In cities across US, voters sanction more police oversight
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Voters in communities across the country approved measures on Election Day toughening civilian oversight of law enforcement agencies, including some that took years to reach the ballot but grew in urgency after global protests over racial injustice and police brutality. The measures take aim at a chronic...
Court: Tennessee can enforce Down syndrome abortion ban
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A federal appeals court ruled Friday that Tennessee can begin outlawing abortions because of a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome, as well prohibit the procedure if it’s based on the race or gender of the fetus. Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Lee enacted the so-called “reason bans” earlier...
Police: 8 injured in Wisconsin mall shooting; suspect sought
WAUWATOSA, Wis. — Police searched Friday evening for the suspect in a shooting at a suburban Milwaukee mall that left seven adults and a teenager injured. Wauwatosa Police Chief Barry Weber gave no motive for the attack at the Mayfair Mall in a brief update about three hours after the...
Fetterman’s flags fly in the face of some Pa. lawmakers
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor, Democrat John Fetterman, may have gotten under somebody’s skin. A provision slipped into lame-duck budget legislation Friday would ban flags not approved by lawmakers from flying at the state Capitol — such as the pro-marijuana legalization and LGBTQ- and transgender-rights flags that Fetterman hangs...
Spokesman: Trump’s eldest son tests positive for coronavirus
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump Jr., the eldest son of President Donald Trump, was quarantining Friday after learning he has been infected with the coronavirus, a spokesperson said. The younger Trump learned his diagnosis at the beginning of the week and has had no symptoms, said the spokesperson, who was granted...
Biden wants Congress to pass emergency covid aid this year
WILMINGTON, Del. — President-elect Joe Biden is calling on Congress to enact billions of dollars in emergency COVID-19 assistance before the year’s end, according to a senior aide who warned Friday that “there’s no more room for delay.” Biden transition aide Jen Psaki delivered the remarks ahead of Biden’s first...
Trump makes late-term bid to lower prescription drug costs
WASHINGTON — Trying to close out major unfinished business, the Trump administration issued regulations Friday that could lower the prices Americans pay for many prescription drugs. But in a time of political uncertainty, it’s hard to say whether the rules will withstand expected legal challenges from the pharmaceutical industry or...
VP Mike Pence campaigns in Georgia ahead of Senate runoffs
CANTON, Ga. — Vice President Mike Pence campaigned in Georgia on Friday as the state’s two Republican senators try to hold off Democratic challengers in January 5th runoffs that will determine who controls the Senate at the outset of President-elect Joe Biden’s administration. The trip highlights a critical juncture both...
Trump objects to counting thousands of Wisconsin ballots
MADISON, Wis. — The recount of the presidential election in Wisconsin’s two most heavily Democratic counties began Friday with President Donald Trump’s campaign seeking to discard tens of thousands of absentee ballots that it alleged should not have been counted. Trump’s three objections attempting to discard the ballots were denied...
Advocates want light show moved from former mental facility
WALTHAM, Mass. — A battle is underway in a Boston suburb over whether it is appropriate to hold a joyous holiday celebration at the site of a now-closed institution where developmentally disabled children were once abused, neglected and warehoused under deplorable conditions. The Waltham Lions Club drive-thru Greater Boston Holiday...
U.K.’s Boris Johnson stands by minister found to have bullied staff
LONDON — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson refused to fire or censure his interior minister Friday, despite an investigator’s conclusion that she bullied members of her staff. A report said Home Secretary Priti Patel had not met the standards required of a government minister, and concluded her behavior fit the...
Thousands mourn death of Belarus protester seized by police
KYIV, Ukraine — Thousands of Belarusians streamed to a church in the capital of Minsk on Friday for the funeral of a protester who was allegedly beaten to death after being arrested by police. Raman Bandarenka’s death on Nov. 12 angered opposition supporters who have held near-daily demonstrations against the...
White House paints Trump’s meeting with Michigan legislators as routine
WASHINGTON — The two Michigan state legislators headed to the White House on Friday to meet with President Donald Trump was nothing out of the ordinary, according to the administration. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Trump’s meeting with the state legislators was “not an advocacy meeting” and insisted...
Pennsylvania nears 300K covid-19 cases, records 108 more deaths
Another 6,808 cases of covid-19 were reported in Pennsylvania on Friday, according to a report from the state’s Department of Health. It’s now likely Pennsylvania will surpass the 300,000 case mark over the weekend. The state’s total number of cases — confirmed and probable — since the pandemic began in...
Mnuchin denies trying to hinder incoming administration
WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin denied that he is attempting to limit the choices President-elect Joe Biden will have to promote an economic recovery by ending several emergency loan programs being run by the Federal Reserve. Mnuchin said his decision was based on the fact that the programs were...
N.J. governor signs order giving counties more time to count votes
TRENTON, N.J. — New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy on Friday said he signed an executive order delaying when counties must certify the results from the Nov. 3 election. The state’s 21 counties must certify results by Friday under current law, but Murphy’s order pushes the deadline to Wednesday. Murphy, a...
Georgia officials certify election results showing Biden win
ATLANTA — Georgia’s governor and top elections official on Friday certified results showing Joe Biden won the presidential race over Republican President Donald Trump, bringing the state one step closer to wrapping up an election fraught with unfounded accusations of fraud by Trump and his supporters. Secretary of State Brad...
Police: 4-year-old left on school bus, found 2 hours later
NEWNAN, Ga. — A 4-year-old boy was left on a Georgia school bus Thursday morning and ended up outside of the driver’s home, authorities said. A Jefferson Parkway Elementary pre-kindergarten student had fallen asleep on the bus while students were being dropped off at school, Coweta County School System spokesman...
Pfizer, BioNTech seek emergency use of covid-19 vaccine in U.S.
Pfizer formally asked U.S. regulators Friday to allow emergency use of its COVID-19 vaccine, starting the clock on a process that could bring limited first shots as early as next month and eventually an end to the pandemic — but not until after a long, hard winter. The action comes...
Trump, allies make frantic steps to overturn Biden’s victory
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and his allies are taking increasingly frantic steps to subvert the results of the 2020 election, including summoning state legislators to the White House as part of a longshot bid to overturn Joe Biden’s victory. Among other last-ditch tactics: personally calling local election officials who...
Biden turns 78, will be oldest U.S. president
WASHINGTON — President-elect Joe Biden turned 78 on Friday. In two months, he’ll take the reins of a politically fractured nation facing the worst public health crisis in a century, high unemployment and a reckoning on racial injustice. As he wrestles with those issues, Biden will be attempting to accomplish...
Sanders, Warren under scrutiny as Biden weighs Cabinet picks
WILMINGTON, Del. — Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, leaders of the Democratic Party’s left wing, are at risk of being excluded from the senior ranks of President-elect Joe Biden’s administration as the incoming president balances the demands of his party’s progressive base against the political realities of a narrowly divided...
New York AG probes Trump consulting payments that reduced his taxes
NEW YORK — New York’s attorney general has sent a subpoena to the Trump Organization for records related to consulting fees paid to Ivanka Trump as part of a broad civil investigation into the president’s business dealings, a law enforcement official said Thursday. The New York Times, citing anonymous sources,...
Vatican reportedly launching probe after Pope Francis’ Instagram account ‘likes’ racy photo
“At least I’m going to heaven.” That was the quip from bikini model Natalia Garibotto after the official Instagram account of Pope Francis was one of 100,000 to “like” a racy photo of the half-clothed Brazilian. According to the Catholic News Agency, the photo was quickly “unliked” by the verified...
Kelly Stafford, wife of Detroit Lions QB, recants after calling Michigan a ‘dictatorship’Video
Kelly Stafford apologized Thursday for lashing out over the fact the state she lives in has placed restrictions for trying tamp down covid-19 numbers. Stafford, the wife of Detroit Lions quarterback Matt Stafford, ripped Michigan in a social media posting that went viral when she said she was “over living...
