GOP’s Tommy Tuberville defeats U.S. Sen. Doug Jones, flips Alabama seat
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Former college football coach Tommy Tuberville has recaptured a U.S. Senate seat for Republicans by defeating Sen. Doug Jones in Alabama. Jones had widely been considered the Senate’s most endangered Democrat. Republicans had made recapturing the once reliably conservative seat a priority in 2020. Tuberville, who has...
Democrats losing paths to Senate control as GOP hangs onVideo
WASHINGTON — Hopes fading for Senate control, Democrats had a disappointing election night as Republicans swatted down an onslaught of challengers and fought to retain their fragile majority. Several races remained undecided into Wednesday and at least one headed to a runoff in January. It was a jarring outcome for...
Pennsylvania vote goes smoothly, but tallying may take timeVideo
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania voters turned out in large numbers Tuesday for an election that produced few of the glitches some had feared, leaving in their wake a mountain of ballots that will have to be counted in the coming days amid intense national scrutiny. The battleground state’s decision to greatly...
Georgia Republican who supports QAnon wins U.S. House seat
ATLANTA — Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, who expressed racist views and support for QAnon conspiracy theories in a series of online videos, has won a U.S. House seat representing northwest Georgia. Her candidacy was bolstered by President Donald Trump, who has called her a “future Republican Star.” Greene was heavily...
Pennsylvania emerges as online misinformation hotspot on election day
A single voting machine jammed for just minutes Tuesday morning at a precinct in Joe Biden’s hometown of Scranton — but misleading posts on Facebook and Twitter claimed multiple machines there were down for hours. Pennsylvania emerged as a hotspot for online misinformation on Election Day. Facebook and Twitter scrambled...
News outlets preach caution as election results arrive
Media outlets preached patience as the first Election Day results in the hard-fought campaign between President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden came in, even as it ran counter to their instincts. A stressed populace and flood of early voting had many observers worried about a chaotic counting process, leading...
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wins reelection, but control of Senate at stake
WASHINGTON — Republicans fought to keep control of the Senate on Tuesday in a razor-close contest against a surge of Democrats challenging President Donald Trump’s allies across a vast political map. Polls started closing in key states where some of the nation’s most well-known senators were on the ballot. In...
2020 election results from across Western Pennsylvania
All that’s left is the counting. And it could take a little while. Polls in Pennsylvania closed at 8 p.m. on what was a mostly orderly election day. Voters were greeted by long lines well before the polls opened at 7 a.m., and there reportedly was steady turnout across Western...
Election updates: After win in Pa., Biden captures Nevada as wellVideo
This is the latest on the presidential election between incumbent Donald Trump and challenger Joe Biden: 12:13 p.m. Biden has won Nevada, adding to his Electoral College victory over Trump. Biden clinched Nevada on Saturday afternoon, shortly after he won the presidency by taking Pennsylvania. Trump had made a strong...
George Floyd’s brother rallies voters on Election Day in New York
NEW YORK — The murmurs spread quickly among the poll workers late Tuesday morning at a Brooklyn neighborhood station: George Floyd’s brother was present. A few came up to Terrence Floyd, whose brother George died in the custody of Minneapolis police, sparking protests for racial justice across the nation. “Keep...
Florida teen accidentally shoots, kills friend while ‘simulating a rap video,’ cops say
MIAMI — An 18-year-old is facing a manslaughter charge after he accidentally shot and killed his friend as the two “were simulating a rap video” in Hialeah, police say. Authorities have arrested Jonathan Batista, 18, on a charge of manslaughter with a deadly weapon for the death of Brian Shakur...
Future voting rights, marijuana laws at stake in states
The growing push to legalize marijuana was being put to another test Tuesday in both left- and right-leaning states as voters also decided a variety of state ballot measures affecting their own voting rights in future elections. A total of 120 proposed state laws and constitutional amendments were on the...
‘Vote and get home,’ anxious voters say on Election Day
She carefully planned a five-hour drive to the polling place in her Tennessee hometown to vote on Election Day. She considered the traffic, the weather, the surging coronavirus pandemic and — something she never imagined having to contemplate — the possibility of civil unrest in the aftermath of an American...
FBI investigates robocalls warning voters to ‘stay home’
TRAVERSE CITY, Michigan — Voters across the U.S. received anonymous robocalls in the days and weeks before Election Day urging them to “stay safe and stay home” — an ominous warning that election experts said could be an effort to scare voters into sitting out the election. The FBI is...
Gunman who killed 4 in Vienna attack had sought to join IS
VIENNA — 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...
Explainer: What is the Electoral College and when do votes need to be in?
Election Day is only one point in the process of the Electoral College, which decides who wins a U.S. presidential race. According to Britannica.com: “American voters go to the polls … but the ballots that they cast do not directly elect the president. Instead, the will of the voters is...
What to watch tonight: States to eye closely on election tonight
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden each have a path to win the White House. The former vice president is competitive in all the battleground states Trump carried in 2016, and has put a handful of traditional Republican states, including Georgia and Arizona, in play. Trump...
Virus hospitalizations surge as pandemic shadows U.S. election
Americans went to the polls Tuesday under the shadow of a resurging pandemic, with an alarming increase in cases nationwide and the number of people hospitalized with covid-19 reaching record highs in a growing number of states. While daily infections were rising in all but three states, the surge was...
Whitey Bulger’s family: Prison system did not protect him
BRUCETON MILLS, W.Va. — Family members of Boston crime boss James “Whitey” Bulger Jr. have filed a lawsuit against the Federal Bureau of Prisons and 30 unnamed employees of the prison system for failing to protect Bulger, who was beaten to death at a West Virginia prison. The family filed...
Wisconsin trooper stops driver hauling snowmobile atop car
CLAYTON, Wis. — The Wisconsin State Patrol had a little advice for a guy who transported a snowmobile by strapping it to the roof of his Toyota Corolla: Bad idea. A trooper pulled over the driver on Highway 63 in northwestern Wisconsin on Sunday afternoon after seeing the snowmobile perched...
Powerful Hurricane Eta rips ashore into Nicaragua
MANAGUA, Nicaragua — The heart of powerful Hurricane Eta began moving ashore in Nicaragua on Tuesday with potentially devastating winds and rains that have already destroyed rooftops and caused rivers to overflow. The hurricane had sustained winds of 140 mph, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center. The eyewall was...
Pennsylvania sets single-day record for new covid cases
In adding 2,875 cases of coronavirus Tuesday, Pennsylvania set a record for new cases in a single day. The Pennsylvania Department of Health said of those new cases, 2,599 were confirmed from PCR tests and other 276 were probable cases. Officials also said 32 new deaths were reported, making 159...
Trump, Biden hand their fate to voters, with robust turnout
WASHINGTON — Voters flocked to the polls on Tuesday despite the threat of the coronavirus and long lines to choose between President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, in an election that will influence how the U.S. confronts everything from the pandemic to race relations for years to...
More Americans on diets now than a decade ago, report finds
If it seems like more and more people are on diets these days, you might not be imagining it. A higher percentage of Americans said they’re on a special diet to lose weight or for other health reasons compared with a decade ago, according to a report Tuesday by the...
How covid death counts become the stuff of conspiracy theories
In the waning days of the campaign, President Donald Trump complained repeatedly about how the United States tracks the number of people who have died from covid-19, claiming, “This country and its reporting systems are just not doing it right.” He went on to blame those reporting systems for inflating...