Tradition: 2 New Hampshire towns cast votes after midnight
DIXVILLE NOTCH, N.H. — Two tiny New Hampshire communities that vote for president just after the stroke of midnight on Election Day have cast their ballots, with one of them marking 60 years since the tradition began. The results in Dixville Notch, near the Canadian border, were a sweep for...
Huge voter turnout expected despite virus, political rancor
The scourge of a global pandemic produced an election season like no other in the U.S., persuading record numbers of Americans to cast their ballots early, forcing states to make changes to long-established election procedures and leading to hundreds of lawsuits over how votes would be cast and which ballots...
Report: ‘Non-scalable’ fence going up around White House
Authorities are planning to reinstall a “non-scalable” fence around the perimeter of the White House, months after it was first erected during the summer mass protests for racial justice. The barrier is designed to make it impossible for any election protesters to get inside the White House compound, NBC News...
Texas records highest number of total covid-19 cases in U.S.Video
AUSTIN — Texas has surpassed California in recording the highest number of positive coronavirus tests in the U.S. so far, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. As the coronavirus pandemic surges across the nation, the data from Sunday — the most recent available — says that there have been...
How Facebook, Twitter plan to handle Election Day disinformationVideo
A man in the Atlanta suburbs was scrolling Facebook in late October when an ad popped up claiming his polling place had changed. At first glance, the change didn’t seem to align with official records. He suspected it was a lie — potentially a voter suppression tactic. He had already...
Postal Service ordered to speed swing-state ballots to make Election Day
WASHINGTON — A federal judge ordered the U.S. Postal Service to make every effort to deliver mail-in ballots in three crucial swing states by Election Day due to uncertainty over whether votes that arrive after that will be counted. U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan in Washington on Sunday ordered the...
Fast-growing hurricane threatens flooding in Central AmericaVideo
MANAGUA, Nicaragua — Hurricane Eta erupted quickly into a potentially catastrophic major hurricane Monday as it headed for Central America, where forecasters warned of massive flooding and landslides across a vulnerable region. Eta had maximum sustained wind of 130 mph and was centered about 70 miles east of the Nicaragua-Honduras...
Supreme Court blocks injured officer’s suit against leader of Black Lives Matter rally
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday set aside an appeals court ruling by a panel of conservative judges that held an injured police officer could sue and win damages from the leader of a Black Lives Matter protest rally. The case had raised alarms among civil libertarians, who said...
US judge blocks Trump immigration rule on public benefits
A federal judge in Chicago struck down a key immigration rule Monday that would deny green cards to immigrants who use food stamps or other public benefits, a blow to the Trump administration on the eve of the election. In a decision that applies nationwide, U.S. District Judge Gary Feinerman...
Ohio’s Republican Attorney General tweets inaccurate mail-in voting deadline
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio’s attorney general tweeted erroneously Monday that voters had until Tuesday to mail their absentee ballots, when Monday was actually the last day to vote by mail. Republican Attorney General Dave Yost’s mistake prompted rebukes from Democrats and others and a correction of the record by the...
Missouri hospital CEOs raise concerns; coronavirus claims boy, 13
O’FALLON, Mo. — Missouri hospital leaders are raising alarms about bed capacity as coronavirus cases continue to spike, with some urging Gov. Mike Parson to issue a statewide mask mandate. Meanwhile, an eastern Missouri eighth-grader died days after his covid-19 diagnosis, the state’s first child under age 14 to die...
Bail set at $2M for teen accused in Wisconsin shootings
Bail was set at $2 million on Monday for a 17-year-old from Illinois accused of killing two men and wounding a third during an August protest in Kenosha, after the father of one of the victims told the court the defendant “thinks he’s above the law” and would be a...
Judge rejects GOP effort to throw out 127,000 Houston votesVideo
HOUSTON — A federal judge on Monday rejected another last-ditch Republican effort to invalidate nearly 127,000 votes in Houston because the ballots were cast at drive-thru polling centers established during the pandemic. The lawsuit was brought by conservative Texas activists who have railed against expanded voting access in Harris County,...
Gunman who killed 4 in Vienna attack had sought to join ISVideo
A man who had previously tried to join the Islamic State group rampaged in Vienna armed with an automatic rifle and a fake explosive vest, fatally shooting four people before he was killed by police, Austrian authorities said Tuesday. Witnesses described dozens of screaming people fleeing the sounds of gunshots...
Principal in Holocaust controversy fired again in Florida
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A Florida high school principal was fired again on Monday over a comment he made to a student’s parent last year regarding the Holocaust. The Palm Beach County School Board’s vote on Monday morning reversed an earlier decision to reinstate Spanish River High School Principal...
Trump promises court fight over Pennsylvania absentee votes
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and his reelection campaign are signaling they will pursue an aggressive legal strategy to try to prevent Pennsylvania from counting mailed ballots that are received in the three days after the election. The matter could find its way to the Supreme Court, especially if those...
Colonial-themed restaurant on site of 1773 tavern closes
PHILADELPHIA — A colonial-themed restaurant on the site of a 1773 tavern in Philadelphia’s Old City has closed because of decreased business stemming from the coronavirus pandemic. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that City Tavern’s longtime chef-proprietor, Walter Staib, called the closure “bittersweet” and said it followed months of slow business...
Legal armies ready if cloudy election outcome heads to court
WASHINGTON — Signature matches. Late-arriving absentee votes. Drop boxes. Secrecy envelopes. Democratic and Republican lawyers already have gone to court over these issues in the run-up to Tuesday’s election. But the legal fights could take on new urgency, not to mention added vitriol, if a narrow margin in a battleground...
Many covid positive Pennsylvanians ignoring contact tracing questions
Fewer than a quarter of Pennsylvania residents who tested positive for covid-19 in late October answered questions from contact tracers as to whether they’d been to any restaurants, bars or mass gatherings, according to data released Monday by the Department of Health. “You might save a life by being honest...
Hospitals competing for nurses as US coronavirus cases surge
As the coronavirus pandemic surges across the nation and infections and hospitalizations rise, medical administrators are scrambling to find enough nursing help — especially in rural areas and at small hospitals. Nurses are being trained to provide care in fields where they have limited experience. Hospitals are scaling back services...
Pennsylvania reports nearly 4,000 new covid cases over past 2 days
Pennsylvania saw 3,969 new cases of covid-19 added over the past two days, the state’s Department of Health reported Monday. To break it down, the state added 1,909 cases on Sunday and 2,060 cases on Monday. “Daily increases are now the highest they have ever been since the start of...
Push to remove racist names draws support — and backlash
For more than two decades, Black residents of Rhode Island have argued that the official name of their state, “The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations,” connotes slavery and should be changed. It’s a “hurtful term” that “conjures extremely painful images for many Rhode Islanders,” said Democratic state Sen....
2 children pulled alive in dramatic Turkey quake rescues
IZMIR, Turkey — When firefighter Muammer Celik reached a 3-year-old girl trapped for three days under the rubble of a deadly earthquake in a Turkish coastal city, his heart sank. She was lying motionless, covered in dust, and he asked a colleague for a body bag. But as Celik extended...
ISIS attack on Afghan university leaves 22 dead, 22 woundedVideo
KABUL, Afghanistan — Islamic State militants in Afghanistan stormed Kabul University on Monday as it hosted a book fair attended by the Iranian ambassador, sparking an hours-long gunbattle and leaving at least 22 dead and 22 wounded at the war-torn country’s largest school. Most of the casualties were students and...
Johnny Depp loses UK libel case over ‘wife-beater’ claims
LONDON — Johnny Depp lost his high-stakes libel case Monday against The Sun tabloid newspaper for labelling him a “wife beater,” as a British judge said he believed the actor had abused his ex-wife and that she frequently feared for her life. In a decision that has been cheered by...
