Pennsylvania reports 850 new coronavirus cases, 20 new deaths
Pennsylvania on Saturday reported 850 new coronavirus cases, as the case count inches slowly upward from the weekly average of 813. The state Department of Health reported 20 new deaths attributed to coronavirus after posting 36 on Friday — which was the highest total of the week. Of the newly...
Protests in Belarus focus on spot where demonstrator died
MINSK, Belarus — Thousands of demonstrators in Belarus gathered Saturday at the spot in the capital where a protester died in clashes with police, calling for authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko to resign after 26 years in power. It was the seventh consecutive day of large protests against the results of...
Testing drops in Texas, as schools reopen, football resumes
SAN ANTONIO — Anyone can get a coronavirus test at the CentroMed clinic in San Antonio, but on a recent day, the drive-thru was empty. Finally two masked people in a maroon SUV pulled straight on through with no wait. With hundreds of deaths reported each day, students returning to...
Pompeo inks deal for U.S. troop move from Germany to Poland
WARSAW — U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo sealed a defense cooperation deal Saturday with Polish officials that will pave the way to redeploy American troops from Germany to Poland. Pompeo, in Warsaw at the end of a four-nation tour of central and eastern Europe, signed the deal with Polish...
Georgia House member loses post over John Lewis criticism
ATLANTA — Georgia’s House speaker on Friday took away a committee leadership post from a fellow Republican who said in a radio interview that the late U.S. Rep John Lewis’ “only claim to fame was that he got conked on the head.” Rep. Tommy Benton, who was chairman of the...
New border wall near unique wetlands endangered water supply
PHOENIX — The agency in charge of building the border wall received repeated warnings: tap water from nearby wells, and the unique wetlands of southeastern Arizona — yes, Arizona — home to a variety of wildlife and endangered fish will go dry. Immigration officials didn’t head those warnings. Then, several...
Georgia trooper charged with murder in traffic stop shooting
SAVANNAH, Ga. — A Georgia state trooper was fired and charged with murder Friday a week after he shot a 60-year-old man who tried to flee a rural traffic stop, authorities said. The president of Georgia’s NAACP chapter called the slaying of Julian Edward Roosevelt Lewis another chilling example of...
Mississippi flag could have Choctaw-inspired diamond shape
JACKSON, Miss. — The new Mississippi flag could include a magnolia or stars or representations of rivers. Or it could reflect the state’s Native American heritage with a diamond shape that is important to the Choctaw community. A group that will recommend a new flag met Friday and narrowed the...
Indiana police to stop blocking roads during executions
CHICAGO — Indiana State Police agreed Friday to stop blocking roads to a prison where federal executions resumed last month and are set to continue, backing down after anti-death penalty activists said in a lawsuit the roadblocks impeded their free speech rights. During the first three federal executions in July...
California becomes first state to pass 600,000 coronavirus cases
LOS ANGELES — California has become the first state in the nation to surpass 600,000 confirmed coronavirus cases. As of Friday morning, there were more than 603,000 recorded cases. The state also has now reported more than 11,000 deaths. Yet despite the grim numbers, there is growing evidence that the...
Hundreds of sea lions to be killed in Northwest in effort to save endangered fish
SEATTLE — Approval to kill up to 840 sea lions in a portion of the Columbia River and its tributaries over the next five years to boost the survival of salmon and steelhead at risk of extinction is expected from federal officials Friday. The kill program has been in the...
Mourners gather in Houston to remember slain soldier
HOUSTON — Flags from the U.S., Texas and Mexico flew at half staff Friday as a white, horse-drawn carriage embellished with white flowers brought in the custom green casket that carried the remains of a slain soldier. Vanessa Guillen, who was last seen on April 22, was memorialized nearly four...
Trump gets endorsement of NYC police union
BEDMINSTER, N.J. — Seeking to amplify his law-and-order message, President Donald Trump on Friday told hundreds of New York Police Department officers that “no one will be safe in Biden’s America” if the former Democratic vice president defeats him in November . “This guy has been taking your dignity away...
Pennsylvania prisons to upgrade video visitation for inmates
For many prison inmates, maintaining contact with the outside world is a challenge. The covid-19 crisis has made in-person visits impossible. The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections has facilitated video visits through the ZOOM internet platform since March, coinciding with the start of the pandemic in the U.S. But these visits...
Marge Simpson uses her voice to call out Trump adviserVideo
Marge Simpson has advice for a lawyer with the Trump campaign: Do not name call. In a clip posted Friday by Fox’s animated series “The Simpsons,” matriarch Marge chided the attorney over a tweet comparing her voice to that of the Democratic vice presidential contender, Sen. Kamala Harris. Kamala sounds...
Study hints, can’t prove, survivor plasma fights covid-19
Mayo Clinic researchers reported a strong hint that blood plasma from COVID-19 survivors helps other patients recover, but it’s not proof and some experts worry if, amid clamor for the treatment, they’ll ever get a clear answer. More than 64,000 patients in the U.S. have been given convalescent plasma, a...
Trump dodges question on QAnon conspiracy theory
President Donald Trump on Friday twice ignored a question about whether he supports QAnon, a convoluted, right-wing, pro-Trump conspiracy theory. A reporter asked the president about the theory at a White House briefing Friday after Trump tweeted his congratulations to a QAnon-supporting candidate. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who won her House...
9th Circuit ends California ban on high-capacity magazines
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday threw out California’s ban on high-capacity ammunition magazines, saying the law violates the U.S. Constitution’s protection of the right to bear firearms. “Even well-intentioned laws must pass constitutional muster,” appellate Judge Kenneth Lee wrote...
States can’t afford Trump’s jobless aid plan, Gov. Wolf says
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania does not have the money to provide $100 a week as President Donald Trump pushes states to help pay for a new round of federal unemployment assistance, Gov. Tom Wolf told the state’s members of Congress. In a Thursday letter, Wolf, a Democrat, urged Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation...
Pennsylvania reports 829 new coronavirus cases, 36 new deaths
Pennsylvania on Friday reported 829 new coronavirus cases, just slightly above the seven-day average of 810. The Department of Health reported 36 new deaths attributed to coronavirus. That’s the most in more than a week. One of those deaths was from June and one from July. The rest were in...
Governor: New Jersey election will be done mostly by mail
TRENTON, N.J. — New Jersey will move to a nearly all-mail election this November, following the model the state used in its July primary, Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy said Friday. Murphy, a Democrat, said during an interview with CNN that all voters would get a ballot, but it’s not clear...
Palestinians say UAE deal hinders quest for Mideast peace
JERUSALEM — Israel’s agreement to establish diplomatic ties with the United Arab Emirates marks a watershed moment in its relations with Arab countries, but the Palestinians say it puts a just resolution of the Middle East conflict even farther out of reach. The UAE presented its decision to upgrade longstanding...
Pompeo to meet head of UN nuclear watchdog as council votes
VIENNA — U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in Austria, where he will see the head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog as members of the U.N. Security Council vote on a long-shot American bid to extend an arms embargo on Iran. The vote in New York will likely...
Harris bringing energy, dollars and more to Biden’s campaign
Wilmington, Del. — In her first two days as Joe Biden’s running mate, Kamala Harris has fired off the campaign’s sharpest criticism of President Donald Trump’s shortcomings. She has vouched for Biden’s character on race and more. And the enthusiasm surrounding her historic candidacy has brought in a record $36...
Highmark CEO: Covid-19 pandemic has not deterred growth across Pa., neighboring states
Despite recent plunges in hospital revenues statewide, the covid-19 pandemic has not thwarted Highmark Health from strengthening its overall financial position and increasing its reach across Pennsylvania and neighboring states, Highmark CEO David Holmberg said Thursday. “We believe that we are very well-positioned for the long term,” Holmberg told reporters...
