Democrats win big in Arizona, now a former GOP stronghold
PHOENIX — Democrats have been asking the question for a long time: Is this the year Arizona turns blue? In 2020, the answer was “yes.” Joe Biden won Arizona’s 11 electoral votes for president and Mark Kelly won a seat in the U.S. Senate, ushering in an era of Democratic...
Claim that Sharpie pens ruin Arizona ballots misses the mark
As states across the U.S. release vote totals for the presidential election, some social media users are falsely claiming that ballots are being invalidated in Arizona. The supposed culprit: Sharpie markers. In what’s come to be known as #Sharpiegate, social media posts suggest that election officials in Maricopa County provided...
England readies for new lockdown with retail therapy, final pints
LONDON — Last-minute shoppers in England came out in force Wednesday and thirsty drinkers planned their final freshly poured pints in a pub for the next month as Britain prepared to join large swaths of Europe in a coronavirus lockdown designed to save its health care system from being overwhelmed....
‘You killed my son!’ Philly releases bodycam footage and 911 calls in police killing of Walter Wallace Jr.
PHILADELPHIA — In the moments before two Philadelphia police officers fatally shot Walter Wallace Jr. outside his family’s West Philadelphia home last week, the officers repeatedly told Wallace to put down a knife he was holding, while people on the street yelled that Wallace was “mental” and screamed “no” as...
San Francisco voters approve taxes on CEOs, big businesses
SAN FRANCISCO — Addressing economic disparity laid bare by the coronavirus pandemic, San Francisco voters overwhelmingly approved several tax measures targeting landlords and big businesses whose CEOs earn far higher than their average workers. Under the new law, any company that pays its top executive 100 times more than their...
AG: North Dakota governor can’t fill dead candidate’s seat
BISMARCK, N.D. — North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum has no authority to appoint a coal company executive to fill a state House seat won by a Republican candidate who died before the election, the attorney general said Wednesday. Burgum announced Wednesday that he was appointing BNI Energy President Wade Boeshans...
In blue and red states, milestone wins for LGBTQ candidates
NEW YORK — Across the nation, LGBTQ candidates achieved milestone victories in Tuesday’s election, including the first transgender person elected to a state Senate, and the first openly gay Black men to win seats in Congress. The landmark wins came not in only blue but also red states such as...
After federal judge’s order, Postal Service sweep finds 13 ballotsVideo
U.S. Postal Service inspectors found just 13 ballots — all in Pennsylvania — during an Election Day sweep of mail processing centers ordered by a federal judge. The ballots were found in two separate mail processing facilities and were expedited for delivery to local election offices, according to court records...
Pennsylvania’s presidential vote could be moot before it is even finished
After more than five dozen campaign visits to Pennsylvania by President Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden and an estimated $100 million in campaign and PAC spending, the final count in the Keystone State’s election could be insignificant in determining Tuesday’s national outcome. The state — with 20 Electoral College...
Jittery public turns to liquor, news as presidential race’s fate hangsVideo
PHILADELPHIA — They clung to their cocktails and proclaimed themselves sick with dread. They relentlessly checked the news and went outdoors for fresh air. They bemoaned a wipeout wave that never came and held out hope their favored candidate would still eke out a win. With the fate of the...
Trump sues in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia, laying ground for contesting outcome
WASHINGTON — As Democrat Joe Biden inched closer to the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the White House, President Donald Trump’s campaign put into action the legal strategy the president had signaled for weeks: attacking the integrity of the voting process in states where the result could mean...
Will you trust the election results regardless of the outcome?Video
President Donald Trump’s campaign is filing lawsuits over ballot counting in Michigan and threatening to do so in other states. Similar election-related lawsuits were filed in Pennsylvania over the previous several weeks. All of which leaves voters wondering whether society will accept the results of this year’s presidential election if...
Maine GOP Sen. Collins beats Sara Gideon in hard-fought race in Maine
PORTLAND, Maine — Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine has won the hardest-fought race of her career, turning back a challenge by Democrat Sara Gideon. Collins survived to serve a fifth term following a costly race that was viewed as pivotal to control of the Senate. Collins, one of...
Public health may be U.S. election loser as coronavirus surges
Regardless of the presidential election outcome, a vexing issue remains to be decided: Will the U.S. be able to tame a perilous pandemic that is surging as holidays, winter and other challenges approach? Public health experts fear the answer is no, at least in the short term, with potentially dire...
Puerto Rico awaits final result in tight gubernatorial race
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — People across Puerto Rico awaited final results Wednesday of elections that saw long lines of voters and produced a tight gubernatorial race in the U.S. Caribbean territory. Pedro Pierluisi of the pro-statehood New Progressive Party held a slight lead over Carlos Delgado of the Popular...
Democrats’ Senate drive halted by GOP, but control teeters
WASHINGTON — Democrats faced increasingly long odds in the the battle for Senate control as Republicans brushed back multiple challengers to protect their majority. Still, it was too soon for the GOP to declare victory. In Maine, Republican Sen. Susan Collins won the hardest-fought race of her career, securing a...
Pet Valu plans to close all U.S. stores due to ‘severe impact from covid-19’
Pet Valu Inc., a pet food retailer with several stores in the Pittsburgh region, on Wednesday announced plans to wind down its U.S. operations “due to severe impact from covid-19.” Pet Valu said it expects its 358 U.S. stores and warehouses, scattered throughout the Northeast and Midwest, and its U.S....
World waits nervously, impatiently for U.S. vote count
From Ford Model T cars that popped off the assembly line in just 90 minutes to 60-second service for burgers, the United States has long had a major hand in making the world a frenetic and impatient place, primed and hungry for instant gratification. So waking up to the news...
Pa. reports 2nd-highest coronavirus case total
Pennsylvania’s Department of Health reported 2,795 new positive cases of coronavirus on Wednesday, the second-highest total since the pandemic began in March. The new cases bring the state’s total to 217,666, following Tuesday’s record high total of 2,875 new cases. The health department had 49,087 test results reported through 10...
Wolf: ‘Every vote is going to count,’ Trump lawsuit is ‘simply wrong’Video
Gov. Tom Wolf reiterated his confidence in the state’s elections process Wednesday night as workers statewide raced to tabulate hundreds of thousands of ballots left to be counted and the Trump administration attempts to block the count. “Pennsylvania has made important progress in counting millions of mail-in ballots. That continues...
DEA collects record amount of prescription drugs on Take Back Day
A record amount of prescription medication — nearly 1 million pounds — was collected nationwide Oct. 24 during the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Drug Take Back Day. That includes nearly 37,000 pounds of unwanted, expired or unused prescription medication turned over at 209 collection sites in Pennsylvania, according to data released...
Flash of luck: Astronomers find cosmic radio burst source
A flash of luck helped astronomers solve a cosmic mystery: What causes powerful but fleeting radio bursts that zip and zigzag through the universe? Scientists have known about these energetic pulses — called fast radio bursts — for about 13 years and have seen them coming from outside our galaxy,...
How many votes did Kanye West get in the presidential race?Video
The 2020 election results are still rolling in, and it might be days or weeks before the presidential race is decided between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden. But Kanye West knows he didn’t win. The rapper admitted defeat after getting just 60,000 votes in 12 states....
Scattered protests in U.S. cities, but no wide unrest seen
WASHINGTON — Scattered protests took place from Washington, D.C. to Washington state in the hours after polls closed, but there were no signs of widespread unrest or violence linked to the U.S. election. The outcome of the hard-fought contest for the presidency remained undecided Wednesday, stirring worries that prolonged uncertainty...
Voters in pivotal Pennsylvania keep nation on edge of seat
HARRISBURG — Legal challenges and a mountain of uncounted ballots promised a long watch Wednesday to find out who the people of Pennsylvania chose as president, even as a host of other major races in the state — including for several congressional seats, statewide officers and the Legislature — remained...
