the oath of office as the 46th president, he became not only the oldest newly inaugurated U.S. chief executive in history but also the oldest sitting president ever. Biden was born Nov. 20, 1942, in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He was 78 years, two months and...
Getting vaccinated: What you need to know
How many people
have been vaccinated? In Pennsylvania, nearly 520,000 people — mostly health care workers — had received at least one vaccine dose as of Saturday. Of those people, 106,000 are fully vaccinated, state data show. However, those figures don’t include long-term care residents and staff being vaccinated via...
History pitches challenges as experts, activists express hopes for Joe Biden’s time in White House
A new day, and a new moment for America. Time to let the healing begin. Republicans, Democrats and people across the nation echoed those themes when expressing their hopes for Joe Biden’s new administration and a future less fraught with anger and division in the United States. “There are times...
Britain’s Boris Johnson presses Biden for new trade deal
WASHINGTON — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson made clear to President Joe Biden on Saturday that he’s eager to forge a new U.S.-U.K. trade deal. The push for a new deal came in a broad-ranging call between the two leaders that touched on the global response to the coronavirus pandemic...
FBI: Texan charged in Capitol riot tweeted ‘Assassinate AOC’
DALLAS — A 34-year-old Texas man has been arrested for allegedly taking part in the storming of the U.S. Capitol this month and posting violent threats, including a call to assassinate Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. Garret Miller, who is from the Dallas suburb of Richardson, was arrested...
Mexican leader says Biden offers to give $4B to Central America
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s first calls to foreign leaders went to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador at a strained moment for the U.S. relationship with its North American neighbors. Mexico’s president said Saturday that Biden told him the U.S. would send $4...
Arizona sheriff’s office investigating fatal crash of tour bus headed to Grand Canyon
KINGMAN, Ariz. — An Arizona sheriff’s office was investigating a tour bus crash that killed one person and injured dozens of others, including five seriously, officials said Saturday. The Las Vegas-based bus crashed Friday and rolled over in northwestern Arizona while headed to a Grand Canyon viewpoint on the Hualapai...
An airport named after Donald Trump? Palm Beach County says ‘no’ to that
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Former President Donald Trump won’t see his name on the airport in his home turf of Palm Beach County — and it also might be difficult to engrave it anywhere else in South Florida. A majority of Palm Beach County commissioners told the South Florida Sun...
Judge: Kenosha shooter can’t associate with supremacists
KENOSHA, Wis. — An 18-year-old Illinois teen charged with fatally shooting two people during a protest in southeastern Wisconsin last year is prohibited from associating with known white supremacists under a judge’s recently modified bail conditions. Kyle Rittenhouse was 17 during the Aug. 25 demonstration in Kenosha, Wisconsin, as hundreds...
3,400 arrested at protests demanding Navalny’s release
MOSCOW — Russian police arrested more than 3,400 people Saturday in nationwide protests demanding the release of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, the Kremlin’s most prominent foe, according to a group that counts political detentions. The protests in scores of cities in temperatures as low as minus-58 F highlighted how Navalny...
Pa. legislator mocks trans state health secretary who is a Biden nominee
HARRISBURG — A Pennsylvania legislator from Armstrong and Indiana counties shared on Facebook an image mocking the appearance of the state’s recently departed health secretary, Dr. Rachel Levine, a transgender woman who has been nominated to serve in the Biden administration, and then offered a general apology Saturday. State Rep....
Democrats make federal election standards a top priority
Democrats plan to move quickly on one of the first bills of the new Congress, citing the need for federal election standards and other reforms to shore up the foundations of American democracy after a tumultuous post-election period and deadly riot at the Capitol. States have long had disparate and...
Aloha shirts on ‘boogaloos’ link symbol of peace to violence
HONOLULU — People following a violent movement that promotes a second U.S. civil war or the breakdown of modern society have been showing up at recent protests across the nation armed and wearing tactical gear. But the anti-government “boogaloo” movement has adopted an unlikely public and online symbol: the so-called...
Capitol attack reflects U.S. extremist evolution over decades
The takeover in 2016 by right-wing extremists of a federal bird sanctuary in Oregon. A standoff in 1992 between white separatists and federal agents in Ruby Ridge, Idaho. The 1995 bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City that killed 168 people. Right-wing extremism has previously played out for the...
Hospitalizations related to covid continue to fall in Pa.
For the third consecutive day, Pennsylvania on Saturday reported a significant drop in the number of patients who are hospitalized with covid-19, according to the state Department of Health. The state reported that 3,997 patients are hospitalized with the virus. That’s down from 4,882 on Wednesday. The number of newly...
Larry King, broadcasting giant for half-century, dies at 87
LOS ANGELES — Larry King, the suspenders-sporting everyman whose broadcast interviews with world leaders, movie stars and ordinary Joes helped define American conversation for a half-century, died Saturday. He was 87. King died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, his production company, Ora Media, tweeted. No cause of death...
Michigan Mega Millions ticket wins $1.05 billion jackpot
DETROIT — Someone in Michigan bought the winning ticket for the $1.05 billion Mega Millions jackpot, which is the third-largest lottery prize in U.S. history. The winning numbers for Friday night’s drawing were 4, 26, 42, 50 and 60, with a Mega Ball of 24. The winning ticket was purchased...
Italy takes action against TikTok following girl’s death
Italy’s data protection authority said Friday it was imposing an immediate block on TikTok’s access to data for any user whose age has not been verified. The authority said it was acting with “urgency” following the death of a 10-year-old girl in Sicily, who died while participating in a so-called...
Bus heading to Grand Canyon rolls over; 1 dead, 2 critical
A Las Vegas-based tour bus heading to the Grand Canyon rolled over in northwestern Arizona on Friday, killing one person and critically injuring two others, authorities said. The cause of the wreck around noon Friday was not yet known, said Anita Mortensen, a spokeswoman for the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office....
Arizona, 15th state with legal pot, sees recreational sales
Legal sales of recreational marijuana in Arizona started on Friday, a once-unthinkable step in the former conservative stronghold that joins 14 other states that have broadly legalized pot. The state Health Services Department on Friday announced it had approved 86 licenses in nine of the state’s 15 counties under provisions...
Florida governor walks back claim over 1 millionth shot
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis had a made-for-TV moment: A 100-year-old World War II veteran getting a vaccine against the coronavirus. “An American hero,” the governor proclaimed Friday, would be the 1 millionth senior in his state to get a lifesaving shot in the arm. As it turned...
