U.S. set for first covid-19 shots as shipments begin arriving
Hospital workers begin unloading precious frozen vials of covid-19 vaccine Monday, with the first vaccinations against a scourge that has killed nearly 300,000 Americans expected later in the day. “It feels like the cavalry is arriving,” Robert C. Garrett, CEO of Hackensack Meridian Health, said as New Jersey’s largest health...
Gmail, YouTube down briefly as Google suffers brief outage
Google users in the U.S., Europe, India and other parts of the world were briefly unable to access their Gmail accounts, watch YouTube videos or get to their online documents during an outage Monday. Thousands of complaints popped up around 7 a.m. along the East Coast of the U.S. “We’re...
Watch live as Pa. electors formally choose Biden as presidentVideo
WASHINGTON — Presidential electors are meeting across the United States on Monday to formally choose Joe Biden as the nation’s next president. Monday is the day set by law for the meeting of the Electoral College. In reality, electors meet in all 50 states and the District of Columbia to...
Protesting Indian farmers call for 2nd strike in a week
NEW DELHI — Tens of thousands of protesting Indian farmers called for a national farmers’ strike on Monday, the second in a week, to press for the quashing of three new laws on agricultural reform that they say will drive down crop prices and devastate their earnings. The farmers are...
Early in-person voting begins in Georgia Senate runoffs
ATLANTA — What could be the main event in Georgia’s two U.S. Senate runoffs — early in-person voting — got underway Monday, with lines trending shorter than during the first days of early voting for the general election. More than half of the record 5 million votes in the Nov....
Sen. Kelly Loeffler campaign: She had ‘no idea’ she posed with neo-Nazi
ATLANTA — The campaign of Georgia Republican U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler is disavowing a photo circulating on social media of her posing with a longtime white supremacist at a recent campaign event, with less than a month to go until the runoff elections that will determine the balance of the...
Former development aide accuses New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment
NEW YORK — A former aide to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo who is now running for Manhattan borough president accused him of sexual harassment in a series of tweets Sunday, saying he made inappropriate comments about her appearance. Lindsey Boylan tweeted that the Democratic governor “sexually harassed me for...
Officials: Pittston detention facility at center of scandal is closed
WILKES-BARRE — State and county officials have confirmed the voluntary closure of a for-profit juvenile detention center in northeastern Pennsylvania to which prosecutors said juvenile offenders were improperly sent in a kickback scheme that led to the imprisonment of two judges. The (Wilkes-Barre) Citizens’ Voice reports that the 60-bed PA...
Man shot by police after shooting at Manhattan cathedralVideo
NEW YORK — A man was fatally shot in the head by police on the steps of a landmark New York City cathedral Sunday afternoon after he began firing two semiautomatic handguns at the end of a Christmas choral concert, police said. A detective, a sergeant and an officer fired...
U.S. agencies hacked in monthslong global cyberspying campaign; Russia a possible culprit
WASHINGTON — U.S. government agencies were ordered to scour their networks for malware and disconnect potentially compromised servers on Monday after authorities learned that the Treasury and Commerce departments were hacked in a global cyber-espionage campaign tied to a foreign government. In a rare emergency directive issued late Sunday, the...
Agent: Master spy writer John le Carre dies at 89
LONDON — John le Carre, the spy-turned-novelist whose elegant and intricate narratives defined the Cold War espionage thriller and brought acclaim to a genre critics had once ignored, has died. He was 89, Le Carre’s literary agency, Curtis Brown, said Sunday that he died in Cornwall, southwest England on Saturday...
Some in White House getting early access to covid-19 vaccine
WASHINGTON — Some White House officials who work in close proximity to President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence will be offered coronavirus vaccines as soon as this week, while its public distribution is limited to front-line health workers and people in nursing homes and long-term care facilities. Two...
Vandals hit Black churches during weekend pro-Trump ralliesVideo
WASHINGTON — Vandals tore down a Black Lives Matter banner and sign from two historic Black churches in downtown Washington and set the banner ablaze as nighttime clashes Saturday between pro-Donald Trump supporters and counterdemonstrators erupted into violence and arrests. Police on Sunday said they were investigating the incidents at...
Trump raises China concerns as reason to veto defense bill
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump offered a new rationale Sunday for threatening to veto the annual defense policy bill that covers the military’s budget for equipment and pay raises for service members: China. He did not specific his concerns. Republican lawmakers have said the wide-ranging defense policy bill, which the...
Thousands of Pa. families face potential eviction come the new year
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. Hundreds of thousands of families across Pennsylvania could lose their homes in January, after emergency unemployment benefits and federal eviction protections...
Vandals hit Black churches during weekend pro-Trump rallies
WASHINGTON — Groups of people tore down a Black Lives Matter banner and sign from historic Black churches in downtown Washington and set one ablaze as nighttime clashes Saturday between pro-Donald Trump supporters and counterdemonstrators erupted into violence and arrests. Police on Sunday said they were investigating the incidents at...
DOJ probe of Pa. Catholic church abuse goes quiet 2 years later
PHILADELPHIA — Two years ago, the U.S. attorney in Philadelphia joined the long line of ambitious prosecutors investigating the Roman Catholic Church’s handling of priest-abuse complaints. The Justice Department had never brought a conspiracy case against the church, despite exhaustive reports that showed its long history of burying abuse complaints...
More U.S. churches are committing to racism-linked reparations
NEW YORK — The Episcopal Diocese of Texas acknowledges that its first bishop in 1859 was a slaveholder. An Episcopal church in New York City erects a plaque noting the building’s creation in 1810 was made possible by wealth resulting from slavery. And the Minnesota Council of Churches cites a...
Covid-19 vaccine shipments begin in historic U.S. effortVideo
PORTAGE, Mich. — The first of many freezer-packed covid-19 vaccine vials made their way to distribution sites across the United States on Sunday, as the nation’s pandemic deaths approached the horrifying new milestone of 300,000. The rollout of the Pfizer vaccine, the first to be approved by the Food and...
Driver arrested after car plows into Manhattan protesters
NEW YORK — A woman who plowed her car into protesters Friday in New York City, injuring six of them, has been arrested and charged with reckless endangerment, police said. Kathleen Casillo, 52, was released from custody after being given a notice to appear in court at a later date,...
Trump slams Supreme Court for refusing to overturn election, lashes out at Barr
President Trump unleashed an angry tweet storm Saturday at the Supreme Court for dismissing his effort to overturn his election loss — and took a new shot at Attorney General Bill Barr. He repeated his claims about election fraud and blasted the top court for rejecting the long-shot Texas lawsuit...
Trump loses Wisconsin case while arguing another one
MADISON, Wis. — President Donald Trump lost a federal lawsuit Saturday while his attorney was arguing his case before a skeptical Wisconsin Supreme Court in another lawsuit that liberal justices said “smacks of racism” and would disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of voters only in the state’s most diverse counties. U.S....
Electoral College vote a big step to move past election
HARRISBURG, Pa. — When the 20 Pennsylvania loyalists selected by President-elect Joe Biden gather to cast their electoral vote ballots on Monday, it will be a big step toward leaving behind the chaos of the election and its aftermath. The ceremony at the Capitol Complex in Harrisburg will be unusual...
Trump helicopter buzzes supporters rallying in Washington
WASHINGTON — Thousands of supporters of President Donald Trump returned to Washington on Saturday for rallies to back his desperate efforts to subvert the election that he lost to Joe Biden. They cheered as Trump flew overhead on the Marine One helicopter on his way out of town for the...
Coroner IDs 5 cyclists killed near Las Vegas as 4 men, woman
LAS VEGAS — Four men in their 40s and 50s and a woman in her 30s were identified Friday as the five cyclists killed in a crash while riding on a highway southeast of Las Vegas. The Clark County office of the medical examiner and coroner said the cyclists were...
