Trump suggests polling place double-check for mail-in votersVideo
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Thursday that people who vote early by mail should show up at their local polling places on Election Day and vote again if their ballots haven’t been counted, a suggestion that experts said would lead to chaos, long lines and more work for election...
Pa. opens medical marijuana testing labs – including 1 in Trafford – to hemp farmers
Pennsylvania’s hemp farmers will be able to get this year’s crop tested at six medical marijuana testing labs, including one in Trafford, the state announced Thursday. The move is a partnership between the state Department of Agriculture and Department of Health to give farmers more testing options. The law requires...
Gov. Wolf renews call for legal recreational marijuana
Gov. Tom Wolf Thursday renewed his call for legal recreational marijuana, accusing legislators of dragging their feet on the issue. “In the past year, the Legislature has failed to find time to debate, let alone pass, adult-use cannabis, even though this is an issue that affects thousands of Pennsylvanians through...
West Virginia University reports highest student coronavirus cases
West Virginia University reported its highest number of daily coronavirus cases among students for the second straight day. The 48 confirmed student cases reported Thursday out of 408 tests given equates to a positive case rate of 11.8%. It marks the fourth straight time that the rate has exceeded 10%....
Pennsylvania’s reported covid-19 cases, positivity rate both spike
The Pennsylvania Department of Health on Thursday reported 1,160 new cases of coronavirus, bringing the commonwealth’s total to 136,711. That’s the largest batch of cases reported in a single day since July 28. Allegheny County reported 105 of those cases, Philadelphia added 257 and York had 128 new cases. The...
Southern California sees summer of mountain lion kittens
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — A mountain lion baby boom has occurred this summer in the Santa Monica Mountains and Simi Hills west of Los Angeles. Thirteen kittens were born to five mountain lion mothers between May and August, according to the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. It’s the first...
Loners no more: Male elephants stick together, study finds
WASHINGTON — A line of elephants trundles across a dusty landscape in northern Botswana, ears flapping and trunks occasionally brushing the ground. As they pass a motion-activated camera hidden in low shrubbery, photos record the presence of each elephant. What’s special about this group? It’s only males. Female elephants are...
Georgia church splits from Methodists over LGBTQ dispute
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — A Georgia congregation said Thursday that it has finalized its split from the United Methodist Church after the denomination’s divisive vote last year to strengthen bans on same-sex marriage and ordination of LGBTQ pastors. Members of Asbury Memorial Church in Savannah overwhelmingly supported leaving the Methodist...
Trump faces pushback for urging people to vote twice as test
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is facing a backlash for urging voters in North Carolina to vote by mail and then try to vote again in person to test the mail-in ballot system in the Nov. 3 election. Trump was asked by a television reporter during his trip Wednesday to...
Tyson Foods to open medical clinics at some meat plants
OMAHA, Neb. — Tyson Foods is planning to open medical clinics at several of its U.S. plants to improve the health of its workers and better protect them from the coronavirus. The Springdale, Arkansas-based company, which processes about 20% of all beef, pork and chicken in the U.S., said its...
Russia: Germany has provided no proof of Navalny poisoningVideo
MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman brushed off allegations Thursday that the Kremlin was involved in poisoning Putin’s most determined critic, accusing Germany of not providing Moscow with any evidence about the condition of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny. Navalny, a politician and corruption investigator, fell ill on a flight...
2 dead, 2 wounded in Philadelphia shooting
PHILADELPHIA — Police on Thursday were seeking suspects after two teenagers were killed and two were wounded in a shooting that left the city’s police commissioner “at a loss for words.” Three gunman approached the victims and opened fire on Moore Street on Wednesday night, Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said. Jaheim...
Biden meets Jacob Blake’s family to start Wisconsin trip
KENOSHA, Wis. — Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden began a visit to the battleground state of Wisconsin on Thursday by meeting with the family of Jacob Blake, the Black man whose shooting by a white police officer sparked days of sometimes violent protests. Biden spent more than an hour in...
Jobless claims fall to 881,000 but layoffs remain elevated
WASHINGTON — The number of laid-off Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell to a still-elevated 881,000 last week, evidence that the viral pandemic keeps forcing many businesses to slash jobs. The latest figures, released Thursday by the Labor Department, suggest that nearly six months after the eruption of the coronavirus,...
Facebook moves to target misinformation before electionVideo
With just two months left until the U.S. presidential election, Facebook says it is taking more steps to encourage voting, minimize misinformation and reduce the likelihood of post-election “civil unrest.” The company said Thursday it will restrict new political ads in the week before the election and remove posts that...
Study: Electronics could stop 40% of big truck rear crashes
DETROIT — Safety features such as automatic emergency braking and forward collision warnings could prevent more than 40% of crashes in which semis rear-end other vehicles, a new study has found. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a research group supported by auto insurers, also found that when the rear...
White House moves to revoke federal funding from ‘anarchist jurisdictions’
The Trump administration is taking steps to revoke federal funding from metropolitan cities he says are becoming “anarchist jurisdictions.” President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed a five-page memo ordering federal agencies to send information to the White House Office of Management and Budget that detail monies that can be redirected....
House OKs changes to mail-in voting law; Wolf threatens veto
HARRISBURG — In the shadow of an increasingly strident presidential campaign, Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives approved changes to the state’s fledgling mail-in voting law Wednesday, but in highly partisan fashion. The Republican-penned bill passed, 112-90, on a near party-line vote in the battleground state where President Trump’s campaign and the...
Video: New York police put hood on Black man killed by asphyxiation
A Black man who had run naked through the streets of a western New York city died of asphyxiation after a group of police officers put a hood over his head, then pressed his face into the pavement for two minutes, according to video and records released Wednesday by the...
Nursing home covid-19 case, death data still missing from Pa.’s public reports
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 weekly newsletter. HARRISBURG — During the first three months of the coronavirus pandemic, the public had no way to measure which Pennsylvania...
Germany says Soviet-era nerve agent used on Putin opponent NavalnyVideo
BERLIN — Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned with the same type of Soviet-era nerve agent used in a 2018 attack on a former Russian spy, the German government said Wednesday, provoking outrage from Western leaders who demanded Moscow provide an explanation. The findings — which experts say point...
‘Skeptical’: Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst suggests covid numbers are inflated
WASHINGTON — Echoing a discredited conspiracy theory, vulnerable Republican Sen. Joni Ernst is suggesting government statistics on coronavirus infections and deaths have been inflated. Ernst, who is facing an unexpectedly tough reelection fight, made the comment after a man at a campaign stop in Waterloo, Iowa, said he believes the...
‘Urgent’ request sent to states in push for coronavirus vaccine delivery by Nov. 1Video
WASHINGTON — Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, sent a letter last week to the nation’s governors with an urgent request. The Trump administration wanted them to do everything in their power to eliminate hurdles for vaccine distribution sites to be fully operational by...
Covid-19 death tied to Sturgis Rally reported in Minnesota
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — A Minnesota man who attended the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota last month has died from covid-19, Minnesota health officials reported Wednesday. The death is the first reported from the biker rally that drew hundreds of thousands of people. Infections linked to the event have...
New casino could be built near Penn State’s flagship campus
HARRISBURG — A casino could be built near Penn State University’s flagship campus after Pennsylvania found another taker Wednesday for a mini-casino license, auctioning it for $10 million to a Philadelphia-area private equity investor. Ira Lubert, a Penn State board member and alumnus, beat one other bidder, the Pennsylvania Gaming...
